That "First Love" Guitar

[Chase @ Heartbreaker Guitars]

I have been thinking about this a lot lately, but and maybe I am kind of unique in this, but does anyone else have that guitar you've outgrown but always kept and still reach for quite a bit? Mine is my old Ibanez AEG5EJP-BK. It is just an old basswood guitar I bought when I was a kid and took everywhere with me. It is so played in, and so comfortable to me that I can't help but reach for it. It doesn't sound great or anything, it was just the guitar I had when I really fell in love with playing. Does anyone else have a guitar like that? One that you have just had so long it feels like a second arm? Or am I just weird and too sentimental?

[Looburst]

Nope not weird at all. We've all had one I think. Mine was a cheap Yamaha Jumbo that I eventually gave to my brother, who took up the guitar before I did. When he came home from college playing guitar I thought well if he can do it I certainly can. I suppose I ran off and left him somewhere along the way because I became very involved with the guitar and he kind of didn't after college. So one Christmas I thought he should have a decent guitar to play around the house and gave the Yamaha to him as a Christmas present. I think he plays it sometimes but not like me.

[ManyMartinMan]

Not weird. However, I moved around constantly for 20 years and nothing that didn't fit in the car got sold or left behind. Until I was able to settle down a bit I had one guitar at a time. So that first guitar that really did it is long gone.

[pgilmor]

Yep, my old Seagull S6. That is, until she left me for somebody else through my broken car window. Last time I fall for a Canadian. At least, until the next time.

[jaybones]

My first guitar, a 1988 Alvarez Regent bought new in the fall of 1989 (thought I'd made a screaming deal since I got a cardboard case, pitch pipe, beginner's book, extra strings, handful of Fender 351 type plastic picks, a strap and 4 "free" lessons OTD for less than a hundred bucks).

Not a bad guitar actually, had an adjustable saddle which at that price point is pretty good.

I was a couple months into playing, getting more up on the neck and I thought the action was too high. Took it in and asked them to lower the action, thought they'd take the saddle out and shave the bottom of it.

Instead, the guy cut the nut slots deeper, which necessitated more relief. Lower action in the first couple frets, but action up the neck was even higher!

When I complained the guy said "Well, you didn't spend a lot of money on it. Play this Yari, and you'll see what a real guitar plays like. If you want to trade it in, I'll give you twenty bucks for it. Of course, that Yari doesn't come with a case..."

Needless to say I wasn't in the position to spend Yari money (close to a grand as I recall).

I struggled with that action for a couple years, and when I finally upgraded to the solid bird's eye maple TB&S Gibson-Epiphone I have now it was my campfire beach guitar.

There was a barmaid friend I was sweet on, who lived in an employee house up here. She seemed interested in learning to play, so I gave her that guitar.

For a few weeks it lived in her bedroom (thought I was a step closer if we were in her bedroom sitting on her bed, alas no), and she decided she didn't really want to learn to play. Probably never was that interested, and might have known I had ulterior motives.

I left it there, and it migrated to a corner of the living room. I was frequently over there after the bars closed, and it was nice to be able to grab my guitar and play, and not have to carry it around with me.

After a month or so, I noticed it wasn't in the corner any more, and hoped she decided she'd like to start taking lessons again.

I asked her what happened to it, and she said she didn't know.

Several people had played it, and I figure someone thought it was unattended and claimed it for their own.

Now, I can't say I was in love with that guitar, but I'd sure like to have it now.

You never forget your first!

[Jobe]

I'm not sure if this qualifies but I still have two guitars that I obtained 35 or so years ago. I don't play them now. They are in retirement and they deserve it. But I keep them standing against the wall. I find myself smirking every now and again as I see them. We had some fun! (and I was younger!). It can spark all the good memories. They will stay by me.!

[The Bard Rocks]

You will find lots of folks who will talk about their old guitar and how they still love it. Which is good. I'm as sentimental as they come but I got rid of my old guitars as I was able to climb the food chain, and haven't regretted it. Now, I have one or two that were made just for me and even though my tastes have shifted and I play them less than they deserve, can't seem to bear the thought of moving them along to someone else.

[Nctom]

I still have the first guitar, a Yamaha FG-180, I bought some 45 years ago. The kicker is that I got it back, sort of on permanent loan, from the friend I sold it to 40+ years ago.

Doug took it to college with him, got married, moved a couple of times and came back to the same little town and settled down. He kept the Yammie through all this, but never learned to play, so it sat in the case unused for all that time.

I also moved around a bit, got married, and bought and sold too many guitars to remember. I finally moved back home and dropped in on Doug and his family and he mentioned still having my guitar. We opened the old case and there it was- still shiny and perhaps still wearing the same strings I had put on it many years ago.

I brought it home with me and am playing it again now. It sounds great!

[Steve DeRosa]

'64 Gretsch 6117 Double Annie that I got brand-new in sixth grade - still pull it out every so often just because...

[Cameleye]

My first guitar was a Martin 0-16NY bought back in the summer of '61.
Today I still have the same model but a '71. Play it often.

[Von Beerhofen]

I still have my 1976 Ibanez Artist 2609 and although it temporarily suffered a little from acquiring 5 high end guitars it's fully back in the lineup. This guitar feels most comfortable to me, probably because I've played it for so many years. The new guitars were only acquired after 2011 and inspite of rotating them they've never felt as comfortable.

The Ibanez sounds pretty close to a Martin dread and has great sustain in all registers and is beginning to sound pretty vintage. It's a bit of a looker too, with some nice abalone and mop inlays. I'm not very likely to sell any of my guitars anymore but the Ibanez will definately always stay with me.

Ludwig

[FrankHudson]

I've kept the first guitar I ever bought, a very low-end nylon string near the very end of 1974. At this point the only reason I have it sentimental value, which will mean nothing to anyone else.

It had been in it's cardboard case for over a decade when I took it out last month and decided to I had to revisit it at least one more time. What I did was recorded the acoustic guitar part for this piece:

https://frankhudson.org/2017/07/14/o...p-to-gallipoli

Even though I recalled how big the neck was, it was quite a shock to actually play it again. "Baseball bat" doesn't even begin to describe the girth.

The first acoustic 6 string steel-string I bought was a small rosewood/spruce guitar with Maya branding on the headstock that I got at the Podium in Minneapolis. I know nothing about the brand. It was made in Japan and though the top is solid, I think the back and sides are laminated, but it very much has that rosewood sound. I've played that one more recently, and gigged with it back in the 20th Century, but it too has spent most of it's time stored in a case lately. While I had it out, I decided to use it one more time for a recording as well:

https://frankhudson.org/2017/08/03/t...rval-version-1

Here the shock was in the opposite direction. I couldn't believe that I once played on this tiny neck. It's very narrow at the nut and shallow too. I measured the nut at a 42.3 mm, (1.66 inch) which doesn't seem all that narrow as I write it, but it did feel narrow with old fingers whose distal joints don't like to bend like they used to. It was a bit of a challenge to finger the part for the above piece cleanly as I'd have liked.

Neither guitar serves a purpose for me now, and I feel the need to start clearing stuff out at my age. The nylon string would difficult to even give away, and with the little rosewood/spruce guitar I suspect I'll need to find a private buyer as I have my doubts any store will take it in.

[vindibona1]

1980- I had $1000 in my pocket to buy my first acoustic. I was all set to pull the trigger on a Martin that would have eaten my entire $1k. Then the shop keeper/luthier comes out of the back and asks me if he can help me. After a short conversation he brings out this used, 1974 Alvarez Yairi DY-77 that he had been working on. I took it in the back room with the Martin and there was no contest. I liked the sound better than the Martin and played every bit as well (love the soft V neck). I asked him how much, and he said, with OHSC $175! It wasn't a matter of money.

Today this guitar is officially my daughter's. I wouldn't be surprised if one day she didn't hand it down to a grandchild. I don't think it will ever leave the family before both of us are gone.

[Moocheng]

mine is a Yamaha sg200, I was playing a bar band back then, the Yam was my first decent guitar

One day I could'nt make the gig for some reason or another and found some one to dep' for me. The next day one of the guys said some girl, did'nt know my name but asked where the guy with the white guitar was, obviously meaning me. they told her I would be back tomorrow. It turned out well, we've been married for nearly 30 years,

I still have that guitar. it comes out of retirement from time to time and I still think what a great guitar it is and how lucky I was that it was white

[Greg Ballantyne]

The old Aria on my list below isn't the first guitar I had, but I think it was the second. The Aria was my only guitar for 15 years or so.. It got a set up a couple of years ago (for the first time) and is better playing now than it ever was, but I don't play it much any more. Every now and then I'll pick it up tho.