My First Guitar

[JHD512]

For years I've tried to remember what my first guitar was. I knew it was an acoustic, but I didn't know who made it. I just remember it was hard to play because the action was so high, but I was determined and played that thing every day until a couple of years later I got an electric guitar for Christmas. Now I was in high cotton.

My dear mother passed away in February, and I found an old photo album that she had put together. Low and behold, there were pictures of me with my first guitar. I think I was 9 years old at the time, so that would have been 51 years ago. Then there were pictures of me with my electric a couple of years later. What a joy to find these!





How about you? Do any of you have pictures of your first guitar?

Joe

[Brucebubs]

Great pictures!
The acoustic is nice but that electric is just overflowing with coolness.
It's big and red with double cutaways, switches and dials, slanted pick-up, f-holes and a huge in-your-face tremolo arm.
Love it.
You must have spent a lot of time beating the girls off with a stick.

[cotten]

I haven't found any cool pictures of me and my first guitar like those - what a great treasure! I do remember, though, that my first guitar was also a Stella, from about the same time, only with a natural finish. You're right about the action. I would play for 30 minutes and my left hand would be too tired to continue. I even found blood on the fretboard a few times, mine, from trying to push those strings all the way down to the frets - about a mile and half if I remember right! Action that high meant that the intonation was bad, too. It was a terrible beginner's guitar, and I loved it! It got me started, and for that I will always be grateful, though my Stella was given away to another unsuspecting beginner as soon as I'd saved enough lawn mowing money to replace it.

I hope others will be able to post pictures like yours!

cotten

[Song]

Unknown brand bought with the lay away plan in 1976.
Later I got a 150 watt stack and drove my parents and neighbors insane.

[Ozzy the dog]

Originally Posted by JHD512

For years I've tried to remember what my first guitar was. I knew it was an acoustic, but I didn't know who made it. I just remember it was hard to play because the action was so high, but I was determined and played that thing every day.....

I can't remember what mine was either but you have described it perfectly.

The neck was like a banana and I think the strings were more like brake cables and cheese wire but t got me started so I suppose it's the best guitar I've ever had.

[Silurian]

Originally Posted by We Walk in Song

Unknown brand bought with the lay away plan in 1976.
Later I got a 150 watt stack and drove my parents and neighbors insane.

With a 150 watt stack you probably drove the neighbouring town insane.

[Parlorman]

My first was an air guitar that I spent hours playing. My band mates had air drums, an air bass and air microphones. My mother suggested we call ourselves the Belly Scratchers

[Silly Moustache]

I have no pics of my earlier guitars, but I reme4mber therm.

I was a late starter (I was a drummer until the '70s) and can't remember when I bought my first guitar - maybe mid/late '60s.

It was a B&M (Barnes & Mullins were/are large musical distributors) "Jumbo".
I can't remember whether it was actually a jumbo or a dreadnought, basic but playable - and it cost me £16 new.

After a while I bought a guitar for £36 -an "Eagle" guitar - no idea where it was made and it might have been a 000/OM style. I got £16 in trade on my B&M!

Later I aspired to my first American guitar like this :



It cost me £60 but I got £36 in trade! It was terrible.

I could have bought a new Levin Goliath for the same price, which are as many will know Martin quality plus, but foolishly I wanted an "American" guitar because my musical aspirations were American genres.

Things get foggy after that.

[Ozzy the dog]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

That's an interesting bridge - is this where the moustache originates from?

[catdaddy]

I don't have any pictures of myself with my first guitar but I remember it well, a horrible Sears model. This is what that guitar looked like:



From its looks I suspect it may have been made by Stella for Sears. It sure had the finger mangling aspect covered like a Stella.

Prompted by my bloody digits I moved quickly on to another Sears guitar, this time an electric. It was a whole lot easier on my fingers than the acoustic, came with its own case which was also the amplifier, and wasn't a bad guitar. Made by Danelectro for Sears. I actually still have that model guitar (not my original one) today and use it to play slide.

[sled]

I actually still had my first guitar up until a few years ago when it went out in the trash during a move. Now that I'm back into playing, I wish I hadn't trashed it. It was a "Chris" 3/4 acoustic that was so bad my instructor at the time couldn't really play it very well. That thing spent 45 years in the basement and garage, unworried about heat or humidity. Didn't seem to bother the plywood though...

[Bob Womack]

Here's my first, a 1970 Sears classical. I've still got it.



And how about my first electric? That's me and me best friend Bill jamming away.

The guitar? Talk about drawing blood.

Bob

[JimC1702]

And so it begins...

[IMG][/IMG]

[dkstott]

There are no photos of my 1st guitar... But it was the Christmas of 1965.

It was a Montgomery Wards Airline acoustic guitar that my parents scrapped together $50 to buy it for me. I took it to quite a few guitar lessons. I nicknamed it "finger-buster". The action on it was nasty, but somehow I learned how to play guitar on it.

[nitram]

Originally Posted by JHD512

For years I've tried to remember what my first guitar was. I knew it was an acoustic, but I didn't know who made it. I just remember it was hard to play because the action was so high, but I was determined and played that thing every day until a couple of years later I got an electric guitar for Christmas. Now I was in high cotton.

My dear mother passed away in February, and I found an old photo album that she had put together. Low and behold, there were pictures of me with my first guitar. I think I was 9 years old at the time, so that would have been 51 years ago. Then there were pictures of me with my electric a couple of years later. What a joy to find these!





How about you? Do any of you have pictures of your first guitar?

Joe

That Stella is exactly the same as my first guitar. My grandmother got it for me by redeeming umpteen books of Lucky Green Stamps from the grocery store. Great memories-that was about 1960.