That "First Love" Guitar

[The Watchman]

3/4 size Airline guitar (Montgomery Wards brand) I got in 5th grade. Don't know what happened to it, but found an identical one for $10 at a garage sale a few years ago. Not really playable, but wanted to preserve the memory.

[Pitar]

Yes. While I was away in the military my mother sold it in a garage sale for $5.00. It was a very inexpensive classical with the name Zim-Gar on the label, distributed by the Gar-Zim company. True story.

[philjs]

Isn't a "first love" guitar a bit different than your first guitar? My first few guitars were, frankly, not worth keeping but my "first love" guitar is one that I still have...my Larrivee J-09. I've had (and have) subsequent loves but that first one was always, and still is, special!

Phil

[Ted @ LA Guitar Sales]

Originally Posted by 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?

Not the first love, just the first, an old Hi-Lo strat. I kept it, but have not reached for it in ages. First love guitar was my Taylor 714ce, Helene gave it to me about twenty years ago, reach for it regularly.

[Bob from Brooklyn]

I cut my acoustic teeth playing my Yamaha FG180 to Neil Young records. I played it to the point where I had trenches on the fret board that showed what my favorite chords were. I sold it to the brother of an old girlfriend. I'd like to have it around for sentimental reasons but I got more than my mileage out of that one!

[Nyghthawk]

A late 60's Lyle Hummingbird I picked up in a pawn shop in Junction City Kansas in 1974. In '77 I went through some really tough times. I wish I could remember what i did with it.

I've been watching Reverb and ebay. Sooner or later someone will be selling a case queen. I can wait.

[Scotso]

First Love was a Stella in 6th grade. But I dumped her pretty quick.

[Chase @ Heartbreaker Guitars]

Originally Posted by 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.

A true heartbreak story... I am sorry for your loss... Those Canadian beauties though.. I love the Seagull S6 I had too.

[Chase @ Heartbreaker Guitars]

Originally Posted by philjs

Isn't a "first love" guitar a bit different than your first guitar? My first few guitars were, frankly, not worth keeping but my "first love" guitar is one that I still have...my Larrivee J-09. I've had (and have) subsequent loves but that first one was always, and still is, special!

Phil

Yeah, my first actual guitar was an old Amigo Classical, then I had a few electrics, but the my Ibanez that was the first guitar I really fell in love with I bought when I was like 12 I think, and it was what I played all through middle school and high school until I bought my first Martin when I graduated.

[mercy]

My first guitar I did not love. It was a Stella my dad ordered from the Sears catalogue or maybe Wards. At the time it didnt matter which store I just wanted a guitar. I was a dog, not set up, I didnt know about such things and sounded terrible. I kept it a long time for sentimental reasons until my daughter either lost it or sold it.
But after I got back from college I got a Gibson which I did love. I dont know what model but as I remember it was a B25 natural, maybe an LG2. Anyway not one of their big guitars and it was fun. I used it a lot with a group that traveled. It was in a dog of a case but I think that may have kept it from being stolen. I wish I still had it but I dont remember the circumstances under which I sold it. I probably needed money for bills, that was the situation with so many of the guitars that I have owned. In fact I need to sell a couple of guitars now for that very reason, I live above my means.

[AndrewG]

Originally Posted by 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!

That was my first decent guitar (1969) purchased new (£40.90), after having owned a few fairly hopeless and overbuilt Japanese efforts; among them an Eko 'Rio Bravo' and an Aria 'John Pearse'. I wonder if my retrospective rose-tinted memory is recalling that FG180 as being better than it actually was. Did yours come with the truss rod wrench in a little white cotton draw-string bag?

[Neil K Walk]

Originally Posted by philjs

Isn't a "first love" guitar a bit different than your first guitar? My first few guitars were, frankly, not worth keeping but my "first love" guitar is one that I still have...my Larrivee J-09. I've had (and have) subsequent loves but that first one was always, and still is, special!

Phil

Here here! I have suffered through many substandard laminate acoustic guitars until I received my Larrivee OM-03R. Nothing I've gotten since has measured up - apart from my Strat.