Your first guitar, your story

[srelliott83]

This is my first post; I've been reading this forum for a while an decided it was finally time to sign up. I figured this topic would be a good one to jump in on.

My first guitar was an Epiphone Strat copy that came bundled with a small Epiphone branded amp. I was 14 and saved up for it while working weekends at my uncle's family business. It obviously wasn't a very good guitar, but I spent countless hours playing that thing and I probably wouldn't be playing today if I hadn't picked it up.

I bought my first acoustic, a cheap Yamaha F-335 as a gift for myself when I graduated high school. I think at the time ('01) it cost $120, and I still think it was a good guitar for the price.

On the electric side I eventually upgraded to a Les Paul Studio. I played in a band for a while and that was always my main guitar.

Probably about 7 years ago I more or less stopped playing guitar. A combination of career, kids, and other obligations sort of ate up all of my free time. About a year and a half ago I realized that as my kids had gotten slightly older and a little more independent I might have time to start playing again. I quickly realized that in this second stint of my guitar life I was more likely to pick up the acoustic than the electric since all I had to do was grab it off of the wall hangar and play. It also didn't help that my daughter (3 at the time) was afraid if I had my amp turned up to any sort of reasonable volume.

Once I was more committed to acoustic playing I decided I needed something better than my old Yamaha. About a year ago I bought a Seagull Entourage and have been very happy with it. I realize it isn't a high-end guitar, I just wanted something with a solid top, decent action, and good intonation. It hangs on the wall for easy access, and I have a hard time walking by it without picking it up.

[icuker]

Being in farmland when I was in high school it was considered a hassle by my family to go 60 miles to buy a guitar. After much griping they relented. Took me to a Monkey Wards store and I bought a $125 model off the wall. I couldn't tune it so drove to a town near where I lived to have a friend tune it for me. He took one strum and told me I should buy his Kay guitar for 125. Even then I could hear quite a difference and it played better too, the action on mine was incredibly high. Anyway, went back to the fam to try and get them to drive me back to Omaha to get my money back. No dice, I made my decision, I'd have to live with it. I'm really lucky I stuck with the guitar after that, but I was determined. Don't even know what happened to it but when I got to college I bought me a nice used Mossman for 460 dollars. The fam about choked on that! (this was in the 70's, that was real money). I still have the Mossman and play it all the time. My family has made their peace with my decision...I guess I justified the expense in their minds.

[zeeway]

I started trying to play guitar in my first year of college- using my roomie’s guitar. About a year later, I was in a Mexico border town across from Texas in the summertime, courtesy of the Navy. There I found my first guitar - made in Mexico - for $30 as I recall. It had a high action and it hurt my fingers, but I kept it for a number of years until the neck cracked at the heel. I repaired it crudely, and kept playing it until I could afford a really nice guitar...well, nice to me, anyway.

I still get nostalgic about it when I am in a Mexican restaurant that has a mariachi band.

[TBman]

I was 9, it was 1964. Could have been for my birthday, could have been later that year at Christmas. Not really sure now. It was a Sears Silvertone with a tan gig bag. I played it for years, until I was about 17, maybe 19 years old.

[opencee]

in 1964, my family moved from suburban Dallas to Apia, Western Samoa (Now just Samoa.). Samoa was pretty primitive in those days.

My mother had always played ukulele. I think the ukulele must have been the Samoan national instrument. Everyone on the island played one.

A Samoan man gave me ukulele lessons. I liked the uke, and still play, but I really wanted to play guitar. There really wasn't anywhere to get a guitar in Apia, so my parents asked a sailor from a tramp freighter to pick up a guitar for the kid (Me) if he saw one for sale in any of the South Seas ports his ship might visit.

Well, six months later, his ship returned to the port of Apia, and he had a guitar for me. My parents paid and thanked him. Boy, was I happy.

I took guitar lessons from the same Samoan man who had given me ukulele lessons.

I don't remember the brand or details, but the guitar was a smallish slot-head, and looked like a steel-stringed classical guitar. I didn't know much, but it seemed to sound and play just fine. It never had a case. I hand-carried it on the Pan-Am planes we flew back to the United States in early 1966. I even played it in the First Class lounge area for anyone who would listen to an eleven year old perform Samoan songs.

I don't remember what happened to that guitar. I think I traded in on the purchase of new twelve-string after we moved to Chicago in the Fall 1966.

.

[Cool555]

Originally Posted by opencee

in 1964, my family moved from suburban Dallas to Apia, Western Samoa (Now just Samoa.). Samoa was pretty primitive in those days.

My mother had always played ukulele. I think the ukulele must have been the Samoan national instrument. Everyone on the island played one.

A Samoan man gave me ukulele lessons. I liked the uke, and still play, but I really wanted to play guitar. There really wasn't anywhere to get a guitar in Apia, so my parents asked a sailor from a tramp freighter to pick up a guitar for the kid (Me) if he saw one for sale in any of the South Seas ports his ship might visit.

Well, six months later, his ship returned to the port of Apia, and he had a guitar for me. My parents paid and thanked him. Boy, was I happy.

I took guitar lessons from the same Samoan man who had given me ukulele lessons.

I don't remember the brand or details, but the guitar was a smallish slot-head, and looked like a steel-stringed classical guitar. I didn't know much, but it seemed to sound and play just fine. It never had a case. I hand-carried it on the Pan-Am planes we flew back to the United States in early 1966. I even played it in the First Class lounge area for anyone who would listen to an eleven year old perform Samoan songs.

I don't remember what happened to that guitar. I think I traded in on the purchase of new twelve-string after we moved to Chicago in the Fall 1966.

.

Thanks for sharing! What a nice story! I always love reading stories like that. Maybe because the year 1964 has a special significance to me.

[ceciltguitar]

Julia Crowe interviewed 70 famous guitarist about the same topic, and then wrote a book about it, published in 2012:
My First Guitar: Tales of True Love and Lost Chords from 70 Legendary Musicians

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/17...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Kinda Old]

After seeing the Beatles on ES in 1964. I begged my folks to get me a guitar. My dad soon brought home this piece of crap guitar. It had a metal pickguard screwed into the plywood top. Of course, the strings were so high of the fretboard that it took all strength I could muster to play an Em chord. I don't remember what happened to that Kingston but both it and Mel Bay got me through learning most of the cowboy chords. I thought those Beatles must have been very strong!

[whvick]

I was 13 and after practicing my coronet asked my Dad if he thought I should change to guitar. He could not get me to music store fast enough to trade it for a Regal flat top. [emoji848]

[islandguitar]

College, 1966-67.........cause "everybody had, or wanted to have a Martin".
So a guy in our dorm had a nice D-18 ('64), and I told him...."Danny when you sell that guitar I want it".......Danny was, "no way"!!!
Then the unthinkable happened....his girlfriend broke up with him! Danny had sung to her a lot on the guitar and now, couldn't bear to be near the thing!!! LOL! $220 later, and many hours in the college dish room paying for it.....the D-18 was mine!!!!

[aeisen93]

I received my first guitar from my Grandpa when I was 5 years old. I started taking lessons when I was 9. My first high end acoustic was a Taylor 814ce that I got for my 13th birthday! I play that Taylor every day. It is my favorite acoustic.

[phcorrigan]

Originally Posted by Tico

For Christmas, early 1960s, Santa brought me a medieval torture device.

It looked like a guitar and was bought with S&H trading stamps.

Somehow CPS was not informed, and I still play.

A friend's mother bought my friend her first guitar with S&H Green Stamps as well! It must have done the trick, because she is now a great guitar player and singer/songwriter!

[phcorrigan]

My first guitar was a beat-up old Stella (AKA "finger bleeder") that I bought for $5 when I was sixteen. I learned three chords and played my first open mic a couple of months later. The Stella was replaced a year or so later with a Harmony Sovereign that I bought for $25. About five years later, the Harmony met an untimely demise when I had it hanging on the wall and a friend knocked it down. That was replaced by a used Yamaha FG-180 that I purchased for $75. About fifteen years later I bought my first new guitar, a Martin D-2832 Shenandoah, which I still have. I then sold the Yamaha to a friend for what I paid for it.

[Photojeep]

When I was about 12 (Fall of 1969) I came home from school to find my mom watching TV and it had Chet Atkins playing Yankee Doodle Dandy and Dixie at the same time on the guitar. I thought, "I gotta learn how to do that!"

I ran upstairs and took a hammer to my piggybank, scooped up my entire life savings of $14 and ran down to the Base Exchange (Navy brat) and bought the only guitar I could afford while also buying a Mel Bay chord book. Absolutely no idea what it was other than to say it was smallish in size (parlor sized maybe??) and had steel strings.

I ran home with my new prized possessions and started this 52 year long journey. I finally broke down and read the page on tuning on the 4th day of ownership. I was amazed at how much better I was sounding on that day! Go figure ...

Best,
PJ

[EZYPIKINS]

Dad did cowboy music when I was a kid. Still does. Once I had learned some simple John Denver stuff. Christmas maybe 1970 got a Sears copy SG. Mom and Dad were divorced. So not to be outdone, Mom got me a Fender Bandmaster Reverb amp. Wish I still had the amp. 3 other friends and myself playing in the garage.
No Time Left For You. It Don't Come Easy. Now 2020 Played clubs specials and concerts up and down Ca. For 40 years. Played all kinds of music. Rock, Country, Disco, Soul, R&B.
Retired now, gone back home. Been learning acoustic solo stuff from the 60's and 70's.
Music that for one reason or another never made it into band situations.