How did you get the oldest guitar you have?

[zombywoof]

My oldest guitar is a 1920 Gibson L3. Ironically I got it when I was trying to simply lessen the number of guitars in the house. This one came from somebody who offered to buy four of mine but only if he could throw in something which would lessen the amount of cash he would have to lay out. As I was not being driven by the need for cash I figured what the heck so took the Gibson.

My '42 Gibson J50 was a much stranger story. For years I had heard rumors there was a Banner Gibson around locally. Only problem was it was one of those things where someone had heard about it from somebody else who had heard it from somebody who had supposedly seen it so I could not figure out where it was. Then one day out of the blue it showed up in a friend's small music shop. My friend was on the phone with me in minutes. The guitar was in wretched condition having sat around un-played for many years compounded by some very poor repairs apparently done in the 1970s where original parts had been replaced by those which looked to have come off a Yamaha guitar. However, even with an open back seam and four open back cracks and loose back braces this guitar sounded amazing. It remains the best sounding Gibson J45/50 I have yet to hear. In fact the second generation luthier who restored it handed it back to me with the words "never let it out of your hands" saying his father used to call guitars which sounded like this one "once in a blue moon Gibsons."

[jricc]

I still have my 1974 ish Penco (Martin copy) acoustic. It was a Christmas gift from my parents while I was in high school. I sold it around 1979 to a friend to help finance an Ovation.
Fast forward to 2019, I reconnected with that friend who said she still had it and was considering donating it. I think it still had the strings from 1979 on it! I offered to buy it back from her and she said no, she would give it to me. When i got it back, I had some work done to it and it plays great now. I really don't play it a lot, dreadnoughts bother my shoulder, but it's cool to still have.

[Mr Bill]

My oldest guitar is a 1969 D-28 that I bought new in 1971. I was in college; I went to the guitar store for a couple of years and kept looking at it, dreaming of having a real guitar. At the time I was playing a Ventura 12-string that had only six strings, since it was easier to manage than all twelve. After I graduated, I still had about $500 of student loan money, so I paid $435 for the Martin and $35 for the hardshell case.

I still play it all the time. My only other acoustic is a Jasmine Dreadnought that sits on a stand in my office. I wouldn't want to leave the Martin standing around, so it resides in a new case.

I didn't realize that there was such a thing as guitar humidifiers back in those days, and I didn't baby the guitar, so it has a lot of 'personality' in all the wood, but it sounds terrific. If I could only have one guitar ... and for years, it was the only one.

[6L6]

That would be my beloved 1971 Guild F-312NT 12 string.

I walked into the local GC and saw it hanging on the used guitar wall. The tone and incredible playability blew me away.

The GC folks had no idea what they had in that guitar and I bought it for pennies on the dollar. It goes to the grave with me.

[247hoopsfan]

Bought my Yamaha FG200 brand new for $100 n 1972 at Leo’s Music in Berkeley, CA. It’s been with me ever since, didn’t buy another guitar until 2005. It sounded just as good as a D18, and was $300 less. The old FG200 has a cratered fingerboard and battle scars, but still sounds great. I used to serenade my 16 year old girlfriend with it up in Tilden park. She’s been my wife for 45 years now. These old Yamahas have some real magic in them. It has a good thumping bass.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2jVTZ3G]

[MC5C]

1935 Dobro model 25. Bought around 2015 from a local musical lady (retired university music professor on piano) who had been given it as a gesture of thanks, she had given the brother of the original owner respite care during his final decline. The brother had basically kept it in the case and under a bed since the end of WWII. The original owner had taken it to war with him, and it was returned to the family with his other effects after he was killed in action. So it's in generally great shape, but has a bowed neck. I play it lap style, as did the original owner, with the original nut extender and picks that came in the case.

[icuker]

Decided I wanted a good guitar that would be a lifer for me. I had bought two other guitars I wasn't totally satisfied with and decided I'd be money ahead buying something good and then sticking with it. Walked into the local guitar store in 1976 and tried some used Martins and other guitars, then the shop owner suggested I try this Mossman guitar. (it was also used) cost a bit more than the others I tried but it immediately struck me with it's sound. It had a nice vibrant bass, etc. Anyway I bought it, my family thought I was nuts spending so much on a guitar (I was 20 at the time) but lo and behold, it is still with me as my main playing guitar. Other than one guitar bought in 1989, I stayed with it being the last guitar I'd own until 2005, when I did go on a bit of buying spree. Dang Internet window shopping!

[phavriluk]

I made it...

[Flyingtigre]

It was about 1955/56 that I bought what is now my oldest guitar, a Harmony Sovereign. Shows a tad of wear but still at least 95% compared to original. Not my first, but that one didn't survive. Why do I keep it? Sentiment, strictly sentiment.

[PhilFish]

6L6 That's a sweet Guild, The group of friends I played with in the 70s there was a Guild just like it. It changed hands between different people but always stayed in the mix, when we played together.
My first good guitar is still with me a Guild D40 1969 And still in my three guitar rotation

[brad4d8]

My oldest guitar is a '30s Metro B archtop, currently in need of some major TLC. Got it on eBay. My oldest in time of service is my Guild F212 that my mother bought as a birthday/pre-graduation present in August '65. FWIW, the Metro, AFAIK, was made by or for the Vega company.

[Zissou Intern]

My oldest guitar is a pup compared to most of the guitars in this thread. It is a 2007 John Walker "Wise River" I traded into awhile back. It's been played a lot in the last 14 years and has the tone you'd expect. It's dry and punchy without a lot of overtones, and it plays easy.

[RLetson]

Back in the '90s, when old instruments were getting fashionable at guitar shows, I got interested in small-body instruments--actual parlor guitars. I'd go to shows with a friend who was getting into repair and restoration and eventually building, and we'd see fixer-uppers. One year we found a couple of Washburn "1897 Style New Model" restoration candidates (rather plain model 101s)--mine needing moderate repairs (cracks, new bridge, neck reset) and his needing a serious rebuild (the top was in pieces--in fact the whole guitar was).

They both date from around 1900, give or take, Brazilian rosewood bodies, spruce-topped, and ladder-braced. They both wound up playable and quite nice sounding, though the rebuilt top on my friend's looked a bit like a Venetian blind. I still have mine.

About the same time, I found a Lyon & Healey-built Henry L. Mason (a Boston music store) corresponding to a basic Washburn model but still in playable condition and with a surprisingly sweet voice. It could be a bit older than the Washburn-branded examples. Because its neck profile was so shallow, my friend added a thin layer under the fingerboard to accommodate my rather large hands. (It would have made a terrific instrument for very small hands.)

I like old guitars--I'm waiting on some major restoration on my 1920 0-18, and I regularly bring a 1946 Epi Broadway (another show find) when I sit in with some jazz guys. But then, I'm a bit old myself, since I bought my '65 Guild new when I was in grad school.

[Zexxor]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

And what’s made you keep it?

Wade Hampton Miller

I used to own an Ovation that I sold because the neck was bad.

A few months ago I found a (1971, I think) Ovation 1111-1, non-cutaway and non-electronic that I really like, a lot. It is one of the cheapest guitars I own, but there is that Ovation thing that I love. It is probably Jim Croce's or Cat Stevens's fault.

[Misifus]

My oldest guitar is my 1967 Martin 00-16C which I bought used from Gruhn’s in 1978, after the theft of my 1957 D-18. I wasn’t playing out much then and I used the insurance money to buy something different that I thought might be fun. It was, and it was my mainstay until 2003 when I ordered a High Noon from Jamie Kinscherff.

While that’s my oldest guitar, it’s far from my oldest instrument. We have my wife’s mother’s baby grand piano which was purchased new for her in 1922. I also have an old (c.1898) mandolin, possibly Lyon and Healey. That’s a lovely thing with the entire fingerboard in ivory with silver and tortoiseshell on the pickguard.