what was your first guitar?

[DASmusic]

And what's the story behind it all? Just curious how some of you got into music.

For me, I never grew up in a music family. I was always a music listener since I was a young kid. I remember listening to anything from Deep Purple to Johnny Cash with my dad. Then when I was in highschool I started listening to death metal and I started a band, with me doing the “screaming" vocals. Still not knowing anything about music, my buddy let me play his guitar and that was it. I was in love with it. I couldn't play the thing to save my life. But I wanted to learn. The next day I sold random junk I had lying around and bought my first guitar. Epiphone DR 100. And I taught my self how to play. Now, 4 years later. I'm back to my roots listening to classic rock, and old country and folk. And now I can play all the songs the I remember listening to as a child. And I couldn't be prouder of myself for sticking with it, and going to whole way. As far as music theory, finger picking, and just basic strumming. Its almost like guitar found me. Cause I never had any interest until that day.

[kayakman]

1965 Fender Stratocaster bought new..

[DesolationAngel]

My buddy and I saw these 'Kay' branded electric guitars (which turns out were Teisco's) in a Woolworths in Nottingham back in the early 80s. We were listening to a lot of heavy rock 'n' metal back then and desperately wanted guitars. We were, I think, 16 years old. They were £25 each which is what I was making per week. We both talked our parents into fronting the money for us to buy them. We got them back to his place... and had absolutely no idea how to make them 'electric'...

[BrunoBlack]

1972 Sigma bought new -- talk about sore fingers!

[Jupiter Tarts]

ESP EC-1000

My sister was shopping at Sam Ash for a guitar and wanted a Telecaster. I spotted this on the wall and told her to get this one because it was one of the most beautiful electric guitars I've ever seen. She said she was dead set on a Telecaster and didn't want it nor did she like the feel. I told her, "Fine, I'll buy it for myself" and she said "But you don't even play guitar!" Then I said "Screw it, I'll learn" Didn't even care that the guitar was made for metalheads and I hated metal. I ended up walking out with a guitar for myself and she didn't.

Here I am a year and a half later playing open mics, jamming with random musicians, sitting on 5 more guitars than when I started, and having the most fun I've had in years. All because of that stupid argument we had.

My sister did end up getting a telecaster and I've still got the guitar and switched out the pickups and now it has a beefy Gibson sound.

[AllThumbsBruce]

A 66 Gibson LG1 bought used and beat-up from a pawn shop in the early 70's. I had it on lay away while I paid it off a bit at a time. I still have it, and do play it occasionally, even though I find tone muted and the neck narrow.

[Brucebubs]

A father and son began making guitars here in Australia under the name 'Wayne Music & Electrical Co.' At some point they must have decided it was more cost efficient to import guitars with their name on them. So in the late 60's early 70's Wayne guitars were in stores here at the same price as Yamaha and other Japanese made guitars. The inside label of the Wayne guitars depicts a mountain. It is Mt. Takamine in Japan. The Takamine guitar makers took their name from the English spelling of the nearby mountain.
So the Wayne guitars that feature the mountain drawing are Takamine guitars and my 1972 D-70 laminated nylon string guitar ($49.95) actually has Takamine on the headstock and 'Made For Wayne Music & Electrical Co.Melbourne Australia' on the label.
Sometime later (1974?)Takamine began exporting guitars to the USA and if you ever see a really early USA Takamine they have the exact same yellow label with a brown drawing of a mountain- Mt. Takamine.

[Glennwillow]

In the summer of 1964 I was 16 years old, working as a lifeguard at the public Olympic sized swimming pool where I grew up. A girl about 2 years older than I was had a nylon string Kay guitar for sale for $50, and my parents said that I could spend some of my lifeguarding money on this guitar. (The rest went into a college fund.) This girl was an amazing guitar player and a very good singer, and just listening to her play, I was hooked.

I learned on that guitar and had it for 2 years until I sold it to help pay for a $100 Harmony 12-string.

- Glenn

[Lacks Focus]

My first was a Takamine from the so-called "lawsuit" era. I don't recall the model number, but it was their laminate copy of a D-28. I bought it new sometime in the late '70s at Rosewood Guitar Shop in Champaign, IL, and sold it a couple of years later to a friend of a friend so I could raise money for my Martin. Wish I still had it, just for novelty's sake. That "Takamine & Co. Est. 1962" in the Martin scroll typeface was a hoot. Great guitar for the money, BTW.

[kydave]

From my website bio:

Once up a time there was a young boy who wanted to play guitar... He pestered his mom so much even only at the age of 6 that she decided to take the lessons herself & give the lessons to him, figuring he wouldn't stick with it. Unfortunately she came home with a Hawaiian guitar lesson plan. Kinda funny since now he loves to dink around with dobros, lap steels & pedal steels, but at the time all he could say was, "no Mom - Roy Rogers, not Don Ho.... Gene Autrey, not Don Ho...." He just wanted to strum while he sang; and he'd been singing since he could talk.

So I didn't start at 6 as I wanted to... But when I was 12 my folks gave me a new 1963 Sears Silvertone, amp-in-case, $69.95 electric and lessons.

Mine is long gone, but this was what it was like:



Not a bad little guitar made by Danelectro... after I got a "real" guitar, I think my brother & I made hippy art wall hanging out of the body. Too bad...

[Woodstock School Of Music]

A piece of junk Norma classical I strung backwards to make lefty. Circa 1975

[songz]

1959 Gibson J-50 that I traded for at Hewgley's Music in Knoxville, TN. I went
to college in 1963 with a Kay banjo on my knee (wanted to be Dave Guard), but
it didn't take long to realize a banjo is not a very good girl attractor, ergo the
trade. The guitar was more fun and the girls did like it.

Ron

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by Jupiter Tarts

ESP EC-1000

My sister was shopping at Sam Ash for a guitar and wanted a Telecaster. I spotted this on the wall and told her to get this one because it was one of the most beautiful electric guitars I've ever seen. She said she was dead set on a Telecaster and didn't want it nor did she like the feel. I told her, "Fine, I'll buy it for myself" and she said "But you don't even play guitar!" Then I said "Screw it, I'll learn" Didn't even care that the guitar was made for metalheads and I hated metal. I ended up walking out with a guitar for myself and she didn't.

Here I am a year and a half later playing open mics, jamming with random musicians, sitting on 5 more guitars than when I started, and having the most fun I've had in years. All because of that stupid argument we had.

My sister did end up getting a telecaster and I've still got the guitar and switched out the pickups and now it has a beefy Gibson sound.

What a great story and beautiful guitar. I have an EC-1000 also that I bought about 9 years ago. It's the sunburst one with the JB/59.

As for me, my first guitar was a Christmas gift back in '87 ... a Series A electric. I picked it out myself.

My first acoustic was a Yamaha 12 string I bought a year after that. I still have it.

[moosedog]

I was 12 years old in 1971 and my older brother played bass. He had this old beat up small 6 string guitar laying around that he had bought for $7. Not even sure if it had a name on it but if it did I don't remember it. He never played it so I started to play around with it and just kind of acquired it (possession being 9/10's and all that). I learned a lot on that guitar and then bought a Harmony from Sears for $50.

[DrGreb]

I wish I could remember the make. In 1975 I was the lead singer in a band in Glasgow, and wanted to learn guitar so I could write songs. Our guitarist found an all wood Spanish made jumbo which cost me 20 pounds - more than two weeks rent in those days. I hurt my fingers on it for 10 years before I gave it away when I came out to Australia. Remember it fondly, though, and wish I'd kept it.

Cheers, Gary