# Remember your first guitar?



## Duster (Dec 28, 2007)

Along the lines of the "remember your first album" thread... which got me thinking about how I became interested in music in the first place.

Does everyone remember their first guitar?

Mine was one I picked up when the neighbours across the street moved, and had a junk sale. They had this electric guitar in a cardboard box, and I begged my dad to buy it for me for $5. I'm sure we overpaid. I must have been 10 or 11. 

It was a strat-style guitar, and it had a stainless-steel-ish pickguard, and broken plastic tone knobs. Some name I've never heard of, to this day.

I didn't know squat about the guitar, but I had to have it. My parents weren't going to put me into guitar lessons... they later put me into piano. But I fiddled with that guitar for a long time, which is when I figured out that I couldn't play right-handed. I hadn't even thought of the "handedness" of a guitar. But I strung it upside-down and learned to play a few chords. Then I got into piano and saxophone in high school, and put the guitar in the closet. I always meant to learn to play, and never did.

I bought an acoustic and started taking lessons a few years ago to finally start learning (about 25 years too late). That guitar is probably still in my parents' house somewhere. I should find it and see what it actually is... because after all these years, it's still technically my first guitar, and it's probably the reason I still have this interest in playing, all these years later.

--- D


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## bagpipe (Sep 19, 2006)

I'm playing mine below - a real POS that I begged my parents to get for me. They bought it from our local record store (yes, a record store - as in vinyl records). That was my birthday present in 1972. Absolutely horrible action, but I persevered. I have no idea what became of it.


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## dwagar (Mar 6, 2006)

yep, a Supro. I think my Dad paid about $25 for it. About 1962.

It looked something like this one IIRC.


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## marcos (Jan 13, 2009)

*First guitar*

Bagpipe,do you remember witch record store it came from?Trying to think where in Ottawa that would be.I got my first axe i was about 11 years old and it was an acoustic of some sort from Sam's music on the market in Ottawa.I have a pic. of it somewhere but cant find it.It didnt last long as all my other friends had electrics so,after bugging my dad for months i got my first elec. and amp.Both came from the Ottawa market area and they were Regeant guitar and a Regal amp.The good old days.:smilie_flagge17:














bagpipe said:


> I'm playing mine below - a real POS that I begged my parents to get for me. They bought it from our local record store (yes, a record store - as in vinyl records). That was my birthday present in 1972. Absolutely horrible action, but I persevered. I have no idea what became of it.


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## lbrown1 (Mar 22, 2007)

Indonesian Squier standard strat....rented it for a few months to see if this whole guitar thing was for me or not......ended up buying it coupled with a Fender Frontman 25R - still have it....but I was a late bloomer - that was only 5 years ago


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## puckhead (Sep 8, 2008)

Of course. I still have it. 
1978 or so, my Dad bought himself a cheap Korean-made accoustic guitar (Lero) to learn to play, but never did. So my birthday came around, and he gave it to me. Almost 30 years later, I changed the machine heads and gave it back to him when he said he finally wanted to learn now that he had retired.... Once again, he tried for a couple of months and then gave it back to me. Does that qualify as a family heirloom?


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## Jim DaddyO (Mar 20, 2009)

My first was a Kay SG copy. It had single coils that looked like HB's. It got stolen when I lived in Ottawa. My next was an Egman (from Holland I think) ES 335 knock off, only fully hollow with a bridge block. I played that through a Trainor YBA3 (I think) 210 watt bass head. That was an experience in feedback!


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

Yes, it was a pawn shop Aria Pro II that I paid entirely too much for


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## Mark N (Feb 8, 2006)

Wish I still had mine...late 70's telecaster, cream colored body, rosewood board and black 3 ply guard...heavy as hell but a sweet guitar!


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## Luke98 (Mar 4, 2007)

Crappy Typhoon strat copy, laminate wood, cheap hardware, bad pickups... along with a garbage amp all for way too much.


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## lyric girl (Sep 4, 2008)

Taylor 110 which is now happily living in Ottawa.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

marcos said:


> Bagpipe,do you remember witch record store it came from?Trying to think where in Ottawa that would be.I got my first axe i was about 11 years old and it was an acoustic of some sort from Sam's music on the market in Ottawa.I have a pic. of it somewhere but cant find it.It didnt last long as all my other friends had electrics so,after bugging my dad for months i got my first elec. and amp.Both came from the Ottawa market area and they were Regeant guitar and a Regal amp.The good old days.:smilie_flagge17:


Ah, good old Sam Bronster.:smile:
I was in cub scouts with his son. I got my first guitar from him too. It was a sunburst Stella flat-top, with different-coloured fuzzy stuff on the ball end of each string. Sold it about 8 months later, and then some time in 1964 got a Regent flat-top, which took me through to 1967 or so.

My first electric was this model of Kent (found this picture on the web).
















Check that pickup assembly, baby! A full two pounds of hardware. Bought it for $75 with a Symphonic tube amp from a friend's brother. The brother had "stepped up" to a brown tolex Deluxe and a Watkins Rapier! I still have the knobs, portions of two of the pickups, and the thumbwheel pots and switches. Used the neck with a pine LP-style body that a guy named Ian Cooney from my high school gave me (traced from his LP jr), and a solid brass wraparound tailpiece/bridge that my father helped me machine. That puppy had sustain for days.


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## eric_b (Dec 6, 2008)

I've still got it, proudly displayed on the wall:










My Dad bought it around 1951 via mail-order catalog, probably Eaton's. Based on the Harmony 929 Stella, Montgomery Ward's in the states sold them as model 8286, then started branding them as Airlline 8286 in 1955. The $10.95 price is written in pencil inside the body.


He gave it to me in 1966, and I hurt my fingers on it for 2 years before I got a Emperador semi-acoustic for Christmas.


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## fretboard (May 31, 2006)

BC Rich Mockingbird in some sort of nearly neon purplish/pinkish sorta hue...

My grandparents had gotten me some sort of strat copy from Sears and my folks told me to act surprised Christmas morning and then they'd let me return it for the money and I could buy the guitar I wanted. 

In hindsight, I'm not sure if I'm more surprised you could buy guitars at Sears in the mid-80's for $225 or the fact that I could score a brand new BC Rich for slightly less than that - with a case. The leftover money was likely spent playing pinball at the arcade...


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Suzuki student grade acoustic. It was a piece of crapola, but it was a gift from my sister, and now I have neither my sister (cancer) or her guitar. 

Next was a used Kent electric, then a Giannini flattop, Yamaha Les Paulish thing, Fender 12 string, Tele Deluxe, then a blur of dozens of guitars bought and sold and stolen...until about 15 years ago when I started collecting just what I needed with a few subsidiary axes. I figure I'll have my core requirements in a year or two.

Peace, Mooh.


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## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

1968, it was hanging in a local Marshell Wells hardware store, $29.95.
Single pick up, ugly tremelo, brown burst, if there was even a name on it, I don't remember what it was. 1/2" of action. It said "made in Japan" nothing more. My guitar teacher hated it so it must have been pretty bad. 
I think I took it apart after I got a Raven......no idea where it ended up after that. My parents must have disposed of it.


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## Guest (May 29, 2009)

"If you cut your hair", was what my mother said
in '72. She bought me a Stella acoustic. I eventually 
earned enough lawn/snow and other choir points that 
on Christmas '73 , I received a Marlin SG with some 
10 watt amp. *Rumble b* has the exact same guitar. 
Check it out.


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

My first one was plastic, but had six strings, and could actually be tuned--in fact it came with a cardboard tuning record, and a songbook. Still not a real guitar--but a cool gift for a kid. It was destroyed when my brother stepped on it.









I'm not sure if this one is a real guitar yet--it's basically a "K-Mart Special" waste of good plywood. I bought it with money I had to spend over summer vacation. I later sold it for the same price I paid for it. It's the only one I ever sold, and I never bonded with it, so no regrets.









This then, is what I consider my first real guitar--my favorite Christmas present ever. I got some cool stuff for Christmas growing up--and this is something I still own & use--my Taro classical.


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## bagpipe (Sep 19, 2006)

marcos said:


> Bagpipe,do you remember witch record store it came from?Trying to think where in Ottawa that would be.I got my first axe i was about 11 years old and it was an acoustic of some sort from Sam's music on the market in Ottawa.


Marcos, mine was bought at a record store in Greenock, Scotland, where I grew up. I find it funny that record stores on both sides of the Atlantic thought it would be cool to sell crappy guitars! :smile:


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