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What was the first guitar you wanted?


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For me it was the Stratocaster. I didn't know the name of it... I was pretty young, it was just the guitar I was drawn to from seeing bands on television. I don't think I associated it strongly with any one player, I was just drawn to the looks of it.

 

And I still love Strats... I ventured away from them because I got sick of seeing them/ hearing them in the early 90s and wanted something different, but I kept them. I guess that feeling was prevalent because in the styles I play they are rarely used anymore... when I bring them out in original bands people will pull an "aw man... not a Strat..." but that's because down here the masses of SRV/John Mayer clones and the Clapton fanatic lawyer strummer brigades annoy everybody. If I show up to cover gig without one then the bands think something is wrong, though.

 

Ed from Radiohead has a sig hot-rodded Strat now... maybe that will make them "cool" with the kids again. Strange that one of the most timeless yet futuristic guitar designs is "a boring dad guitar (that's in the words of a kid I know)" while old kitschy pawn shop guitars are "cool."

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I lusted after a Les Paul since about 1963 and finally bought an LP Deluxe in '72 with mini humbuckers. A great little guitar in tobacco sunburst that lasted me over 10 years. I regretted selling it in '83. About a year ago I bought myself a cherry burst LP Classic with two 57 humbuckers and finally replaced it. It brings back a lot of memories. They sure weigh a ton but I still like having one in the pack... :cool:
Take care, Larryz
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I still lust after quite a few (though I think I've tamed it down to a short list of "needs" guitars now), but the first one I recall saying "woah" about was...

A Les Paul black beauty. Not sure of the year of the guitar, but it was around 1981. And it was played through a Marshall combo. While certainly a good-looking guitar, it was the sound that made me want one.

Bass-wise, probably a Rickenbacker.

And of course, while I've owned more than my share of instruments, I have never owned a Les Paul or Rickenbacker. Weird, huh?

 

"Am I enough of a freak to be worth paying to see?"- Separated Out (Marillion)

NEW band Old band

 

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The first guitar I picked up was one of my grandfathers Strats when I was 6. In order to protect his Strats he got me a Mini Squier Strat, then a Squier, and now a Dekuxe Player. So it has always been Stratocasters for me.
Jenny S.
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'50s vintage blackguard Telecasters/Broadcasters/"No-Casters", and '59 style Gibson Les Pauls; Teles and Les Pauls were what tripped my trigger early on. The first halfway-decent guitar that I bought was a Peavey T-15, which in many ways crossed characteristics of early Teles and Les Paul Specials.

Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do?

 

~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~

_ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _

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The one in my family's closet.

Turned out eventually to be a Harmony archtop.

Next I wanted a Silvertone electric that vaguely resembled a Strat X LP electronics.

By the time I actually had a consciousness of what went into gtrs I'd been playing for a few yrs & really, aft that, I took whatever I could afford for what they seemed to provide what I thought needed.

 

Gtr's are tools.

They only define yer potential if yer potential is defined by yer tools.

 

I play music, not instruments.

d=halfnote
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I honestly cant quite recall.

 

It was my Moms steel-stringed acoustic, purchased right before I went away to college. I was a trained cellist, but I didnt bring it with me to school. I noodled around on moms guitar on breaks, and loved its sound. But in my sophomore year, I roomed with my best friend at the time, a dude who played bass guitar in the school jazz band. With his permission, I likewise played around on his instrument, as well as the guitars of some of the people in my social circle. I was having a blast.

 

With Thanksgiving break approaching, I decided to ask my Mom if I could borrow her guitar and take lessons, only to find out she had given it to my Dads employee as a going away gift when he moved to be closer to his family.

 

I never knew what brand it was.

Sturgeon's 2nd Law, a.k.a. Sturgeon's Revelation: âNinety percent of everything is crapâ

 

My FLMS- Murphy's Music in Irving, Tx

 

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Frankly, the first one I recall having a real "want" for was( didn't know what it was called back then in the early '60's) was some kind of "thinline" semi-hollow I saw in some catalog. Can't recall the maker or the catalog, but it was bragging that it was the thinnest of it's kind at the time. :idk

 

But over the years(and thinking back), I'd have settled for ANY "real" guitar instead of that old all plastic EMENEE piece ' crap I had, and the first by brand name I recall( as an early SMOTHERS BROTHERS fan) would be that GUILD D-40 that Tommy was playing! ;)

 

And I suppose, because they were the first electrics I knew of by name, it'd be a toss-up 'tween the Fender( didn't know the model was called the "Stratocaster", and for some time, thought the Telecaster was an old, discontinued model ( :o ) and those "VENTURES" model MOSRITES.

Whitefang

I started out with NOTHING...and I still have most of it left!
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Definitely a Fender Stratocaster. I've had mine for 30 years. I've upgraded it with hot noiseless pickups and locking tuners. She just gets better.
"Let me stand next to your fire!", Jimi Hendrix
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The one in my family's closet.

Turned out eventually to be a Harmony archtop.

Next I wanted a Silvertone electric that vaguely resembled a Strat X LP electronics.

By the time I actually had a consciousness of what went into gtrs I'd been playing for a few yrs & really, aft that, I took whatever I could afford for what they seemed to provide what I thought needed.

 

Gtr's are tools.

They only define yer potential if yer potential is defined by yer tools.

 

I play music, not instruments.

 

Different topic... And I am the poster boy for tone on a budget.

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I seem to recall that for a time back in the '90's( according to a GP article) there was a "trend" of sorts, of Post-Punk, "new wave" artists hunting down "vintage" cheap axes( old Sears Silvertone and Ward's Airline and such) In order to obtain a "classic garage band tone". ;)

 

Frankly, I thought it was just mostly for appearances sake, a kind of "quirky" look for those guys. And I'll bet many of those old "cheapies" were at one time many budding guitar players' "first wants". ;):) I remember a buddy of mine lusting after some cheap-o Teisco del Rey job. With FOUR pick-ups! :o Only $59 in '67 at Federal's! :laugh:

Whitefang

I started out with NOTHING...and I still have most of it left!
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This is going to sound crazy-I don`t think I ever mentioned it before, I should really be asleep and I had a drink or two-it`s Japan, we just had a national holiday for a week. Anyway the first guitar I wanted was the first one I was handed by my best friends in high school, which was a Sears Silvertone electric. I played it so much that my friends had to take it away from me. I didn`t know anything about what it was,but something went `ping`....the next time that happened was at Knut-Koupee music store in Minneapolis. I asked if I could play a Gibson ES-335. They said go for it. Frankly it was closer to a religious experience than my Sunday school. After that the tolerance thing kicked in but, I remember the moments vividly. Tryouts with the ESP Potbelly, Sugi Guitars Japan, Eastman acoustics, ESP horizon series, the Knaggs Chena-forget it.

Same old surprises, brand new cliches-

 

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I seem to recall that for a time back in the '90's( according to a GP article) there was a "trend" of sorts, of Post-Punk, "new wave" artists hunting down "vintage" cheap axes( old Sears Silvertone and Ward's Airline and such) In order to obtain a "classic garage band tone". ;)

 

Frankly, I thought it was just mostly for appearances sake, a kind of "quirky" look for those guys. And I'll bet many of those old "cheapies" were at one time many budding guitar players' "first wants". ;):) I remember a buddy of mine lusting after some cheap-o Teisco del Rey job. With FOUR pick-ups! :o Only $59 in '67 at Federal's! :laugh:

Whitefang

 

That trend is still in full swing... and that's why almost every one of those old brands has been resurrected. And that's why I mentioned that for the types of music I play, you can pull out a Harmony that you have to tune with pliers because the tuning pegs are broken off and someone who say "awesome axe, man..." but I pull out a nice Strat and people roll their eyes... one guy - a bass player in bands for a few decades and a talent buyer for clubs - recently made a facebook post saying "When I see a guy get onstage with a Stratocaster I just immediately think he doesn't know what he's doing." I challenged that and argued with him... he said "I mean, I think Danelectros are the best guitars, so..." It's just this cultural/political revolt thing... it has nothing to do with music or the instrument. Just nonsense.

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This is going to sound crazy-I don`t think I ever mentioned it before, I should really be asleep and I had a drink or two-it`s Japan, we just had a national holiday for a week. Anyway the first guitar I wanted was the first one I was handed by my best friends in high school, which was a Sears Silvertone electric. I played it so much that my friends had to take it away from me. I didn`t know anything about what it was,but something went `ping`....the next time that happened was at Knut-Koupee music store in Minneapolis. I asked if I could play a Gibson ES-335. They said go for it. Frankly it was closer to a religious experience than my Sunday school. After that the tolerance thing kicked in but, I remember the moments vividly. Tryouts with the ESP Potbelly, Sugi Guitars Japan, Eastman acoustics, ESP horizon series, the Knaggs Chena-forget it.

 

Getting my hands on any guitar at first was a religious experience...

 

I just meant with this thread the first one - attainable or not - that you were drawn to...

 

I got a Yamaha that had 3 strat-like single-coils but a set neck and Gibson-scale-length... then people lent me Jaguars and Jazzmasters and Les Pauls and Strats to play gigs with. My GF at one point had a first-year Squier Strat that was great and a nice American Standard Strat that was beautiful but not as good as the Squier, somehow... I had those at my disposal... when I finanly bought my own Strat it was a Fender Japan E9 serial number in Ferrari Red for $100 on the counter of a record store in New Orleans, being sold by a clerk there who was left-handed and just needed that last $100 to get a left-handed Mustang from a Pawn Shop on layaway. He played it flippped over and had banged the pickups and pots to oblivion, and had butchered the single-ply pickguard to put a humbucker in the bridge (which was the only pickup wired up, but only as a single coil, at that)... it still played better than the American Standard, for some reason, once I had it set up... I threw that humbucker in a pickguard for a while and played it EVH-style with just a volume pot, before throwing in another pickguard with single-coils. I still have it... actually, I lent it to a band I knew who needed a backup Strat so it did a couple of US tours.

 

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When I first contracted the guitar virus the industry hadn't yet devolved to just two main brands. To a 13 year old in the mid 60s any electric guitar was cool, except what seemed hopelessly square to me at the time, which were archtop jazz guitars. So any solid body electric became an object of extreme desire. Now, it's several very specific models.

Now, of course, those jazz archtops are the coolest guitars on the planet. We grow, we change.

Scott Fraser
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My dad's jazz record collection had pics of George Benson and Kenny Burrell and Wes Montgomery and Grant Green and others with those archtops... and I thought they were beautiful!!!

 

And I had Beatles records with pics of their Rickenbackers and Gretsches, which looked nice...

 

But I wanted to play a Stratocaster!!!

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My first "real" guitar was a Harmony Sovereign. It was actually a pretty nice guitar. I wanted a Martin dreadnaught. I played in a rock band for a year, but then I bought a used D-18. The following year I bought a brand new D-28. Loved them both. Looking back, I owned TWO '60's Martins. Wish I still had them. They would be worth a small fortune.

 

If you play cool, you are cool.
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Well PICKER....

 

I never knew the models either, and I'd spend a lot of time(and shoe leather) either walking the four or five miles to the nearest SEARS store(which sadly just closed it's doors this past Dec.) and listen for when my Dad would announce he was going to SEARS for something so I could bum a ride and once there, take off to the section of the store in which they kept those Silvertones on display. And if I was lucky, it wasn't too crowded with OTHER budding young guitar players, and I might find one with all six strings, or at least five! :D

Whitefang

I started out with NOTHING...and I still have most of it left!
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When was THAT Doc?

 

I don't think anybody is born knowing all or any makes and models, so my guess would be you come from a musical background and was thereby familiar with Martin guitars possibly before you developed a desire to learn to play one. ;)

 

However(and getting back to "roots")...

 

My first "guitar" was a toy replica of an M-14 rifle I had and tied one end of a length of twine to the stock, and the other end at the tip of it's barrel for a "strap" and play like an "air guitar"! :D

 

Odd thing... I would sling it over my shoulder and "air" play it "lefty", but when starting to actually learn to play some( and earlier stated) it would be on other people's guitars, who were right handed, and that's why I'm a left-handed person who plays "righty". By the time I acquired an "actual" guitar( wood, and with real steel strings) I had been playing "righty" long enough to not want to restring it for "lefty" and start everything all over again. And besides, since it turned out that GLEN CAMPBELL too, was left-handed, and also played "righty", I figured it was OK. ;)

 

And, THAT'S one of the several reasons I originally claimed that ANY "real" guitar was the first guitar I wanted. ;)

Whitefang

I started out with NOTHING...and I still have most of it left!
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It was circa 1982, and I noticed a beautiful red/white Strat displayed in the window of my local music store, "The Sound of Music."

 

If I recall correctly, the price tag was in the range of $135.00-$175.00. Adjusted for inflation, today that would be $356.00-$461.00.

 

At the time I had a paper route that paid $40.00+ monthly, plus tips. Therefore I took it upon myself to put the Strat on layaway. I don't recall how long I had to pay it off. Of course, it eventually reached my parents' ears that I had fallen behind on the monthly payments.

 

As I recall, my Mom complained to the music store that they would allow someone underage such as myself to place an item on layaway.

 

Because my parents could not afford the startup costs of an electric guitar (amp and all), the music store allowed them to take the money I had already applied toward the Strat... add to it... and then purchase my very first guitar (1983 Christmas Present)- a Bently acoustic, Model 5111.

 

I still have that guitar... my first guitar. :thu:

"Treat your wife with honor, respect, and understanding as you live together so that you can pray effectively as husband and wife." 1 Peter 3:7

 

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When was THAT Doc?

 

I don't think anybody is born knowing all or any makes and models, so my guess would be you come from a musical background and was thereby familiar with Martin guitars possibly before you developed a desire to learn to play one. ;)

Whitefang

My brother had a guitar that I learned to play on. A friend had a Martin D28 that sounded amazing.

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My brother had a guitar that I learned to play on. A friend had a Martin D28 that sounded amazing.

 

Ok, so see? I started learning on my STEP SISTER'S inexpensive "store brand" electric, which I never knew the make of. In fact, after giving it some thought, the first guitar "brand" I knew of was MOSRITE.

 

Why? Well, I never had a VENTURES album, but a couple of buddies did, and too, my step brother would bring his over on weekend visits, and even on Ventures' 45 paper "picture" jackets, like on their LPs, you'd always find the words...

 

"The Ventures play the MOSRITE guitar exclusively." ;)

Whitefang

I started out with NOTHING...and I still have most of it left!
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I saved money For my first electric guitar. I had $120. My uncle found a local guy who had two used Fenders for sale. He wanted $110 for a 65 Mustang and $140 for a pre CBS Jazzmaster. My uncle talked him down to $100 for the Mustang. It was a better fit. I was just a kid. But if I knew then what guitar values were going to do I would have done everything I could have to get the Jazzmaster. But it would have took me another month to come up with $30-40 back then. I still have the Mustang.

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

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