Your First Guitar(s) and Such---

[The Owl]

Post 'em here, your first axe(s) and such that got you on your way to stardom, real or imagined

A collage of mine is attached, first was the Harmony Bobkat @ the upper left, played through a Westinghouse reel to reel deck (badass tube overdrive), then a Univox Coily (their ES335 knockoff) and a Univox U65G amp, and Micro Fazer.

Your turn---------------

[B2D]

This is it... it's a 1995 MIM Strat. It's been through a bit. It's had one refret, more pickups than I can remember in there, and a few different trems. Sperzel tuners, too. It was originally red - I did a terrible refin on it once when I got bored with red.

I honestly don't like it much - it doesn't play or sound very good compared to most other Strats I play. The neck is too chunky for my tastes and it doesn't sound all that good. I'm actually thinking of parting it out and just saving the body and the neck if I ever wanna properly resurrect it.

But this was where it all started - with a Hot Rails in the bridge.

[Simon_F]

Mine was an "Impact" Japanese Tele-style thing. Actually quite nice to play.



It got hacked around a lot in my early guitar modding experiments. My brother still has it. It looks like this now (DiMarzio Super Distortion)...

[kramersteen]

I was given this shadow by my brother.
Attachment 39042Attachment 39043

[Chris of Arabia]

I was given this shadow by my brother.
Attachment 39042Attachment 39043

Wow! That looks way better than anything I started on - which right now, I couldn't tell you what it was, just that it was absolute crap.

[ItsaBass]

'85 MIJ

[kramersteen]

Wow! That looks way better than anything I started on - which right now, I couldn't tell you what it was, just that it was absolute crap.

As long as it got played than that's all that matters

[LatsMcGee]

Not one of my pics but this was it, a lefty MIM strat with a maple neck, it was eventually loaded with three lil 59s......



Not my image again but this was number two, a black MIJ strat that was routed for a pair of HBs, got it used on the cheap, the original owner had a pair of JBs in it and I never changed them, wish I would have kept it because the neck was a soggy dream to play compared to the MIM....

[Edgecrusher]

This is my first guitar. Was built by a local luthier I still havent found a guitar that I like more its the yard stick that all others get measured by.

[Chris of Arabia]

As long as it got played than that's all that matters

If only it had been playable. I've no actual idea where it came from, but playability wasn't its forte.

[SlyFoxx]

First guitar was an almost unplayable Stella acoustic. Action a slide player would like and tuners that hardly budged. The bridge was wood and only held on by the string tension so who knows exactly where it was supposed to go.

[Ball&Chain]

Not this guitar but one exactly like it, color and all.

Martin Stinger strat copy.

[Ashurbanipal]

Not my pic but same guitar.

Valencia TC-40 – plywood nylon stringer. Soft brass frets, plastic bridge, saddle radiused even though fretboard has no radius (wtf?), very roughly finished. Mine's got a heavy natural relic – rosette torn up completely, back/side join split, bridge lift, fretboard lift, worn out tuners. But, it served its purpose – now simply a reminder of those halcyon days when I didn't give a sh!t about gear, only about playing.

[King IzzO)))]

'85 MIJ

Is that a bullet? That's what my first guitar was too, but mine was red with a white guard. Probably the reason why I hate red strats with white pickguards, but it really was a decent guitar. The bridge pickup was bad though, especially for a metal kid, looking back I should have just put a humbucker in it. I ended up trading it to my buddy for an HM strat that was in pieces (that I never put back together either). He used the neck on an Ibanez body, if I remember right. If mine had been white with a black guard I'd probably still have it.

[Jeffrec]

My first electric was a Hofner two pickup Strat style deal. Years later I cut the body to look like a Tele (that was over 40 years ago). I think a friend still has it. My first really good elect. was a Gretsch Tennessean that I traded for a '67 SG Standard.

[ImmortalSix]

[not me]


1974 Yamaha FG-160. My dad bought it new in '74, for $300, which was apparently equivalent to $10 million. It's a Martin D28 knock, obviously. I have played a few D28s and my dad's specific Yamaha sounds better and plays better. In other words, it's a very good "knock."

When I had it in the early 90s, it had high action and was unruly, but in the mid 2000s something strange happened - it fixed itself.

I didn't touch the truss rod, the bridge, anything. All of a sudden it plays like a Taylor and sounds like a Martin. No complaints.

It's the one guitar my dad won't let me steal, it's just too special to him / too good.

[Andrew Lamprecht]

I had a first act les paul copy we got from walmart. It didn't play well and it didn't sound good but it served it's purpose for 7 months or so until I got an entry level Ibanez that was pretty meh too. No resonance at all but it was a superstrat and I thought I was cool. The first act was actually better than the Ibanez. I played that Ibanez for close to 2 years.

My next guitar was a ltd horizon I owned for 5 months. It was better than the other 2 but I sold it because it was worth a decent amount of money and I was trying to buy something. I think it was an amp, I was trying to buy something better than the Squier SP10 or whatever I was using for an amp at the time.

[cream123]

Squier strat, now refinned and has a phat cat in the neck!

[Bludave]

This is a Hagstrom I but my first electric guitar was a Hagstrom II. I bought the one pictured above about 6 or 8 months ago. I had to sell the Hagstrom II back in 68 because I needed the $ to buy my SG. My SG I still have and will never consider selling her. I basically learned to play on the Hagstrom II and I always missed it, so as I said about 6 or 8 months ago I bought the one pictured above. Its a 65. I love it it sounds really good and plays great. I recently had it refretted as the small "vintage" style frets weren't working for me. This is a really cool guitar & I am having a blast playing it....

[Evan Skopp]

Yamaha FG 200. Purchased with Bar Mitzvah money. I still have it. I know plywood tops aren't supposed to "open up," but I swear this one has.