Your First Guitar

[AlbertA]

I got my first electric guitar back in the early 90's a "Charvel by Jackson" thing that looked something like this (not my photo)

I did all my "luthier" experiments on that poor old thing which taught me a lot. But left it in a basically unplayable state and so I just left it to rot for quite a while.
It had one (rusted) string, the hardware was all rusted, it had a badly install replacement pickup, the neck screw holes where stripped so neck would move and the mounting angle was bad, the nut slot was butchered.

Around 2018 - I posted it for "sale, parts only) for $30 - one guy that came to buy something else said "your selling this for $30? That's crazy low - are you sure you want to let this go for just $30?" So thankfully I reconsidered :)

I thought "I should just restore this guitar and keep it forever, after all this was my first guitar."

So I started by fixing the neck screw holes with some cedar dowels and got a stewmac neck pocket shim to angle the neck right. The result was encouraging, so I got a fixed gotoh bridge next and I had a tech make me a bone nut (since I had butchered the nut slot previously).

After probably more than a decade, the guitar became playable again - not amazing, but playable.

So later that year I continued replacing parts - I got gotoh locking tuners, Seymour Duncan pickups (SH 59 neck, JB on the bridge), new pots, new pickup selector switch, new knobs, new strap buttons, new output jack. Basically, the whole guitar was gutted from its original hardware and only the neck and body remained.

A few years later I replaced the fixed Gotoh bridge with a Super-Vee BladeRunner tremolo, so this is how it looked a few days ago:

After playing with a VegaTrem in another guitar though (which also had a Super-Vee BladeRunner) I wanted a VegaTrem in this one too.

I had to do a little bit of routing in the trem cavity though (Dremel + router bit), otherwise the strings wouldn't be aligned with the neck - even now it's a little bit lopsided (with a bit more space on the high E side) but it's good enough.

My younger self would not believe the things we can play now with this very same guitar.

What are you first guitar stories?

 

[Dez]

This was my very first guitar, I have no idea where it went (this isn't mine). SUCH a cool little thing lol, yes that's a speaker

 

[Frodebro]

My first electric guitar was a Peavey T-60, bought at a pawn shop sometime around 1984 or so.

 

[Fireproof]

Mine was a 1989 Squier Bullet. I was in college and watched this awesome rockabilly band called The Road Kings a lot. Their lead guitarist was amazing. I found out he worked at our local music store during the day and gave lessons. Went in to inquire and he sold me this guitar as my first guitar. It wasn’t much but he ripped on it! I figured it was good enough for me.

 

[gearJunkie]

Washburn G10V 1986, was stolen in 1987 and replaced with a pearl white Charvel Model 4.

 

[OrganicZed]

My first guitar was a used Mark II acoustic purchased from the local pawn shop for $140 (a total rip off knowing what I know now). It was a POS. The action was super high, intonation was way off, the neck was warped, plastic nut and saddle, particleboard construction. It sounded awful and had about as much sustain as you'd get from hitting a gym mat with a rubber mallet. For nearly three years it was my only guitar and I played it 2-3 hours a day. It was largely relegated to a case after my parents gave me a serious instrument for my 16th birthday. I loaned it out to a few people over the years, but none of them ended up getting past the beginner stage of playing.

I donated it to a thrift store before I moved across the country ten years ago. I cried the day I gave it away while thinking back to how much that sad excuse of for a guitar had shaped my life. It was my hope that it might bring the joy of music into the life of another person the way it did for me. It probably ended up in a land fill.

 

[newholland]

i had a no name clownburst lester shaped object with a yellow wood bolt on neck. i put a granny smith apple sticker on the headstock. it was a granny smith. it was $79 and i bought it out if a cardboard roller drum full of guitars under $100.

 

[FuzzyAce]

1959 LP

 

[Blix]

 

[TSJMajesty]

I honestly can't remember the brand, but it was a cheap LP knock-off around 1979. It was black, that I remember. Sold it when I bought my Silverburst LPC.

 

[scole]

Still have it. It’s this 1986 Aria Pro II RS Knight Warrior. Bought it used from Guitar Center in 1987. Originally HSS but a year or two later I had a local tech remove the middle pickup and swap the stock humbucker for some DiMarzio.

 

[Jynx]

I've no pictures of it. I stopped playing guitar between my early 20s and late 30s and it rusted apart in between.

It was a crappy, black, strat-style Tanglewood I bought off a friend who gave up. It had a Biohazard sticker on it.

It also came with a crappy, no-name amp which I opened up one day to find it had dried up vomit inside.

Very punk, I guess.

 

[BedroomMusic]

Cheapo 125$ Acoustic, nothing special .... Made out of Sapelli wood , or south-east-Asia " mahogany ".

 

[PhilA]

One of these hideous monsters. Axstar by Ibanez

 

[HotRats]

This is my first electric guitar, it's an Hondo. I don't remember the model. I believe I bought it in 1988 but I'm not sure about that.

The guitar has a Gibson style headstock, unfortunately I don't have a full picture with me.

Has 24 frets, active pickups and 3 switches that did something like splits and boost.

I knew nothing about pickups, switches and electric guitars in general at the time.
I bought this one because was beautiful and the price was within my small budget.

This guitars is in the hand of a great friend, and former band mate, that now lives in another continent.

My actual first guitar was a 3/4 nylon acoustic because my journey into music started with classical guitar.

 

[laxu]

I don't have a picture, but it was an Ibanez Stagestar Strat copy.

I was interested in starting to play guitar. My dad took me to a local guitar store, and the store proprietor basically gave me two options: A 3-tone sunburst H/S/S Ibanez Stagestar and a S/S/S Squier Strat in a dog puke yellow finish. Knowing absolutely nothing about guitars, I picked the Ibanez because at least it wasn't dog puke yellow!

We got an amp to go with it: a Crate GX-15. Of course, I ran that with mids on zero "because that's what Metallica does."

The Ibanez Stagestar had a baseball bat thick neck, a literal 1 cm thick finish on the body, and a B-string tuner that required a wrench to turn. In hindsight I wish I had kept it as a project guitar and molded it to something decent.

 

[Piing]

A Framus that I borrowed from a friend. Not this picture, but I don't have any.