Your First Guitar

[bassplayer6489]

I just took my no name strat into the guitar shop to have the nut fixed on it. Altogether with labor it will cost around $40.00. The problem with that is the guitar is almost for sure not worth $40. It's the sentimental value that it's worth. I've put probably over $100 dollars into that guitar with new things, and i only payed $99 for it.

My point is, is it worth to save your first guitar for the sentimental value? Do you still have your first guitar? Would you do the same thing i did, putting in all the money?

Peace out (Kip style (Napolean Dynamite))

[Smakutus]

Whatever makes you happy dude.. I'd do it if I were you.

out..

Jeff.

[Hamerica]

My first guitar is long gone. I would though save my first Hamer. Yes it is worth it, even if it is only too you. Play it, enjoy it.

[Pete Galati]

I still own my first good electric guitar, a '69 Tele, but I don't own my 1st electric guitar because it was garbage. Back in the '70s the starter guitars were complete trash. Now, a lot of guys start with something like a Squier, which in comparison to my 1st electric, is a work of art.

If my 1st electric had any posibilities, I'm sure that I'd still have it, but it didn't.

Pete

[Nathan]

My first real electric was a 1981 Fender Lead II. I had it until about two years ago. I don't miss it.

[tafkathundernotes]

I have a cheap acoustic my father bought for me back in '72. I don't play it anymore, but yes, it's still here.

[Guest cruster]

My first guitar was a no-name acoustic from my mom's uncle. It had two huge wood screws holding the bridge to the top. It hurt to look at it, let alone play it. After that, in the mid 70s they bought be a very nice Guild. I hated it because it wasn't the electric that I wanted. It stood in a corner until the neck separated from the body. I don't know that it would be worth much these days, but I wish I still had it purely for the sentimental attachment.

Oh, and my first electric was a Peavey Predator that I still have. And I still play it several times every week. My oldest son learned to play simple melody on it. Don't know if he'll stick with guitar, but if he does...he'll have to get his own.

[Guest Buck Dharma]

I just bought a 1963 Harmony Stratotone for $100 and spent 3 days refinishing it. It's a cheap ass guitar but I love it for sitting around practicing on, it's hollow and sounds and plays great plugged in or not. The worst thing is it looks worse now after all that work. I didn't put the stain sealer crap on first and it looks splochy. Why is it that an old cheap assembly line guitar can get low action and no buzz but all the new expensive ones can't?

[LittleC]

I wish I had my first guitar. It was a early 60s Gibson ES-125TDC. What I wouldn't do to have that one back.

[Tres Aardvarks]

I'll be happy if I never see my first electric again: a quality Cort I got from a buddy. The neck pocket was so cracked you could almsot do divebombs by flexing the neck.

I still have my first bass, mostly because I would maybe get $75 for it. An old Ibanez EX series. Kicks butt with the Duncan 1/4 pounder in there though.

[thecajunboy]

My first real guitar was an acoustic. I know where it is, and it's not getting used, but hte owner refuses to sell it back to me despite my offer to buy it for 4X what I sold it to him for. My first electric was an Epiphone scroll. I'd like to have it, but only God knows where it is now since it was sold some 25 years ago. I'd guess that many of us sold our firsts to finance the move up to better equipment.

[serial]

My first electric was a POS Hondo II Strat copy (not even the one with Dimarzios, despite the clever way the salesman answered when I asked if it did-"yes-it has those pickups in there" pointing to the crap that was there). LOUSY POS. It ended up as a prop for our singer in HS and was smashed on a concrete floor at a show in college. No, I don't miss it!

[wyldbil]

Wish I had my first guitar back for sentimental reasons. It was a three pickup Teisco Del Ray POS that I last saw in pieces in my friend's basement in 1979. I am quite sure it is long gone. ce'st le vie

Also wish I had back my first DECENT guitar- 1965 Gibson Melody Maker (Pat Travers body style) with single pickup. I foolishly traded it for an Aria '67 Flying V copy (that I ALSO wish I had back, but along this road lies madness...) because I wanted a "cool" guitar.

[formula73]

My first guitar was a Sears Synsonic heap that I really did smash out of frustration. My first real guitar was an 80s Kramer Focus 1000 that I got for $100. Man, I wish I still had that(sold it for 150 and he sold it to some other dude who sold it for crack). I ALSO still have my first bass, a 70- or 80-something Gibson Grabber that I bought for $50. Man that thing is trashed. High school Wood-tech class refinish, factory-original sloppy neck pocket, sliding pickup and all.

[Nuclear Wessel]

My point is, is it worth to save your first guitar for the sentimental value? Do you still have your first guitar? Would you do the same thing i did, putting in all the money?

You gotta do what feels right. But my experience is, sometimes after selling a crummy guitar that you thought you were attached to, you find yourself glad to be rid of it, not having to deal with having to make all sorts of mods to it to make it stay in tune and sound half decent.

My first acoustic suffered a neck break. I don't remember how that happened. It's gone. My first electric is a '79 Fender Anniversary Strat that I still have. Several other cheap electrics that I've owned since then are either sold or traded for better guitars, and I don't miss them. I'm actually glad they were there to contribute some trade-in value toward guitars that I really enjoy owning!

[Travis]

My first guitar was a Korean Alvarez Regent acoustic. I gave it to my brother when he moved out to California in 99. My first electric was a Yamaha RGX or RGZ something or other. It had an H/S config with a crappy Floyd Rose-like trem. I sold that years ago. My first real electric was a Charvel 650xl which I will never part with. Apart from it being an absolute tone monster and shred machine, my dad bought it for me when I was 14. 2 years later he bought me my first Hamer, the Mirage I that I will also never part with.

Those two and my Artist Korina HB that my wife bought for me last year are the only 3 that have true sentimental value. If I get rid of all my other guitars I can replace them. But those three will remain with me until the very end.

[Zork]

I like Little C had a Gibson ES-125. Mine was '58. I traded it for a new Daytona in '96. I struggled with that Daytona for 4 years. I couldn't get that radius and trem to work together. I know people love 'em but that guitar PO'd me.

[Guest pirateflynn]

Cassell's Music San Fernando, Ca. 1977 - My 1st guitar was a Japanese Strat. I needed an amp too and they were practically giving away a Brownface Fender Concert Amp 4x10, so I took it home as well. About a year later I traded both guitar and amp for a Les Paul Custom.........I wish I had that amp back!

[Guest big steve]

my first was a 83 or 84 ibanez destroyer,red sparkle.had the nut changed so i could play her lefty,it was a great guitar.my first good guitar(paid $600.00 bucks!!lol!!) was a kramer pacer imperial,it was a good guitar but didn't stand up to time,it was one of the u.s. ones,i don't miss it,but i wish i could buy/get a body w/those contours.it had a great comfy shape and was a decent size.

[hudpucker]

Mine was an electric that my old man cobbled together from parts from a flea market. It did have Gibson single coils, I believe.

Wish I still had it. But I sold it AND a Harmony H400 for a lousy 25 bucks.

D-OH!!!

[Guest Buck Dharma]

My first guitar was a Martin acoustic in about 1972. I remember taking lessons and wishing I had a Gibson. My mom got the guitar and I don't think it was expensive or had the rep it does now. Man I wish I had that now. My first electric was some kind of hollowbody Kay guitar with a screwed up neck joint that never could be setup right. Then I had a cheap Harmony jaguar type that rocked probably an H-14.

[Craig S]

Epiphone acoustic which is still at my mothers house. A IC200 Ibanez Iceman was my first electric.

[doody]

My first guitar of any kind was a Montgomery Ward strat copy (I believe it was a harmony?) back in 84 or so. Never played it much as my brother immediately stole it and took it to college with him.(He still has it, too, the bastard!) The first guitar I bought and actually played was a washburn acoustic, still have it, but that was less than a year ago:) First electric, my T-62. In under a year I have accumulated 5 Hamers, 2 accoustics, and 3 amps. Still couldn't play my way outa a wet paper bag, but I'm having fun and have some nice stuff.

[MoJohn]

My 1st was an early '70s P-Bass that I paid $200 for in 1977. Sold it when I was in school to pay the rent. I see ones just like it for sale now in the $1,200 to $1,500 range - wish I would have kept it for the return on investment, oh well...

Peace,

MoJohn

[jwhitcomb3]

My first guitar was a cheap, no-name nylon string guitar that my father bought from a babysitter for $14. It had a crack in the side from when I hit it against a doorjam while playing "El Kabong" with my brother. I have no idea what became of it.

My first "good" guitar was a Conn dreadnaught that I got for my 13th birthday. That one was stolen from my fraternity in upstate New York one summer when I away was selling books door-to-door in Seattle. My dog ran away that summer too.

My first electric guitar was a Guild S-100 (circa 1977). By the time I sold it in 1990 it was beat to hell and hadn't left its case in a few years. Can't say I miss it.

-Jonathan