My first electric guitar

I got a child's nylon-string acoustic for my fifth birthday, didn't know anything about how to play, and didn't particularly care: mostly it served as a prop for Prince impersonations. The only person who tried to use it for its intended purpose was a babysitter who understood the very complex concept that the strings were meant to be in tune with one another (who knew?) and then broke two strings trying to accomplish that. After that it sat on a shelf, except when I got bored around age eight and learned to pluck "Sakura" on the last remaining string.

Then when I was 14, I took an old Teisco Del Ray I found backstage while working on a high school play -- I think it was being used as a prop as well. A year later, my mother gave me $100 to buy shoes and I picked up a cheapo glittery metal guitar I later named Useless. My mother dragged me back to the store and tried to return it, which would have been terribly embarrassing if I weren't completely positive that I'd bought a piece of crap and they wouldn't take it back.

* I am completely serious about that song.

do you still have your Teisco?

as for me, i think i'll go home and learn to play "summer of '69".

I went down to Lark Street Music with my Dad, and bought him, he was very cheap, only $100 or something. I still have him, but he's back in storage at my mum's due to his rather weak constitution. I was into Punke Rocke and goth at the time, and he didn't really look the part at all. I suppose I had no choice but to become a shoegazer, since they were the only people playing guitars that *looked* like mine.

Ah, I've had him for nearly 15 years now. Longest relationship I've ever been in. Even though I do love Danny now, he will never quite replace Nickie's place in my heart. You never forget your first.

i have an axe rhythym master, which i bought off a friend for a tenner for my brother's birthday. i had hoped we could play together, but he never really picked it up. it sits in the living room with a mere three strings to its name. lately my friend who used to accompany me on the guitar when i was attempting to sing (strictly camp fire level of performance i stress) has buggered off to ireland to dig holes, that being our mutual proffession, and left behind his argos bought hohner classical.

now i hate this guitar, it makes a horrible noise, tunes really strangely and has a floorboard instead of a fretboard. in richard's absence, for that is his name, i am learning to accompany myself. and have been for all of a month now! i never realised how hard playing the guitar and singing at the same time is, easier than singing whilst playing the bass, but not a lot. as this guitar isn't mine really i'm not sure that it counts, but you have a choice of three, so there.

i want a steel strung accoustic, preferably a round backed one with active electronics. i lust after ovations, but then probably only purists don't. hey ho, to justify that kind of thing i think i had better get a bit better...

ps. glittery guitars = blearggh. sorry, but i just don't dig em.

i forgot to mention BASS! my vewwy first bass all of my own is a looooovely but hideously warped Hofner Senator semi acoustic which just looks and sounds Da Bomb when it is in tune. which isn't very often. i now have a, er, D'armaund, is it? hollow body affair, all shiny wood and pefect tuning. the Hofner is still my first love though.

I now own an Ibanez Artist (bought with the insurance from the other two), which looks gorgeous but is heavy and hangs wrong when played standing up. I also bought a bass last week, but it's still sitting patiently in the corner at work, warping away merrily I'll be bound. Does anyone know if you can get decent bu very small practice bass amps?

As for the Bryan lovers here, who is bold enough to claim you actually like "Everything I Do I Do For You"?

hey now...

::thinks about it::

damnit.

katie, like a lamb to the slaughter i take up your challenge. nitsuh, i mean no personal attack on your instrument, it's probably better than mine for one thing, but anyway the circumstances by which you came by it are logical enough. and it is after all, a guitar. hmmm, now i suspect merely saying i just don't like glitter paint jobs is insuffiecient argument, so....

did you know the varnish on stradivarius (can't make that word look right, my spelling is lame!) stringed instruments is supposed to be significantly responsible for their superior tone? this point is a non-starter because of course an electric guitar has a solid body which is not the primary resonator. the effect of paint job on an electric guitar's sound is probably negligable.

could perhaps the instrument reflect the stage lights into the eyes of the audience, blinding them from the dazzling beauty of the musician beneath?

bugger, this isn't going at all well. perhaps we had better settle for 'i just don't dig 'em'. i'm not down on the whole glam/disco vibe really, and rightly or wrongly i seem to associate glitter with that.

actually i remember doing little pictures in primary school where you painted glue onto card and sprinkled glitter on it, and that was kind of fun. what am i talking about! fuck it. katie i retract, mitsuh your guitar is lovely, as are all other glittery, spangly, sparkly, sequin bedecked etc. instruments.

In June I played around with my brother's mini-acoustic guitar. I bought an acoustic guitar this August. Cheap yes but it was the biggest single purchase I have ever made and it sounds lovely (when I can play it, anyway). The only problem is that it is about as big as I am so if I play sitting down I am practically hidden by it. I can play out of my brother's instructional book and the only accompaniment I know is to "After Hours."

my first (and only) guitar = a starway as prescribed by pete shelley on the sleeve of spiral scratch = i am so punXoR i distress myself

shouldn't you two be in bed?

(i wanted to play the are you punXoR game too, darnit.)

I got my first guitar in Grade 6. It was a shitty Samick steel- string that was so brutal on my left hand fingers it was probably good for me in the long run. I learned studiously from the Hal Leonard and Berklee books and Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith albums and guitar tabs. (First riff I taught myself: "Heartbreaker." First solo I learned: the first solo in "Walk This Way." The "Heartbreaker" solo was medieval torture on those strings.) Many years of writing and improvising sub-prog, sub-metal, sub-blues, and sub-dissonance-rock were undertaken on it. My father always maintained that I would be better off spending more time on math. Actually he continued to maintain that until some point in my 4th year. It was my only guitar even for a little while after I started learning classical. In fact, I even used it in practices for the first band I played in for a while. I sold it at some point during my last year of high school.

"Summer of '69" is so ace. The only musical argument I had with my last roommate came when I liked that ("It's fucking gay," she said, perhaps expressing the normal person's usual reaction to indie) and she liked "Hotel California." I love the chorus to "Heaven" too though Adams has just been inexcusable for a long time.

My lovely friends got me it, it is a Tanglewood acoustic and it is very pretty. Yum.

ok i need one, what do i get that is cheap. pls help

Guitar Center sells a starter-setup (electric guitar, amp, and so forth) for about $350 (at least that was the price a year or so ago).

The online brochure I linked to has other comparable items listed.

there's a guitar center right next to my house which is good.

so 350's like the minimum for something that sounds not shitty?

I'm just a beginner, so I can't give you good advice on whether what I got is of good quality. When I get home, I'll post the type of guitar it is. Maybe someone more knowledgeable than me can opine on its quality.

FWIW, the guitar has held up and -- to my ears -- sounds good (clear, clean unless the distortion is turned up). To be fair, tho, I've been practicing mostly on my acoustic guitar for the year I've been taking lessons.

if you're just learning you don't need to blow a ton of money. get a squier tele or whatever and see if you like it/want to stick with it.

This is a good one but will cost 1300:

http://nickdouglas.googlepages.com/ASAT_Classic_BTRBLND_MP_TGN.jpg

there are so many used guitars around in great condition - i wouldn't buy a new one unless you get really serious about having a good guitar. craigslist can be a gold mine for cheap guitars that play well and sound decent enough. practice amps, too. lots of people selling those guitar center startup packs that they've never or barely used

Epiphone sells a package w/ an SG and their little tube amp (Valve Jr.) - not too pricey, and the Valve Jr sounds nicer than the amps Fender/etc. give you in their package deals.

raigslist can be a gold mine for cheap guitars that play well and sound decent enough.

yeah, wait til the end of the month when chumps get desperate to make rent. and wind up doing things they regret like selling their fucking jaguar.

as opposed to our Alice..

(not posting that pic again)

How much do you want to spend? What sort of guitar sounds do you like?

Oh, and my first guitar was a nylon stringed Gibson my mom gave to my dad as a wedding present.

srsly, don't get a squire, man
i got my guitar through craigslist - people are always selling guitars, as said. and also, don't you live in nyc? wldn't there be like a million guitars are cgslist everyday? i feel like there wld be.
anyway, i think you have to get a guitar whose sound/feel/look you really like - it doesn't have to be insane but i think it should be something you want to play!

unless its a hello kitty squier

ok maybe there are not a million on craigslist ny, haha - i looked and the pickings were kinda slim, but it's something you have to look for evryday, really. and then post here so people can yea or nay, maybe?
xpost
well, obv

Drop an extra $60 on some decent pickups (GFS or something) and maybe another $20 to be sure you've got some stable tuners, properly intonate it and you could probably have a pretty playable Squier.

But yeah they're sucky. Rrrobyn otm.

ok so i'll scour craigslist (scour, that's a word?) -- i don't really know what i want! i'm so clueless. wait so what kind of guitar do you ahve rrrob?

That'll make it more difficult.

do you have a friend with guitar knowledge? having a couple friends like that helped me make a quick craigslist decision re my guitar.
mine is in fact my first and only guitar! a kramer dmz2000 - i guess not the most common guitar to find around but not nec rare or weird either. also it fairly heavy in comparison to a lot of other guitars. but i love how it sounds. susssstttaaaaiiiinnnnn.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/232/514359167_d04b1f9f72.jpg

anyway, set yr price range - $250-$350? - and stay on the lookout. sometimes you have to be really quick with crgslist stuff, which is kind of freaky but hey it seems to work out well for me and a lot of people i know.

ok awesome thanks -- that looks nice!

rrrobyn, I've been eyeballing one of those aluminum necked guitars, nice! Yers is gorgeous.

What'd you pay for it, if you don't mind my asking?

That is a nice-looking guitar, rrrobyn!

My ex gave me his guitar when we broke up. Not sure why, though, as the only thing I can play is 'Roadrunner'. Badly.

i paid $350 (used, obv - really good condition) which was the price range i was looking in - as far as guitars go i basically either like to make pretty sounds or walls of noise, which i guess isn't all that much to ask, but this guitar does the things i want really well, even with no pedals and weird little(ish) amps.

i'm trying to remember what guitar friends were telling me when i was looking for a guitar. but i am not really a guitar person really, hence i have forgotten :/ i will let other people say. prob some stuff abt all this on 'i make music' too.

haha this thread made me go on mtl craigslist for a bit which then made me debate buying another synthesizer. lol nooo

xpost
that is a good song to play though! i kinda want another guitar.

Yeah, you made a good choice from what I know of them. That's a good price. I've seen 'em go double that on e-bay, but e-bay prices are usually ridiculous, so...

I really don't need another guitar, I own like, five? Ugh, I kinda disgust myself. Always wanting, Rabies.

I've seen 'em go double that on e-bay

Actually, I don't know about that model specifically. Just various aluminum neck Kramers.

My ex gave me his guitar when we broke up.

Waaaht? Like, "ahhhhh take this just go away" or something? o_O

Sorry, I'm not poking fun.

Nah, we lived together and were dividing up our things, and he decided that he didn't want it any more. Wasn't his only guitar, mind. (And not all break-ups involve throwing things at the other's head and never seeing each other again, y'know.)

Oh yeah...

my first guitar was a japanese fender strat and i kind of hated it. a lot.

Standing in the rain, with his head hung low
Couldn't get a ticket, it was a sold-out show
Heard the roar of the crowd, he could picture the scene
Put his ear to the wall, then like a distant scream

He heard one guitar
just blew him away
He saw stars in his eyes
and the very next day
He bought a beat up six string
in a secondhand store
Didn't know how to play it
but he knew for sure

That one guitar
felt good in his hands
Didnt take long
to understand
Just one guitar
slung way down low
Was a one-way ticket
only one way to go

So he started rockin
Aint never gonna stop
Gotta keep on rock-in
Some day he's gonna make it to the top

Damnit, I love that song.

if you are going to buy used, BRING A FRIEND THAT PLAYS GUITAR WITH YOU

i can't emphasize this enough. that $100 guitar is a lot less of a deal after you bring it to someone like me and spend $50-$100 to get it into playable condition, or worse, find out it is unrepairable. I'd say that about 20% of the craigslist/pawnshop guitars that come in here for repair are unsalvageable (and not some purist snooty sort of unsalvagable, i'm talking literally unplayable.)

Target now sells guitars for $100 bucks or so (maybe closer to $200), and they're made by Fender or Gibson (can't remember which), though they're tagged "by Fender" rather than just having Fender on the headstock (made in China, I assume). They are mounted on the shelves such that you can't play them, so it's hard to tell if they would be any good for beginners, but I am curious if they would suffice for a first guitar. Anyone have any experience with these?.

My first electric was an Ibanez "Artist" (double-cutaway Les Paul style) and my first acuostic was an Epiphone. Probably got the Epi first. Before that I played my older brother's abandonned Suzuki electric that he bought in the 60s. Good enough action for learning but lousy pickups. I never stuck with it enough to call myself a guitar player, but I still have them both.

hmm... $100 guitar from target. that's very me. i get my like fancy dress shirts from target. yeah i'm not bling, haven't gotten there in my life just yet

i remember when i got my first real six-string. bought it at the five and dime.

played 'til my fingers bled

omgosh you just sounded like a grandpaw

me and some guys from school had a band and we tried real hard
Jimmy quit and Jody got married.

shoulda known we'd never get far.

what happens when you look back now, though?

Way down in Loozianna,
Close to New Orleans,
Way back up in the woods among the evergreens,

In a log cabin made of earth and wood,
there lived a country boy named Johnny B. Goode.
He never ever learned to read or write so well,
but he could play the guitar just like ringing a bell.