what did you start off on?

[WEBCYAN]

just wondering if you learned on acoustic or electric?
I started acoustic and did that for 8 years and then moved to electric. its a MUCH better way imo.

[Buck62]

Had a Penco SG copy.

What a GREAT guitar that was... I never should have sold it.

[trebles]

))) i think back to when i was a little boy of 8 years my dad bought me an aria acoustic spanish guitar ahhhh all i could do back then was look silly and pretend to play it

but now im 34 and to think when i was a boy id never dreamed of having the guitars i have now but still i remember my first guitar it was just years later i found out my dad saved his lunch money up give it too me see back then people didnt earn so much but life was also alot more simple and alot more happier then compared to what i see around me today sometimes its the little things that make life memorable and also remind you to be thankfull for all we really do have

[charger]

A blue Memphis Explorer. What a crappy guitar! 99$, and worth about half that in today's terms. I remember some of the best sounds I recorded with it were yelling into the pickups.

[Fmmahoganyrush]

Sears Silvertone Acoustic. Literally made my fingers bleed, but made me REALLY appreciate the day when I got my first Ovations (1 acoustic, and 1 electric).

[Track Rat]

Started on a Gibson Mandolin when I was 6 and discovered my Dad's Martin D-35. Then after I beat the shit out of his guitar over the course of a few years I found a used 000-18 in a music store and bought it for $150.

[Henri Devill]

Norma Acoustic...27.00 dollar thing that my Mom got for me at a TV/Radio store.. I was in the 4th grade..Gotta agree with Trebles!

Don

[Cyrokk]

I started on a Takamine acoustic that was originally my dad's. He gave it to me when he saw how serious I was abuot learning to play. The guitar has really low action, forcing you to really press down on the board to play chords cleanly.. I learned on that damn thing, and when I got my electric and later my Guild acoustic I was more advanced than I originally thought.. kinda like unknowingly using training weights when body-building..

Cy

[frederic]

I started with a shortneck electric bass. Looked like a strat copy guitar, with a very short bass on it. How I started is kinda funny...

in high school, I and three friends who were in the marching band decided that "to get chicks" we needed to increase our popularity. So, we put our four names in my baseball hat, and four key instruments in someone elses hat. We pulled a name from one hat, and the instrument from the other hat. The "deal" we all agreed on was we each had a month to acquire our instrument / equipment and after that point, we'd practice every day after school from 3pm to 7pm, and weekends we had off.

Mike ended up as the drummer.
John ended up as the vocalist (and had to buy a microphone and a simple amp)
Chris became the guitarist
and I became the bassist.

So, after school that day we headed to the local music store (not a chain, but family owned), and presented our situation. dirt poor freshmen, starting a band, willing to buy all the equipment at once if that helped our "buying power".

For $55, I ended up with a shortneck bass, with cello strings, and no amp. My first amp was a tube-based mono amplifier I spent a week cleaning up solder connections as I found it in the trash, and a 12" speaker I pulled out of something and sat it on a pillow next to it. By senior year I purchased a Peavey TKO65, and trust me, it was an improvement

Chris asked for a guitar/amp for christmas, so his parents got him a black squire strat and a peavey bandit 65 amp. Damn nice. He covered the guitar in electrical tape for cool striping.

John bought a $100 peavey guitar head and bought used a dual-15" cabinet out of the newspaper. The cabinet was homemade, but if I remember he got it extremely cheap.

Mike's drumkit was funny... the store sold him a used, highly beat up starter kit that had one tom, a bass drum, a snare, and the rest of the equipment (high hat, a cymbal stand and cymbal, etc, he bagged from the high school equipment room. Okay, not the most ethical way to get started. By senior year he has added more toms and a second bass drum. None of it matched in color, style or brand, but he seemed quite happy.

this was frosh year right before christmas. By the end of our senior year, we finally entered our HS battle of the bands, and did the following songs:

YYZ by Rush
Run to the Hills by Iron Maiden
Tom Sawyer by Rush
Rock and Roll by Kiss
Surrender by Cheap Trick.
Loud n Clear by Styper
Tooth and Nail by Dokken.

Why this may or not be amusing for any of you... just know that the above songs is all we practiced for 3 and a half years... none of us could really play anything else, but through repetition and practice practice practice together we were able to play seven or eight fairly hard songs (at the time) and have them sound significantly better than we thought it would in the beginning. In fact, out of 8 or 10 bands, we ranked 2. Either everyone else really sucked, or we actually did okay.

Though it was strange wearing electric blue parachute pants. Well, it was 1985.

Thanks for letting me share... brought back some nice memories.

[Tekker]

Started out on my dad's no name brand spanish guitar, then "up graded" to a Rogue strat and a DOD "Grind It" practice amp.....some improvement.

-tkr

[VOXVENDOR]

I started on my cousins home made guitar... It was cut out of an old oak door, and shaped like an axe with lots of pointy spots...
Painted like EVH red and white guitar but black and yellow....

The amp he let me borrow was in essance a ghetto blaster speaker, that he doctored up to be a battery powered amp..

No fucking wonder I still can't play very well... especially with that type of start....

[badgas]

My dad had bought a Hawiian Steel guitar during WWll.
I found it when I was around seven or so and picked out some nursry rhyme tunes on one string.
Eventually I got a seven pedal steel and played in a country band.
When I was about thirteen I bought my first axe and haven't played a Hawiian since.

[Scooter B]

Started on a Yamaha $200 aucstic in 82.

1st electric the dreaded Peavey T-60 and the original 50 watt Bandit. Just traded the Bandit in to Mars last year. Then a Dean Elite (the one that looks like a cross between an LP and an Explorer).

Bass learned on the dreaded Peavey T-40, then a Yamaha BB450, now my custom built (local Luthiere) Koa wood 4 string and a home made solid maple neck through fretless.

[hixmix]

This old acoustic steel string guitar body I found with a friend of mine in the town dump at the end of my street. I was like seven at the time. I brought it home and my grandmother restrung it with cotton twine. The soundtrack was "the beatles come to america". Every time "She Loves You" played on the radio my friend and I would grab that prop guitar and pretend we were John and Paul.

[amiableOne]

The neighbor's cat -- what a howl!

Or a beat-up, electric, no-name import.

You decide.

[SeppukU]

the first guitar i ever had was an aucostic but i didnt really start playing until i got my electric. i was to young to be into playing when i got the aucostic

[SeppukU]

sorry about the mis spelling of acoustic im really tired

[WEBCYAN]

me too.

so...who wants to kill the monkeys???

[WEBCYAN]

...bastards...

[teknomike]

My first git was a Harmony 12 String semi acoustic (ES 335 style) my uncle picked up for me in a gas station for $75.00.
My first song was Yellow Submarine ('cause I didn't really have to strum the chords - just downstrokes).
Never looked back...
Well sometimes, to see if I was still being chased

[c_r_a_z_y]

Wesfield electric guitar sunburst strat copy! lol! £120 what a guitar wish I still had it!

[P Hallin]

My first that still is going strong is my Takamine jasmine acoustic

[tdukex]

I started out on a swap meet frankenstein. My grandfather transplanted the neck of one broken acoustic guitar onto the body of another. When he died, my grandmother gave it to me.

Over the years I beat the hell out of that guitar. Finally had to put 'er down. RIP.

[tdukex]

Originally posted by hixmix
The soundtrack was "the beatles come to america". Every time "She Loves You" played on the radio my friend and I would grab that prop guitar and pretend we were John and Paul.

LOL, when I was 8 or 9 (1964-65) we hopped around mock-playing badmitten rackets.

Sad part is I haven't improved much.

[apush]

An Old Ibanez SG copy, antique white with 3 gold-plated humbuckers and pearlessent inlays, through a 300-watt Acoustic head with a 15" Black widow cab.

The first song was Back in Black because the Angus' guitar looked like it was the same shape as mine. I couldn't understand why his guitar seemed to "growl." I thought I was playing it wrong, so did the neighbors. I asked my dad (who doesn't play guitar) to get me that sound for Xmas. He bought me a ProCo Rat. I was in heaven.