33 famous guitarists, their first guitars, and how they learned

[nico44]

I just saw this one on reddit. The article is actually about what online guitar lessons to choose, but they compiled a very interesting list of 33 famous guitarists and their "firsts" ... I dig it because I like a lot of those guitarists! It's interesting to think that all the legends started from nothing, square one.

It made me think back to my first- the nightmare of an unplayable mess of a classical guitar that was given to me by my uncle. I still have the thing

I learned the same way Alex Turner did, basically learning open chords by playing a ton of songs I loved! I had taken piano lessons for several years prior, so my musical sense was already somewhat developed. Guess I consider myself lucky for that.

Anyone else remember their firsts?

 

[László]

Anyone else remember their firsts?

'65 SG Special that was my brother's from new. Still have it.

 

[ozboy]

Some cheap Yamaha nylon. These days starter guitars a re quite nice. I was in Chicago for six days in a hotel but didn't want to lug a guitar all the way from Australia on a business trip so I hired a Steel string, just$35 for a week. It was some Chinese 000 but was easy to play and sounded fine without being too loud for other guests, well anyhow none complained.

 

[xjbebop]

My first guitar was an unplayable little acoustic thing ordered from Sears a long time ago... along with a Chet Atkins instruction kit w book and records...
My first electric was a Magnatone X15 Tornado and matching amp bought from a friend's older brother...wish I still had those...

 

[Huggy Love]

Les Paul studio in black (*they didn't have PRS back then) and I was on stage playing in 5 months, paying gigs too. I took off so quick from never playing to being able to pull off a decent set of rock it was scary, but after the first big spurt of growth I learned how hard it is to get to the next level beyond that.

 

[CVS]

My first guitar was an acoustic guitar that I paid $10 for. It was barely playable but good enough to learn open chords. The first song that I learned on it was Take It Easy by the Eagles. The rest (as they say) is history.

 

[Spidouz]

I remember well my first guitar, I still have it. It's in poor condition but I'm gonna fix it this winter. It's an affordable strat copy from the brand "Trammer".
It's barely impossible to find any information about it, it was apparently a brand from either East-Germany or Japan and it was mainly sold in some France stores back in the early 80's.

It's a very wide and fat bolt-on neck with no trem. Everything else, is pretty much a strat copy...

 

[markintime]

That first memory was an "ouch". It was a Sears Silvertone acoustic with a bolt on neck. Which I learned to take off and shim a tapered aluminum foil wedge to get the action down to where I could play it. I'll say one thing for it - I developed a very good set of callouses from it, even though it would never intonate (a word I didn't know back then) properly. First electric was an Oscar Schmidt OE30 Delta King, which led to my first SE.

 

[mezzio]

My first was a Kramer stray copy that my dad bought me for Christmas from SAMs Club back in like '92. About 2 years later I decided I wanted something that was actually playable, so I saved up for the summer doing lawns and such, and bought a blue Peavey Axcelerator F... A guitar I sold and spent many many years looking for again, but I've told this story quite a bit here already, lol.

 

[Goldfixer]

Hondo Les Paul copy , cost me $100 at a pawn shop in Dayton, Ohio. I also bought a Gremlin amp, it was let's say.....wretched.

 

[bestellen]

Its amazing how many in that article didn't know what their first guitar was and how many had acoustic first.
My first guitar used a used Kawai Acoustic. First store bought was a Suzuki 12 string acoustic.
First electric was a Vox Apollo with on board electronics.

 

[Bufford T]

A terrible Charvel rip off which I attempted to paint myself... bad idea

 

[Spikedog007]

A '62 LP Jr. It was my Dad's but he didn't play so I snagged it.

And I took bass lessons for a year or so but was pretty much self taught on the guitar, with a little help from my brother who is a very, very good player.

 

[Mixstar]

First, like many, a manky ex-school acoustic but that didn't last long, I swiped a red Vox (Mark1 I believe) teardrop guitar from my brother-in-law similar to this: