What was you first electric / acoustic guitar or bass ?

[AJ6stringsting]

My first guitar was a Natural wood Memphis Stratocaster in 1979, that I got for my 14 birthday.... So Richie Blackmore !!!!

When I was 12, I got a Univox Paul McCartney / Beatle bass .... Coocoo cacjoob !!!!

 

 

[gardo]

My first guitar was a cheap Japanese electric that I found on the clearance rack of the local 5 and 10 cent store, Didn't know how to play but I knew for sure.......

So I thought, this was in about 1974 and thing was really bad and the amp? what amp? my stereo had a jack labeled  mic/guitar  i didn't need no amp.   Enentualy I had enough money to buy a half decent acoustic used. Then I finally learned how to play.

 

[SteinbergerHack]

First was a very cheap Sears/KMart strat-style that my uncle gave me when he went to college.  It came with a solid state amp with a 5" speaker and maybe a half-watt of solid state power.

Not long after starting to play it, I realized it wasn't going to get me anywhere so I got an original Epiphone Casino from a friend.  I wish I had never sold that guitar.......oh, well.  I also got this amp, new.  It took me about 6 weeks at full gain to burn it up, IIRC, at which point I started the upgrade cycle.

[kbeaumont]

Showing my age here, Sears Silvertone amp in the case. Got it for my 11th birthday, 1970. Kept it for many years, it became a bit of a collectors item. Sold it in the late 80's for quite a bit more than my parents paid.

[Emory]

'59 Gibson Melody Maker with fake alligator case, $65. Somewhat rare (I found out later) as it had two pickups. Got it in 1965, which probably had something to do with price. Minimum wage was $1.25/hr btw

[sammyreynolds01]

My very first guitar was a Hondo acoustic. The action on that thing was like a dobro.

[DeepEnd]

My first acoustic was a $20 no name Montgomery Ward piece of junk back in 1970. I still have it since nobody in his/her right mind would buy it. I played strictly acoustic for decades. My first electric was a Fernandes Strat copy that wouldn't intonate. I've since gotten rid of it. My first (and only) bass was a 1995 (based on the serial number) Alvarez Villain bass that I still own.

[madjack]

First guitar and amp was a Norma hollow body with amp combo from Speigel catalog.  Both were total crap.

 

[mikesr1963]

This is a "Old Kraftsman" that before I refinished dated back to the 50's.  Don't freak because it's not worth much as a collectible.  It was structurally challenged when it was given to me but never got any worse and it's what I learned to play on for a year.  Action is high, frets are worn and I had to work really hard at it.  It had a burst looking top and like a flame maple on the back done with paint.  The top and back looked the same when I stripped it.  The back and headstock I stained with mahogany and the neck and top are cleared.  I'll keep it forever because my grandmother-in-law played it and gave it to me.     

 

[mikesr1963]

My first electric was a LTP M50 like this.  I gave it to my oldest son who learned on it and used it in his band in high school and now has a son who's going to get it.  

[Grant Harding]

I got a Pan brand electric bass when I was about 10 or 11. It was a POS, but started my life of pulling guitars apart. Didn't get an electric guitar (Fender Mustang) until I was 14.

[Freeman Keller]

Yamaha FG-150.   Still play it.   Circa 1970 when I had hair

 

[daddymack]

first acoustic was a Kent, circa 1964, I was 10, spent my xmas and snow shoveling money on it. It was horrible to play, sounded horrible, and the strings kept breaking [in those days we used Black Diamond  banjo strings]. and I never learned anything on it.  It did look good sitting in the corner of my room, though...

It looked something like this :https://reverb.com/item/25119281-kent-parlor-used-black-burst

Got a no-name nylon string a few years later, even worse tone and action, but the strings held up better 😉 Eventually both those guitars were destroyed as part of a student film I worked on in 1971

First electric was a Teisco, looked kind of like a Strat, but with plates and switches and four p-ups and it sounded like crap through the old Bogen PA head and 10" radio cabinet salvaged speaker. Looked very much like this one: https://reverb.com/item/154583-rare-teisco-kawai-4-pickup-electric-guitar-60-s-darkburst-final-price-drop

First bass may have been an Eko; it was a violin bass with this weird square block where the 'scroll' should have been. Actually sounded okay and played okay to the fifth fret. I gave it to a good friend when I finally decided I was going to be a guitarist [at the ripe old age of 17]. It looked a lot like this, but the 'E' headstock logo plaque was not there, just a blank wooden face: https://reverb.com/item/21123394-eko-995-violin-bass

Ya gotta kiss a lot of frogs...

[MesaMonster]

A Teisco strat copy. Bought it at some big box department store in the 60's. I think I paid 20 bucks for it.

[Mr.Grumpy]

My first guitar was a Gibson Sonex. Sort of a Les Paul shaped bolt-neck with a plastic ("reso-phonic") body. I hated the thing and ended up trading it in for a Squier S-3 Bullet, one of the early American-made ones.

[seven58]

I bought my first guitar the day after Christmas with all of the money I had gotten as gifts. I was sixteen and had asked for a guitar for Christmas 3 years in a row and didn't get one. All I could afford was a Kay one humbucker electric with a painted fretboard. It was 1996, so $140 got me that guitar and a Mel Bay Chord book. The guitar was not the kind of quality that one can find these days for so little money. I played it so much I wore the paint off the fretboard. I still have it. 

[daddymack]

pics? I love those old starters...I still have my '62 Melody Maker I bought in '72 for $145 w/hsc [which I still have!] from the Ernie Ball store in Tarzana, CA.

[Danocoustic]

On 9/12/2019 at 2:51 PM, kbeaumont said:

Showing my age here, Sears Silvertone amp in the case. Got it for my 11th birthday, 1970. Kept it for many years, it became a bit of a collectors item. Sold it in the late 80's for quite a bit more than my parents paid.

Sears Silvertone acoustic, 12th birthday, 1970!

A friend's kid (now an adult) still has it.

[gp2112]

Cahunega classical guitar. Got it for Christmas in 1977. My older bro and I were taking a guitar class at our Junior High school. Fat, wide fretboard, very high action and I could not bar it effectively at all with my 7th-grader hands. It eventually turned me off of playing for 30 years. 

My next "first" was an Epi PR-4 acoustic my ex bought me for Xmas after I started playing again. I love that thing (but not because of who it came from). 

My first electric came after the Epi and it is a Behringer strat copy. I got it for 40 bucks and it is not the greatest but I still have it. I never play it anymore, it just fills out my limited inventory. 

[erok123]

A black "Seville" bolt on Les Paul copy. I ran that into a Fender Silver Face  Champ that sold for $90 brand new. I think the guitar was $125. I don't remembering it being that bad. I used to play to myself in the mirror posing like Jeff Beck with his black Les Paul.

😁

[Malcolm Ramone]

I bought a Peavey T-30 from my high school's top rocker for $100. He'd upgraded to a Jackson. It was black, with a black guard, added white Van Halen stripes, a happy face, a gumby sticker, and a couple changed pups. It sounded amazing through his Rockman when he demoed it for me! Didn't have an amp yet, so I plugged it into a mic jack on my tape deck, set it on record, and turn the gain all the way up! Soon , I took it apart, painted it red, had a custom pickguard made for one Seymour Duncan HB. 

 

[Mikeo]

I some piece of crap my next door neighbor gave me.

 

 

[AlamoJoe]

My first guitar was a cheap gut string acoustic that just said "Classic" across the peghead. My folks paid $12 for it. But I learned "Day Tripper", Mr. Tambourine Man, a few others. Then I got a paper route. A "Shinko" electric at T,G &Y for $50. It was a poorly executed copy of a Jazzmaster. Terrible action. I knew nothing about electrics other than I could not afford anything better.

A couple of months later, I bought a Airline amp from Montgomery Ward. 8 watts.  A year later, I bought a Silvertone bass, made by Danelectro. Wish I still had it.

 

[badpenguin]

Ok, basswise…. 19... I wanna say 67 Gibson EB3L.  Or was it an Ovation Viper? Anywho, played it for a while, got a 87 American Jazz bass, which I despised with every bone in my body, a Heyman bass, then went to a Kramer DMZ6000 for 20 odd years.

Guitarwise is harder. I kinda somewhat remember-ish a red Domino strat copy with 3 pickups and metal pickguard when I was 18 or so. Then a 67 Gibson 330, and a 66 or so Gibson melody maker SG. After that, GAS took over and it's been a blur ever since.

[onelife]

my dad had an old May Bell archtop acoustic that I started playing when I was a wee lad...

 

he had records by Les Paul, Chet Atkins and a host of acoustic players that I tried to emulate

we watched The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show and I remember him making a comment about the Gretsch guitar -

after that I wanted to play electric so i got one of these and my dad helped me build a Heathkit 25 Watt solid state amp...