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vh2580
12-02-2015, 05:39 PM
Pulled out Old Faithfull from its soft case for the first time in about ten years a few weeks ago and decided it needed some love.
Was the first Guitar I ever owned and have had it for 26yrs and at least two owners before me.
Its an old Samick Magnum and desperately needs a fretjob, a clean and new electronics but the finish will remain the same with every ding, scratch and scrape having a story.

What was your first?

kimball492
12-02-2015, 06:22 PM
How about the guitars we've sold or given away too .Great project ahead of you VH2580 .One I regret was a beautiful Eko 12 string acoustic ,and a Fender 1960s American . Plus loads of others I daren't even think about

bargeloobs
12-02-2015, 07:28 PM
How about the guitars we've sold or given away too .Great project ahead of you VH2580 .One I regret was a beautiful Eko 12 string acoustic ,and a Fender 1960s American . Plus loads of others I daren't even think about

I feel your pain...pic related:-(

dave.king1
12-02-2015, 07:31 PM
My first bass was a home made PBass thing that was so bad it defied description.

This was replaced by a white L Series PBass ( sold $180.00 in about 1969 )
PBass replaced by Fender VI Series 2 in 1969 ( sold for $300.00 in 1976 )
1959 Telecaster Deluxe(sold for $360.00 in 1976)

In today's market there's over $50K in that little lot and that's without a 72 Tele custom deluxe and Gibson Les Paul SG Custom ( sold for $60.00 only made for 12 months ) so now we're up in $100K territory all up.

I think I need to cuddle my teddy and cry.

Nickosaurus
12-02-2015, 08:22 PM
My first bass was a home made PBass thing that was so bad it defied description.

This was replaced by a white L Series PBass ( sold $180.00 in about 1969 )
PBass replaced by Fender VI Series 2 in 1969 ( sold for $300.00 in 1976 )
1959 Telecaster Deluxe(sold for $360.00 in 1976)

In today's market there's over $50K in that little lot and that's without a 72 Tele custom deluxe and Gibson Les Paul SG Custom ( sold for $60.00 only made for 12 months ) so now we're up in $100K territory all up.

I think I need to cuddle my teddy and cry.

my god... that hurts

Rob L
12-02-2015, 11:02 PM
First electric guitar was a '52 Tele. Don't even want to know what it's worth today.
Since then I have owned a crap ton of guitars many of which are now somewhat rare and worth a ton of money. WHO KNEW!!! :D

My saddest moment has to be having my '57 strat stolen. At the highest point that guitar was worth around $65K. Now it's still worth around $50k

stan
13-02-2015, 04:17 AM
first was a Marina brand classical, second hand, still have it, and first electric was some cheapie brand all white Strat copy, now gone

kells80aus
13-02-2015, 04:40 AM
My first Guitar was a a Canora ES335 style. From my understanding Canora was a Melbourne Music Centre brand built in the Ibanez factory(whish I'd known that then) I traded that on a Maton Wedgtail. Hence my love of that style. I sold that for $130 back around 1970 damn thing is worth $5000 now. after that I bought an acoustic off a mate. 30 years and 3 kids later. I bought a couple of Artist(or similar) strat copies to teach the kids to play on. Move on another 15 years and I decided I wanted my Maton back. I didn't have $5K to spend, and as there were only 110 made, it was pretty damned hard to find one, so I built one, sort of. And it's a damned sweet little guitar.

PK

vh2580
13-02-2015, 05:30 AM
Suppose Ive been lucky then and have seen the appreciation in its value from its initial purchase price of a 40 of Jim Beam to its current value of a 40 of Jim Beam and two stubbies.

pablopepper
13-02-2015, 06:23 AM
My first was a busted handmedown classical that had 3 non consecutive strings. It was rubbish, but I was 12 and had no idea. After playing on that for a few years, my Dad decided it was time I got something a bit more functional. Unfortunately that was a 'Falcon' brand stratocaster copy. This thing popped strings like a champ (I was used to 3, so 4 or 5 strings was an improvement), wouldn't stay in tune for more than two strums and had about 2cm action on the high frets. I blame that guitar for my hatred of red and white strats, well strats in general.

andrewdosborne
13-02-2015, 06:47 AM
Similar story to pablos', had a crappy classical guitar in early high school. Got fed up with that as so hard to play. Jacked in the classical guitar lessons, managed to borrow a well used black LP copy from a school friend. This guitar was on its last legs but at least a bit more playable (cant remember the brand as too long ago!). Things improved with that axe and got the guitar bug but developed an aversion to Gib**n guitars (even though a crap copy put me off, how silly). Moved on swiftly to a Japan Fender Tele (cherry red with some sparkle in the finish and nice white/black body binding) that had a rosewood fretboard that smelt just like chocolate! Then - 30+ years of Teles until now...

Rob L
13-02-2015, 07:30 AM
Similar story to pablos', had a crappy classical guitar in early high school. Got fed up with that as so hard to play. Jacked in the classical guitar lessons, managed to borrow a well used black LP copy from a school friend. This guitar was on its last legs but at least a bit more playable (cant remember the brand as too long ago!). Things improved with that axe and got the guitar bug but developed an aversion to Gib**n guitars (even though a crap copy put me off, how silly). Moved on swiftly to a Japan Fender Tele (cherry red with some sparkle in the finish and nice white/black body binding) that had a rosewood fretboard that smelt just like chocolate! Then - 30+ years of Teles until now...


I should say my very first guitar was a Harmony acoustic my mom gave me. Wasn't bad at all except it was almost as big as I was. :D

Andrew, I've probably owned every major and many indie guitars over the years and about 10 years ago? I went back to Tele as my main guitar. Just something about Teles. Easy to play. Not too big or heavy and there'a pretty much no musical genre you can't play on them. Love my Tele!

pablopepper
13-02-2015, 07:43 AM
Important, my first bass was a Peavey Milestone II. That thing was awesome until it fell off a chair and the neck broke into three bits.

bargeloobs
13-02-2015, 08:01 AM
My first was a Yamaha 3/4 classical my Mum bought me when I was 7 or so. I never really attempted to play it properly, just made lots of noise and I think in the end it got smashed. After that was an electric called an "Axetech", a massive pig of a thing with a dodgy Floyd Rose that would go out of tune as soon as you even thought about picking it up, funnily enough that got smashed too:P
After learning to play I gained a bit more respect for instruments.

wokkaboy
13-02-2015, 08:14 AM
wow some people have owned some expensive axes, wish there was a time machine around so you could go back and not sell them !
My first guitar was a white Yamaha RGX112 electric for my 20th birthday, haven't got it any more but looked like the pic attached. My poor neighbours had to listen to me learn through a screaming Peavey rage amp haha
Before I got the practice amp I used to plug it into my pretty powerful stereo with no effects - sounded terrible

pablopepper
13-02-2015, 08:35 AM
Ha, for my first "amp", my dad spliced a quarter inch jack on to some rca plugs and I went straight into my stereo (a big old Kenwood). It was awful, but at the time I loved it.

bargeloobs
13-02-2015, 08:38 AM
Ha, for my first "amp", my dad spliced a quarter inch jack on to some rca plugs and I went straight into my stereo (a big old Kenwood). It was awful, but at the time I loved it.

Yep same here, can't remember the brand of stereo but it was big and old, covered in brown wood veneer.

wokkaboy
13-02-2015, 08:44 AM
funny hey, others using a stereo as an amp. I do remember if you turned it up loud enough you got an ugly distortion sound haha.
My very first amp, before the Peavey was like a small PA speaker that looked like an air conditioner. Got a fuzz pedal and it only just kept up with the sound level of a drum kit haha

bargeloobs
13-02-2015, 08:54 AM
funny hey, others using a stereo as an amp. I do remember if you turned it up loud enough you got an ugly distortion sound haha.
My very first amp, before the Peavey was like a small PA speaker that looked like an air conditioner. Got a fuzz pedal and it only just kept up with the sound level of a drum kit haha

Ya make do with what you've got eh Wokks!

I think from memory my "amp" was a Fountain, I used to use one of these with it, I've still got that pedal somewhere knocking round in a box full of old pedals and leads at me Mums.

Fretworn
13-02-2015, 09:37 AM
My first guitar was a Valencia nylon string that I bought new for $100 about 28 years ago. I was told at the time that it would probably fall apart after 5 years, but it's still going strong.

My first electric was an Onyx LP style guitar. It was a crappy piece of plywood, but it had super-hot pickups in it. I ended up using it for spare parts for other guitars. All that's left of it now are the four tuning machines on my cigar box lap steel.

My first "amp" was my parents Yamaha Electone organ. You could only play clean, but it had a volume pedal and a leslie speaker!

dave.king1
13-02-2015, 11:04 AM
My first amp was a 30W home build with 2 x 807s in pushpull driving 2 x 12 Etone speakers, sort of looked like an AC30. The 385v DC on the caps sure gabbed your attention if you bumped one while poking around in the back.

Amps after this overtime
Vadis 60W
Lenard 150W ( 8 x 12s sure push some air when cranked )
Dan Armstrong 30W Combo
Dan Armstrong 100W with 1 x 15" JBL
H||H 100IC-S with Marshall quad box ( immensely loud and clean )
Peavey Rage
Fender Mustang 1

Still have the H||H, Peavy & Mustang

I miss the Dan Armstrongs they were great little boxes and were fine for club work but no good in really big rooms or outdoors, PAs weren't all that great back then

wokkaboy
13-02-2015, 11:59 AM
nice collection there Dave, glad you still got the Peavey.
I had Shoota over lastnight to setup his daughters 3/4 ST and he suggested get a small amp for the workshop to test wiring and I thought what a great idea. Found a little 20W Peavey amp on gumtree for $40 I'll pick up tomoz and even comes with a cover to stop all the dust over it !
Whats the Mustang 1 Dave a combo ? I've got a mustang 5 digital head powering my marshal quad and that has some good sounds.
This is fast turning into an amp thread haha

Rob L
13-02-2015, 01:04 PM
I was 13 when I got my '52 Tele. I spend an entire year doing work for people, shoveling snow, mowing lawns and doing yard work to be able to get the Tele and a Fender Twin Reverb. My mom kicked in a bit when she realized how serious I was about it. Put a band together around that same time and have been playing in and out bands and recording ever since.
And now I feel really old. :)
For the hell of it I did some research tonight and found '52s in crap condition going for up to $15k. Mint condition can go for as high as $50k if the original case and paper work is with it. $100K + for two guitars in today's market. Man that is crazy!!!

If we only knew then what we know now. :D

kells80aus
13-02-2015, 03:12 PM
My First amp(1970 ish} was a little over the top. It was an Eminar 100Watt(or what did you say?) Valve amp with four EL34's.
I think it cost me $200AUS. For our Amreican friends to put this into perspective it was an Aussie version of the JTM100.
large head, quad box with 4 x 12in speakers. Can't remember if they were Jensen or Celstion. Now for our Aussie Amp officianados' the head unit had pots not sliders, so this was an early build, based very closely on the marshall, but without the presence control.
I used to sit in my 10 foot by 10 foot by 10 foot bedroom and play my little tits off. pitty I really didn't have much skill, all I achieved was a reduction in my hearing level. After I sold the Maton, I had a period where I was into Bass, and ahd a big old Hoffner bass. It fell to bits and I tipped it. If I had the knowledge I have now I could have fixed it.

PK

stan
13-02-2015, 03:36 PM
First amp was and still is, a 1974 Fender Twin Reverb! Bought it when I bought my MIJ Fender Tele in the mid 80's.
Still have both of these.
Cost me $900 for the pair...

Rob L
14-02-2015, 02:16 AM
I thought it would be interesting to price guitars I used to own at today's value.
Good thing I really don't go in for regrets cause it would drive a person crazy seeing a guitar they paid $50 for used at a small hole in the wall music store now worth around $2k. :D

DrNomis_44
21-02-2015, 09:31 PM
The first Electric guitar I owned was a Samick Superstrat guitar, it had a cream coloured body with silver crackle on it, a black plastic pickguard, had neck and middle single-coil pickups and a bridge humbucker, the bridge was like a standard strat-style type but was black in colour, and there was a 5-position pickup switch, my first amp was a little headphone amp I built, sounded pretty awful clean but got a pretty interesting overdrive sound when I cranked it up, my second amp was a little Electronics Australia Pugnose Amp I built from a kit of parts, I built the cabinet for the EA Pugnose Amp out of some particle board and spray-painted it black, the amp sounded okay played clean at low volume but when I turned it up it Motor-Boated (made a steady Bup-Bup-Bup sound) and the little power-amp got very hot, the third amp I owned was a solid-state Fender Stage Lead II, had a pretty decent clean tone but was a bit lacking in overdrive even at full gain, my current amp is a Marshall MA 100C 100 Watt All Valve 2X12 Combo amp, when it's working properly it sounds great with my Gibson USA Les Paul Studio guitar, but when it breaks down it's a bit of a pain, it keeps blowing the main HT Fuse and I've been able to narrow the cause down to one of the Power Valve sockets.

stan
22-02-2015, 05:00 AM
I thought it would be interesting to price guitars I used to own at today's value.
Good thing I really don't go in for regrets cause it would drive a person crazy seeing a guitar they paid $50 for used at a small hole in the wall music store now worth around $2k. :D

might be more heartbreaking than interesting.... I had a Maton solid body electric stolen in the 80's, gold hardware, seymore duncans as standard, beautiful polished timber. I paid $900 for it then, and have never seen one like it since. I dont want to know that is worth a fortune now...

Rob L
22-02-2015, 07:54 AM
might be more heartbreaking than interesting.... I had a Maton solid body electric stolen in the 80's, gold hardware, seymore duncans as standard, beautiful polished timber. I paid $900 for it then, and have never seen one like it since. I dont want to know that is worth a fortune now...

It made me wince for sure. Especially finding out how much '57 Strats and '52 Teles can be worth now. But the real surprise were guitars like the Epiphones I've owned over the years. An early 60's Epi Wilshire I picked up for under $100 is now worth as much as $4k!!
And so many of those Japanese made guitars from the 60's are worth a lot. I used to tear them apart to make other guitars out of them.

That's the tough ones Stan. The stolen ones. I had a '57 Strat stolen. It never showed up anywhere. No stores, no pawn shops.

stan
22-02-2015, 02:13 PM
I'd rather not know where it went Rob, because I cant prove it was once mine, so I'd rather not come across it, and it was a proper lefty - rarer still

'57 Strat! That's real pain my friend

Rob L
22-02-2015, 08:01 PM
I'd rather not know where it went Rob, because I cant prove it was once mine, so I'd rather not come across it, and it was a proper lefty - rarer still

'57 Strat! That's real pain my friend

I gave up looking after about 10 years. I sent letters to every major place in the country with a description and the serial number. I figure whoever stole it wanted it for themselves and not for cash. It teach me a valuable lesson. Never take high end stuff to a gig. :D

Gregted
16-03-2015, 09:25 AM
First and only guitar is a cheap acoustic bought by my parents for my 15th birthday. Had it for 38 years now. The "fretboard" has just started to rub off. It turned out to be black paint.

Wasn't worth much then and worth less now but it's all I've known.

Going to change that with a strat kit in the next few weeks. My first electric. Whoo hoo.

dingobass
16-03-2015, 11:45 AM
I know the pain...
When I was at Art School I had a 4001 Riccky Bass stolen....
By the time I tracked down the thief and beat the crapola outta him it was long gone...
4k worth of Bass turned into a cloud of pot smoke.
Being young and naive, I never thought to take pics and record the serial number :(

gubins
16-03-2015, 12:35 PM
I feel for your pain mate. I've heard stories of guitars being stolen when packing up after a gig. I always made sure we had someone on watch. I take down all the details of my gear, serial numbers, year it was bought and where if known, I take photos front and back too. I keep the receipts/invoices as providence helps get good prices if you want to sell. All this helps with insurance too. Doesn't take long.

keloooe
16-03-2015, 01:22 PM
My first guitar was a really cheap acoustic when I was 9 (meaning I've been playing guitar for nearly half my life now!), and was probably made of ply! It was a bitch to play, the action was ok on the open frets but was really high from 12-21, never played it up in the high register anyway. A few years later for my bday (around 11-12), I got a cheap Strat copy and a small 10W practice amp that I still use today as my main amp. After that I got my first pedal which is a Marshall VT-1 Vibratrem, barely use that. My first guitar that I paid for with my own $$$ is an Epi LP Junior which I probably need to get around to fixing up sometime soon, which I played with a DigiTech Hot Head (still my main dirt pedal). That was when I got into the kit side of things, and I will probably keep going with scratchies and kits for a while!

maxaxe
17-03-2015, 08:47 AM
Bought this Antoria model 994 secondhand from Clef Music in Claremont for $KRAFT when I was about 17.
Interesting selectors & 4 hokey PUPS. Note trem bridge cover had a bolt down arrangement. Played it through a big assed Philips valve radio hooked to a 12" Rola speaker on a piece of board. Thought I was the alpaca's knackers at the time. Axe is loooong gone but I see one fetched abt $500 at auction recently, so no huge regrets.