Your first guitar from a "big" brand.

charlyg · Post by **charlyg** » Sat Jun 02, 2007 10:48 am

I should mention that chap's name....Alvin Lee....

jwilli · Post by **jwilli** » Sat Jun 02, 2007 10:51 am

My first real guitar was a Rickenbacker Susannah Hoffs Ltd. Ed. in '93. I had owned ******-can't-remember-brands since '82 or so.

rick12dr · Post by **rick12dr** » Sat Jun 02, 2007 11:21 am

My 1st "Real" guitar[actually a Bass], I got in Feb. '66, an April '65 sunburst Fender Precision
Bass, for $165 out of the want ads. Inspired by
[not sure I thought in terms of "inspiration" or "personal heros" in those days at age 13..] Rick Huxley of Dave Clark 5.So cool...

leftybass · Post by **leftybass** » Sat Jun 02, 2007 11:27 am

Mine was a used Hofner 500/1 (left-handed of course) in 1979....I'd say it was from the late 60s....

ozover50 · Post by **ozover50** » Sat Jun 02, 2007 11:48 am

My first Fender was an early 60's PB..... purchased dirt cheap in 1966 from a used car dealer who traded it in. What I wouldn't give to still have it!! My first bass was an early 60s Framus.... same story!

If I exclude my school days:

My first Fender was an American Deluxe Golden Anniversary Strat.
My first Gibson was an '04 Vintage Sunburst ES-335.
My first Rick was an '04 330/6 FG.

Still got 'em!!

Scastles · Post by **Scastles** » Sat Jun 02, 2007 12:03 pm

Me and my guitar. A new Gibson acoustic, '71, '72. I barely knew where I was most of the time, much less what model it was.

loendmaestro · Post by **loendmaestro** » Sat Jun 02, 2007 2:49 pm

My first bass was a ****** Mako P-Bass copy...

Then when I was 16 I bought this for $200:

It's a '74 (red side dots) - still have it today.

It's where the love affair began.

kenposurf · Post by **kenposurf** » Sat Jun 02, 2007 3:11 pm

A '64 Gibson LGO acoustic...first name electric..Gibson Starfire bass...

marc61 · Post by **marc61** » Sat Jun 02, 2007 3:13 pm

My first bass was a Carlo Robelli(Sam Ash brand) J Bass copy - after that, I put my change together for a 79 4001JG.

wmthor · Post by **wmthor** » Sat Jun 02, 2007 4:21 pm

I received a right-handed Fender Strat on Christmas Day, 1996. I ordered my first lefty, a 360 MG in April, 1998 and received it in September, 1998.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Sat Jun 02, 2007 4:52 pm

My first good bass was a Sunburst 1971 Fender Precision I bought brand new when I was 18, was gone in two years beat to death. First Rickenbacker was a mapleglo 4001 I bought brand new in 1977.

elysrand · Post by **elysrand** » Sat Jun 02, 2007 5:52 pm

I had a Hagstrom 4-string bass in 1969 with the big paddle switches to select pickups. Not a very good bass, mainly because it was not set up right and I didn't know yet how to set it up. Played lots better than the neighbor's Silvertone from Sears though

Ditched it in 1970 to get a beat-up 1959 Fender, started making real money. Knew how to sight-read bass clef really well from playing jazz trombone since the late 1950s (my Dad had been a 1940s dance band pro, Glenn Miller orchestra).

Saw a gorgeous Rickenbacker in the window of a New Orleans dealer in April of 1971, it was a March 1971 eggplant-burgundy 4001 21-fretter. Couldn't get my jaw up off the pavement. It was an epiphany, a near-religious vision of Elijah in the flaming chariot all over again. The Hall family put that bass right there on purpose just for me, that day, in all F.C.'s omniscience, and I felt the Force. Sold the Fender for $200 in Metairie that night to our guitarist (who thought I was nuts), added another $120 to it from my savings, and went back that next morning and waited 30 minutes on the front steps unti the store opened at 8am and I bought the Rickenbacker.

That Rick was my main and only gigging bass for most of my youth, made lots of money in chunks of $50 to $150 a night for four to eight sets of jazz and Dixieland in the French Quarter alternating with gigs over on the West Bank playing acid and prog rock mixes in bigger clubs, 40 on and 20 off if I was lucky, 45 and 15 if I was not, for the next four years. Boy did I ever go places with that bass! Took it through college and med school doing session work only to "put it under the bed" in 1979 until it was stolen in a burglary Labor Day 1987

The rest of my life has been an attempt to replace that March 1971 eggplant-burgundy 21-fretter 4001...

Haven't quite done it yet, but still trying like h@#$

shinynewtoy · Post by **shinynewtoy** » Sat Jun 02, 2007 7:09 pm

Wow, Elys... check this out...

17 years old, making decent $$$ right out of school and "taking time off" before college (talk about a long break...

) Nice days they were, having basically no overhead and $250 a week! I started gigging alot and my POS Squier Pee was on the verge of a trip off a cliff (ski-slopes had nothing on that neck!) SO... friend of mine's band calls it quits, and it happened to be his main source of cash flow, so rent took precedent over his year-old '94 4003 Red/BT. Got it for $750 and played the hell out of it...

Until...

Out checking out another friend's band at one of those kind of spots where the bartender spent alot of time "looking the other way." I was so wasted that my girlfriend was the first to notice the wide-open window and the empty stand where the Rick used to be. &%@!ers didn't touch anything else... the $1000 stereo, the $500 in the cash box, anything... just grabbed the bass and bolted. Obviously I knew the *******...

Just never found out who. It's the only reason I'm not still in prison.

longhouse · Post by **longhouse** » Sat Jun 02, 2007 7:51 pm

Yes John, a '95 indeed. Time flies!

longhouse · Post by **longhouse** » Sat Jun 02, 2007 7:53 pm

And Elys, your theft story is so sad! Hopefully the ******* is doing hard time.