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Post by collinsman on Jan 9, 2013 6:41:56 GMT -5
I was in HS IN 71" & just starting to get into electric with some friends and somebody told me of this 68" Blonde tele in a pawn shop for $125. I took a trek over there and asked the guy if he'd put it on layaway for 3 months & he agreed. Wish I had her now, she was a beaut.
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Post by slapjaw on Jan 9, 2013 7:00:44 GMT -5
1979 Gibson Les Paul Custom. Still have it..
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noname
Gold
Posts: 10
Musican: Guitarist
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Post by noname on Jan 9, 2013 11:43:34 GMT -5
I still think of my '69 Ovation Tornado as a good guitar. Got it for $65 in 1987. Then there is my '62 RI Tele custom.
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Post by dadfad on Jan 9, 2013 12:58:58 GMT -5
My first fairly decent guitar (my third guitar) was probably my '68 Fender Strat. I paid $299 for it brand-new, and kept it in the trunk of my car for months because my dad would have had a sh!t-fit if he found out I blew three hundred bucks on a guitar!
That guitar replaced my Kay electric, which I'd bought at K-Mart for $39.99 a couple years earlier.
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Post by Admin on Jan 9, 2013 13:22:23 GMT -5
My first really good guitar is my 48 Gibby J 45. Bought it on time ($2.00) a week for around a year as I recall. Still plays like velvet even though the action has gotten a little high.
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Post by dadfad on Jan 9, 2013 16:19:37 GMT -5
My first really good guitar is my 48 Gibby J 45. Bought it on time ($2.00) a week for around a year as I recall. Still plays like velvet even though the action has gotten a little high. I've got a '49 J-45 myself. You're right. I've had it a long time. Not as long as you've had yours, but I got it in a pawn-shop in the early 70's. Still a great guitar, and probably will be long after I'm gone! "...even though the action has gotten a little high..." Assuming it increases as it goes up the neck and not just mid-neck and needing a truss-rod adjustment, odds are there's a little belly on the top right in the bridge area causing the bridge to rise a mite. If it's not bad leave it alone of course, but if that's where the problem is (without going through a MAJOR effort to remove and straighten the top, etc) you can just remove the bridge, re-carve the bottom slightly shorter and concaved to fit over the belly (same thing with the bottom of the saddle). A little tedious to make it fit nice, but nowhere near the pain in the butt of removing the top. Might even just need a little saddle work done.
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Post by saguitar on Jan 17, 2013 20:12:39 GMT -5
My first love... yeah, I can see her now... She was a Gibson Les Paul Black Beauty that I bought brand new in 1971. My first electric, and it took me several years of workin' to save up the money for that purchase. Unfortunately, that love affair was not to last because, being a dumb kid, I bought a guitar that had those ground-down fretless frets. No matter how beautiful that Black Beauty looked, I never could get the hang of playing on those tiny frets. They were a huge change for a guy that had always played acoutics before that. I struggled with that issue for about a year, before I realized I was never going to get comfortable on it, and sold that bad boy for a decent amount. My next guitar was almost as tragic a relationship. I bought a blond Telecaster, and never really bonded with it. I guess I had become enamored with the Les Paul tones, and a Tele is never going to venture into that world. Plus, I only owned a Fender Deluxe Reverb, and that baby only had about 22 watts going for it. So a Tele just didn't get as loud, not even close, and I couldn't keep up with the drummers and bass players I was jamming with. Again, I didn't know what I had, and couldn't appreciate the finer qualities of a Telecaster. I finally got it right with my third electric guitar, and that would be my Lester, a 1975 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe, in burgundy. And I still have him today, one of the best I've ever had the privilege of playing. When I bought him from a friend, he had already been hogged out and had a couple of DiMarzio Super Distortion pickups in him. Yes, that means that getting Loud was no longer a problem. I have beat the heck out of that boy for decades now, and he's still rockin'. At one time I realized that I had just worn the frets off of him, and he sat in the closet for several years (unplayed) until James said that he knew a guy that he could trust to do a fret job. I sent Lester off to Pennsylvania for a what turned out to be a nearly complete rebuild. In addition to new frets he need to have the fretboard re-leveled and the neck straightened. It took quite a while before he finally made it home, but I was ecstatic to have my old friend back again and ready for a new lease on life. So, I finally got it right on the third guitar I bought!
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Post by steve on Jan 20, 2013 15:36:19 GMT -5
Great thread- very interesting reading your stories. My first decent guitar was a bass. A 1976 Fender Precision. My dad bought it for me and I played it extensively when I was young. I must have played hundreds of gigs. I still have her to this day and I feel at home-though I don't play so much bass these days. Shortly after I bought a Strat too and I also still have that too. I am not very good at parting with guitars.
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Post by saguitar on Jan 20, 2013 21:19:51 GMT -5
Hah! I'm glad you've kept your first guitars, Steve! Those are irreplaceable. Now that you mention it, my first electric was a bass also, a sunburst Fender Jazz Bass that I got new in 1969. I wish I still had that puppy.
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Post by jaked on Feb 15, 2013 14:42:26 GMT -5
My first good guitar was a Guild D25. I bought it in the fall of 1999 I think and it was new. I still have it. If you don't think that is good, then my first good guitar was a Gibson Les Paul I bought from James when I got married. It is good for sure.
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Post by sarge on Feb 15, 2013 19:21:06 GMT -5
My first guitar was used silvertone acoustic. I bought it for $10.00 in 1964. I don't know how old it was when I bought it, but it played pretty good as I remember.
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rhoffman
Gold
Posts: 15
Musican: Guitarist
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Post by rhoffman on Mar 16, 2013 19:20:04 GMT -5
Whe I was about 14 my Dad brought home a '63 Gibson LGO, which was a basic student guitar. All mahogany and a sweet tone. I played it until I left for Germany and when I came back my brother had claimed it, and he still has it. I found one about fifteen years ago at a flea market and I probably play it more than any other guitar while sitting around the house, waiting for dinner or for the dogs to be let in. My first electric was a brand new '67 Gibson ES135 with a Bigsby. Never could keep it tuned and have never owned another guitar with a Bigsby on it.
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Post by julianmyrick on Mar 16, 2013 19:32:12 GMT -5
My first Good one is still the best I have ever had The 335 in the pix Wonderful tone an Excellent player I have had many (still have 10) but when I want great tone I grab the old Gibson
Julian
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Post by saguitar on Mar 17, 2013 19:56:52 GMT -5
Julian, that is a beautiful 335, never let it go, fo' sho'!
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Post by earleg on Mar 21, 2013 22:15:04 GMT -5
A '66 Telecaster bought new in '67. I traded it for an early '60s SG Special w/ P90s in late '68. Both were great.
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