What was your first electric guitar?

[MikeW]

I'd been bumping around on my Dad's old nylon string acoustic for a few months, and so my parents got me a1982 Squire Strat and a Gorilla amp as a Christmas present. It was a Blackie replica and sounded great for the level of parts that were in it. I've been a Strat guy ever since then really.

There were several of us in high school that played and we had a tendency to swap guitars, so I got to play an LP Junior, an SG, my Strat, and a couple off-brand hollow bodies. I had a good set of tools back then so I wound up being the go-to guy to fix or set up guitars in the group too. Fun times.

 

[supertruper1988]

This was my first guitar. My dad also plays and had built a few guitars so I learned on his guitars then we built this one together for my 16th birthday.

https://imgur.com/ZZrgTIq

 

[NedRyerson]

Mine was just your standard Squier Stratocaster starter pack, Black with white pickguard, maple neck/fretboard. Wasn't anything fancy, but as a young kid it was like "Hey! This looks like Claptons." Loved that thing. After about 4 years of daily practice with that, and saving money up once I was old enough to get a job at the local grocery, I ordered from Warmoth and put together the Strat I still play today.

As for why Stratocasters, I have a vivid memory of that. When I started 4th grade at a new school, the music teacher had a Sonic Blue Fender Stratocaster in the classroom that he would sometimes play on for us if we were well behaved. I loved that guitar at first sight. The whole aesthetic of it just... spoke to me.

Amazing how these childhood influences alter the trajectory of one's life.

My 2nd grade teacher played the piano, so she had one in her room and every day, she'd play and we'd sing songs. And that was outside of the formal music class. In 3rd grade, we had the option of participating in instrumental music, so I wanted to play cello. My teacher said "no." Cello would cut into library time. so I had to go with violin instead.

Fast forward decades later and I work in public K-12 now. While "library" is now known as "media center," looking from the curriculum and standards point of view, I still don't understand the rationale of why I had to go to library class in place of more music instruction. I already read voraciously at that age and learning the Dewey Decimal system was not exactly a one-class-and-done experience; I had been going to "library" for two years before that and would continue to do so while I was in elementary school.

But anyway....I didn't last long in violin, either. About two years.

 

[mayfly]

I had a black Harmony les paul copy which looked at lot like this one:

I didn't appreciate just how good an instrument this was.

 

[stratamania]

As I recall, my first electric was a second hand Jedson Tele type, in cream. It was not long before I had dressed the end of the frets with emery boards that were in the house intended for nails. Also it was taken apart fairly frequently for new paint jobs, I can remember it being blue and then gold, back to a white and then I made a new body out of cedar for it with hand tools.

 

[averageG]

Neck said Sorina Telecaster by Gibson. Still have it somewhere. Neck was bowed like mad and no way to adjust it that I saw. I've tried finding info on them but haven't found much yet.

 

[bagman67]

First electric was one of these here Ibanez Roadstar RS315 jobs. I bought in Houston in 1986, along with a Peavey Backstage Plus amp.

This guitar coupled with the cruddy little amp was a fine introduction to what Zappa called "the blasphemous honk." Took me a few years to figure out that MOAR DISTOARTION does not mean better sound, but even so, the gritty scuzz of that amp was a fun noise to make.