Hey everyone, I just want to hear from people about how they began playing guitar, what inspired it? what was there first guitar? what have they done with that guitar now?
Also why not let us hear a story of something thats happened in your musical life:) I'll Begin...

My first Guitar was a Tanglewood Nevada strat style guitar that had belonged to a friend. I bought it off him for £25 with a practice amp. I learn't one song on it before realising that I loved guitar but I would definately need a new guitar as this one was awful... I sold my Xbox with everything for £100 and bought a Squier Telecustom ll with an Orange crush 15 amp with the £100. I sold the Tanglewood for £40 a few months later and have nothing but regret in doing so as although the guitar wasn't good It was my first and so it shall always be dear to me!

I was first inspired to play guitar during my summer break after my Girlfriend left me for my close friend and felt I needed to take up a hobby and turn about my life some what as I was a horrible person to alot of people except her. I met another girl a couple of months later and fell head over heels for her, She was a passionate Guitarist and my inspiration to play and because of her I began to learn.

We never got together but I'm still playing and learning the greatest thing in my life And she remains my great Friend who I'm now going to overtake in guitar I reckon as she is primarily a Bassist now.

Please Share a story about your Guitar life! anything at all!

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A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence. ~Leopold Stokowski~

I was about 8 or 9 when I first started listening to rock. Before then I listened to country and classical (weird combination, but hey, it's Texas). I wanted to play violin because I heard it in both of those styles. But when I got my first rock CD it blew everything else out of the water and I had to play electric guitar. I guess it was really the band Audio Adrenaline that got it started, because their guitar riffs were some of the first ones that I learned.

I got my first guitar when I was 11, a Squier Strat. I always wanted a Strat, and Strats have always been my favorite guitar. One of my close friends, a girl in her early twenties who didn't ignore me even when I was that young, played a Strat. And she was in a band, and I wanted to be like her. Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan didn't have anything to do with me picking a Strat because I didn't even know who they were back then.

I messed around with some chords, played a few simple melodies and of Smoke on the Water for a couple of years. I wasn't really into it that much at first. But then I got stuck at the house for a few weeks when I was 13 (I think my Mom was studying for something she had to take at work) and I was bored. So I picked up my guitar and I taught myself a couple of songs. I had played classical flute in Jr. High and I was used to having to read music and play everything just like the teacher said. It never occurred to me before I played guitar that I couldn't not only teach myself, but make up my own songs right off the bat. On guitar you have so much freedom.

So yeah, that's it. I started guitar really just because I was bored and it was there.

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Website: http://www.rebeccalaird.com
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Haha thats great Thankyou

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A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence. ~Leopold Stokowski~

well I was pretty much brought up from a classic rock family. So there were classic guitar riffs everywhere. Car, tv, radio, you name it. So the year was 1999 and i was 7, on the TV there was Jimi Hendrix. Playing his Olympic White Strat at Woodstock. So immediately I said "Mom, I want to play guitar." So for Christmas I got an acoustic guitar (nothing big). After many, many, tries and teachers (i went thru a good 5 teachers. Due to money problems at the time, and the fact that most moved.) I gave up guitar and my Silvertone electric (after many acoustics. One of which i still have in so-so condition but still good) became a dust collector. Then, halfway thru freshmen year of high school, I decided to pick it up again. Got a new guitar teacher named Nathan Whitaker (best ever) and he taught me for about a week, after that I started teaching myself....and now I'm doin' pretty good!

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I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk...

It was 1967 and I was a Total Teen Nerd and I'd decided to do something about my image. So I hit the gym (and boy did that amaze a lot of the jocks), found a barber who knew how to do something other than a crew cut (funny how they're actually in now) and got some clothes that fit me (yep, that's out now).

I played violin in the school orchestra but the ultra cool kids were in bands and back then, no violinists need apply. So I finally talked my mom into letting me buy a guitar and take lessons. The guitar cost me a whole $10 (some nylon string relic hanging in the back of a store that primarily sold band instruments like trombones and tubas). It came with one free lesson, so on the appointed day, there I was. I had one advantage in that I already knew how to read music so with two more lessons, I was doing pretty well.

But I was also paying for them out of the odd jobs I did and so after a while I had to quit. (BIG mistake, but no money to continue.) However, I still wasn't COOL with just my $10 old guitar. But then as luck would have it, my one hip relative showed up for Thanksgiving and he had his guitar and amp with him. He'd been in a couple early 60s surf type bands.

He'd been promoted at work and had no more time to play, so they'd been gathering dust and he was going to sell them. I said I'd be interesting and he said okay, but he needed $100 and by the way, he and my aunt were leaving in two days so I had to come up with it by then. Yeah, right ... I was 15 and did jobs that people might give me $5 for. So if I could mow 20 lawns in 2 days ... but it was T-day weekend. No lawns to mow and no snow to shovel yet.

Finally, I went directly to my mom. If she loaned me the $100, I'd pay it back and promise not to play loud in the house. Since it was my mom who suggested (the prior year) that maybe I'd want to become less nerd like, hey ... maybe she'd go along with my last step in the de-nerdification program. Amazingly, she did!

So my first "real" guitar was a Mustang and an Ampeg Jet. A few weeks later, I could play a few surf and Beatles tunes from the song books he gave me and I'd also figured out "Satisfaction." What next but to form a band! I was soon jamming with a fellow ex-nerd and terrific drummer and another guy we knew who had a decent voice.

The Mustang and the band are both long gone. Within a year, I traded up on the Jet and the drummer and I (foolishly) decided to refinish the Mustang. Long story, but sad to say I only ended up with the neck and the electronics (which I still have, eventually fitted to another Mustang body).

The band however lasted nearly 10 years and after high school, we played professionally for close to 7 years before breaking up.

(PS: I kept my word on both counts ... I paid the money back and I never did play loud at home.)

Hi ClassicRock92: I was a drummer before I was a guitarist. Got quite good, too, in a swing influenced mould.

Occasionally strummed a battered old acoustic guitar, but it was only when Dire Straits came along that something clicked in my brain and I started thinking maybe MY fingers had something to say on a guitar neck too.

What a Godsend Mark Knopfler was for many of us at that particular point in history...

Carried on being the drummer for a long time (and to this day), but gradually the guitar became more and more important in my life. And of course, anyone who liked Knopfler's early playing had to have a red Strat. 30 years later, I finally just got a red Strat a couple of weeks ago!

Cheers - C

These are great stories! I've been dying to talk to people about how they began with their guitars for ages but due to all the hectic events of late I've been doing exams looking for a job and dodging Swine flu!
please guys come share more if you fell you have something to share:) ANYTHING!

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A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence. ~Leopold Stokowski~

I was 22yrs back in '72 when I was started playing guitar. A co-worker, who was also a friend were talking about Jimi Hendrix, and I remarked how I would love to play guitar. I was married with a 2yr old daughter and a baby on the way.

Well it turned out that my friend had been playing guitar since high school and had a guitar and amp that he would give me!

It turned out to be a Sears' Silvertone guitar/amp combo! You can see the guitar in this picture http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/33 ... directlink.

About a year later I brought a new Strat http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/3I ... directlink, which I still have http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/z4 ... directlink.

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Tony Houston

I started taking some lessons when I was 13, I remember that I couldn't wait for the summer to be over and start learning! I took lessons for acoustic guitar only for a couple of years and then I went to high school so I didn't have much free time to practice, neither the motivation.

I started playing again on November 2007 and haven't stop since then! I also started learning electric guitar about a year ago

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2010 Gibson Les Paul Studio (Silverburst)
2007 Fender CD-60 (Sunburst)
G.A.S-ing for a Fender Stratocaster HSS with floyd rose

I was about 9 years old, Grade 5. My family raised me in Classic rock music. I would sit in the car beside my dad as he took me to school everyday, and I would Hear The great riffs of Led Zeppelin, the hyped Guitar solo's Of Boston, and The Beautiful voices of John Lennon and Mccartney From The Beatles. One Day I said, "dad, I wanna play that, I wanna learn how to play the guitar" . Thats when I picked up my first acoustic, For a year, I learned all about music. But I wanted to rock, for all I was doing was learning notes, chords and theory, which definatly came in handy today. In my own time, I would get on the internet, find music, and play it on my acoustic. I wanted to be The Best. I would spend All my time Practising. I can remember some days I would Play for hours, my Parents would have to pull me away from my Guitar. About a year after picking up my first acoustic, I got My first electric, an Epiphone SG, Which I still have, and Play today. It was my life. I was so happy When I found myself playing those Zeppelin Riffs I heared back then, and every Sunday Night I would play for my parents, the new songs I learned. I knew right there and then, Music was for me. I then started getting into lots of blues and grooves, Which inspired me to Pick up a bass. Grade 7 and 8, I Learned my way Around a Washburn Taurus. To me, It was like Living My guitar story all over again, New thrills, New challenges, New Riffs. Then Came The time that I had to decide what Path I wanted to choose to find where I would end up in life. I had to Choose a Highschool. I had my heart set on music, So I auditioned For Cawthra Park Secondary School For the Arts As a Bass Player, and Was Accepted. I remember the feeling when I opened the letter that said I was accepted. I though back to How important learning music inside and out was, and Where it brought me today. I always think of this Story when Im on my way to school, Sitting beside my dad, Listening To Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, and everything else. My Message to all New guitar Players are, Do What your teachers/Masters tell you to do. I didn't want to either, but I did, and this is where it brought me now. I still have my book that I learned from, With all The writing in it from my Teacher, Check Marks beside every song, Makes me feel proud. To me, Music is a Gift. Cherish it, and Do your part by learning the music. The Music Will do its own job, and Lead you into good places.

i started listening to music when i was 14 (yeah i know too late...)
so i wanted to be like all these cool guys who played guitar & the world was on their feet .
so i finally convinced mum & dad (especially mum you know what i mean ) & i bought a classic guitar for 70€.
i played for 1 year with her but i wanted an electric so i bought my beloved squier strat (affinity). i know not a great guitar but im in love with her.

however i have to play seriously for over a year lame i miss her but sth repulses me got to figure it out has this ever happened to you?

It hasnt happened to ME. So your a squier player eh?
me too I play a Squier Telecustom ll and its Superb but I'm saving for Fender Japanese strat:D I'm after one with a Fender System 1 trem I've planned it all out
Sunburst with black metal Plate S1 trem and a Engraving on the neck plate with my name and the date i get it:) It'll stay with me for life and so will my squier!

If anyone knows who Kiko Lourreiro is then my headstock is signed by him and the body is signed by Jennifer Batten both of which i met at guitar clinics that my Tutor/Friend arranged. unfortunately Jennifers signature is wearing away from being in my case but its made the guitar that extra bit special to me:)

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A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence. ~Leopold Stokowski~

When I wa 13 my mom had a boyfriend that had an old acoustic guitar. I bought a Mel Bay beginner's book and started to learn. A few months later I ended up moving back in with my dad and the acoustic guitar was gone forever. A year after moving in with my dad, I convinced him to buy me a Strat clone and a Peavy Bandit a friend of mine was selling. After that my best friend (a bass player) and I started to jam together. We went through several drummers and never found a decent singer. Several years later I (we) gave up on the band dream but I keep on playing for the enjoyment of playing.

RK

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

I've told this story on a previous thread:
http://www.fender.com/community/forums/ ... hp?t=17163

But here it is again for ClassicRock92.

Step 1. Cello lessons as a kid.
2. Huge music fan in college, developed regrets over learning cello rather than guitar.
3. Somewhere along the way some boyfriend or other taught me the chords to Louie Louie, but then took the guitar back because he wanted to show off
4. Forward a few years - midlife crisis
5. Colleague at work played a blistering solo at a work function, I wrote him an email the next day expressing amazement and saying it was my childhood dream to play like that, he wrote back and said, "You CAN. All you have to do is practice."
6. Cousin's husband has a job working at Fender (hi, A.B.!)
7. After moving to a new town, a friend sends me a scavenger hunt of things I'm supposed to do, one of which is "Play the first chord of Hard Day's Night on a 12-string"
8. As part of research for accomplishing that task, I wander into a guitar store and learn that it's not necessary to start on an acoustic playing classical and work up, in fact some even recommend starting on an electric. The salesman lets me try all sorts of different models - Squier, PRS - but the Stratocaster felt the best of all of them.
9. Put a call into Cousin A.B. asking, you know, if maybe there's one available?
10. Cousin brings Strat to me on a work trip, inspirational work colleague recommends a teacher, I give him a call, and the rest is history.

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2008 MIM Strat w 3-tone sunburst
2002 LP Special Ebony Faded
2008 G-Dec
'59 Reissue Bassman 4x10 combo
TS 808
DS 1
Gretsch 6120DS (on loan)

Some awesome stories being told here:D Please everyone keep them coming! and hey if you've already posted then post again with another story! It's all being read by me and other people its fascinating to hear how people have developed and progressed:)

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A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence. ~Leopold Stokowski~