I've always been into music but hadn't really gotten the bug in me to play an instrument until the summer of 1984 when I was 12. That summer 2 guitar slingers hit my radar that made me pick up the guitar. One was Eddie Van Halen (naturally). The 1984 album and it's radio play really brought him to my attention. Gotta remember I was 12 and hadn't really gotten deep into it yet. Although I did rock out with my uncles' Stones, Doors, Beatles, and Zep albums (the actual vinyl!!!).

But that summer, I got to go a Huey Lewis and the News concert in Charlotte, NC. That's when the guitar bug really hit me. Yeah, Huey Lewis was awesome and that one guitar player could really play and throw out some cool riffs. I can't remember his name, but he wasn't the important one anyway. Scared ya, huh? They had this fresh-faced kid opening up for them. I still remember it like yesterday. He sauntered out onto the stage with the lights down and only a spotlight on him. He walked over to a piano that was on stage (I'm guessing for the Huey Lewis show). He lit up what looked like a joint to me (yeah, I was that close). There was already enough of that smoke in the air so I couldn't tell - great contact highs back then. But he just tipped his hat and started wailing away on his beat-to-hell Fender Strat. Yep, it was SRV.

I never really realized until today what an impact he had on me deciding to play guitar. I can't say that he was a major influence on my style of playing - I would go more for George Harrison, David Gilmour, and Joe Walsh for that. But he was probably the single-most influence when it came to my decision to actually play the guitar. Just the feeling that came over me while watching him play was amazing. Jim Morrison said it best - Ghosts crowd the young child's fragile eggshell mind. That was the feeling I got that night and haven't looked back. I knew I had to do it at that moment. I think I got my first guitar from Sears about 2 weeks later.

So what about you guys?

BTW, it's nice to be hanging out on a Forum/Lounge that actually is cool with some pretty cool people.

We would always have these killer parties at my uncles house and all my uncles had a band.They would just rip the Lynnyrd Skynnyrd and ZZ Top cover tunes along with their original blues material.Everybody in my family is musically talented, it's pretty awesome to come from such a musical type family.My uncle Scott is an awesome guitar player and I always admired him rippin his surf green strat.So, for me I would say it was my uncles which got me going on both guitar and harmonica:D .

Also... In 1981 when Rush's Moving Pictures album was released I was really diggin on Alex Lifesons guitar work at that point.I always dug his style....really different than alot of rock guitarists.
Never looked back since

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1986 Fender Sidekick Reverb 35
1990 Fender Red Knob - "The Twin"
1992 Fender Newporter - Acoustic
2000 Fender American Series Strat - Natural ash
2010 Fender Mustang 1
2011 Fender Blacktop Jazzmaster -Sunburst
2012 Fender Champion

For me it was backwards. My music teacher said I had talent take something up and since he played guitar I figured that was it.

Maybe I had some influence from the Beatles but I really wasn't into music at the time which was around the 70's.

I didn't really start progressing until around the 90's. Just played a lot of Peter Frampton and classical music.

I started at 12 as well around 1984. We moved out to the country and I had a friend that lived about 2 miles away. I would ride my bike over to his house to hang out. He started playing and would show me what he had learned, I thought it was the coolest thing ever, so I started playing too. We would get together and figure out songs. My Dad played guitar so he was supportive of me doing it also. Those two influences got me going. First guitar was an old Ibanez neck through body 24 fret. It was a vintage style. I miss that one.

I started listening to rock music when I was about 9. It wasn't like rock didn't exist before that, I was just more interested in classical music, new wave and country. Yeah, I had inherited my parents eclectic musical tastes even back then.

A band which I really liked was called Audio Adrenaline, and I remember asking my Dad what instrument was making that sound (in reference to the electric guitar). I was fascinated by it and I just really liked that sound. I guess now I'd call it "tone".

As I got older I got very deeply entrenched in metal and hardcore, nothing mattered unless it was loud, distorted and fast. Then one night at about 1:00 a.m. my Mom starts yelling for me from the living room. I got out of bed and went to go see what she wanted me to watch since I usually look for any excuse to stay up late. Usually if Mom would call me at that time it would be for some educational show that I wouldn't be very interested in. But again, any excuse to stay up.

I walked in and the first thing I saw on TV was this beat to crap Stratocaster. I had been favoring Les Pauls at the time, but Strats have really always been my favorite guitar. And this guy's Strat didn't even sound like mine, it sounded huge like a Les Paul only less muddy. So again, the tone is what hooked me. I didn't really like blues at the time, in fact I would've told you I hated it. But this was loud, distorted and as fast or faster than any shredder I had seen. And it hit me in the gut in a weird sort of way, which I liked. I don't think I moved for the hour I was watching this, and I'm pretty sure I had to pick my jaw up off the floor more than once.

I asked my Mom who that was and she told me it was Stevie Ray Vaughan. I was kind of surprised, because I had heard a couple of SRV songs before this and I didn't really care for it. But watching was different, watching is what left a huge impact on me. I guess I realized just how badly I sucked on guitar and I wanted to practice my butt of to be able to play half as good as SRV someday (still working on that lol). And as I got more and more into the music blues ended up growing on me and now it's mostly what I listen to. So even though he didn't start it, SRV's my biggest inspiration for sticking with guitar now.

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Website: http://www.rebeccalaird.com
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Well....this will surely date me.
I had two players that got me interested in playing.

1) Michael Nesmith: Yap, that guy from the Monkee's I was one of them there kids glued to the TV when it was on.

2) Buck Owens: I loved to watch Hee Haw as a kid, in fact I was watching a re-run of it just today. My friends didn't get it, my family didn't get it, but I did.

My first electric was a Tele, and I still love Tele's, even though I do not have one right now, someday I will again have one.

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Marriage is like playing cards...

At first all you want are Hearts and Diamonds.

But in the end, all you really want is a Club and a Spade.

I probably would not have starting playing if not for Jimmy Page. I got my first guitar after finding Zeppelin I and II in my parents' record collection. The sound simply blew me away!

Buddy Holly.

The Ed Sullivan Show was like an event at our house on Sunday nights. This was back when I still wore those flannel pajamas with the "feet" attached to the bottoms. This nerdy kid shows up on the tube sounding so......outrageous (compared to my folks' usual radio fare: Perry Como, Eddie Fisher, Tennessee Ernie Ford, etc) and playing some infernal instrument that looked for all the world like a goddammed flying saucer. I didn't know what it was and I surely didn't know what to do with it. But the sound......that sound! As surely as the sun comes up in the morning and the rooster crows, I knew then and there that someday I'd have one. And I'd know what to do with it. At the age of five, Buddy's "That'll Be The Day" performance that evening became an epiphany for me.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

^Now that's cool.

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Website: http://www.rebeccalaird.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rebeccalairdmusic
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When I first had that feeling that I HAD to have a guitar was when I was about 5 years old. I wanted to be just like Ace Frehley!! Hahaha.



My parents would have nothing to do with it. I didn't get one until I was 15. My brother stole a guitar from one of his friends and gave it to me for Christmas.

Of course I had no idea he'd stolen it. It wasn't until I got asked to audition for what would be my first band. When I showed up for the audition.. It was pretty much a sting set-up by the guy who it was stolen from. He showed me the receipt with the serial number.

Out of the goodness of his heart, he allowed me to keep the guitar. His only wish. "Learn how to play that guitar, and be the best you can be."

That guitar is my '57 Strat reissue.

Frank passed away some years ago. He was shot from what I was told. But I still have the guitar, and it was used on both of the songs I wrote on our album..

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HaleAmano- House Of Sharks (Now On iTunes)
http://www.reverbnation.com/haleamano
http://www.haleamano.com

can we get a AMEN right here?

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

I was listening to a lot of blues and blues related guitar music in my early 20s and I've started thinking about... just loved listening to SRV, BB King, Santana...

Then I've heard Roy Buchanan and Albert Collins on two different tracks on a CD I bought. A few days later I've started searching seriously for a guitar teacher.

Been playing and listening to a lot of different music ever since, but with such influences it still escapes me how come I've never bought a Telecaster.

first and foremost my good friend Raoul Sosa. He had an epic collection of vintage guitars and I used to go over there and watching him play. Then one day I decided to give it a try.

Next was my ex fiance. After splitting up with her the guitar became my therapy and I played as much as possible and wanted to learn all the songs I had loved over the years.

Third, guitarists Sergio Vallin from the Mexican rock group Mana' and Muddy Waters. Sergio Vallin is a beast in any genre of music and was a great influence on me. Muddy is the one who introduced me to the blues back when I was about 8 yrs old and found one of his tapes in my brothers collection.

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Blues with a feeling.

GUILD GUITARS: MADE TO BE PLAYED!

Hank B. Marvin of the Shadows, very early sixties. In my part of the world he started most of us off.

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The Beatles, The Band, and The Grateful Dead

George, Robbie, and Jerry

Gil

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Where ever you go, there you are

1998 Ovation 1861 Standard Balladeer Natural
Taka - 2005 Squier '51 Black
Yume - 2006 Squier Strat Cherryburst
Houbi - 2008 Fender VG Strat Blizzard Pearl - won here
Fender Super Champ XD; Vox DA-5