I had a friend in high school who played guitar, and when I got my first job and my first paycheck, he convinced me to buy a bass so we could start a band .... i bought one of those silvertone package deals with the bass and amp.... after a few months of learning bass lines to songs my friend knew, i decided i needed more strings... traded the bass in for this no name, no serial number partscaster you see in my avatar picture. still have it and love it today, ten years later.....
but it's always just been something for my own amusement, i don't imagine i'll be playing in front of anyone ... ever.

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~Dan

A bit over a year ago I got me a Squier starter pack and went from there.

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"Music is what feelings sound like"

Feb. 9,1964, 4 guys from Liverpool-especially the two guitarists-inspired me to take up guitar and become a musician.My birthday was the next month and I had to have a guitar and nothing else would do.I got the guitar-a hand me down from my uncle-it had a neck like a fence post,frets with edges like stilletto blades and 3/4 " action and strings like a ship's mooring cables. Lucky for me,the horrible playability worked to my advantage and my fingers became incredibly strong and my finger tips got 1/4" thick callouses. When I finally got an electric guitar,my playing took off with the new found digital freedom and I left the guys who started playing when I did,choking on my dust.

When I first heard Jimi is when my playing moved into a whole new realm and I started practicing in earnest-often 10 or more hours a day.Everywhere I went I took a guitar with me,I just couldn't be without it,and became a bona fide guitar freak and I still am.

Edit:I made a boo boo,instead of putting the Beatles Ed Sullivan debut as Feb. 9 I put down Feb. 4.I must be over-tired,time to toddle off to bed.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Fun fact: February 4th is the day the Civil War started (according to my history book), and a friend's birthday.

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

The Beatles started my interest in guitar, also. I was just 8 at the time. Then British Invasion began, then the girls went crazy for the Monkees and I wanted them to be crazy for me (love Louie Shelton's tele work), then Cream and Jimi. I got my first guitar and a Mel Bay chord encyclopedia at 12. My first electric came a little later and my first Fender at 15. The rest is history . . . just like my rock 'n' roll guitar god dreams.

Began playing the piano around 11 and a classical guitar seemed much more portable.
As far as I can remember, 3 - 4 years old, classical music was always present...
I took a slight detour once the 60's bands my parents listened to grabbed me by the throat and refused to let go. Steppenwolf, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Alexis Corner, John Mayall
Three Dog Night, Iron Butterfly.
From there it just led to discovering unknown or rather obscure bands while in High School.
Mostly british blues bands, Savoy Brown, Climax Blues Band. A long Musical journey, which allowed me to not dismiss any type of music without a good listen.

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

Well, I can't honestly say that I am a guitar player... yet.

I was always facinated by it, but other interests and Life in general got in the way.

Almost 4 months ago, for a significant anniversary, my wonderful wife, who's heard me tell of my desire to learn to play for years, marched me down to the local guitar store where she had the salesman show me two guitars she had picked out: An Eric Johnson Signature and the FSR Ltd. Ed. Am. Vtg. '57 Stratocaster. She told me to take my pick.

She already knew that most of my Guitar Heroes (Jimi, EC, Townshend, Buddy Holly, Robt. Cray, Joe Walsh) all used Stratocasters, and a couple people in her ofc. have brothers who gig. These guys steered her to the selections she made.

After 4 months, I'm doing OK... about where I should be. I play everyday at least 2 hours and just the past few weeks has everything started to come together. Starting 1-on-1 lessons next week and hope to advance at a little swifter pace.

But, despite sore fingers, wrist, tendons and wondering how on earth you guys make all those wonderful sounds, I'm loving every minute of it.

I have some semi-serious aspirations to find some guys for a garage band and even some open-mike nights, though that's all still over the horizon.

cheers!

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'11 FSR Am. Vtg. Ltd. Ed. CAR '57 Stratocaster (SN# LE02639)
'14 American Deluxe Ash Stratocaster
'12 Telebration Empress Telecaster
'99 Deluxe Nashville Telecaster
'12 FSR Telecaster HH
'10 Heritage H-535
'99 Martin DC-1E
'13 Lanikai Tenor Ukulele

Here's what got me started:

Back in 1976 a my best friend's older brother was in a local garage band. I saw this guitar and had to have it. It's a Univox "Lucy" (the body was Lucite). I think I paid him $100.00 for it, a LOT of coin in rural Georgia at the time.

How was I to know a guitar shouldn't weigh 20 pounds?

After loving music my entire life, but growing up in the 'burbs during the time of '80s hair metal and FM pop music (nothing but Michael Jackson, Sheena E, and the pop phase of Prince), and "rap" and Boyz II Men (and nothing else, at all) on the radio, while being a "normal kid" with short hair who got good grades and thus thinking "that's not me" (long hair, spandex pants, eye makeup on a man) and never even thinking about learning to play guitar and with no musical influence from my parents (all they did was tell me to get good grades so I could go to college and be an accountant or lawyer), at the age of 35 I found myself at a Joan Jett concert. She was playing for about 300 people at a casino (sad).

During the middle of the concert the light went on in my head and I finally figured out that I, myself, could learn to play guitar too! So I literally formed the plan in the middle of that concert to buy myself and my girlfriend an electric guitar, which I did. (Her birthday was coming up. She got an electric guitar. Quite a good, surprising gift.) She didn't get much into it, but I've been learning as fast as I can trying to make up for lost time (I'm upset with myself that I didn't start when I was 15 or 18 or 22 or 28 or 31 or 33 years old) in the couple of years since then.

I took 4 lessons with a real teacher and since then have been learning from youtube, books, and simply practice and ear training, playing along with my favorite records. I need to find time to get some more live lessons, just to get his opinion on what I should be practicing. Learn more songs or get *really* perfect and mistake free with what I already know?

Think of it this way, you could be Keith Richards age ( no Close Ups ) and learn to play then ...

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

Similar story to guitslinger. Heard the Beatles, Stones and others. Got a guitar at the next xmas and started guitar lessons. Next year got cheapo electric guitar and amp, ditched the teacher, learned bar chords and had a band when I was 14, and some paying gigs. I would sit in on clambakes in Southern NJ Pine Barrens when my family camped for the entire Summer. By 16 I had switched to bass andwas playing different "dances" at churches and other venues about once a month. I've played in studios with Ace Frehley, Peter Tork (we played Monkee songs) and sat in at an open mike with Ian Paice on drums. We played "Sea Cruise"
After a 15 year hiatus I am working my way back into the scene.

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I have some Fender gear.
(Telecaster, Jaguar, Villager 12 String. Mustang l, Bronco, SCX2, Rumble 350, HRDIII, Rumble 2x8 Neo Cab)
http://www.reverbnation.com/modwiz

Similar to some of you guys. Early 60s, but my big thrill was folk. PP&M, Dylan, Mama and Pappas. Asked for a guitar for Christmas and got a ukulele! Next Christmas got a nylon string folk guitar (cheapie) and went to town! Memorized word for word, chord for chord most of the albums I liked. Ended up with a twelve string playing in a folk group in coffee houses and for protest rallies! What a great time to grow up! And the girls!
Didn't get my Strat till about 6 years ago and that led to a whole new beginning!!

Ahhh!

Gridlok

Well....in '58 I was 14 and had been studying piano for four years, mostly classical and standards. As artists like Buddy Holly, Gene Vincent, Chuck Berry, and Johnny Cash, [not to mention Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard] came to become new influences in music, I got myself a Harmony F-hole acoustic and a book on chords and there you go. I ultimately electrified that guitar using two DeArmond pickups. The next step up was a '60 Dano short horn. The '58 Strat followed when my bandmate and still long time friend acquired a '62 Jaguar. Don't ask about the Strat..I've already told that tale in these pages several time.

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"Another day in paradise!"

I was at a party and some guy started playing Needle and the Damage Done, and then Sugar Mountain, and then Old man and I thought "that sounds so cool, I'll bet I can do that". Went to a pawn shop and bought a used Suzuki for $55 (which I still have) and the rest is history. I now play almost every day at home and I am in the Church band and play each weekend. Playing guitar is a source of great joy and happiness for me.

Beaubs

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I Can't Explain

Never learned a musical instrument my whole life.
Bought myself a Strat for my 50th birthday (2 years ago).
Yeah, I'm addicted.