November 2009 \ Gigging & Recording \ Hey, You Can't Do That \ Gear Addiction Recovery, Step 1: Your First Guitar

Gear Addiction Recovery, Step 1: Your First Guitar

Steve Ouimette

Steve recounts his first guitar, a Seville Les Paul copy, and the feelings that went along with it.
Premier Guitar November 2009
I’ve been getting sentimental lately. It could be the change of seasons, but I’m going to call it the first step in gear addiction recovery (see last month’s column). Either way, it seems the memories of my first guitar have been on my mind quite a bit these days and that motivated me to dig a little deeper to find out why.

Do you recall your first guitar? Way back before you knew anything about flametops, PAFs, mojo, and all the other G.A.S.-inducing details we discuss, there was just the guitar. Maybe you had your heart set on a Les Paul or a Strat. Depending on when you grew up it could have been one of those fluorescent colored, pointy-headstock thingies that got you all hopped up about being a rock star. Whatever it was there was innocence to it all, and that my friend is what this article is all about: rediscovering your love of the instrument.

While my first real guitar was a 1980-81 Gibson “The SG,” before that I had another guitar…a Seville Les Paul copy. It was a cheap knock-off with a bolt-on neck, but that guitar meant everything to me. Allow me to share my story… it might even sound similar to your own.

By the time I was 12 all I could think about was playing the guitar. My buddy had rented one and was taking lessons, so any chance I got I’d hang out at his place and watch him play through his Mel Bay Book #1 lessons. Lessons with compelling names like “E-nuff” and “E-string boogie.” It didn’t sound like KISS, but at least there was some semblance of music being made on that first string (he never made it to the B string). It drove me crazy not having my own guitar. I started saving my paper route money so one day I could take over all six strings. Maybe my buddy would even cough up the book since he wasn’t using it anyway.

Going to the music store was like going to Mecca for any young, aspiring guitarist. The best store we had (Mau’s Music) was probably a half hour away and to this day I can vividly recall the anticipation of a weekend trek to scope out what I’d be spending my hard-earned paper route money on. My heart was set on a Les Paul because of Ace Frehley, and this store had a mile of them—hung up, row by row, in every color and style.

Interspersed with the real Gibsons were the knock-off brands that to my untrained eye were basically the same guitar. This particular store carried the Memphis and Seville brands, and somehow the way the sales dude jammed out “Cat Scratch Fever” sold me on the wine red, bolt-on Seville Les Paul copy. It could have been his long hair and cool jeans, or just the fact that he was telling me with these riffs that I too could rock for $99. By the way, the real deal Les Pauls were way out of my league at $600, so I just let it go and wondered why the toggle switch was labeled Rhythm and Treble instead of Rhythm and Lead. There were rhythm guitarists and lead guitarists but I’d never seen a treble guitarist before. I’d have to figure that out later because the Gibsons said the same thing…hmm.

$215 later I had my Seville Les Paul, Rock Amplifier Company Petros I 1x10 combo amp (with a dedicated distortion knob!) and a Lifeline 10’ straight cable. Life was good. I never had the guitar set up professionally, but I came home after school every day and played and played and played. I dug into records and began learning to transcribe when my teacher didn’t want to waste my lessons by teaching me other people’s songs. I didn’t have a tuner so I used my dad’s pitch pipe and a tuning fork for the first five years as a player.

Living the life of a pre-internet guitarist also meant that information didn’t come as easy. In fact, aside from my Guitar Player subscription, the only way to find out about new gear was if a buddy picked something up or I got to go back to Mau’s Music or Custom Music to check out what was going on. Ignorance was bliss and all that mattered was getting better on the instrument and getting together with friends to jam and trade licks. It wasn’t until I broke my first string that it dawned on me that you needed to change strings on the guitar at all.

So why do I point this all out, and what does it have to do with recovering from G.A.S.? Simple. Before any of us had the means to support our habits, it was the love of the instrument and our desire to excel (or meet girls) that propelled us forward. We appreciated everything we had, even if we wanted more. There was real sentimentality connected to that first guitar.

Take a minute to look back on your first one and the story behind it. You probably remember your first guitar very clearly, even if it wasn’t a ’59 Burst. And if your first guitar was a ’59 Burst, please don’t tell me about when you traded it for one of those fluorescent-colored, pointy-headstock thingies…that would kill me. For the rest of you, please share. It’s cathartic and the first step in your recovery.

     

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Comments

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Colin
on 02/06/2012 		My first guitar was my dad's 1959 Telecaster. For real! I couldn't tune it, and I played Cinderella tunes with my friends in the garage. Luckily he still has it, but not after we had it modified with a rear-loading bridge. The thought in the day was "no one wants the top loading bridge! It doesn't sustain!" Tell this to Jim Campilongo. My second guitar (and really my own) was an Ibanez Axstar shaped like shark fins. I bought it for $200. It didn't satisfy. After that was a guitar I used and modified for years, a Chandler strat copy. I still have a soft spot for Chandlers of the more traditional variety.
Tone
on 01/12/2010 		What a great topic. My first "real" guitar, the one I fell in love with was a no-name SG copy. A dark wine color, single coil (fake mini humbucker), fat neck (never needed an adjustment) beauty. I can still smell that guitar. Sweet and woody. My Mom bought it for 60 bucks with no case at Blogetts Music on Bridge st (gone now) and changed my life forever.

I played that old guitar for years. It was my only electric. I could make that honey sing. It didn't matter that my friends had Strats and Gibsons, I could get every sound I needed from that guitar and my Big Muff, Dyna-comp, Phase 90, Crybaby, and Fender tube reverb (Yeah I had one... $25). I added a kill switch and a phase reversal switch and went to town.

I probably own 12 electrics now and I get your point. Those were magical times. Maybe I buy stuff hoping to rekindle the feeling I got from playing that guitar way to late on a school night, trying to learn to play like George Benson and Jimi Hendrix.
Kenn P
on 01/11/2010 		Ah, yes! My first guitar was a $35 no name, single pickup sunburst electric that my dad bought from Gimbel's department store in 1965 (in Philly, Gimbel's was akin to Macy's...but it's gone now). It had 'kind of a' Strat shape, but not exactly...it was more like what you would see from Costco now. I had started taking guitar lessons four years earlier in '61 but quit and moved to drum lessons in '63, just before The Beatles hit big in the U.S.A. My dad thought it would be a good idea to start up the guitar again and be a 'double major', so to speak (he was a musician and thought that when I grew up, I'd get more work as a multi-instrumentalist). So, he bought me my first electric guitar for Christmas 1965 and I resumed guitar lessons, along with drum lessons. When I think back on that day, I can still experience the feeling I got when I first unwrapped that funny triangular cardboard box and removed what would be the first of long list of guitar acquisitions (79 to date). Even at that young age, I was blessed with an 'ear for music' and could play songs with little trouble. The first song I learned on that guitar was 'Day Tripper' and I nailed it! Other guitar guys in the neighborhood (older than me) wanted to learn it. I think that's when my teaching career really started! Now here I am at 57 years old, still buying (and selling) guitars and basses, teaching, gigging...but the memory of the way I felt with my first guitar is still fresh and will never be duplicated!
Bob Y.
on 01/08/2010 		1965...age 8...A beautiful Japanese electric with the "Winston" brand on it. 1 single coil pup, heavy chromed pickgaurd. 1972, Alice Cooper blew me away and I stripped her down and painted her black. Totally ruined it, but it's still with me, and I'll get it back together someday...
Dan Marois
on 12/03/2009 		I wrote my comment before reading all these stories and I shouldn't have. Those are great stories everybody. Thanks for sharing.
Dan Marois
on 12/03/2009 		My first guitar was a no-name acoustic that I got as a 14th birthday present back in 1966. The next year I got my first electric; a strat-style Kent with three pickups and the cliched 1-inch-high action. My first real guitar came in 1984 when I bought an Ibanez Roadstar II RS520. Still have it and it's still one of my favorites.
CL in N.H.
on 12/01/2009 		Great story btw.Thanks.
My very first guitar was a right handed 1950's-60's era cowboy style acoustic guitar with big violin F holes in it and a crazy wobbly tailpeice.I think it was a SEARS BEST or KAY or something but it looked just like the one on the cover of the old Mel Bay book(which was dry rotting in the case when I got my hands on it).It had a raised pick guard like an LP does and since I was a lefty I had to restring it myself. THe action was at least 3/4 of an inch off of the fretboard most of the way down but I didnt care or know that this was wrong.I was about 12 at the time. I had no amp or decent microphones but I wanted to crank it up anyway, and since it was acoustic I got these giant,old gray headphones from my grandmother's old hi-fi stereo and clamped them on the body.They were these suction cuppish kind that were so tight on your head that you thought your skull would implode.ANyway once I figured out that plugging it into my stereo and inserting a cassette tape in and pushing record, I could play it through my stereo speakers.I also could get some really god awful feedback sometimes.THis is also how I did my first "multitracked" recording at around age 13 with this caveman ping pong method.
Owning this old cowboy thang with the 3/4 inch action made me really apreciate any other P.O.S. guitar I came across for the next 25+ years.
Peter
on 11/16/2009 		My 1st guitar wasn't even my guitar. My older brother had a cheap nylon stringer that I would borrow, I soon became better that him so he denied me access. I used it anyway when he wasn't home. This was the closest I came to mocking the behavior of an addict. I had to get my hands on it to address my jones. 35 years later, a genuine '52 gold-top Les Paul, and '59 blonde National Bel-Air(body made by Gibson), I still wonder what became of my 1st girl, that illegitimate relationship affair that started me down this road.
Darryl Moffett
on 11/16/2009 		My first guitar was when I turned 15 and my Dad just returned from England, he was in the USAF. He had brought me a classical guitar that he bought in Seville Spain. Of course I thought that it was dumb that it had nylon strings so I changed them to steel strings. Ouch, the action on that neck was so high and those steel strings nearly cut into my fingers. The neck had to be 2" wide. I wanted to be a rock star so I went out and bought a Lafayette Electronics Guitar. It was a 6 string, double cutaway arch top. Sunburst color with trem bar. Dual pickup and three way switch. I was in love. I had a small 10 watt amp with 8" speaker. I could rock out now. I learn several songs and to read some notation. My friends and I started a garage band and played in the Base Youth Center from time to time. Then I discovered girls and chasing them was more fun. I put down the guitar, sold the amp and didn't pick it up again for many years. I now have a Les Paul, Ibanez Bass, Tocoma dreadnaught and a Vox amp. The one guitar I never got but always wanted was a Fender Strat. Why I never bought one I'm not sure. It is the next purchase for sure. Thanks for sharing your story with us.
Mike W.
on 11/16/2009 		Here's a different angle... I started out on accordian at age six, but at least from that I learned to read sheet music (treble clef only, and only in the key of C). Shortly thereafter, I switched to drums... so I've been a drummer for over 40 years. About 20 years ago I got really interested in guitar effects and amps, and could hold my own in any conversation with my guitarist buddies on gear. That interest has never waned. Back in those days, given my experience playing out and recording, I became able to shut my eyes and hear which pickup position on which brand and model of guitar was playing through which kind of amp (I know you guitarists who've been playing a while can do this too).

Fast forward to a few years ago... My middle child (who is almost 20 now) began playing guitar about eight years ago, starting out on acoustic (which he bought himself, a used Yamaha with a high action). When he turned 16, I bought him a NOS discontinued Ibanez SA420X, the one with the piezo Wilkinson-style vibrato bridge. Of course, I could mess with it anytime he wasn't playing it! At the same time, I picked up a Korg AX10G "everything" pedal to go with it, so he could have electric guitar amp models available through his Behringer acoustic amp.

Fast forward again to now, and he's had diMarzio FRED and Joe pickups installed in the SA, he's bought himself a mint condition Ibanez RX7420 7-string, in which he's had Bare Knuckle Nailbombs installed, and even more recently, he ordered and received an Agile 8-string fixed bridge with stock pickups (for now). Since he's into "chugging" with the 7- and 8-strings through his new GenzBenz El Diablo 100W head, the "poor" SA gets no "love"... so I'm learning to play "Black Magic Woman" on it right now (I'm 52; I gotta start somewhere).

When middle child eventually moves away with his "herd," I do have an alternative... I picked up a very used 1986 Ibanez Roadst



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