WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST GUITAR / AMP combo and at what age?

shredmaster · #1 09-04-2002, 02:13 AM

i got my first electric guitar when i was 15. it was a red fender copy with white pickguard....made by HONDO. remember them? it looked really cool and i had to have it. i got ripped off by the music store and my dad returned it....cuz i got ripped off. i had my mom then order the white fender copy with black pickguard out of the sear's catalog. that one was made by CORT. $100

the amp was a 50 watt amp.... a GORILLA amp. remember those? for GAIN it had TUBE CRUNCH with no tubes. little gorilla head logo. it had better "tone" than most of the cheap amps. that was $150.

i paid for this with MY OWN MONEY. i still remember standing in front of that gorilla amp thinking..... oh my God...i'm spending $250. what am i doing...this is a lot of money.....

fast forward to the future..... jem guitars, boogie amps, studio gear, mixers, DAT machines, hehehehe......DEBT! i wish i could be 15 again.

wheresthebeef · #2 09-04-2002, 02:48 AM

mine was a red and black yamaha se112 and a fender bullet reverb amp (32 watts). The yamaha was given to me, and the amp bought by my dad. That was when i was nine. When i was 13, i got a boss gx-700, which through time lead to a gibson explorer, washburn dime, ibanez universe, and a large amp. If i ever get another guitar it'll be a vwh, or a double neck bich.

nuno · #3 09-04-2002, 03:59 AM

age: 13
guitar: (my bro's) Ibanez Roadstar RS530BK
combo: (my bro's) Peavey Bandit 75 (75w)

wallopwallop · #4 09-04-2002, 05:13 AM

Guitar: Tanglewood Strat copy in sunburst.
Amp: 15w Squier Combo.

The guitar played OK after I had it all set up for me. The amp on the other hand sounded like a wasp in a jam jar!! Iwas 13 years old.

Scoff X · #5 09-04-2002, 05:20 AM

14 I think
Guitar: Some Hondo jackson looking thing. It had individual pickup switches..weird
Amp: Same Gorilla amp as mentioned above. Hey, it was good for what I needed.

raijin · #6 09-04-2002, 05:51 AM

My first guitar was when I was 17. It was a cheap black Fernandes guitar with early Jem style monkey grip (yeah, really). I didn't know Vai at the time but after getting into his music, I changed the pots to flourescent green and bought a green Ibanez strap so that it looked sorta like a DBK.

- raijin

dex · #7 09-04-2002, 06:57 AM

My dad bought me an ESP strat looking like guitar.
It had no scratchplate, two covered humbuckers looking like EMG's, but definitely not original EMG's.
It was a string through body and had a fixed bridge.
The body was a strat shape but with R series like edges.
That was about 12 years ago and I was 16 at the time.
I remember that the guitar was around $1000 at the time and my mom was totally against my dad buying it for me.
My first amp was a Kustom 10W amp and had a great tone with the gain knob all the way to MAX.

I still have both these at my folks house and I played them a couple months ago when I went to visit them.

Hammerfan · #8 09-04-2002, 07:04 AM

I'm a very late starter compared to you guys. I was 34 when I got my first electric.
It was a red Squire Strat with portable Mini-Marshall stack practise amp.
The amp broke so I bought a proper Marshall VS15 amp. I've still got the Squire but it's been put away and I never play it..

JESTER700 · #9 09-04-2002, 07:12 AM

I was 14. White 1967 Fender Mustang & Rickenbacker amp.

Two hands31 · #10 09-04-2002, 07:14 AM

Well, let's see. I got the '97 "Strat Pack". So it's a Squire Strat, and S-10 (10-watt) amp. Then I got a Korg AX-1G. Then a DiMarzio Super Distortion for my Strat. Then eventually my Flextone II.

Polaris20 · #11 09-04-2002, 07:20 AM

Washburn H-S-S strat copy, with a Fender M80 that I still have.

BeastofLove · #12 09-04-2002, 08:17 AM

I was either 15 or 16...
The first guitar was a black Lotus locking-trem strat copy. Never took lessons or anything, so the locking trem & tuning were really a headache. Very shortly after getting the Lotus, I returned it for a traditional trem Headway HE-201 (in black, of course). Much easier to tune.
I didn't have an amp for a long time, and plugged into a borrowed distortion pedal which plugged into the AUX IN on my Panasonic boom-box.

Good times...

-Ben

MidnightFlamed · #13 09-04-2002, 09:27 AM

I would have been 14 when I got a cheap Strat and a Dean Markley 1x12. Still have both, though I haven't played on either in years. As cheap as it was, I bet if I put some work into setting up that Strat and put some decent pickups in it, it'd be a real great playing guitar. I remember hoping I wouldn't give up guitar because I had sold my saxophone (at an extreme loss) to get it. Even after all these years I still feel a little guilty at hawking that saxophone my parents bought for me when I was 11.

jem7vwh · #14 09-04-2002, 09:57 AM

mine was a red strat copy called a Sebring Terminator. It was red with black pickguard and three EMG Select pickups. S-S-H config.

First amp was a 15 watt Gorilla.

Man that sucked. The only way to get any crunch out of it was to turn the "TUBE STACK" control to 10 and the volume to 1.

Gresh · #15 09-04-2002, 11:05 AM

Age 13 I think:

Peavey T-60, maple neck, two buckers, this guitar was heavy as lead. The amp I had was a peavey 20watt deal, like an 8in speaker or something. It blew. THe guitar played surprisingly well.

Now it's all Ibanez seven strings, line 6, TC Electronics and Boogies...times have changed.