What was your first electric guitar?

Philly_Q

For Christmas 1980 I received a Japanese Les Paul Custom copy with a bolt-on neck, non-functioning tuners and weird pickups which only looked like humbuckers.  It was called an "Arbiter" but there was actually no name at all on the headstock.  

It wasn't very good, but thanks nonetheless to my parents for buying it (together with a Laney Mighty Eight amp).

thermionic

One of these:

Mine was also missing the trem arm and spring. The switches had a tendency to cut out with heavy strumming - down was off, and I think I took it apart and swapped them round. Paid £25 for it in about 1982, sold it on about 18 months later for £20. The pickguard snapped when my bandmate stepped on my lead.

I'm surprised I stuck to it, considering how poor these things were. There's a couple on ebay now for £150! 

Lixarto

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v349/Lixarto/558159_10200425943507670_360511356_.jpg

PolarityMan

Mine was my dad's old guitar one of these:

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/MYEAAOSw4bVTnIez/$_35.JPG

Except it had been badly repainted with cheap emulsion.

zenzeypher

Aria stg003 in salmon pink. To be that naive again.

chillidoggy

Found it!

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee189/chillidoggy/Audition_zps1be31358.jpg

Audition Top Twenty. If you passed an audition with one of these, I'd be surprised. Even the cheap-shit guitars these days are miles better than this kind of firewood.

ESBlonde

Another from the Woolworths Audition Range, only mine was the semi (which should have given me the clue)!
Like this (not mine but the same as).


And proof that I gigged it back in the 70s. I replaced both single coil PUs with dodgy cheap Humbuckers but then cut an extra opening to but a single between them. Took out the spring and removed the arm of the unstable Vibrato system.

Phil_aka_Pip

@ESBlonde dig the bass player's flares, man

jonnyburgo

Skipped said:

A late fifties Roger semi-solid made by Wenzel Rossmeisl. Just like the one below but with 2 pickups. Wenzel's son was called Roger - hence the name. Roger became a designer at Rickenbacker. Guitar had a seriously huge neck which to me became "completely normal". This helped later on when I got interested in vintage Gibson guitars.......

Wenzel Rossmeisl

Wenzel Rossmeisl

Wenzel Rossmeisl

Wenzel Rossmeisl

There was a Roger Rickenbacker copy on gumtree last year for £300, I didnt go for it, possibly should have........

gubble

A black Hondo Les Paul Copy - which i bought from a mate for £15.

It was missing a control knob & a machine head.

It really was a terrible guitar, but I loved it and it got me playing.

 

crunchman

Black Kay Les Paul Copy.  Neck warped within 6 months.  Took it back and got it replaced.  Sold it before that neck could warp and just played acoustic for the next 4 or 5 years.

jonnyburgo

Bellycaster said:

My First Electric Guitar was a Satellite or some other cheap brand, got it for £30 in Dec 1986, it was kind of SG shaped and Cherry/Black burst, it had switches more akin to a Fender Jaguar though.

Never mind my first Guitar though, I think your "First Guitar" was actually my "Second Guitar".

Bloody Hell mate, I knew I had a Kay with a small "Steinberger" type body but I only had vague recollections of the actual shape of the body. I did recall all the toggles etc though.

Your photo has brought it all back to me and has indeed confirmed that "THAT" model was my second Guitar, it might even be "the same one".

I have to say that I didn't nick your Guitar though, I bought it from Moon Music (now defunct) in Sheffield circa 1987 for about £50 I think. I then sold it back and "upgraded" to a Marlin Sidewinder, which were about £90, later the same year. 

Marlin Sidewinders, what a pile of Shite they were, but they looked just like a Strat to a 15 year old.

The Kay was actually a good playable Guitar.

Would be interesting to know if you are from around Sheffield as it might have solved the mystery of where your Guitar ended up.

:-D

He is from Sheffield, small world innit

chillidoggy

One the same theme, my first amp and cab was a Woolies Audition. I could never understand why it sounded so shit, but I had to persevere as my old man wouldn't buy me a better one. The amp clipped onto the cab below with a couple of over-centre catches. Not long after I bought it, I'd strapped it to the carrier on my pushbike to go to my mate's house but it fell off going down the high street and a bus ran it over. The old man clouted me when I got back home, he thought I'd done it deliberately.

 http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee189/chillidoggy/009_2_zps84aed2a8.jpg

 

 

lasermonkey

A Kawai S170, which I still have. The neck is like a lump of 4x2, but it sounds great.

ICBM

Skipped said:

A late fifties Roger semi-solid made by Wenzel Rossmeisl. Just like the one below but with 2 pickups. Wenzel's son was called Roger - hence the name. Roger became a designer at Rickenbacker. Guitar had a seriously huge neck which to me became "completely normal". This helped later on when I got interested in vintage Gibson guitars.......

Wenzel Rossmeisl

Wenzel Rossmeisl

Wenzel Rossmeisl

Wenzel Rossmeisl

Really? I would have thought it was about the same size as half a pencil, going by the harmonica behind it.

Snap

Bellycaster said:

My First Electric Guitar was a Satellite or some other cheap brand, got it for £30 in Dec 1986, it was kind of SG shaped and Cherry/Black burst, it had switches more akin to a Fender Jaguar though.

Never mind my first Guitar though, I think your "First Guitar" was actually my "Second Guitar".

Bloody Hell mate, I knew I had a Kay with a small "Steinberger" type body but I only had vague recollections of the actual shape of the body. I did recall all the toggles etc though.

Your photo has brought it all back to me and has indeed confirmed that "THAT" model was my second Guitar, it might even be "the same one".

I have to say that I didn't nick your Guitar though, I bought it from Moon Music (now defunct) in Sheffield circa 1987 for about £50 I think. I then sold it back and "upgraded" to a Marlin Sidewinder, which were about £90, later the same year. 

Marlin Sidewinders, what a pile of Shite they were, but they looked just like a Strat to a 15 year old.

The Kay was actually a good playable Guitar.

Would be interesting to know if you are from around Sheffield as it might have solved the mystery of where your Guitar ended up.

:-D

that's funny! Yeah, it was a good guitar, I loved it, it was powerful too, and as I remember, sounded good. Mate, I moved here in 93, I'm originally from Blackburn. Bought the guitar from ED Brown's. It got nicked whilst I was at university in Newcastle. Some Geordie tike probably chucked in a skip or sold it for weed. Shame. I muchly enjoyed carrying it over my back, in the case (llooked like a shotgun) into the pub after band practice. I really did think I was rock n roll personified. What with me winklepickers and spiky goth mullet, kin ell I was convinved I was in the Cult.

littlegreenman

thermionic said:

One of these:

Mine was also missing the trem arm and spring. The switches had a tendency to cut out with heavy strumming - down was off, and I think I took it apart and swapped them round. Paid £25 for it in about 1982, sold it on about 18 months later for £20. The pickguard snapped when my bandmate stepped on my lead.

I'm surprised I stuck to it, considering how poor these things were. There's a couple on ebay now for £150! 

Yep, had exactly same one. Egg-slicer action, but I managed to learn a few songs on it. Awful thing but it started me off so can't hate on them too much.

boogieman

musicegbdf;419481" said:

Top twenty from Woolworths , in 1972. Horrible...

Me too. Vile things! Just had a look and mine was exactly the same as Chilli's. The slide switches for the pickups were a nightmare: who thought of putting them right where you were likely to knock them onto "silent" when you were playing? Cant remember what happened to mine, I know the tuners were completely knackered by the time I got rid of it though.

Nunogilberto

Phil_aka_Pip;419577" said:

Nunogilberto said:

Encore Strat





Do they ever play in tune?

Mine always did - until I started messing with the saddles and trem!

chillidoggy

boogieman said:

musicegbdf;419481" said:

Top twenty from Woolworths , in 1972. Horrible...

The slide switches for the pickups were a nightmare: who thought of putting them right where you were likely to knock them onto "silent" when you were playing?

Probably the same bloke that put the Strat volume control in the way!