What was your first acoustic guitar??

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Permalink Reply by Larry Carr on January 10, 2011 at 6:39pm

Epiphone ft-140 sunburst. Bolt on neck.

Loved it. Wish i still had that one.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Yates on January 24, 2011 at 3:27pm

I learned my first chords on my brother's Hofner arch top in the late '50s. 

My first guitar, bought second hand, on time, for $75 Cdn circa 1960, was a Goya M-26, a maple sunburst dreadnought (The Levin Company called them Goliaths) made in Gothenburg Sweden.  I played this for a few years and in 1962, my brother and I chipped in $75 from me and $50 from him, to buy a 1958 Gibson J-50.  Soon after the action on the Goya started to bother me, so I sold it.  I was always sorry that I did that, but about 6 or 7 years ago I found another 1958 Goya M-26 and it's now mine...a bit more than $75, but still reasonable. I've owned a number of guitars since, but I still love the Goya.

My brother still owns the J-50 and it's a great guitar.

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Permalink Reply by Tim Werner on February 1, 2011 at 9:30pm

My first was a Washburn mahogany acoustic. Don't know model, but still have it. Current favorites in collection are Martin hd28 and Taylor 814ce. But my daughter has an inexpensive but fun to play Ibanez that I also like from time to time.

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Permalink Reply by Rev. Matt Fontana on March 22, 2011 at 6:20pm

My first guitar was a Crescent which bears another connotation of being "a lesson learned" haha!

In 2007, very close to Christmas time, I decided "why not" when it came to taking up guitar after a friend asked me if I'd ever thought about playing a few months before that. The guitar cost a total of $30 (yes that includes s&h) and I remember it very well. When I finished tuning "Red", when I tried to play a G chord, the 6th string on the 3rd fret was sharp; then I realized after getting a Jasmine S34c NEX Cutaway, that I was not playing an acoustic-it was a classical guitar. That guitar was sold for $20.

My first real acoustic guitar which I still have is a Jasmine Mini-Jumbo. This is the guitar that I forced myself to sit down and practice on until I broke through by easily learning to play Jesus Messiah by Chris Tomlin. The need to have an instrument ready for a sound system caused me to get a Black Ovation Celebrity CC44, followed by an Alvarez RD20U Dreadnought and then, my utmost favorite, an Epiphone AJ-100 with a Fishman Rare Earth Soundhole Pickup installed later on. Now no other guitar goes to church with me (especially this coming Sunday with a full rock worship list) except "Ed"!

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Permalink Reply by Rev. Matt Fontana on March 31, 2011 at 12:57pm

Oh yeah I forgot to mention this: After referring to tips on what to do when it came to changing strings, I actually found out that Red ("A Lesson Learned) was actually a classical. So Red got classical strings applied. Better action? Of course not!. Easier to play with bad action? Thankfully yes! But even after doing that, Red was still a house decoration. I mean hey, what can I say I had my Ovation and got my Jasmine adjusted plus I now have an Alvarez and an Epiphone! But now, Red has now found a new home of another grateful guitar player and only when my Epiphone needs servicing does the Ovation (for church) or the Alvarez (only when it's about just making noise with that one) even make it out of the house!

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Permalink Reply by Rev. Matt Fontana on January 17, 2012 at 6:57pm

Hey everyone, just an update on what I now play. I still have the Ovation and pleasantly, to my surprise, that guitar and the Alvarez has opened up-I've now made that my Drop-D guitar for songs I can play for praise and worship arranged accordingly. The Epiphone now has an L.R. Baggs undersaddle pickup which works a whole lot better than the Fishman Rare Earth Undersaddle Pickup that used to be in there (waaaaaaaaaay too many problems). Joining the family since the summer of last year is Felton, a black Fender CD-110. Now there are three guitars that I love to play. But there's one rule: since I'm keeping my acoustic guitar count to four, one guitar had to go. Jake, the Jasmine S4C NEX cutaway mini-jumbo guitar which had bad action to begin with, then got adjusted, was donated to a local church where a lot of people down there rock on the axe for praise and worship. So nothing new for now, except that Al, the Alvarez, will soon be getting an L.R. Baggs himself so all of my guitars will have plug in capability.

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Permalink Reply by Rev. Matt Fontana on August 22, 2012 at 1:19pm

Ok a guitar update: I sold my Ovation to my brother (well actually to my younger nephew) and I'm still thinking of another jumbo or an Alvarez Baritone.

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Permalink Reply by Keith on March 27, 2011 at 3:37am

My father brought home this extremely cheap acoustic with metal strings and asked me if I thought I would like to play! It was impossible to tune and to this day I can't remember the make or even if it was labelled. But I played it and played it until I realized that it was really unplayable! It did help me get started however and after these early epiphanies I finally saved my $$ and got myself a Standel/Harptone for $175 (see Eric Sutton's page for info on these rare guitars). Today I play a Taylor K-10 and there's no looking back.

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Permalink Reply by AJT on March 30, 2011 at 7:15am

I vaguely remember mine being a guitar my dad got for me when I was about 10 from Sears.  I'm not even sure what the model was but all I remember is the action was so high that my fingers suffered constantly from practicing on it.  Later on as I saved all my money from mowing lawns and paper routes I finally sprung for an Alvarez acoustic that was a bit higher in quality than what I started on..Of course as life went on and my income increased I started investing in better guitars and had Ovations, Gibsons & a Martin 12 string.  But now I have 3 Taylors....my favorite being the GS 8.  But I fondly recall those days of strumming that Sears acoustic guitar practicing to my Mel Bay books...

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Permalink Reply by Tony John on April 5, 2011 at 8:13am

I can't remember the very first but we had a couple of Harmony steel strings, one flat-top, one arch-top that had a split across the top that I learned the basics on. I then got a Vox 6str which was actually a nice guitar. Then a Vox 12str; a Danelectro 12str electric (teardrop) Man, I wish I still had that one.

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Permalink Reply by David Estrem on April 6, 2011 at 5:47pm

After mid-late 1950's ukes and bari-ukes I picked up a Goya classical in summer '62 before joining a campus folk group.

Then some upgrading to various classicals (a Gibson) for a few years before I settled into steel 6 and 12 strings and still have my first Martin D-28.

It's been a fairly storied progress of guitars for the next 40-some years but this thread is about "the first" so I'll quit.

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Permalink Reply by FloridaGull on January 15, 2012 at 9:57am

A Penco dreadnought bought for $250 in 1980 - I had no knowledge then, and have no knowledge now, of the nut width, model number, what it was made of, or even if it had a solid top...although I think it had at least a solid top....I hope so for $250 in 1980...

Very loud, very bassy - had it until my divorce from my first wife in 1998 - disappeared somewhere...

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