What first started the need for a guitar in your life?

[LtDave32]

Can any of you guys actually do this?

I tried it once and the #1 E string sliced open the top of my thumb like a veal cutlet. I bled like a stuck pig for three days.

ETA: This is such a cool thread. Love the stories. Keep 'em coming.

I used to do it on a Rickenbacker.

After 3 or 4 times around, I'd hit the bridge, and the Ric bridge was set on 4 little capscrews like legs.

I'd knock the bridge over, cut up my hand.

 

[brianbzed]

I was 8 years old and had just started the third grade at a new school. Two months before, my folks split up and my Mom and I moved to a new town.

I had no friends and I spent the morning before first bell crying. At lunch a kid with bright red hair was sitting on a picnic table playing a small classical guitar. He was singing a song about a guy named Sergeant Peppers and it made me laugh so I told him I liked it. He said thanks and asked if I know who The Beatles are. I said no.

That night my new friend made me a mixed tape of Sgt. Peppers on one side and the White Album on the other. Three months later my Mom got me the Sears classical guitar I'd asked for for Christmas.

No longer have that guitar, but I have the mixed tape around here somewhere.

great story! thanks!

 

[runningonempty]

long story full of drama but basically it’s always something i’ve been drawn to. i had an acoustic since 2005 that i couldn’t play to save my life. i’d take her out and clean her and look at her and strum the few basic chords i knew and then put her back in her case.

finally i got my shit together and seriously dove into learning last october. after several months figuring it out on a strat i got that acoustic back (another long story) in march and the day i took out that little case queen six string, accidentally smacked her into a closet handle (first scar), put on a backing track and made her sing …. yeah that was a good day. it was like “hahaha i can play you now”

played her today as a matter of fact. sometimes i wonder what she thinks about me now being able to play her after all this time.

 

[mgenet]

Can any of you guys actually do this?

I tried it once and the #1 E string sliced open the top of my thumb like a veal cutlet. I bled like a stuck pig for three days.

ETA: This is such a cool thread. Love the stories. Keep 'em coming.

 

[Steven]

I was too young to recall, when my mother (a musician) started hitting my baby hands on the piano. At around 4 she started me taking classical piano (of course at that age they didn't have me start off with classical). I took lessons from a teacher and things were strict. At 6 I was started on violin. At around 8 I was bought a Kay acoustic guitar with a big crack in it and action as high as a bridge. I started learning chords at that time. A year later I wanted to play rock guitar so I bought a Dan Electro convertible and univox tremolo amp from good family friends for $50. I continued expanding on what I had already learned, and started learning the blues scale. In my mid teens somehow I had enough money to buy a Les Paul Custom that I played through the Univox amp. Instruction coupled with a intense desire kept me playing for the remainder of my life. During my late teens on I kept purchasing guitars, basses and other instruments. I remained a multi-instrumentalist until present, and at 66 still can't refuse a new guitar or amp. During Jr. Highschool I acquired a Standel Super artist amp. I was playing in neighborhood bands from my teens until shortly afterwords when I was recruited into real rock bands with older musicians. I still sit in with bands on guitar, or bass, or keyboards and saxophone. Lived a musicians life remaining single as to not impede my musicianship. I'm still to young to get married (BSEG). Never desired to marry since I liked my freedom.

 

[Christosterone]

girls

 

[simon connor]

I played the clarinet in middle school and early high school. One day during my freshman year of HS I got stoned at break and then went to Band class. Blowing into the clarinet caused me to hyperventilate, fall out of my chair and pass out on the floor. Also I was stoned, of course. I ended up in the principal's office with him yelling into my face "What did you take - speed, acid, what was it?" That was the end of both my clarinet and school band careers. Soon after that my best friend was getting into playing guitar, and he taught me some stuff, and we would play together in the evenings for a couple years. My first guitar was a Memphis Strat with a Fender Super Champ amp (God, I wish I still had that amp.) After a while I sold the guitar and amp and got a Guild D25 acoustic, and thereafter played exclusively acoustic for about 10 years. I had a band in college that was a rock band, but all on acoustic instruments - what were we thinking? Who knows, but it was a great band, and very popular. When I graduated from college in 1987 my Mom gave me a new Gibson ES335 as a graduation present ($750 brand new!) I played that the first several of my adult "electric" years, and I still have it, although I hardly ever play it these days having (20 years later) gotten into Les Pauls. I also had a pretty nice Carvin CT6 for a while there but, well, Les Pauls got their hooks in me (it turns out the resale value of a Carvin is not good - I took a major hit on that one...) Now I pretty much play electric exclusively. I resumed taking lessons during the pandemic and that was a grace or something, as I have progressed more musically this year than in the 20 years prior. Mostly the lessons and playing a lot just gave me something to focus on other than what a big bummer everything was. Now I can't wait to get my electric band together again (although that is presenting a number of problems, it turns out.) Anyway, for me guitar has always been kind of a lifesaver: it gives me something to do that I love that is really, really intricate on a bunch of levels, it's kind of meditative, and I can do it with other people in the band format. I'm so grateful I found it, really.

 

[Jimmy The Snake]

I was almost 7 and I saw The Beatles on Ed Sullivan and the next day I made a guitar out of cardboard with markers and been rocking ever since. Like Jeff Beck said got hooked by that jangly music

 

[roadbluff]

I have always been a radio person.
The most special times for me as a 10 or 11 year old was very late at night into the wee morning hours.
I had a battery powered transistor radio that was most likely made in Japan.
Laying in the bed slowly turning the dial, picking up signals from across America. Talk, music, news...and then I heard a song that made me want to learn how to play guitar. Stairway To Heaven.
It just hit me as a child in 1975 or 76 and I was on my quest to get a guitar and learn. I'm still on that quest, still trying to learn. It has been a most enjoyable hobby. I have spent a lot of time and money, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
I had a record player and Elvis, The Beatles, and all kinds of 50s and 60s rock, rhythm and blues that I loved.
But something about Stairway hit me and I was on my way. I want to say thanks to Jimmy Page.

 

[Wise Guy]

When I was 13 I auditioned for a garage band as the singer and failed miserably thinking it would be easy. However, I was so enamored with the sounds coming out of the guitarists amplifier that when he went upstairs to take a break, I picked up his guitar, strapped it on and dropped it breaking the neck.
From that point on I knew which instrument I wanted. Oh and my parents bought the kid a new guitar for my clumsiness. And they bought me a Series 10 super Strat copy for Christmas that year 30 years ago. The odd thing was, even before picking up the guitar, I always loved the looks and sound of the Les Paul(before I even knew what it was). So that was my personal acquisition goal.

 

[the_lawyer]

This guy:

....and I already had a headband (from my skiing carreer), so I needed just a guitar.

 

[stevie777]

I was 5, maybe 6 years old. I was arguing with my older sister over who got to play my dad's old beat-up Roy Rodgers and Tonto Kay acoustic.
My sister had her hands firmly on the neck, I had my smaller, but strong hands pulling at the edge of the soundhole.

I don't remember how long we were pulling and pushing and no doubt screaming at each other. All I do remember is what happened next.

Throwing his newspaper to the floor, my father jumps up off the chair, lunges towards us with a furious look about him and snatches at said guitar whilst screaming something like, "Guitar. I'll give you £#@ing guitar"... He proceeds to Rip said guitar from both of us and smash it off the hard concrete carpeted floor like a demented Scottish and white Hendrix

I think it was my first recollection of my father being a potential f#@*ng psychopath and not really cut out for this parenting lark.

It also may have been at that point that I subconsciously thought to myself, hey, I gotta get me another one of these stringed wonders. They have the ability to make grown humans lose their shit big time. The possibilities are endless.

Total rock and roll moment. My father was smashing guitars (to an audience of 2) way before it became fashionable to do so.

Funny. I hate even putting a scratch in one. Maybe need to ask my therapist about the connection between the two.

 

[stevie777]

When I was 13 I auditioned for a garage band as the singer and failed miserably thinking it would be easy. However, I was so enamored with the sounds coming out of the guitarists amplifier that when he went upstairs to take a break, I picked up his guitar, strapped it on and dropped it breaking the neck.
From that point on I knew which instrument I wanted. Oh and my parents bought the kid a new guitar for my clumsiness. And they bought me a Series 10 super Strat copy for Christmas that year 30 years ago. The odd thing was, even before picking up the guitar, I always loved the looks and sound of the Les Paul(before I even knew what it was). So that was my personal acquisition goal.

oooft.

 

[wjlim22]

I got in a really bad fight in high school. Cops told my parents that the guy I fought was in a gang and they should not let me out of the house all summer because the gang might look for me. The only place I was allowed to go was to work at a cell phone and pager shop. I used the money from work to buy a squire strat and a fender practice amp. All the time I spent at home was teaching myself how to play with guitar books and tabs. It was a great guitar. I learned a lot of rock songs from the mid 90s which weren't hard to play. That got me started. Luckily I was off to college after that summer and got my freedom back. I brought my guitar with me to the dorms and a few years later bought an epiphone Les Paul and started a band. I've never been in a fight ever since then.

 

[cigblues]

Got combo bday Christmas present at age 15. A Gibson SG and a Fender Vibro champ. Born 12/12/57. We were poor and then my father's branch store took off with his vision of the future (he did not own just convinced boss to see things his way). Before then he was drawing $2.28 an hour. So I have enjoyed a 47 year hobby.

 

[Peter B]

I started playing at 8. But that was in 1964. Elvis, The Beatles, Stones, The Cream, and then this guy came along and I was hooked.

 

[Cory]

I was born in the 80’s, so I grew up during the height of grunge music - Jerry Cantrell was my main influence then and still to this day continues to be my favorite and most influential guitar player…

…oh yeah, as others have mentioned too…girls - I started playing at the ripe age of 12, so you can figure out the rest on your own, haha

 

[Pop1655]

Next door neighbor. I was in about 7th grade. He was in high school, but let me hang around. I thought he was pretty much it. (He had a motorcycle. Something I could never even think of aspiring to) Sitting in his backyard listening to him bang out Gloria and Louie Louie on a $25 nylon string acoustic pretty much signed me up.

 

[i5studio]

ed sullivan show

 

[John Berrettini]

I was 5 when the The Beatles were on Ed Sullivan. I begged for lessons for a year. For my 6th birthday I got a rental Danlectro and lessons. When I was 18 my teacher turned his students over to me. I taught for several years playing out multiple nights a week in the 70's and early 80' Stopped in 84 to raise a family but kept on playing at home. Came full circle I'm 2010 when I started playing out again with 2 of my kids. Music can be a constant in your life.

I have owned somewhere over a 100 guitars in my life and now have a 16 Chambered R8, a 339 with no holes, a 98 DC Standard, a 07 Explorer Pro, a 11 faded Studio, and a 19 Jr Tribute.