pastorharry - Posted - 05/19/2011:  15:36:03

 Martin 0 size ,brazilian back, plain ebony fretboard, nylon string bridge and setup, paddle headstock with white tuning pegs. Definitely a rare beast. Bought  used from Candelas guitars in 1958 in East L.A. Notice my strap, either one of dad's old neckties or the tie for my bathrobe. At that time in my life I had not yet had my eye operations and had very poor vision,(as you can probably tell), that guitar was my world!!

Edited by - pastorharry on 05/19/2011 15:41:14

jbalch - Posted - 05/19/2011:  18:55:08

My grandad's 1934 Sears Robuck guitar.  I still have it.  But it is unplayable now. This picture is from the early 1970s. It was taken at my grandparent's home in East Limestone, AL.  Also in the photo: my great grandfather Benjamin F. Gray.

 My first real guitar is this 1975 J.W. Gallagher G-50.  I got it a month before my High School graduation in 1975.  It is still my main guitar. This old newspaper photo is from around 1980.  David Emery is playing a Vega Little Wonder conversion that was an incredible banjo. Those were the days.....

Edited by - jbalch on 05/19/2011 18:59:21

pastorharry - Posted - 05/20/2011:  01:20:52

Seems I've seen that Gallagher some where before.....hmmmm...

jbalch - Posted - 05/20/2011:  06:03:39

You should come see it again...and us too.

un5trung - Posted - 05/20/2011:  16:36:25

I think it was made out of cardboard --

Steven B - Posted - 05/21/2011:  05:57:52

This wasn't MY 1st guitar, but it is the one that I "snuck" in and would try to play when I was 5 years old. I got my "hine-end" blistered a couple of times because of messing with it. It belonged to my Uncle Clement and it was the "apple of my eye". Man, that thing sounded good to this little feller.  Clement gave it to me several years ago before he passed away. It is in very rough shape and is almost unplayable but I wouldn't take any amount of money for it. To this day...every time I pick it up....I can still feel the welts and marks on my hiney and legs from where those "switches" landed.

Oh yea....in case you are wondering, it is a 1948 Gretsch Electromatic

pastorharry - Posted - 05/21/2011:  22:28:54

wow, Steven what a story!

MitchellB - Posted - 05/22/2011:  04:49:10

Well, the first guitar I ever had in my hands was an old Silvertone archtop of my mother’s when I was old enough to start school.  My older brother soon broke it a few years later and bought a Yamaha 180 to replace it with, that I learn on and played for many years well up into high school.  My first guitar that was actually considered mine was a Western Auto Tru-Tone electric that was a birthday present when I was about 11 or 12 years old.  Forty-five years later, my nephew now has that old Yamaha and it is still going strong.  I don’t have a clue as to what happened to the Tru-Tone electric and don’t really care. 

fiddlepogo - Posted - 05/23/2011:  21:02:26

Somewhere around 1965, my dad bought a cheap nylon string classical with 11 S&H Green Stamp savings books.  It was a horrible guitar.  My dad bought it on a whim for himself, and would strum it sometimes, getting a wistful look in his eyes, but never learned how to play it.

One day my friend Murf came over, and played the Man From U.N.C.L.E. theme on the E and A strings.... that was such a cool thing for a teenage kid to be able to do- I couldn't let him out-cool me, so I grabbed the guitar, and played the exact same thing, note perfect.  I thought to myself "I just played the guitar!  That wasn't half hard- if I put my mind to this, I could really learn to play this thing!"  So I did.

Later that year, my family got invited to a backyard barbecue by a business associate of my dad's.  I took the guitar, and sang "Red River Valley" and "You Are My Sunshine".  The business associate said "Hey, the kid's GOOD- get him a decent guitar- so we traded in my clarinet that I was no longer playing on a Goya classical guitar, which was much better.   I'm not sure which model- the Goya G10 on this guys page looks a lot like it- look for the headstock that says "Goya" in gold script on a classical headstock.

twayneking - Posted - 05/27/2011:  21:08:31

My first guitar was a Mexican guitar that a friend bought in Mexico (duh). He'd pulled of the nut and it had no strings on it. I paid him $6 for the guitar. It was blonde front, sides and back and a classical. I pedaled 7 miles to Cleburne, Texas to a music shop, bought a classical nut for it and a set of strings and a Mel Bay basic guitar chords book. I worked at camp that summer and practiced till everyone was sick of me.  They called me Two-Chord Tom.

That guitar had the sweetest sound and I was sick when it got broken a couple of summers later. My friends bought me a nice little Yamaha that died a violent death some years later. My first banjo and a 12 string guitar also died violently over the years and were replaced by guitars of various quality till I bought a 1973 Swedish belt Goya Classical for $27 on eBay. I'd always wanted a Goya since a friend let me play his in the early 70s.  The bridge had been ripped off by some fool who put steel strings on it.  The neck was straight, so I bought a bridge and glued it in place.  It's got the sweetest sound since my old Mexican guitar and I've promised myself I'll starve to death before I ever sell it and I protect it like it's made of glass.  Right now it's my only surviving instrument.  I lost two banjos and an Ovation steel string guitar in my recent financial collapse.

Moral of the story, get one guitar that you love and hang on to it no matter what. I don't think I'd have survived my recent bout of unemployment and my family's medical problems over the past 4 years without my dream guitar.

Edited by - twayneking on 05/27/2011 21:27:53

Jim Yates - Posted - 05/28/2011:  21:44:46

I learned my first few chords on my brother's Hofner arch-top guitar.  Three of us decided to start a folk trio in 1960 and I used the Hofner for a short while, then bought my first guitar, a Goya M-26 from the late 50s.  When the action started to get high on the Goya, I sold it and have always regretted it.  I'm not sure where these 2 guitars are now, but I did find a Goya just like my first one and just had to get it.  I'm playing the Hofner in the picture of the Rovers Three and The photo of the Goya is the replacement that I bought a few years back, a 1958 M-26.  The back and sides are flame mapleand the board and bridge are Brazilian rosewood.  A very nice guitar with a bolt on neck similar to a Taylor's.

I just noticed that I have a Hawaiian nut on the Goya in this photo.  I was practising some Dobro licks at the time.

Edited by - Jim Yates on 06/06/2011 18:48:49

The Rovers Three, circa 1960

1958 Goya M-26

pastorharry - Posted - 06/01/2011:  12:51:56

Bump for a great thread!