How many guitars did you have growing up ?

[thunder58]

How many guitars did you have growing up ?
Seems like most of us have quite an arsenal nowadays .

Let me use my High School years , 1973-1977 . When I was growing up , I had one guitar . My Yamaha FG-160 ( and I still have it ) Mom and Dad were not rich by any means . Blue collar household yet well provided . We as kids would earn our money , save it and buy the important things to us ....like my Schwinn 10 speed in 7th grade for $90 ... I could only dream of having other guitars and BIG amps . As a kid in high school , minimum wage was about $2.65 and it was only pocket money . Girlfriend and prom seemed like a million dollars to me back then too .

So , 1 guitar is all I had . Granted , as I entered adulthood and started making " real " money ( not that $2.65 hr wage ) I was able to afford more than one guitar .

But truth be told I was able to buy a 12 string with some of my high school graduation money . But that was it for a long long time .

So ... how many guitars did you grow up with ?

 

[stiv]

I started playing on my uncle’s classical guitar in ‘84. I finished high school in ‘86 and I bought my first electric in ‘87 from my very first guitar teacher. I always had one guitar a time for most of my youth (the main reason: to buy another one, for me, would necessarily mean trade in the other I had ). I bought my Gretsch in 1990 and for at least 5 years that was the only guitar I had and I played. Then I bought my first Tele (a Squier) and an Ibanez Artwood since I started playing acoustic as well, and that was the beginning of the end…

 

[Gearman]

just one for the first 20 years of playing. As I progressed I traded along the way, but never had more than one at any given time.

 

[Pemberton]

For over 35 years, from the very beginning, I only had two guitars, both Guilds, an acoustic and an electric. Plus a cheap Japanese copy of a Fender Jazz bass.

It’s only been in the last 5 or so years that I’ve been able to grow my vintage Gretsch collection.

 

[Greg Connor]

I bought this Silvertone from my buddy for $45 when I was 12 years old. I still have it. I bought a Gibson SG (new) when I was 16, but traded it for an Ovation when I went to College. I still have the Ovation.

I think I was 45-50 years old before I started acquiring guitars.

 

[Likeabrave]

Until, my last year in High School, I had no more than two guitars at one time. One acoustic and one electric.

 

[OzzPocket]

The family had a very inexpensive acoustic guitar that no one ever played (I think my father got it for my mother or something....but...as I never saw her show any interest in music in general, not sure why...lol)....so I won't count that one (although I still have it)....I did start strumming it prior to getting the guitar below....I think that's why they got me the one below.

But...from 1983 to 2008 I had ONE electric guitar.....an Aria Pro II (still have it, still play it)...it was a very inexpensive model...but hey, it IS Made in Japan....which is considered good NOW, right?

 

[Lockback]

I had a cheap Giannini acoustic in high school and college.
The action on it was so high it killed my hands. It was simply a horrible instrument and I eventually got so frustrated, I threw it into a dumpster.
I didn't touch a guitar for 40 years when I was 63 ... and have bought 10 guitars since.

 

[sharps4590]

I bought my first guitar, a Harmony, with money received for my 10th birthday, all of it, for $5.00 in 1963 and was thrilled to have it. I played it until it literally fell apart in high school when, with Mom & Dad's help, I paid $35.00 for a double pick-up electric from some electronic catalog that Dad received. I played that until I was well out of the Air Force on the mid-70's. I never had more than two, an electric and flat top, until about 10 years ago. Now I there's 8 in the music room along with an electric piano, my fiddle and trombone.

 

[Faye]

Just this. It cost £10 in 1977, when I was 11. First electric was a cheap copy of a double cut Les Paul Special, bought about 5 years later. When I was 18 I got a Squier Strat, which was then traded for a '74 SG.

 

[Baba Joe]

Three; two of which I worked for and paid for myself. My first was a beginner one pickup Japanese solid body which my parents bought me. Next was my Tennessean which I bought and still own. Third was a cheap twelve string which I also paid for. The strings seemed like they were about two inches above the neck and eventually I threw it in the garbage. Then I quit playing for forty years and have since acquired a few more (mostly Gretsch).

 

[wildeman]

Not many at all, but I went and bought a few really good ones as soon as I could. My first electric is the '61 SG Jr I still have, then I tracked down a real round neck Dobro, not long after that I got a Martin D1 and a '36 National, there were some Harmony/Kay cheese logs in there but mostly I've had good stuff. Nowadays I'm spoiled rotten with gear.

 

[Emergence]

Growing up, one at a time. My first electric was a Melody Maker. I made enough in a garage, really basement band to get a Jazzmaster my senior year in high school and a LP gold top in college but it was always one at a time. Amps? The same. My first was a Reverbrocket followed by a Gemini VI. Then I got married and moved into an apartment and sold the gold top to buy furniture and the Gemini to buy an Ovation Balladeer. Then came grad school, career development, an house and kids. The Ovation went down the basement until I was in my late fifties and I took it out again. Surprisingly, it was still in pretty good shape. I quickly got bored with it though and bought a Telecaster and a SuperChamp XD and the addiction started. My addiction to German automobiles started at about the same time. There’s no rehab for either addiction and they’re both expensive habits.

 

[GDGT]

Guitar wasn't my first instrument—I was playing in orchestras (cello and synths—yes, synths+orchestra, really: holiday and pops stuff) and playing in teenage+grownup bands on keys. But I was also earning my own money starting at 14, and working in studios starting at 15. So I had more resources than a typical teenager, and the cycle of gear had already started for me as I got into guitar.

If I were to use high school graduation as the cutoff for "growing up," that was ironically a high-water mark for gear (and income) I wouldn't re-attain for many years. I think I had a nylon-string acoustic, a 12-string acoustic, an electric (a Peavey), and a keyboard amp I used as an acoustic+keys+bass amp, a Crate Vintage 20 tube amp, and a couple pedals. I also had three (or four?) synths, a drum machine, and a four-track, and access to some inexpensive mics (think 57s). But it gets worse: I had easy access to my brother's Les Paul copy, long-term loan of a Fender Jazz bass and a FrankenSuperStrat (Schecter neck on a Warmoth(?) body), and easy (if back-breaking) access to a Rhodes 76. I could also borrow the occasional bit of gear from studios. And, very importantly, I HAD A RELIABLE CAR.

When I went (far) away to college, I walked away from almost all of it—deliberate choice. I sold/offloaded everything but the 12-string and the Peavey. Those (and that origianl nylon-string) are still around, although I only touch the Peavey maybe once a year just to check in with it. The 12-string still gets regular use. I wound up with my brother's Les Paul copy in my mid-20s and, honestly, *that* was what really kicked me into the guitar world, although it took me a while to build up momentum: I was mostly a bassist at that point.

 

[GDGT]

bought a Telecaster and a SuperChamp XD

I recently picked up a SuperChamp XD as a trade for some repair work—I'm kind of surprised how good it sounds.

 

[GDGT]

Just this. It cost £10 in 1977, when I was 11.

I think that fingerboard might be telling quite a story.

 

[cielski]

Just one till I hit my forties.

 

[thunder58]

Guitar wasn't my first instrument

Me neither ........

 

[thunder58]

which was then traded for a '74 SG.

and it was all history from there

 

[BCRatRod73]

When I was 13 my dad took me to a pawn shop and we picked out a no name acoustic for $50. That was my only guitar for a few years until my mom got me the Sears catalog special of a Harmony H-802 electric for xmas. Complete with a cheap plastic case amp. I bought a cheap no name LP copy at a pawn shop a year or so later. My senior year I saved up and bought a Starforce guitar with double humbuckers and a whammy bar. About a year or two after that I bought an LTD superstrat. I quit playing for a couple years but picked it back up with a Samick strat copy when I was 23. That was my only electric guitar for a really long time. I came into some money in 2008 and began my tone quest.