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December 2004
Posts: 7
Location: In the Hearts of Young and Old | I remember giving a lot of these away.
How many of you got your start with one of these?
Sears Guitar
Kris |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 1817
Location: Minden, Nebraska | Mine wasn't a classical, but my first guitar WAS a Silvertone, bought at the Sears store in Evanston, Illinois with money from the Christmas tips I received as a carrier for the Chicago Tribune and Wall Street Journal as a young teen. |
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Joined:
December 2004
Posts: 16
Location: Victoria BC | I do not remember what mine was...it belonged to my Dad,and he showed me the only thing he had ever played...a little piece of Emaj. surf stuff then gave me his "mel bay" book...off I went from there. I bet I was 10 at the time. |
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Joined:
May 2004
Posts: 2850
Location: Midland, MI | I have no idea what brand the very first guitar I received was. It was from my Uncle Bernie, though (technically, my great-uncle, as he was my mom's uncle) and had horribly high action. Oh, and the bridge was held on by two gargantuan wood screws, one on each side. I hated it. It hurt. It eventually disappeared. My first *real* guitar was a Guild mahogany jobby that my folks bought me when I was just barely a teenager. It wasn't cool like the solidbody I wanted so it languished in a denim gig-bag after I bailed on the lessons. Eventually, the neck separated from the body and it went in the trash. In retrospect, I wish I had that one back. Actually, not so much that I had it back, but that I was more grateful and appreciative. |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | it said MADE IN HOLLAND inside of the sound hole. it is still in my mom's basement somewhere... |
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Joined:
July 2004
Posts: 338
Location: Omaha | My first WAS a classical - I think my folks paid for it - bought it for me in Madrid, since my dad (and therefore our whole family) was stationed there at the time (1970-74 at Torrejon AFB); I think it cost between $15-25 USD.
I immediately put a set of steel strings on it; it held up to that abuse for around 3-4 years; long enough for me to start learning before the neck literally popped off. My second was a Teisco Del Rey guitar/amp set ordered from Mondgomery Ward (since they would ship to Spain). Worst sounding pickups (four of 'em!) that I've ever heard; wished I'd never bought that guitar!! Interesting little amp: a head with a separate (vertical) cab with two speakers in it; probably 6 1/2" or 8". Kept the amp longer than the guitar...
...memories...
:) |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15677
Location: SoCal | My very first guitar was a 1930's Sears f-hole guitar that was given to me by my uncle who traded it from his brother (my father) when they were kids. I got that in about the 4th grade. In the 10th grade, I was given a $40 classical guitar by my parents, which I played until the fall of my senior year in high school when I bought an Ovation Artist. |
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Joined:
April 2004
Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | My first guitar was also a silvertone acoustic.
My first amp (which I still have) was a Kalamazoo Model 2 w/8" speaker.
For the life of me, I can't remember what my first electric was. |
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Joined:
July 2003
Posts: 1922
Location: Canton (Detroit), MI | My first guitar WAS a Sears Silvertone, but it was one of the DanElectro Silvertone electrics, a sparkle black with white pickguard pseudo-Strat knockoff. One of the ones with the (tube) amp in the case. My mother bought it for me for $100 new at our local rural Sears outlet.
I ended up trading it to my best friend for a totally horrible acoustic after 3 years or so(after I realized I was an acoustic person). I saw a Silvertone exactly like it used in a shop in Ann Arbor earlier this year, and while I was wistful about seeing it again, after I saw the $500(!!!!) price on it, I didn't really want it. :eek:
Roger |
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Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | My first guitar was an Ovation, the old #6 prototype, before the bowl was painted. I guess this won't suprise too many people. |
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Joined:
December 2003
Posts: 13996
Location: Upper Left USA | W2
Did you ever "misplace" it? :rolleyes: |
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Joined:
October 2004
Posts: 81
Location: N W Ohio | My first was a Kay that my mother got with "Top Value Stamps", anybody remember those things? Must have had extra heavy strings and super high action, because all I remeber about it was it hurt really bad trying to learn to play. Got a cheap elecric and amp around 1966,joined a garage band, and the rest as they say is history. |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | i forgot to mention the maccaferri , roy rogers guitar, mickey mouse guitar, several ukes etc that all got broke before my first guitar.
my first electric was a "marvel" made in japan POS but my first amp was a blackface fender princeton reverb which I still have. I guess that is why I always loved fender amps. |
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January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | I just let it slide and moved on to a Josh White and then a Balladeer and a series of Thunderheads and so on. Old #6 didn't reappear till 1976 in Moosup where I was working getting the applesause going. Lou Cyr came up one day and said "I found this old guitar in the storage bin, do you want it or should we let someone else have it. The tuners were gone and no saddle. I recognized it for what it was and grabbed it, got another set of Grovers, had the bridge reglued and that's the #6 we know today.
Remember the old lable tape things that were popular back in the late 60's? It would spit out the tape and you could press letters into it. I had made one with my girl friend's name on it and when Lou brought the guitar to me that tape was gone but I could see the outline of the letters in the adhesive residue on the bass side of the peghead.
There you have the story of #6. |
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Joined:
May 2004
Posts: 2850
Location: Midland, MI | Awesome story W2. Say, just out of curiosity...uh, how would you say those Thunderheads compared to the (overpriced) 335? Or perhaps to the (allegedly) fine Japanese 335-clone imports of that era? |
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Joined:
June 2004
Posts: 580
Location: NW NJ | My first was a Hohner "Contessa" 12 String. I played it in high school and a little in college when I was a hippie and into John Denver and Sweet Baby James, etc. The guitar served me well until the bridge popped off one day. I got my dad's electric drill, a couple of machine screws with nuts and washers and a bottle of wood glue. 10 minutes and an overnight drying and whamo, we were playing again. Finally got rid of it a few years ago after I discoverd the joy of "O". The Hohner had no truss rod, the neck was bowed, the top was bellied like crazy and the only thing holding the bridge down was the machine screws. Still played, but by then I'd been spoiled and was into one of those "cleaning frenzies" ... wish I still had it if for nothing else but the memories! :rolleyes: |
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Joined:
December 2004
Posts: 21
Location: New Ulm, MN | My first guitar story goes alot like Islander's version except in MN my mother saved Gold Bond stamps. And Steve, I do remember. The fingers used to hurt like hell. Talk about blisters on your fingers!
Spunky |
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Joined:
December 2004
Posts: 16
Location: Victoria BC | Well as far as "real" guitars go..The first real one I ever bought was a "Vantage" right after a trip to Disneyland...I barely spent a cent there at 15 years of age...just to have money for a new guitar...It was OK at best(at the time I really thought it rocked.)...then i traded up to a Larrivee solid body back when times were tough for him...One of the greatest guitars i ever had repossessed. :rolleyes:
Solid body's? if you can get a Larrivee from the 80's you are a lucky man.
When i again had money to blow I tried Taylor,Larrivee(my brothers girl worked for them at this date..I DID try to get a deal)and Martin...long&McQuade had a elite there and it blew the socks off any of the guitars I had tried...by then I could afford anything...I asked if they had a higher model...I was shown a picture of a Custom Elite.
If was to be truly honest that Elite sounded better...but I wanted those fret board markers ...
:rolleyes: |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 1380
Location: Central Oregon | My first guitar was a Gibson Kalamazoo my dad bought in a hock shop in Frisco for $40 about 1957 or so. I gave it to my granddaughter a few months ago. There are pictures & a brief story in my gallery. My next (& first solidbody electric) was a Melody Maker complete with 2 pups & a wammy bar. Then a late '60's Epiphone Riviera. Sold it & my amp due to children. Later on I had at least one or two of the aforementioned Shitboxes. I remember a Silvertone archtop that had a reasonably straight neck but it was a bear to play. I filed the nut, dropped the saddle, filed the high frets & sanded everything off the back of the neck that didn't feel like a Gibson. Eventually I gave it to my son "Grace" who fell on it & broke the neck. :) |
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Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | My first guitar was a Silvertone lap steel with a small amp, probably a 6" or 8" speaker. My brother already had an acoustic guitar that I can't remember the brand, and we were doing 50's country with another friend. Hank Snow, Ernest Tubb, Hank Williams etc. all of which had steel guitars so I was chosen to do the steel parts. I still remember us playing on a local radio station (Radio was the main media, and you know the hype, "Here's Bill, Bailey and Johnny, some local school kids who've been playing dances out at Monroe Center"), radio engineer kept twisting his fingers at me and I didn't know what he meant, so I just kept playing as I was frozen with stage fright. Turned out he wanted me to turn it up a little for balance, as Johnny and Bill were on the mike. Fortunately, there was no way to record in those days so I will never be faced with hearing it again, because of that I will say I did a great vocal on a Hank Snow song called "Bluebird Island", and nobody can argue with me. I joined the army shortly and went to playing real guitars, Johnny joined the army and played a 10 string steel guitar in NCO club bands in Germany and far outshone me, he went on to play fiddle and as happens to those who outshine their older brothers, he died of cancer a few years ago. I, playing badly on mandolin and guitar, am still alive and well.
I don't miss that Silvertone lap steel, but I wouldn't be surprised if it turned up in my sister's attic on her Ohio farm, she saves everything.
Bailey |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7236
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | This is gonna be painful on so many levels. First guitar was a Seville nylon string bought with S&H Greenstamps. It broke, and was replaced with another the next year. Many years later I converted it to steel strings, and a few years later sanded the back and restained it, just the back and the back of the neck, for what reason I have no idea. I actually still have this guitar. It has nylon strings on it again, and it still plays ok, it's about 40 years old now if I remember correctly. |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | ". . . Awesome story W2. Say, just out of curiosity...uh, how would you say those Thunderheads compared to . . . "
F*&%K the Thunderheads!!!
C'mon, Bill! What was the old girlfriend's name??? . .
(Remember, . . .what happens in OFC . . . STAYS in OFC!) ;)
THIS! Mine Friends, is True "History of the Ovation Guitar" . . . |
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January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Missy |
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Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | As far as the Thunderheads I'll take a 335 any day of the week, but they really are different guitars. The THead is hollow and has single coil pickups, the 335 has that solid center and thumbsuckers, big difference.
The guitar that really gets it as far as this goes though is the Hamer Newport. I've had several great 335s and this Newport is by far better. The 335s are gone.
I know that Mr Moody doesn't like these and that's OK too. |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | ". . the old lable tape things that were popular back in the late 60's? . . ." DYMO.
"Missy" . . . musta been a "CT girl".
There's a Newport "sleeping over" in my music room, and they truly are sweet electrics. My partner Rick (who's a bigger electric afficinado than I) picked it up and was absolutely blown away by the fit/finish/sound. Said it was a lot more substantial and "pisses all over a Gibson!".
I'm not really proficient on electric (yet), but I gotta a good deal on a bunch of effects pedals (thanks, Xnoel!) and I imagine that my neighbors will start moving out right after the Holidays . . .
Never had a Sears guitar (bike? yeah, but no guitar . . ). I started out with an old Harmony that my old girlfiend (Carol) loaned me to learn on after she got a new Tak-12. From there, the first guitar I bought is my CBalladeer, and from there it was just one big, long (very happy) blurrr . . . . |
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January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | She was from Texas. |
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March 2002
Posts: 15677
Location: SoCal | Never said I didn't like them, and truth be known, Bill, I'm convinced that you're right. It's just the lust that I had for 35 years over the Thead that gripped my testicles. I'd still like to get the Hamer. |
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Joined:
February 2004
Posts: 33
Location: Clermont FL | My first guitar was given to me by the guy across the street, a white guitar with no name on it. My Dad had to staple the back together with ceiling staples, this was in 1955. Stu
Ovation 5868
62 Fender Jazzmaster
74 Guitorgan
63 Fender Jazz Bass |
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Joined:
October 2004
Posts: 48
Location: State College, PA | Well, let's see... (leaning back and scratching chin...)
My first acoustic guitar (we won't talk about the Lafayette electric) was a Harmony, brush-painted in an attractive mottled black exterior trim enamel.
Its action was so bad, (How bad was it???)
Its action was so bad, you couldn't check the intonation without laceration - not that you could hear the harmonics, anyway.
No, truthfully, it was the only guitar I ever caught a splinter from off of the neck....
I didn't have a Silvertone until my second acoustic - and that one I ordered right out of the Sears catalog - got their biggest one, figuring it'd sound the best - y'know I had that guitar for a couple of years, and I never really thought it was that bad.... Learned Travis picking on that instrument, bar chords too.
Kept it until I bought a Martin - the one Martin I ever owned, which I kept until the Larivee, which was right before the Old Warhorse 1111-1 I've still got...
I wonder what happened to that old Harmony? Probably there's a stout tree growing where somebody planted it...
Thanks for the memories...
Michael
State College, PA |
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Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Paul, I understand that grip thing. |
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Joined:
December 2003
Posts: 13996
Location: Upper Left USA | In a land where the letter “R” sounds like it is a vowel, I was the number 5 kid of seven. I watched as my older brother learned to play his “Tiger” guitar with the Amp-in-the-guitar-case. I also watched my older sisters with their Guilds and Martins play something called “Folk” music.
The first guitar I got to call mine was a Yard Sale relic with missing strings. If it wasn’t a Silvertone or Winston it was still in that genre. Painful and semi-useful.
Much later in life I came by a Winston Classical that would fit into my locker at work. It became a lunchtime strummer and conversation starter. Today it sits in my garage stripped to bare wood, braces repaired and has a veneer over the headstock. I am considering a test run with the Dremel adapter for doing Purfling. Maybe end up with an Abalam inlay around the body. Will try some inlay on the frets and practice buffing/polishing.
It’ll still sound like crap but it should shine and cover up a bare spot on the wall!
Now, about that Sears bike having a grip on your balls! But that is another story... |
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Memories: Did it get you started?