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January 2006
Posts: 1483
Location: Michigan | I am just wondering since I am a 52 year old
( 15 year old mind ) man that I want to know if anyone of my age group remembers when?????
I remember if you had a guitar that costs under a hundred bucks your string action was set up high as hell and it was normaly a cheap brand name guitar.
I remember that when I started playing in the 60s my first guitar was a (VOIT) tennis racket that I Mimed to the Beatles.
Then I bought a brand new ??? guitar for $35.00.
It was a strat style solid body that made my fingers BLEED within an a half hour of playing.
My parents nor I could afford one of those expesive American made $350.00 Gibson ES335s or a $300.00 Gibson SG back then.
I remember that when I did get the chance to play a freinds Gibson or Fender that is was alot easier to play then anything I had.
Is it me or was the guitar quality back then based on the way the guitar neck was set up ?
I remember back then that the lower the action was on the guitar that the easier it was to play it was the better brand of guitar .
What do you remember???? GWB |
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February 2004
Posts: 1634
Location: Warren,Pa. | That's the way it was. Those days are gone thank God. Now you can buy a "made in China" guitar for $85 that is easy to play and doesn't sound all that bad for the price. I'm glad because now(at my age of 50) I'm in a position to help a lot of kids get started on guitar...and it's easy to take them to the music store and have them buy an inexpensive guitar that isn't an instrument of torture.
My first guitar was unusual. It is an early 70's Madeira 12 string that I bought off the wall in a record store for $200. Fast neck, 1 11/16 nut, fine sound. I still have it, but it's not really playable any more. It was VERY easy to play in it's day though.
John <>{ |
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December 2001
Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | I had a variety of crappy guitars as a kid. I have no clue how I even learned how to play considering the instruments I had to play. Some may say that I never did learn how to play.
in 72 i finally got my dream guitar. a les paul in cherry sunburst, it came with the case, strap, picks, cable, extra set of strings and probably a kiss from store owner's wife, with tax it was $319 bucks, still have that guitar. |
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March 2005
Posts: 12759
Location: Boise, Idaho | I'm sure because I am older (53) my experience was different. My first guitar was a Univox, also for $35. Isn't that interesting. The strings were really high, so I unbolted the neck and did my own neck reset using shims and lighter strings. It played great then, but I didn't know how to play guitar! I also didn't have an amp, so I plugged it into my stereo. It was an ES335 knockoff and I still regret selling it. Then I got a dreadnaught that somebody had made from a kit. It was a real fingerbuster and I didn't learn much on it because it was so hard to play. Traded both and some of my soon to be wife's cash for my first Ovation. |
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January 2006
Posts: 1483
Location: Michigan | Hey Al whats that Les Paul worth now?
I look back at the prices of musical instruments back in the 60s and it still blows my mind that how expensive they were back then.Thats why I never had anything good.
We always envyed the guy who had the coolest equipment,he was like an IDOL.
I remember I started out as the drummer in our band with a Shitty set of drums that consisted of a snare, Bass with a single tom on it and a cymbal attatched and a high hat , but after the neighbor kid got a brand new set of Slingerland drums $600.00 with a Bass,snare,double tom-toms floor tom-tom,high-hat,and three cymbals the band told me to take up another instrument .
I ripped on the folks to ante up but they told me that a set of drums like that costs 1/3 as much as a new car. I glad they didnt do it for me know since it made me learn how to play a little bit of drums,very slight keyboards,and guitar.
He who had the best equipment in those days got into our band.
Can anyone relate to that??? GWB |
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March 2003
Posts: 555
Location: Wooster, Ohio | I had the same experience but what it made me do is learn how to set up a guitar myself. First bridge lowering at the age of 15 with a steel file. It worked.
Steve |
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December 2001
Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | Originally posted by guitarwannabee:
Hey Al whats that Les Paul worth now?
IGWB 2 or 3K |
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August 2005
Posts: 616
Location: cincinnati, ohio | I guess I was lucky. My first "real" guitar was a Yamaha FG-140 which I got in 1969. Had a really slick action. It was relatively cheap, but was well-made.
In '71 I got my first Ovation, a Balladeer, which had an equally slick action. So I've been spoiled all along.
A friend of mine had a $39.00 Decca six-string which I swear had a 2" action at the 12th fret! You would have needed a "C" clamp and a wood block to capo that sucker. I wonder how many potential guitar aces have had their careers short-circuited by starting out with crappily set-up acoustic guitars? |
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January 2006
Posts: 1483
Location: Michigan | So thats why I never made it to the big time ?
It must of been the lousy equipment I had when I was at an age when I should of made it big .
Now that I am aged and can afford to buy a couple of NICE playing guitars I enjoy playing the tunes that I couldn't play on those cheap guitars back then ,
but now my singing voice has gone away and only comes out in the shower on a rare occasion.
Life is not fair... GWB |
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December 2001
Posts: 7232
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | My first electric was a Teisco Del Ray Spectrum. 4-Pickups, sunburst body, damper etc... With a Checkmate amp. A few years back I bought a red one that was very similar to my first, just for fun.
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June 2006
Posts: 7307
Location: South of most, North of few | Originally posted by alpep:
I had a variety of crappy guitars as a kid. I have no clue how I even learned how to play considering the instruments I had to play. Some may say that I never did learn how to play.
in 72 i finally got my dream guitar. a les paul in cherry sunburst, it came with the case, strap, picks, cable, extra set of strings and probably a kiss from store owner's wife, with tax it was $319 bucks, still have that guitar. I wish I would have saved a gallon of gas that was 21 cents at the time, imagine what it is worth now!?!? :eek: |
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May 2005
Posts: 486
Location: North Carolina | I'm of that age as well. I do not, however, wish I now had again any of those piece of junk guitars that I once owned. |
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August 2005
Posts: 616
Location: cincinnati, ohio | Original quote by Mr. Ovation:
My first electric was a Teisco Del Ray Spectrum. 4-Pickups, sunburst body, damper etc... With a Checkmate amp.
Oh, man, Miles-- I had a rig EXACTLY like that one! I had forgotten all about it (blocked it out, more likely!). I had a (very) brief fling with electric guitar. The Checkmate amp was the size of a 12" TV set. You would sight down the neck of that Teisco and it had more twists and turns than a highway through the Rocky Mountains! Actually didn't sound too bad, though, but it was a bear to play. |
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January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | My first guitar was a $25 Sears acoustic made by Harmony, but a few years later, I got lucky. My truck driver neighbor loaned me his Gibson ES-125 3/4T and his Gibson tube amp. This was around 1961 and I was 10 years old. He did not ask for it back, ever, but I returned it to him in 1969 when I moved out of the house. Three years ago, he finally put it up for sale and I missed a chance to buy it from him by about two weeks. My friends had either Harmony Bobcats (I now have one, too, for nostalgic reasons) or a Teisco like Miles. If you had a Fender, you were pretty much the envy of the rest of us. |
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December 2001
Posts: 7232
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | For my first acoustic... actually, this may be my 2nd as I think the first broke. It was the below Seville bought with S&H Greenstamps!!!! Top THAT!!!! And yes, this guitar was bought around 1963 just before I started taking lessons. It actually doesn't sound too bad. I had changed it to steel strings at one time, and I sanded down the back and re-stained it with no real purpose, but it did give it better tone.
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January 2006
Posts: 1483
Location: Michigan | S&H green stamps,, Man you are killing me ,
My parents furnished their house with appliances from saving S&H green stamps.
That is great ,I did not think that I would ever hear about those things again.
Sounds like a new thread to me .GWB |
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60s & 70s Guitar Setups
