Some thoughts on guitars past & present...

[Johnny Robbo]

At the risk of sounding like one of the Yorkshiremen from that Monty Python sketch, here's my latest blog post...

https://jrobsonguitar.wordpress.com/2016/10/02/bad-guitars-theres-no-such-thing/

Any thoughts/reminiscences, chaps?

[Pete C]

Similar experience - my first electric guitar was a Satellite, very loosely based on a strat shape. High action, awful sound and a trem that snapped the strings. Think it was about £50 in 1979 from my mum's catalogue. I replaced it with a JHS Les Paul copy a few months later. That cost £99 if I remember rightly, and was similar to your Satellite copy - ply wood body, moulded plastic maple cap, bolt-on neck, single coils in humbucker covers. It did have a nice action though.

Amazing what you can buy new for £99 these days compared to that old junk !

Pete

[bruno]

Couldn't agree more - we are a lucky bunch. My first guitar was a Kay similar to the Woolworth's Top 20 - I remember getting it home and wondering why it didn't sound like Richie Blackmore's guitar. My very first lesson. Entry level guitars are great these days, I the gap between the high end instruments and a £300 guitar is narrowing by the day!
B

[Farrell Jackson]

Johnny your guitars past and present blog is right on the money. You could include amplifiers as well. I had a similar conversation with an old band mate the other day about the quality compared to cost of today's guitars and amplifiers. We were talking about how the costs of gigging rigs have actually dropped in price compared to what it costs us in the 1960's and 70's.....and you get better quality.

The first electric guitar I purchased in 1962 was a St George made in Japan. It sort of looked like the Woolworth's model you posted up. It was a piece of crap that set me back about $100. The amp I bought to go along with it was a Melody that costs $50.  Also not good. The guitar has long been gone but I still have my working Melody amp with it's 6" speaker with an outstanding 1 or 2 watts (I'm guessing) lol. In comparison, I thinks it's quite possible to get a decent guitar and amp, that you could gig with, for the same $150 I spent in 1962.

Good blog!

Farrell

[Johnny Robbo]

You could include amplifiers as well.

You're 100% right there, Farrell! I worked my way up from cheap Carlsboro & WEM amps when I was a teenager, all the way up to a top of the range Marshall 30th Anniversary combo that I paid nearly a grand for in '93. It was a beautiful sounding amp, but it was the most unreliable thing ever made. It may as well have been getting pocket money for the amount of cash it cost me to keep it up & running. I stopped gigging in 2000 and sold it. I bought an early amp modeler/preamp & my first PC with the cash & embarked on my recording adventure.

Years later, in 2009, I started gigging again & needed an amp, so I bought a Peavey Bandit 112 purely because I wanted something reliable - the old memories of the Marshall dying on me mid-gig were still at the back of my mind. The Peavey cost me about a third of what I paid for the Marshall, it had the reliability of being solid state and it sounded IMMENSE! These are amazing amps nowadays - they've been around decades, but Peavey have really got it nailed now... 2 channels with switchable voicings and a footswitchable boost for solos on each. It has a really nice valve/tube-like tone and had that touch-sensitivity I always associated with top-end "boutique" amps. In terms of tone, it was easily a match for my old Marshall.

These days, on the rare occasions when I tread the boards, i just take the Tonelab & go straight through the PA... it cost me £130 and I get the best sound I've ever had!

[Mike_S]

Good read Johnny.

My first electric guitar was a Black and White Fender Strat copy which i got in about 1993. I don't have it any more but the main thing I remember was it wouldn't stay in tune for even the duration of one song and string bending was more or less out of the question for the same reason.

[64Guitars]

Yeah, I agree with everything you said. The only thing I'd add is that I've often thought it would be good to have a crap guitar for practicing on. The high action would strengthen my fingers and build good calluses. Then, when I want to record something, I'd use one of my good guitars and it would feel so much easier to play that my fingers would just fly and I'd play much better than I would otherwise. But it's just a theory. I haven't put it to the test yet.

Although my first electric wasn't very good, I wish I still had it because it had a lot of sentimental value and I often get nostalgic thinking about it. Never sell! Just keep adding to the collection.

[Mach]

My very first guitar was from Sears & Robuck, most likely from the gigantic catalog that shipped to homes before the holidays nationwide and was thicker than any frekkin' phone book at the time. I can't remember what the cost was, but to me it was priceless at 6 years old. It was 1968 Christmas morning and there under the tree lie a long triangular cardboard box with a big red stamps on it with the word "Fragile". Oh the excitement! A picture on the box of a lovely curved shaped beauty with a hole that made enticing sounds was about to embrace my eager hands. uhh, where was I?

I can't remember the name or model, but it smelled delightful and looked so divine, it was a small scale acoustic, just what the senses were craving. It had a very boxy sound and I remember the strings never really went out of tune much unless I just didn't notice, but I didn't care, it was mine, all mine bwhahahaha. It wasn't really hard to play either, it had pretty good action as far as I can remember. Open chords were a breeze except for the dreaded F chord. It came with a--yep, you guessed right--A genuine Mel Bay guitar book with illustrations, yes pictures of how to finger this baby.

Ahh, my first _{(besides the baby-sitter  )} and at only 6 years old. Man I was in heaven. I played that thing night and day, minute by minute, hour by hour and on through the years. To me, it seemed to get a better tone over the years, but I had already moved on to other enjoyable things like electric guitars I had helped build with my Dad and Uncle.

I ended up giving that guitar to some friends of our family Son who was developmentally disabled and less fortunate and couldn't afford one for him. He was so happy to get that guitar. I hope it gave him some great memories as it did for me.

[alfstone]

Yes.

I was 14-15, so it was more or less 1969/70, and my parents bought me a Strat-copy Westone. Impossible to play anything on it, since it was always out of tune.

It didn't last long.

Alfredo

[Groundy]

My first guitar was a Rossetti cut away in white looked good but the action was so high, I then got a Boosey and Hawks Bert Wesson zero one, I then got a present from my uncle who had a guitar shop, it was a Maton, beautiful guitar with a Bigsby teen, made in Australia,from then on it was all Fenders, The Maton was a really nice sounding guitar, and cost me nothing.....Alex