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Keeping your beginner guitars?

Axelorox

New member
Joined
Sep 12, 2018
Messages
83
I wonder what people here think about holding on to their cheap starter guitars.

I'm debating if I should keep my Epiphone G400 (Epiphone's version of the SG). It was my first electric guitar. But I haven't touched the thing in years, or even looked at it. By my current standards I wouldn't want to play or listen to (sounds very muddy). Back in the day I tried many professional setups and even pickup upgrades which didn't improve much.

On the other hand I am a sentimental sap and I have years of happy memories with this guitar. Also I wouldn't make much money from selling it. The only benefit would be clearing up space.
 

jb_abides

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Joined
Apr 6, 2005
Messages
5,276
Kept [and keeping] my 1980/81 Ibanez v300 and 1985 Fender MIJ 62 Reissue Telecaster :jim While I have many more to choose from, they've served well and are actually quite good specimens.
 

Thundermtn

Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2016
Messages
548
Never sell, ever. I've been temped for sure but the guitars I have are like time capsules to different times in my life and the people in it at that time.

This is my first one, my Mom bought it new after letting me pick it for my eighth birthday. 3/4 scale, super hot but cool sounding 80's metal pups. It's first string change were with strings that would have gone onto my Grandpa's early 60's 345 if he hadn't have passed earlier that year. His guitars and bands are why I'm a guitar player.:salude

 

jrgtr42

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 24, 2005
Messages
2,308
My first guitar was a Harmony Acoustic, circa 1990 or so.
It was the cheapest full-size they had. I traded it in long ago for better acoustic. (still not great, but better)
My first electric was (and is) my Gibson SG. I'll never get rid of that guitar.
 

sonar

New member
Joined
Jan 10, 2003
Messages
3,589
My first 6 string was a lower line, late 80's Yamaha Dreadnought size acoustic. Looking back it was a pretty decent guitar, especially for the money.

Years later it ended up being traded in toward a 50's Martin D-21 purchase. Screw sentimentality, I'd do that deal over again ten times out of ten.
 

Ken Fortunato

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Feb 26, 2006
Messages
2,742
KEEP IT!!! It may not be that important at the moment, and the temptation to sell it, to offset the cost of a better instrument may seem like a good idea, BUT... You'll be glad you didn't, like, 30 years from now... :salude

My '77 Ibanez...

16141067228_2cb8bb2998_h.jpg
 

Dave P

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 13, 2001
Messages
976
I still have my old Univox Gimme I bought from Wally Pikal Music when I was 17
unidp1.jpg
 

GeraintGuitar

Member
Joined
Aug 28, 2017
Messages
115
NEVER SELL ! My wife bought back my Korean built 97 gold top les paul as a suprise Christmas present , i was delighted , for years i kept playing old band demos and albums and telling her how great that guitar was and that i regreted selling it
 

S. Cane

Active member
Joined
Dec 10, 2014
Messages
656
Kept [and keeping] my 1980/81 Ibanez v300 and 1985 Fender MIJ 62 Reissue Telecaster :jim While I have many more to choose from, they've served well and are actually quite good specimens.


Pretty cool, though I wouldn’t consider that tele a beginner’s guitar (at least in the OP’s meaning)...
 

Bob Womack

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Joined
Apr 8, 2002
Messages
2,191
I've still got my 1970 Silvertone classical.

silvertone.jpg


I wore the frets flat and it isn't worth refretting but my parents gave it to me so it stays. You can find it as item #5 on page 387 of the 1970 Sears Wish Book:

wishbook1970p387.jpg


Note the mahogany-colored sides and that the chipboard case goes for an additional $8.50. That's long gone - an acquaintance got mad at me and glued it to a hotel side table, face down, in 1974. I carried the case until I found another abandoned at college.

Bob
 

Guitar Whiskey

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Joined
Aug 10, 2006
Messages
2,757
If your first guitar was a decent instrument or you have sentimental attachment no reason not to keep it. If it's just a POS get rid of it. Life is too complicated to manage stuff you don't want or need. Simplify your life and move on.
 

Unbound Dot Neck

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Joined
Jun 14, 2004
Messages
1,623
My Dad got me a 65 ? Blonde Maple cap tele in 1972.. $70 , which I did the hippie refin on
The other choice was a 58 gold top for $200 , too much said Dad.

Tele Sadly stolen from my car in DC @ 1999, my SS# is etched on underside of neck plate !! Sn# was 157xxx as I recall
Please come home !!

:salude
 
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Foggy72

Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2010
Messages
442
My first guitar was a Saturn (Sears?) bought in a music store for 50 bucks. It was an ES335 copy. That guitar was awful. Had a curved neck, scratchy controls and a bridge which was only held down by string pressure. Hit it and the whole guitar went out of tune. But as a complete novice guitar it suited the purpose.
Randy California played a Silvertone in the early days of Spirit.
 
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Shocktop99

Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2017
Messages
92
My first-ish guitar is a Squire Stratocaster (I still have it) it was a upgrade on a standby guitar that my parents bought for me (till this one came in) so technically its not my first first, but i consider it my first actual guitar! Makes for a great back-up guitar for sets!!
Photo below is my last show with the Local High School Jazz band!
Screenshot-20190520-165357-2.png
Band!
 

Ed Driscoll

Les Paul Forum Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2002
Messages
4,691
My first guitar was a mid-‘70s Woolworth acoustic, with piano-wire thick strings an inch off the neck. (It looked very much like the sunburst Sears acoustic that Bob Womack included in his post.) I eventually Pete Townshend-ed it as a teenager. My second guitar was a Hondo II Les Paul clone, which weighed a ton. I’m not all that sentimental that I left it in my mom’s NJ basement after she passed away, and it (presumably) was sold in a garage sale by the people who helped clean out her house back when I lived on the opposite coast. It seemed in retrospect to be placeholder before I acquired a real Gibson Les Paul.

i-CGnvxGJ-M.jpg
 

Don

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Joined
Dec 1, 2001
Messages
5,732
I have the Harmony 3/4 size guitar that my parents bought me new in 1971 as well as the 1977 Yamaha acoustic that I played when I picked the guitar back up in 1979. I wouldn't think of parting with either of them.
 

WytLytnyn

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Joined
Feb 20, 2002
Messages
88
I've had a Charvel model one since I was in high school in the 80s. It's it's under my bed and it's case and probably gets pulled out once or twice a year. It's still plays incredibly well and I don't intend to ever get rid of it.
 

mistersnappy

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 20, 2006
Messages
7,321
I sometimes think about the Sonex I had for a minute.
I remember liking the neck and how it played. I can actually sort of remember how it smelled in the case. That one I miss because it was first and an old National Triolian because...National Triolian.
 

LP007

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Joined
Jun 19, 2019
Messages
18
My answer would be yes - you could sell it as money is replaceable but your first guitar isn’t. Most people start on a cheap entry level instrument so the money from the sale wouldn’t be much.
I guess the only exception is if you’ve just started and want to sell it or trade it towards something better. But for me the sentimental value after a few years outweighs the sale price. In a similar way, many people miss their first car.
 
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