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Eddie started another discussion which alludes to this question. So's not to highjack his thread, I'll start a new one and ask it straight out. I played a rented violin in the school orchestra in the third grade and a rented trumpet in the fifth. But that's not what I'm asking. What was the very first instrument you could call your own?
Mine was a $10 acoustic guitar from White Front, a California mass market discounter in the mid 1960s. It looked like it had been dipped in resin. It was originally bought for me and my two siblings, but it disappeared into my room at age 13. I discovered that I could wiggle the neck and get a decent vibrato, which was great until the top pulled loose. (I fixed it with epoxy.)
The strings were the proverbial mile above the fingerboard. The originals were replaced with Black Diamonds, also from White Front, which I used until I discovered actual music stores and better brands several years later. My fingers never bled--I wasn't into that much pain--but they were green and ragged for about a year until I developed some serious calluses.
Two years on someone showed me a fingerpicking pattern and I was off to the races. I didn't know that bands sometimes had more than one guitar, so I tried to play what I heard while maintaining the groove. I didn't end up a virtuoso, but I do have a unique style that pleases me.
The thing wore out just as I realized I needed something more. I went through a succession of inexpensive guitars (a Lyle copy of a Gibson Dove, a Decca 12-string, a silk-and-steel-strung folk guitar) until I ended up with an Alvarez-Yairi D-41 copy which I have to this day. There's a story there, too, but that's not what this is about. What's yours?
Richard
"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."
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A 6 string Silvertone acoustic guitar that my Mom bought for me at the sporting goods store for $57 in the late 60’s. It almost made me give up the idea of playing guitar. It was hands down the worst guitar I’ve EVER came across. After 6 months of trying to play that ungodly beast, I gave up on it and stuffed it under the bed. I’d go to my friend’s house and play his Yamaha until I ran across a 12 string Japanese Terada for $50. I took 6 of the strings off and that’s what I learned to play on, at least until someone stole it! 
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A Rosetti Lucky 7 semi with an action you could hang the washing on. I was about 10 ish and to me it was perfect, much better than Dad's Spanish guitar and I looked better posing in the mirror with it, especially with my Buddy Holly black glasses!! Had to do a lot of chores for that. 1st real guitar, in my opinion, tho' was a Vox Lynx semi, looking like a Gibson 335, in coffee sunburst. Banjo string as the top E and then normal strings moved "down one". Still have that baby, it has gotta be nearly 50 years old now!! Aah memories 
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I had plenty of toy instruments,ranging from the toy pianos with the non-functional black keys represented as black paint on the white keys to plastic trash wind instruments, to plastic guitar-ish or uke-ish things, to toy xylophones (with sharps/flats) and so forth all the way to the plastic recorders I played in 6th grade (Tonette and Flute-a-phone brands). I guess the Tonette and Flute-a-phone are as real a recorder as a First Act is a guitar, but I don't count them. Drum sticks and a practice pad followed. At least the drum sticks were real  In 7th grade my parents rented a Conn 10M tenor sax, but it wasn't mine. Then I cashed in all the money my parents had saved for me and I got a well used but very playable Selmer (Paris) Modele 26 tenor sax. It was silver plated, but silver plate saxes were considered "old school" at the time so when it was overhauled before resale the sax tech put gold colored lacquer on top. So I consider the Selmer Modele 26 the first "real" instrument I owned. Notes
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Quote:
<...>looking like a Gibson 335, in coffee sunburst. Banjo string as the top E and then normal strings moved "down one". Still have that baby, it has gotta be nearly 50 years old now!! Aah memories
I remember my first road band. The guitarist had an Epiphone Sheraton (I think) looking like a 335 with the Frequensator (SP?) trapeze tail. He would put a banjo string on the first and then down one. He would also search for wound thirds which he would use for the 4th. Back then it seems people bought single strings instead of sets (Black Diamond brand comes to mind). Each town we went to brought a search for those wound third strings. I guess that was the precursor to light gauge sets.
Notes
Bob "Notes" Norton Norton Music
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100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
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A copy of a Martin alto sax.
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My Dad started me on piano before I entered kindergarten, but the big old upright with the baby grand harp that stood in my grandparent's house where I was born wasn't "mine" if you know what I mean. It was "ours"...
Pop was a Dental Surgeon who also played Trumpet and Piano.
What I wanted more than anything was my own big shiny gold Trumpet.
Dad said I would have to wait until my permanent front teeth for that.
8th birthday, I had kind of given up on the asking, Dad came home with a black case and handed it to me. No wrapping or anything, and he said, "I suppose you're ready for this."
Inside was an Olds Cornet, a Bach 10-1/2CW mouthpiece, a small vial of valve oil and a little music manuscript book that Pop had taken the time to write out the first Schlossberg study, the ye olde chromatic descending and ascending from middle C down to the low G# and back, in whole notes.
More important than the shiny horn, the constant time with Dad and his tutelage as I learned to make my first notes became the priceless part of the thing. "Don't PUSH" (Yeah, he was one of those "non-pressure" guys...)
Man, I was happy as a pig in slop.
--Mac
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In the mid 50's I bought a used cheap guitar for $10.00 from a friend. Don't know the brand. I still have it. The name was painted over. In the summer, we had parties at each others homes on the outside in the yard. I would bring my guitar and thought I was Elvis. I now have an Alvarez jumbo body style and it is the easiest playing Guitar that I;ve played. A couple of years ago I cut the tendons in 2 fingers on my left hand and that put a stop to my guitar playing. occ
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Would be fun if you could post a pic of that guitar, plus perhaps a closeup of the headstock, occ.
See if we can identify it.
Might be a bit of a collector, certainly would be a piece of guitar history, no matter the brand.
But I still pick up the occasional guit made by the luthier capitol in the US, the many acoustic archtops and such from days gone by and most all of them are still able to be turned back into playing instruments, built like tanks, they were.
Stella, King, Airline, Harmony (!), Silvertone, the number of store brands is too numerous to remember or name here, many were much the same model but branded differently, all are just plain fun to me.
And yesterday's "cheap" guitars can indeed be found to be made of wood that today is unobtanium -- Spruce tops, or even some hardwoods in the archtops, Oak, Curly Maple, carved, steam formed or whatever, not a piece of plywood in the lot.
Got an old Harmony Master here, refretted it over a decade ago, I keep bronze acoustic strings on that archtop and its sound and playability is rather startling considering. I named it, "The L-Zero Point Five" as a joke, but maybe the joke's on me.
--Mac
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Quote:
Stella, King, Airline, Harmony (!), Silvertone, the number of store brands is too numerous to remember or name here, many were much the same model but branded differently, all are just plain fun to me.
Harmony. I think I got it at a hock shop for 10 bucks. Being left handed, I restrung it even before I learned to play. My buddy, who was quite accomplished would call out the chord changes as we played in church.
Soon after (1953), I got a year old Martin and figured it was too nice to string backwards. I still have it.
Don S.
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In my early teens during WW2, I was allowed to play on a piano owned by a neighbour as a reward for walking her dog - until it died. Later, I played Flugalhorn in a local silver band until the practice hall was demolished by a bomb. This was followed by a spell as a snare drum player in a youth Marching Band. I did not own a musical instrument until I retired and was indulged by my sons who bought me a Casio Keyboard for £100 for Xmas 1995. This was followed by several other keyboards - the last being a Yamaha 3000. I was an average performer but enjoyed playing.
Unfortunately, during the 90s I contracted an illness which caused muscular problems so severe that all activities were curtailed. Ablutions, getting in or out of bed, bathing and walking became extremely difficult. I couldn't play the Keyboard so I sold it and used the proceeds to upgrade my computer and PG software to continue my musical adventure.
Finally, last year, I was diagnosed with an Immune Disease called Polymyalgea (Many Muscle Pains). The treatment was Steriod tablets which have their own risks.
Fifteen months on and I am now virtually pain free and my various complaints are under control. The main problem with this disease was the damage done to the automotive brain responses. It took me a month, walking each day to retrain my legs to work automatically. A friend compared my early progress to that of a drunken sailor.
Last week I was attempting to enter notation via my computer keyboard and, exasperated, I thought "I can do this faster with a keyboard".
So another Xmas and I bought an M-Audio Oxygen 49 Midi Controller and am having fun. The problem is a repeat of the walking saga - fingers feel like sausages and I need to practice to get some fluency in to my keying. The latency between my brain and fingers needs vast improvment, but I do now own a musical instrument - unless having no sounds of it's own disqualifies it from consideration
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The PC coupled with the right software and controller qualifies as a musical instrument.
"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."
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Conn Victor trumpet, 4th grade, supplied by the school
Not counting the flutaphone, used in third grade to determine who got issued the band instruments.
Mac, was your Olds cornet an Ambassafor? I have one of those as my knock-around practice while travelling horn. Thing is built like a tank. I bought it from Eddie and fixed it up.
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Quote:
Mac, was your Olds cornet an Ambassafor? I have one of those as my knock-around practice while travelling horn. Thing is built like a tank. I bought it from Eddie and fixed it up.
And you have no idea how happy I am that it is in the hands of someone who uses it. I am in the school that instruments should be played and not displayed like museum piecs, so it gives me joy to know someone skilled is using it.
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My very first guitar was a Sears Silvertone, F-hole, archtop that played like a fencepost and sounded identical. I later bought a blonde Kay acoustic-electric and a Lyle copy of a Gibson Hummingbird. A very sweet-sounding Japanese copy. About 1957, I bought a Fender Stratocaster with Vibrolux amp for about $700 brand new, complete with hard-shell, tweed case. Today, my Strat would fetch a King's Ransom.
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A nylon-string Silvertone mail ordered from Sears in 1964. I loaned it to my brother a few years ago. Maybe I'll ask him to bring it to Thanksgiving dinner so I can see how it's doing.
John
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When I was seven, I really wanted an electric guitar and I gave my parents no peace until they finally took me down to the local music store. My hands were still too small even for a 3/4 size guitar, so even though what I really, really, wanted was a Fender Stratocaster in red, I ended up with a Uke.
I've lost count of the number of guitars I've had over the years, but I've still got that same uke.
ROG.
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A (used) 1960 Harmony Monterey Leader for my 14th birthday ($25). The guitar Elvis played in "GI Blues" and smashed to pieces in "Roustabout" (No, eddie, not the SAME one). Found it in a closet a few months ago and had to glue the bridge back together. Still sounds pretty good.
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It was a used Kay acoustic that had telephone wires (13-58s if I remember correctly) for strings and ultra high action, I forgot what I paid for it but it wasn’t much! Six months later I went to a music store and bought a new Harmony acoustic that still had the telephone wires for strings but the action was good enough that I could play it!
From there it was a Fender Jaguar, a Country Gentlemen, a Carvin double neck 6/12 to now a small collection of inexpensive guitars. But it is funny that today my jazz box is strung with 12-52 flat wounds! That is the best way, IMHO, to get a smooth jazz sound.
I arrived early to a restaurant.
The manager asks, "do you mind waiting a bit?"
I said no.
"Good", he said. "Take these drinks to table 3"
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on sunday lunch time i heard george Lewis playing "when the saints" on family favortes on the radio and i was hooked first thing monday morning i got my father to take me to jennings a local music store and brought a clarinet on hire purchase sent the fdamily mad practising 20 hours a day and within 3 month i was playing in a new orleans jazzband not bad for a fifteen year old
Dave Hoskins
Last edited by jazzband; 11/20/12 01:58 PM.
I always play the right notes but not always in the right order
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Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.
ChatPG's knowledge base includes the full Band-in-a-Box User Manual and sales information from the website.
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