Your first guitar: What was it and do you still have it?

[DMBfan41]

My first guitar was a well used (and loved) six string Harmony! In the mid-60's, it was given to my older sister from my cousin Clare in Ohio during a family visit. After being the first in my family to learn to play guitar with it, my sister eventually passed it on to my older brother, who also learned to play on it in the early 70's. It finally found it's way to me in 1974, when I was 14. Then I too learned to play on it. Because of this thread, I decided to go down to the basement and take the Harmony out of storage and take a photo to post. As you can see, it has a lot of miles on it, but it is part of many fond childhood memories of songs around a night time campfire and entertainment by my older brother and sister during family dinner parties, and of a time of childhood, and growing up. I also saw the crack in the soundboard and remembered that it happened one mid-summer night when the wind from an unexpected thunderstorm blew in through my sister's bedroom window and knocked the guitar over. I even remember my sister singing me to sleep with it when I was little - Gordon Lightfoot's "The Ponyman" I think was one of the songs she sang me. While I had my old guitar out, I played it a little bit. Isn't it amazing how songs, or in this case, the distinctive sound of a beloved old guitar can bring back memories? For just a flash of a moment, the sound returned me to my childhood of the wonderful days when Mom and Dad were still alive and I was little brother Johnny and I could hear the whistle of trains coming in my window at night and the sound of rain running into the rain barrel outside my window when it rained and how life was simple back then and I seemingly had no worries in the world. But then the flood of memories was over as fast as they came and reality quickly came back to me. It's about forty years later and I am the "Dad" now. And my very own daughter learned to play on this very same guitar. I carefully placed the special old guitar back into it's old, worn case, where it will quietly wait for another to someday introduce to the wonderful world of music. It was good to see you and remember you again, old friend.

Man I almost teared up just reading this...then realized it just just allergies .

Great story this guitar has, really.  You ever think about a restoration project?  Not so much that it takes on a new look but rather just a simple restoration?

Thanks again for sharing man.

[Ed422]

I think about it sometimes...  with as many archtops and Stellas as Harmony put out, how could they have possibly gone out of business?  I had one of the late 60s early 70s Stellas.  I carried it with me while hitch hiking across the USA.

Ed

[michaelw]

I think about it sometimes...  with as many archtops and Stellas as Harmony put out, how could they have possibly gone out of business?  I had one of the late 60s early 70s Stellas.  I carried it with me while hitch hiking across the USA.

Ed

if i recall correctly, many of these guitars (& SilverTones) were sold by department & catalog stores such as
Sears, Montgomery Wards, JCPenney ... perhaps this might be why Taylors will no longer be at Best Buy

John,
thank you so much for sharing such a wonderful story
so much history that you & your Harmony share

lookiing at the guitar kind of reminds me of ...

a T5, no c no e

[bo1142]

I don't think my first guitar had a brand name LOL. It was handed down to me from a family member that found it in a house they moved into.  It sounded awful, or it could have been me The first guitar I bought myself was a Yamaha APX.  I wish I could find a pic of my first one, but sadly, I don't think I ever took one. 

[John429]

from michaelw:
John,
thank you so much for sharing such a wonderful story
so much history that you & your Harmony share

from DMBfan41:
Man I almost teared up just reading this...then realized it just just allergies .

Great story this guitar has, really.  You ever think about a restoration project?  Not so much that it takes on a new look but rather just a simple restoration?

Thanks again for sharing man.

from Not Darth:
That's the same one my folks have, John, and the first guitar I ever touched!
Their sunburst isn't as dark, but other than that, identical.
Cool!

-K

from IPlay2
Wonderful story.  Thank you for sharing it with us.

I have my dad's old Ovation 12 string.  I take it out once and awhile, and it reminds me of the same things.  Even the smell is something I enjoy and remember.

Thanks everyone, I'm really glad you enjoyed the story. I wrote that very late last night right after I came up from the basement from my visit with my old guitar. It all sort of unexpectedly poured out of me as I was typing. I know that folks like you all, who love guitars as I do, understand that they can be *far* more than just a collection of wood and steel, but very special companions that are not only there with us to enjoy the good times, but to also provide comfort during the difficult ones along the road of life's journey.

[byrd]

I'm 37, and I feel like a young'un/beginner after reading a lot of these stories...

I came from a completely non-musical family, and never knew anyone that played guitar.  For some reason, when I was 22, I simply decided that I really wanted to learn to play.  During my summer vacation in '95 I went out one evening to a local music store and asked the owner what he though a good starter guitar was.  After about 15 minutes, I walked out with my first guitar.  For $99, I bought an Oscar Schmidt OG-2M.  My family thought I was crazy!  I took about 6 or 8 lessons that first summer, and played on my own from there.  Unfortunately, the resources of the internet were not quite what they are today.  I used a couple tab sites like OLGA to learn songs, but never really worked as hard as I now wish I had.  After a couple years I fell away from it.  In 2000 my wife and I bought a small horse farm and I rarely if ever picked the guitar.

Fast forward over a decade later, and the urge to play again was getting harder and harder to deny.  I picked up the old Oscar Schmidt up again, but after a couple weeks of dusting off the cob webs, I decided that I no longer wanted to fight the instrument.  So I started shopping around for a new guitar.  I wasn't initially looking to get an instrument nearly as nice as a Taylor, but my wife was very supportive and convinced me to spend the extra money on a guitar that would really inspire me to play. 

At this point, I'm loving playing again!  I've been playing my new (second guitar) 714ce-sd for about an hour or more a day for a few weeks now.  I have a long, LONG way to go, but I feel that I have more patience now and have a better idea of what it will take to get to where I want to be.  Having the fantastic new guitar doesn't hurt either!

The funny thing is that now that I have the new Taylor, I've taken the old Oscar Schmidt down to my local luthier to (finally!) have the guitar properly set up.  It might be nice to have a guitar around that I don't have to be concerned with.  We'll see what magic the luthier is able to work when I get it back, and if it's worth keeping around.

Lastly, after all these years, I finally know a friend that plays guitar.  We're supposed to get together sometime soon.   He's pretty advanced, and has played in numerous bands (both professionally and for fun), so hopefully he'll have the patience to put up with me on a somewhat regular basis.  It'll be nice to finally get to play with another human being.

That's my story, and now off to play! 

[not darth]

byrd, you're about the same age as me, and our stories are about the same, well, except for the horse farm, don't got one of those. 

Funny thing is, I too was thinking about taking the junky Norma dreadnought down to a local luthier for a proper setup.  Not sure that it's even worth it, probably needs a neck reset and I can't imagine the guitar is even worth a hundred bucks, we'll see. 

I know what you mean about having more patience and an understanding of what it will take to get where you want to be; I still have that 'instant gratification' desire, but it's tempered by reality, judgment and experience now, so I can put in the time and sooner or later I'll get there. 

-K

[byrd]

Funny thing is, I too was thinking about taking the junky Norma dreadnought down to a local luthier for a proper setup.  Not sure that it's even worth it, probably needs a neck reset and I can't imagine the guitar is even worth a hundred bucks, we'll see. 

I didn't need anything as serious as a neck reset.  For 80 bucks, I'm having the neck adjusted, ramps cut in the bridge pins, new bone bridge installed, and the bridge reinforced... oh, and a new set of Elixer strings.  I contemplated new tuners for 70 bucks and a new nut for 40 bucks, but decided it wasn't worth it.  At this point I'm hoping that it will at least be decent enough to play.  If I use it, great! If not, I figure I'll look for someone who really wants to learn that I can give it to.

I know what you mean about having more patience and an understanding of what it will take to get where you want to be; I still have that 'instant gratification' desire, but it's tempered by reality, judgment and experience now, so I can put in the time and sooner or later I'll get there. 

Yeah, some nights I find myself a little frustrated with certain things, but I just take a breath and say "time and practice, time and practice".  I'm enjoying every minute of if.  That was not necessarily the case, years ago when smoke was rising from my ears! 

One final note, then I'll stop rambling... Years back when I had my first few lessons, I had a teacher that primarily just taught songs with no fundamentals or theory.  That didn't really suit my style very well, and I wish I had realized it at the time.  As an engineer, the inner geek in me has always wanted to have more of an understanding of the theory as well.  Now that I'm back to playing again, and the internet being what it is, my mind has been inundated with the concepts, whys, and hows of intervals, scales, modes, triads, circle of 5ths, etc, etc, etc.  It would have been nice to have built the foundation BEFORE the house, but there's nothing that can be done about that now.  It's been one eye opening experience after another.  I'm seeing the instrument in a whole new light, and I really feel that it's been helping me to more forward even faster than simply memorizing a few tabs.

[ggj]

A well used 1940s Gibson arch top f hole.  I still have it but it needs major work.

[jjrpilot-admin]

A well used 1940s Gibson arch top f hole.  I still have it but it needs major work.

GGJ, glad to have you here on the forum!  Welcome! 

[Jack Sparrow]

A Fender Strat, and I still have (and play) it. The neck feel is better than almost any other guitar I've played.

[Redwood Tree]

It wa a Fender DG200s . in natural color maple , Not to bad but It needed a set up.
 Its long gong ,
 My 1st Taylor was a 2000 810bce LOTF , Its long gone too.

[Ed422]

I think about it sometimes...  with as many archtops and Stellas as Harmony put out, how could they have possibly gone out of business?  I had one of the late 60s early 70s Stellas.  I carried it with me while hitch hiking across the USA.

Ed

if i recall correctly, many of these guitars (& SilverTones) were sold by department & catalog stores such as
Sears, Montgomery Wards, JCPenney ... perhaps this might be why Taylors will no longer be at
 Best Buy.

Silvertones were sold at Sears.

Did I miss something? Has Taylor ended the Best Buy experiment?

Yep, Silvertone was Sears.  Airline was the Mongomery Wards brand name.  I think Harmony was the Samick of its day.  They made a boatload (or several boatloads of them) of guitars.  Then, they'd put whatever label a buyer wanted inside and paint whatever name was ordered on the headstock.  I know there are a couple online websites devoted to Harmony Guitars.

Some of them were ok but most pale in comparison to the cheap guitars these days.  It is amazing what CNC machines have done for the industry. Bridges where they belong, consistent neck profiles, etc.  Of course many of those old Harmonys had nice woods as opposed to those these days of the hard to find but apparently ubiquitous ply tree.  (grin)

Ed

[cjd-player]

...  these days of the hard to find but apparently ubiquitous ply tree.  (grin)

Ed

Oh they're not so hard to find.


The hard part is finding the old-growth ones that are large enough to cut out the 4 by 8 sheets. 

[kcnbys]

My first guitar was an electric.  It was a 1980 Lotus Les Paul copy.  My first acoustic was an '85 Takamine "lawsuit" F-340.  I don't have either anymore, but I wish I still had the Tak!