How old are u when u get your first Fender?

[SteveK]

Originally posted by MiJ_Blackie
I was 20. I got my first Strat in the China Fleet Club in Hong Kong in 1986. It is a MIJ strat, alder body with maple neck. Basically a 57 RI with Gotoh tuners. I have swapped the Pups with 3 Texas Specials and replaced the pots and selector with American. I also replaced the gaurd with a pearloid.

Hey! My first Fender Strat came from Tom Lee Music too, and I bought my Pro Jr at the very same store your Strat came from. Small World.

Anyhow, I got a great Japanese Strat copy in '78 for my 18th birthday and used it for years. My avatar pic is of me playing it n my 40th birthday. I do wish my parents had talked to me about it, at the time though, 'cos I could have got a real '57 at the time for the money they spent :) Anyhow, I added a MIJ Squier contemporary Strat in '85 (black, one humbucker, matching headstock), and finally got a real USA Fender Strat from the TST Tom Lee Music in Hong Kong in June or July of '96. That's my Fiesta Red '57 RI.

[cooltone]

It's great to hear these stories!
I could never afford a 'new' Strat, so when I was 15, I bought a brand new 1979 Fender Lead II (remember those? they had the Lead I, II and III.. similar profile to a strat, slightly smaller.) with my paper route money.

I didn't get my first Stratocaster until I was 26.

[pc]

In the spring of '81 I was a few months shy of 14, and my mom took me to "New York Music," which, naturally, was in Boardman Ohio. I'd been taking lessons on my 3/4 scale Alvarez acoustic for almost 5 years, and as she'd promised she would way back when, it was time for my first electric.

After trying many off-brand guitars out and having the salesman say, "Well, it's a good guitar... for the money," she wanted to know what he thought was the best. Mind you, I was pretty enamoured of the Electra MPC guitar, since it had BUILT-IN effect modules. Hmmn, I guess there's a reason that didn't catch on. :p

Anyway, he brought out the Lake Placid blue "The Strat" and the brush-chrome "Anniversary Stratocaster," and after much debating between the two, I went for "The Strat." Mom bought me a Fender '75' tube amp to complete the package.

Mom ruled. No 13-year-old should have a 15" speaker powered by 75 watts, but hey, I wasn't complaining. And you wouldn't have heard it if I did. Good times.

Still have "The Strat," but it's pretty beat, and really, my hearing is still pretty good...

[LightninBoy]

I was 18, it was white with rosewood brd, bought it with summer savings and gave it to my younger brother a couple of years later and he pawned it like a little jackass when I left for the Army...

[casper g]

i was 16. worked all summer for my grandfather and saved everything i earned. at the end of the summer i think i had about 350 bucks. i went in and got a chocolate brown cbs strat with those horrible 3 bolt tiltmatic necks. wow, that brought back some memories.

[Rob Eadgbe]

When I was 19, in 1982, I bought a really early Japanese Squire strat. I think it was a '57 re-issue. It's long gone. I don't even remember what I traded it in on. My first Fender strat was a few years later, a heavily modded late seventies strat with a C neck, bridge and neck humbuckers, and a Kahler. My current number one is a '95 American standard upgraded just about everywhere. Only the neck body and one tone pot are still stock.

[adi]

I was 16, I think. My parents were tired of listening to me raving about fenders for half a year and decided they´d double the money I already had. I went to the "big city" and bought a sunburst MIM strat with a maple board. The same day there was a big school ball. I got really really drunk but when I got home the next day I´d overcome the hangover in a minute just to play my baby all day long.

Two years ago I lost the axe in a bet with a girlfriend and donated it to my old school.
every time I see people (J. Frusciante comes to mind) with sb strats I miss that thing somehow.

[sunburst]

Either 72 or 73. I was 12 or 13. It was a white late 60's Strat.

[dave hiwatt]

I got my first fender when I was 17.
A 66' strat i still have.

[Bob Craver]

In '78 at the ripe old age of 14 I got a near mint '72 Competition Orange Mustang for $150.00. I played it until I was 25 and working full time in a punk rock band. It's beat to crap now, on it's third set of pickups, second set of tuners, and third nut, but I still have it. A few years ago it got a much needed refret and is now playable again. I bring it out a few times a year for kicks and to let "admirers" gawk at its "stunningly well used" condition ;)

[brianf]

Got my first Strat. (In avatar) when I was 42.

brianf

[SamR]

16, in fact just a couple days ago. A 2002 (pretty sure) MIM in the dark wine w/ maple fretboard

[brianf]

Sam R you have the exact guitar my son has, but his is a 2000.

brianf

[SamR]

your kid has good tastes It's a nice guitar, got its first ding the other day, it's now a part of the 'family' anyway, just getting the maple board 'broken in' they had the same guitar in rosewood but it played like crap.

[Tonefiend]

I am still waiting to get my first real Fender! guitar :lolspin

I have had a few amps though. I was 18 when I got a Fender M-80
Then I got a blackface Champ when I was 22. Then a Blackface Bassman, Brown Deluxe, and a Silverface Deluxe Reverb.

[butnut]

In the early 70's, high school, I replaced my Japan 335 copy with my first Fender...a light blue Mustang. I think I paid $125.00. It was used but really nice and had a case. It was a good guitar and the first of many to be upgraded as the years passed. I got a BF BandMaster (from my school conselors son) for $100.00. It was like new...I wish I kept my old gear.

[LeftofHeaven]

Christmas Day 1985, I got a used 1979 25th anniversary strat. I was 17. Still have it, too. For a while, I thought all strats weighed a ton!

LOH

[56Strat]

I was 16 when I bought a brand new Fender Precision Bass in 1976. Played only acoustic guitar at that time, to many guitar players but no bass players. So my first Fender was a bass. Changed to a Strat shortly and played nothing else since.

[stratking]

I got my Am. Std. sunburst beauty in 98 when I was 17. It is an '88 in mint condition from a collector at a guitar show. He really didn't want it because it was the only, non-$2000 guitar he had. I love it and cherish it to this day.

stratking

[guitar george]

I was about 16. I traded a practically new Hagstrom III for a slightly used '64 sonic blue Strat.

[Fendercrazy]

I was 16. I traded a Kramer Beretta to my brother for his American Standard Strat back in 1989. Miss both of those guitars

[monstermikewelch]

I was 9 or 10. It was a used MIJ Standard Strat in white with a rosewood board, which thrilled me because I had a great picture of Jimi Hendrix with a Strat in the same colors. I traded in an Ibanez Les Paul from the 70's that I had saved up for with paper route and birthday money, and my parents paid the difference for Christmas.

M
www.monstermikewelch.com

[2001FatStratTS]

OK (pause while I put my teeth in), I got my first electric (see user name) when I was 42. Been playing acoustic on and off since I was 21. I guess I was inspired by the great electric blues players (SRV, etc.) and wanted to experiment with that style of music. I shopped for a long time, but knew deep down that I wouldn't be happy with anything but an Corona-made Strat. Eventually I fell in love the the fat strat texas special in sienna sunburst and just had to have it. Bought one along with a Blues, Jr. and have been a younger man since. Having a great time with my first Fender. Some day I hope to be able to play for a larger audience than just my wife and my dog, but that's OK I play for myself and nobody else.

[59 Strat]

Thirteen. I remember my sister taking my mom and me to Schneider's Music Center in Augusta, Georgia, just before Christmas. It was one of the early Fender Bullets, Made in U.S.A-- sort of a cross between a Strat and a Tele-- red with a black pickguard and rosewood board. I even remember the way it smelled. I get a boner everytime I think about it. One of, if not the, happiest days of my life.

[blustrat95]

I was 21. It was June 28, 1994, and I said to my brother, right after I got my Stratocaster, "Please don't tell Mom I spent $650 on a guitar."
Little did I know what I was really getting into.

[phil47uk]

I bought my first Strat at the age of 16 back in 1963. It was artic white and it cost about £147. $237 U.S, new from Jennings musical instruments in Charring Cross road London.. I had the bloody thing stolen at a college gig a few years later and with the insurance money bought a mint second hand Gibson 335. .. I still have a photo taken back then of my freind Roy Thomas Baker, ( Queens producer) about a year or so after we both left school playing my Strat while we were on holiday together in Switzerland.. I'll dig it out one day.....LOL

[holmis63]

I was 16 when i bought my first Fender back in 1979, a new black Stratocaster that i still own. One refret and thousands of hours playing later, she´s still ringing like a bell. Haven´t touched anything but the frets and setup, quite amazing Guitar! I love her!

[dirtdog]

If you're counting Squier, 1991 - P-Bass (24 years Old)

Fender, 2000, MIM Strat. (33 Years Old)

had a few other guits in between there, Ibanez, Yamaha


DD

[Erock_Germany]

I got my first Strat in 1981 - I was 16. It was a used one but it was a 1968 rosewood board in 3 color sunburst. My dad paid $ 450.00 for it and I had it until 2003. I sold it and gave my dad back the $ 450.00 and treated him to a nice long weekend in the Adirondack mountains in a nice lodge in Saranac Lake. Needless to say I had a little extra cash which he said was mine.....

My second one came in November that year since I became a Hendrix fan and a buddy of mine wanted a Les Paul. Paid a whopping $ 375 for a very late 1970 Olympic White maple board model. This one I also sold a couple of years back to a collector. Was a bit more beat up but still nice. I

I have recently got the jones for one of these big headstock and big logo 4 bolt neck Strats and playes some 1969 Custom shop models. These are as good as the originals as fas as I am concerned - minus the mojo of course. And we all know the real mojo comes from use and not from a relic job.............

[Billy Porter]

Ignoring my Amp

My First - A MIM 60’s Classic Strat – 48years young (I’ve had too struggle up till then with a 71Les Paul Custom)

My Second – 2 weeks tomorrow for my 50th . A CIJ Bound Tele - its in the box upstairs awaiting the big day

[Gris]

Ha! Everyone should have to asnwer this question/thread as a right of membership here.

First Fender guitar was a brand new off-the-shelf '68 Sunburst Strat when I was 13. Painted houses all summer to get the cash.

First Fender amp was a '66 Super from a guy named G.W. Smith who made pedal steel guitars. I had been bugging him forever to make me a steel guitar but they were too costly. Finally to shut me up he gave me the Super in '69. It had been in a fire and had a really cheesy cab on it. It was a few years before I realized what I had. GW was a blind steel player so the Super wasn't clean enough for him I guess, LOL. Only got rid of that one (in head form) a year ro so ago.

[Cogs]

My first Strat was a '66 in 1979. It was stamped "DEMO" on the heel.

[wingnut1]

My first Fender amp was a 67 Blackface Vibrolux Reverb when I was 14 My first Fender guitar was a 1999 crimson red transparent, Am Dlx Strat with maple fretboard when I was 40 years old. I grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan and it was much cheaper to buy a Gibson than a Fender.

[Sixpense]

Got my first guitar at 13. It was a Fender 62 Sunburst Telecaster reissue. Not long after that, I got a black 1978 Fender Strat (large Headstock) with a maple neck of which I still own almost thirty years later.

[davecanady]

49.... My son kept asking me how to play somthing on the guitar. I would take his electric out of his hands to show him. He was never happy about this. I "needed" an electric to play with him because none of my 5 acoustic guitars would do ;) One trip to GC latter, I had my MIM Tele to enjoy. I'm getting a Strat this next week.

[elicross]

It was a year ago, so I was 41.

I may have told this story before, but I was a Gibson/metal guy when I played in the 1980s. Had an LP copy, then a Les Paul Custom. For gigging, I backed up the LP with a pretty cheap Ibanez X-Series with a radical body shape, locking whammy, and metallic red finish.

Late in college, I sold off all my gear, bit by bit, to pay for school. The LP Custom was the last to go. I'd just about kill to be able to go back and stop myself from selling that one.

I barely touched guitars for more than a decade after that. Then, in 2006, I decided I'd try getting back into playing. Didn't want to spend a lot of money on a guitar (in case it ended up collecting dust), and I didn't want anything I'd be tempted to compare to my old LP Custom. So I got a Squier "Deluxe" Stratocaster. (I put "Deluxe" in quotes because it actually says "Standard" on the peghead. As far as I know it's only called "Deluxe" in the marketing materials because it has a matte amber finish and a matching headstock.)

Turned out I loved playing, and I was starting to get into the blues, which I'd always been a fan of but never played or studied. Then I got the DVD set of the 2004 Crossroads Festival, and I decided I *had* to have a nicer, Fender Strat.

So, for my birthday last year, I got myself a Deluxe Player's Stratocaster. Almost 30 years after I first picked up a guitar, I had my first Fender.

[hippiebob01]

on my 13th birthday, dad took me to the store and bought me a new 2001 mexican strat and a peavey amp. my first fender amp was a twin.

[phantomman]

In early '68 I bought a '66 sunburst Strat from the original owner for the then-princely sum of one hunnert yankee dollahs. I was sixteen years old an' the Fender replaced my severely-used/abused-and-totally-boogered Gibson Melody Maker. My first Fender amp was a '65 Deluxe (not DR) that I bought in late '66 for ninety bucks from the kid down the street who got a new Vox Viscount for Christmas.

Geez I wish I still had 'em both!

[Larson]

Got my first guitar about 1.5 years ago when I was 17 which was a Fender Stratocaster 60th Anniversary (MIM). I just changed the pups out of them to GFS Jimi Staggered. This guitar is painted silver (Blizzard Pearl) with a maple fretboard. I love this guitar so much.

[Mesotech]

My first Fender was a '76 Stratocaster which I purchased in '85 (I was 22 at the time) for three hundred dollars. I had two LP's by that time and decided I wanted to see what this Strat thing was all about. I sold it in '97 to a kid in the neighborhood, for the same three hundred dollars.