Your First Strat/Your Story

kraigeyroxx · July 2nd, 2009, 10:19 AM

My first Fender Stratocaster was actually my first guitar. I was lucky enough to have my father who is a lover of music and an ex roadie of some big bands so when he introduced me to his friend Ian, a session guitarist at the time i wanted to play guitar from that day on.
Ian took me into his dining room and tried to teach me 'Smoke On The Water' which i picked up quite quickly. At the time it was quite close to xmas and i knew i wanted a guitar as my gift. I told my dad "I want the same guitar as Ian" to which my dad replied "thats a Fender Stratocaster, are you sure thats the one you want" of course im sure its a STRAT!!

The month leading to xmas passed and on xmas day i awoke to find a 1998 Black MIM Fender Stratocaster with maple neck in a hard case under the tree

I still have that guitar and it is my main guitar, thats where my obsession started and for me the Strat is the best guitar available.

Incase any of you ask, the Strat Ian owned was an original 1970 Fender Stratocaster with rosewood fingerboard, it was white when he got it but it was then and still is a yellow/creme colour

Lets hear your story

Craig

ThreeHands · July 2nd, 2009, 10:37 AM

Wow, My first tune was smoke on the water. from an friend from school.
my first electric guitar was a lest paul copy with a zero fret.
When I really worked out how to play I sold that and got a strat copy (a MIJ profile)
It was rosewood neck unit. but by around 1987-1988 I saved up enough to get a fender and a 200watt WASP Valve amp an quad.

now I play a 1957 maple neck Strat and a custom built valve amp

Namelyguitar · July 2nd, 2009, 11:21 AM

An '06 Affinity Fat (rosewood) was followed in the last month with a more fun axe - a mint '07 MIM (maple) SSS, and daily practice-fever has hit! Well lads, time to practice...

furtherfan · July 2nd, 2009, 12:19 PM

when i went shopping for a strat, i wanted a brand new sunburst strat like i had always admired. i tested a bunch of strats but to my big dissapointment, there was no real click in sound, playability and tone.......... they looked great though.

just when i was about to leave the store without a purchase, i saw a beat up white strat standing behind the glass. i though it was a special one from someone famous (it was really used...) and that it was not for sale.. but i asked, and they said it was for sale and asked me if i would like to give it a try. i did, and then it happened.. love at first chord... it was the G-chord... just a simple chord. but i thought angels were pissing in my ear.

i bought it together with a blues junior. It turned out to be a heavily customised 25th anniversary strat. the Pickups are Seymour Duncan SS-1 i found out later (bridge is a little humbucker), the neck was replaced, the color was painted over (though you can still see the silver paint coming through the new paint because of the heavy use. It belonged to a local professional guitar player that had a stroke the year before...and had to sell his equipment.

later i called the guy. turns out that he's playing again (had to learn from scratch..) and that he still remembers the guitar. he just forgot the customisation.. and how long it was ago..

i just got it back from the repairshop. new frets, new nut, and the wires are checked everywhere.

it even sounds better than it allready did.

Extra crispy · July 2nd, 2009, 12:23 PM

True Story. I was living in a small coastal town in Oregon back in the 70s. Was playing local R&R gigs, having a good time. My main (only) guit was an SG Deluxe.
Well, my girlfreinds parents were freinds with the local Chief of Police, who was a bass player in a country band that played the Elks and Eagles club circuit. ;)
Try, for a moment, to imagine the delicate relationship between a 25 yr old hippie R&Rer, and a small town "redneck" Chief of Police in 1975. (Those of you that can remember, are probably chuckling right now.)
He had a Gibby EB0 bass that was a perfect match to my SG. So, at a family BBQ at the G'fren's parents place the Chief was there and started telling me that he had a Strat that he would trade me for the SG. Turns out the Strat is a 68' sunburst. I made the deal on the spot and loved my first Strat. Getting rid of it about 5 years later was probably the stupidest thing i've ever done.
So to compensate my guilt complex for losing that beautiful instrument, I have bought a dozen or so newer Strats. It has only helped a little.

Steelskin · July 2nd, 2009, 01:20 PM

My first guitar was a strat copy by samick. I always loved the feel of strats. My first one was a blue affinity squire i pulled out of a messed up closet in my buddies basement. At the time i didnt even notice the twist in the neck. I played it for two years like that and loved every note.

Fuzzface_64 · July 2nd, 2009, 01:30 PM

My first strat was a Tokai copy. It had one humbucker and two single coils. Kind of a crappy guitar. I think I payed about $250 for it...

I traded it in for another strat....a Jackson, that also had one humbucker and two single coils. I replaced the original humbucker with a DiMarzio PAF Pro, and removed the middle single coil. Then I replaced the neck single coil with a stacked DiMarzio....(can't remember it's name though)

hjeong1114 · July 2nd, 2009, 01:55 PM

The story is a little long for me, but I'll try to make it as brief as possible:

My first was a squire strat, in high school. I only had it for a few months and sold it because I wanted a "better" (more expensive i should say) guitar to get an ibanez s470. I had no idea what a good tone was and just wanted to learn to shred metal. But several years passed, and i lost interest in guitar. So I let my brother "borrow" the ibanez since it wasn't being played at all. Then I started a band as a vocal/rhythm guitar and asked my brother if i can have the ibanez back, only to find out it had been sold to a pawn shop (I was pretty damn pi**ed). Then I bought an acoustic and a prs se custom (which I love). However, I became so attracted to that clean bluesy tone of the strat, and I decided I had to have one. I searched hours on ebay for a used american strat. I thought I had a good deal on a 2003 strat that was in "excellent condition" and when it finally arrived, I saw a piece of crap with rusts, dings, and scratches. I also think the guitar smelled like beer. I ended up returning the guitar, and bought a 2008 american standard from a more reputable ebay seller. I'm very happy with it and trying to find a good amp to go along with it.

sarNz · July 2nd, 2009, 04:08 PM

Sold my Peavey Wolfgang on ebay for more than I paid for it, then impulse bought a strat. Best guitar I own!

AllroyPA · July 2nd, 2009, 04:46 PM

A picture tells a thousand words ....righty turned lefty (no name brand)

eyerish · July 2nd, 2009, 05:48 PM

I think I have posted this somewhere here before.
The abridged version.
I was a paperboy,this was 1973 or 1974. I already owned several guitars. Silvertones,Airlines,etc. A customer of mine who was from Norway or Sweden or somewhere like that was leaving the USA going home. He had been here since the end of WWII and married an American women who had just died. He was selling a ton of his stuff. He was a musician. I was hanging around him and his wife pretty often learning chords and such and his wife made a punch from apple cider that was practically a religious experience. I was collecting for the newspaper and taking his cancellation order,when he asked if I wanted to buy one of his remaining guitars. I told him the one I wanted but didn't think I could afford. Was the burst strat with rosewood board. He offered it to me at a price which made me nearly crap myself. I rushed to the the bank(a Folgers coffee can) got the money went back and bought it. It was a 1970 Stratocaster in sunburst/rswd,and he gave me a like year Fender vibrochamp. Not my first guitar but my first strat. I don't have either now,but it was the beginning of a beautiful (and at times expensive) friendship.

kraigeyroxx · July 3rd, 2009, 10:46 AM

Some graet stories guys, I had fun reading them ;-)

illinoisboy · July 4th, 2009, 12:10 AM

Mine was a Squire (can't remember which model). It was my first guitar. I was eleven, and was watching TV with my folks. There was a special on Stevie Ray Vaughn. I told my dad that I wanted to be like him. I loved the sounds he was making, and just knew that it was what I wanted. So my dad, being a guitar player himself, got me the Strat for Christmas. I love that guitar, and whenever I go back to see my parents, I still pull it out and noodle with it. It isn't the nicest guitar, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

firesgt911 · July 5th, 2009, 10:00 PM

So there I was, 16 and standing in GC lusting after every guitar in there. I didn't know how to play, or what was good or bad, but I knew I had to have a guitar. I came in everyday for like 3 months. One day, the owner walked over and gave me an American Strat. He said how much money could I get by Friday? I told him $200. He said, bring me the money and this is yours.

It took me 4 years to realize it was an American! By that time, I had a crazy ex-girlfriend who decided she wanted to Hendrix it-smash/fire. It was older and perfect in everyway, other than all the crappy stickers I put on it. Man I wish I still had that thing. Oh well, I like my H1.

JonRambo · July 6th, 2009, 01:44 AM

First guitar I got was for Xmas when I was in 7th grade. I'd wanted a guitar for a while but as a deal I had to learn to play piano first since we had a piano and my parents wanted to see if I'd stick with it. For xmas I got a strat style Peavey guitar. Loved it, but I didn't know what to do with it at first as I had no clue how to play a guitar. Now I'm glad that I had to learn the piano too.

Strat-o-player · July 6th, 2009, 05:46 AM

I was working in a Strip joint in the Tenderlion in S.F circa1991 and one day walking by a Music store up on Polk st. I went into Kill sometime waiting for my Ex-GF-Stripper to get off Work at my Club, So I was looking around the Guitar store and noticed a Black Squier hanging on the wall and it said USED $150 MIJ '85 contemorary style H-S-S so I offered $125 and they Took it, w/ a Smile I walked out into a Taxi for a Short Ride back to the Club. Well when I went in to the Club I was greeted by the EX-Stripper GF and the DJ working that night and He says Where did you pick that up at and I told him then he says that's my old Guitar I sold last week to that store for $65.. Well the Ex GF pulls out $125 and hands it to Me and says here Happy New Guitar day... the DJ frowns and says it's set up Lefty cuz he's just learning and needed to sell it for the new guitar he just bought. After the next couple days I went back to the Store to inquire bout a Case and told them I know how much they paid for that Squier and I needed a Case for it. Well one guy go's in back and comes back out w/ a used MIUSA Fender HSC and hands it to Me and says Here take it and Go.. Out the Door I went and I never looked back. Here it is After extensive MODs and a way better neck ie Boogie Body early 80's Lynn Ellsworth. It does seem to play itself. its in the Middle on floor & futon. o_-)

Dixie Duncan · July 6th, 2009, 01:32 PM

My gf at the time made me enter a big guitar playing competition that she heard about. We argued back n forth for a while. I told her that the people who enter those things are at the top of their game, and I wasn't that good. Eventually, I gave in and entered just to prove her wrong. It was cold January evening. We got there late, and my hangs and guitar were freezing. We literally walked in the door, and they called my name (pre-registered by phone). I told the guy I wasn't warmed up and m guitar was outta tune, he said no prob, we will give you 30 seconds to tune her up. So, i tuned up and played my 3 minutes worth (which I just made up on the spot).

In the end, 3rd place was a gift certificate, 2nd place was a new set of tires (which I had just bought the day before), and 1st place was an american strat.

I ended up with 1st place. (that'll teach her)

At the time I didn't like strats, so she stayed in her case for about 5 years. As I matured, I fell in love with her. Now she's my number 1, and I also have the David Gilmour model, and a MIM with Bareknuckle pickups.

mutato · July 6th, 2009, 02:25 PM

Here's mine. I bought it new in 1986. Olympic White MIJ Contemporary Strat with a '65 Pro Reverb. Great combo. I don't have either now!

But at least my friend owns the Strat now, so I get to see it every so often. It's in dead mint condition even though I gigged hard with it for about 5 years.

kraigeyroxx · July 7th, 2009, 05:15 AM

[/quote]I ended up with 1st place. (that'll teach her)

At the time I didn't like strats, so she stayed in her case for about 5 years. As I matured, I fell in love with her. Now she's my number 1, and I also have the David Gilmour model, and a MIM with Bareknuckle pickups.[/quote]

Id like to see some pics of your Strat youi won. Great story by the way dude! I wish i had the confidence to enter comps and such.