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Thread: Your First Experiences with Playing a Fender

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    Forum Member ch willie's Avatar
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    Your First Experiences with Playing a Fender

    First bass--when I was 15 and my parents bought me a 70s Telecaster Bass and Bassman 50 head and cab. It was a tough bass for me to play because it was a right-hander; flipped, the controls were in my way, and the cut was so far up the neck that I couldn't barely reach the 12th fret. I'd play my Ric 4001 exclusively until I bought my Jazz Bass about 6 years ago.

    The first time I ever saw a lefty Fender was when I was 30 and saw a Japanese Squier Strat in a shop, but I didn't have the nerve to play it. Two or three years later, I ordered a MIJ 68 reissue. Neck problems beyond repair, but it was my first Fender. I traded it for a MIJ 62 RI Tele--great little guitar but it just didn't have "it."

    All four Fenders I have now do have "it." But I have a soft spot in me old heart for those first Fenders, no matter that they just weren't for me.
    If we'd known we were going to be the Beatles, we'd have tried harder.--George Harrison

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    Forum Member Laker's Avatar
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    Re: Your First Experiences with Playing a Fender

    My first experience playing a Fender bass was in 1960 or early ‘61 when I would play a couple of tunes on a ‘59 Precision bass in the first band I was in (I was a sax player). I really felt more of a musical connection with playing bass so in ‘63 I traded my sax for a used Fender Jazz bass. This is Christmas of ‘63 where I’m a senior in high school playing bass six nights a week (half my senior year) in a night club act.


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    Forum Member DanTheBluesMan's Avatar
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    Re: Your First Experiences with Playing a Fender

    Fender basses? In stores count or are we talking what we took home for the first time? My first Fender bass was a Squier and I still haven't taken home a 'real' Fender yet. I've built partsocasters but again mostly with Squier or MIM parts and MJT bodies.
    "Live and learn and flip the burns"

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    Forum Member Don's Avatar
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    Re: Your First Experiences with Playing a Fender

    I bought a new Squier Tele in 1983 or 1984 and a new American vintage reissue Strat in 1986. Those were my first experiences playing Fender guitars. That Strat was a dog! I got a great deal on it because it hung on the shop's wall for a year or so and I quickly found out why! I was just excited to get a Strat and didn't know better.

    The gang in 1989-


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    Forum Member DanTheBluesMan's Avatar
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    Re: Your First Experiences with Playing a Fender

    I bought my first Fender a Stratocaster in 1974. That's all they were called back then. You chose a color and that was that. Like Don, I was excited to get a strat. The salesman saw a greenhorn a mile away and steered me towards the dog of the bunch. I was so proud of that guitar. I showed it off to everybody. One kid asked if I'd trade it for his dad's old guitar. It was a Telecaster without a name on the headstock. I knew it was a Nocaster but to me it was just a 23 year old guitar that was beat to shit.

    lawdy that Strat was a turd. I struggled with it mightily. Nothing I did sounded good with it. I bought pedals as soon as they came out looking for that roaring soaring lead tone. Never found it. I have little doubt that it impaired my development as a guitarist. I had no mentor at the time, no encouragement from anybody.

    it got sold after my motorcycle accident that ended my band career before we ever played our first paying gig. I heard from the buyer that he had to replace the neck and two of the pickups just to make it playable. I was stunned. I had no idea you could change parts like that.

    I've since seen other '74s that were original and they had the exact same gooped up frets as mine. And yet somehow people think they're gold because they're old.
    "Live and learn and flip the burns"

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    Forum Member NTBluesGuitar's Avatar
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    Re: Your First Experiences with Playing a Fender

    I had one of the earliest MIM Fenders as my first electric guitar. It was an olympic white Fender 'Squier Series' Stratocaster. This would have been 1995-ish.

    I think I got it for something like $149 and the quality was quite nice! I sold it to a co-worker for his son. That thing was rock solid and a beast.

    Here it is: https://www.capitolguitars.com/listi...white/22244868



    "...pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field;
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    Re: Your First Experiences with Playing a Fender

    Bought a new Fender Lead II when the first came out. I guess around 1980-1981

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    Forum Member OldStrummer's Avatar
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    Re: Your First Experiences with Playing a Fender

    You're probably not going to believe this (but if you've read some of my posts, maybe). I got my first Fender in 2016. For most of my playing days, I relegated my time between my 1970-1 Framus 12-string acoustic and my 1957 Gibson ES-225. Marriage, a kid, work, mortgages, car payments, injury and the stuff of life got in the way of pursuing (more) guitar. But when the smoke of ruin and dissolution wafted away, I found myself well prepared to, as one of my favorite song lines goes, "Pick up my guitar and play (we don't get fooled again)."

    So, now with my own home again, a steady income, and no interpersonal encumbrances to get in the way, I went online and bought my first Fender. Never played. I didn't care. It was my "dream guitar:" An Eric Clapton Artist Series Stratocaster in Olympic White. I was as happy as a pig in slop!

    I've added to my collection of Fenders since then. It's a bit of an addiction. But as I said, I'm not taking food out my family's mouth, and all my bills are paid, so I see no harm in it. It now isn't the most expensive Fender I've bought, nor is it my favorite player. But it was my first, and I'll always cherish it.



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    Forum Member DanTheBluesMan's Avatar
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    Re: Your First Experiences with Playing a Fender

    Quote Originally Posted by OldStrummer View Post
    You're probably not going to believe this (but if you've read some of my posts, maybe). I got my first Fender in 2016. For most of my playing days, I relegated my time between my 1970-1 Framus 12-string acoustic and my 1957 Gibson ES-225. Marriage, a kid, work, mortgages, car payments, injury and the stuff of life got in the way of pursuing (more) guitar. But when the smoke of ruin and dissolution wafted away, I found myself well prepared to, as one of my favorite song lines goes, "Pick up my guitar and play (we don't get fooled again)."

    So, now with my own home again, a steady income, and no interpersonal encumbrances to get in the way, I went online and bought my first Fender. Never played. I didn't care. It was my "dream guitar:" An Eric Clapton Artist Series Stratocaster in Olympic White. I was as happy as a pig in slop!

    I've added to my collection of Fenders since then. It's a bit of an addiction. But as I said, I'm not taking food out my family's mouth, and all my bills are paid, so I see no harm in it. It now isn't the most expensive Fender I've bought, nor is it my favorite player. But it was my first, and I'll always cherish it.


    awesome, man. play in good health.
    "Live and learn and flip the burns"

  10. #10
    Forum Member dirtdog's Avatar
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    Re: Your First Experiences with Playing a Fender

    My real first experience was playing a Thinline Telecaster belonging to a friend of my Dad's. That would have been around 1978/79. I didn't really know what I was playing or even how to play, really. But I do recall that hollow body Tele! It had single coils so that would place it late 60's/early 70's model?

    The next Fender I played was again a Tele (~1984). Just like the one in the picture at the top of the forum. Could have been an MIJ or MIA, I can't recall. But it was a new model for sale in one of the local shops. I didn't buy MY first Fender until 1999 - and since then, I have owned a dozen or so Fenders in total (a couple of Strats, a couple of Teles, a whack of Jazz and P basses).

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    Forum Member VibroCount's Avatar
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    Re: Your First Experiences with Playing a Fender

    Growing up, all the musicians I met, few played guitar, and those who did played Gibson... all jazz guys. Only seeing Buddy Holly on Ed Sullivan did I notice a few rock guys playing solid body guitars. My family was barely into the lower middle class in money. The sporting goods store which had a hobby section in the back (where I got model car stuff) had a section of musical instruments on the side. Almost all Gibson... mainly hollow body, but some early SGs as well. There was Fender dealer across the street and around the corner, but all they sold was Fender guitars, Rhodes keyboards, and Fender amps.

    About 15 months after I started learning guitar, before I bought an electric, a new kid in school tried making friends with me. He had a cute younger sister. He said he had a Fender guitar I could check out. I went to his place and he had a Musicmaster and a tiny amp. It was so much easier to play than my cheapo cheapo Japanese classical guitar.

    Turned out his mother's father was the owner of the Fender music shop I had avoided. Then the guitar instructor (who occasionally sold me model cars) from the sporting goods shop became the manager of the Fender store. He sold me my first electric, a new Japanese import (St. George) for $99 which looked a bit like a Jazzmaster, but was cheaper than a Duo-Sonic. A couple years later he sold me my first bass, an early Mustang Bass, white with red tortoise pickguard. (He played dobro on Jerry Garcia's first recording session.)



    Above, me in the early 1990s with my '67 SG Special, me in 1966 with my Mustang Bass, me with my Fender Performer Bass mid-1990s.
    Education is when you read the fine print. Experience is what you get if you don't. -- Pete Seeger

  12. #12
    Forum Member ch willie's Avatar
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    Re: Your First Experiences with Playing a Fender

    VibroCount--thanks for the story and that picture. Great stuff!!!!!

    I come from that generation that was buzzing from the British Invasion: you could find an electric guitar at any department store. Awful things usually, but electric guitars were everywhere...
    If we'd known we were going to be the Beatles, we'd have tried harder.--George Harrison

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