BWM - yeah, that guitar was my xmas present from parents, 1973 when I turned 15...
A Shaftesbury acoustic [EKO manufactured...??]
They bought it on instalment plan from my mum's home shopping catalogue,
the same one we got our clothes from;
and some years earlier, I first noticed an interest in the pages of women's scanty underwear
models...

I learned to play on that guitar, trying and failing to finger pick like Donvan..
and after fitting a Schaller soundhole pickup, gigged with it in my first rock bands...

You're right, the finer points of guitar maintenance were a complete mystery to us small town kids..
There was no youtube back then, not even any guitar lessons at school.
That was frowned on.. the only activities encouraged were rugby and military cadets...
or school orchestra and choir for the 'softer' boys..
Definitely no teenage revolution guitar playing allowed...

If it wasn't for my dodgy weird hippy uncle who visited one day while he was hiding out from the big city,
I wouldn't even have learned the 3 chord trick,
which my mates were eager to learn off me...
Or an older local guitarist telling us splash out our pocket money to put 8s on,
so we could bend notes like rock stars..
or might have if they hadn't broke within minutes...

It's all so different and much easier for kids buying and learning guitar these days...