What is the cheapest guitar you bought?

Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought?
From: GUEST,buddhuu sans cookie
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 08:00 AM

Dunno. All my guitars are cheap.

Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought?
From: Myrtle's cook
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 07:27 AM

A £10 un branded Southern jumbo in 1984 from an Oxfam shop. No rod in the neck which had developed a very high action and coupled with the heavy weight strings it came with did not make for a comfortable inital playing exerpience. I did replace the tuners (which had lost all traction), replaced the original bridge which was so soft the strings had cut into it, and must have replaced the strings in a moment of extravagance.

It was a good transition from nylon strings to steel - and when I got a second hand ovation copy 5 years later (not so cheap - £50 including soft case) I could not believe how easy/comfortable the latter was to play. The Southern jumbo went to another Oxfam shop a few years later where it sold for £25. I like to think it has been recycled several times since raising a little more for charity each time!

Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought?
From: alex s
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 06:44 AM

Betsy - my Tatra classic cost £7 in 1965 and it still plays fine. It has lived in the corner of every place I've been and all my kids learned to play on it. I still play it every day. When Armageddon comes it will be there with the cockroaches...

Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought?
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 03:53 AM

Used to be really expensive to buy a decent guitar. Now I'm finding good guitars for $25-$50.
=(:-( D)

Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought?
From: greg stephens
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 03:34 AM

10/- in Barnstaple, c 1958. Mind you in thoase days ten bob was a lot of money, you could get a guitar for that.

Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought?
From: Bert
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 01:26 AM

Belt sander! I love it. The sign of a true guitar owner.

Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought?
From: Stanron
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 12:43 AM

In 1962 I bought my first guitar for three shillings and six pence. It was all plywood and had a Stauffer type adjustable neck. It had no strings, bridge, tail piece or tuners. It cost 15 shillings to put all that together and I had my first guitar. My dad was right, it was all downhill from then on.

40 odd years on at a Sunday morning car boot sale I picked up an unbranded guitar for £5. Stauffer type again, 24" string length but all solid wood. I removed the single bolt holding the neck on. There was no fretboard. The whole neck was a single piece of maple with the fretted part painted a different colour. It was intended as a classical guitar, too wide for me but 30 minutes with a belt sander put that right. A generous coat of black gloss and it has been my cooking guitar for years. I have several much better guitars but they all live in their cases. The old beater is the one that gets played most.

Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought?
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 29 Oct 12 - 10:56 PM

Sears Silvertone for about $25.00 on Dec. 1 1969. I saved my allowance for a long time and bought it myself. Taught myself on it. Every guitar since has cost progressively more. Kind of like drug addiction.

Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought?
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 29 Oct 12 - 10:24 PM

$15 Mexican Estella classical from another guy in the bughouse. Had electric guitar strings on it and a bowed neck. Sparked enough interest that I bought my Acoustic Black Widow by Mosrite for $150 three months later. Sold the Estella to another guy in the bughouse for $15.
=(:-( ))

Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought?
From: Beer
Date: 29 Oct 12 - 09:53 PM

I was 16 when i purchased me Axe from Eaton's. Can't remember the name but it was damn expensive. $15.99 if i remember correctly. Started turning the knobs on it and broke the string right away. about a month later got to town (Halifax) and bought the best string available and the fellow tuned it for me. Black Diamond Strings.
Adrien

Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 29 Oct 12 - 09:31 PM

I had a Stella once that was close to $20.00. Good guitar. I learned to play "Since I Met You, Baby" and "Lulu" (yes, THAT one) on it and wrote my first song with that guitar. The words were horrible, but I intend very soon to reuse the melody because it's very pretty. I sanded and painted Stella's body with a kitchen enamel. Did't hurt the sound one bit. Must have been under the influence of having learned to sing Lulu. I think I was a young 13-year-old.

Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 29 Oct 12 - 09:19 PM

$37.50 for a Global. It's a nice guitar.

Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought?
From: Betsy
Date: 29 Oct 12 - 09:09 PM

Tatra Classic - £ 7.00 ( about $10 ) 1964
Did loads of Gigs with it - Busked in many places especially in Amsterdam in 1968 ish when the Police WOULD confiscate your gear, played on Dutch Radio KRO with fiddler Clive Collins an eventually drifted to a new steel stringed Yamaha FG 180. Jeez he Tatra days were happy days !!!!
Still got it - but it is unplayable / falling to bits.

Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought?
From: Mark Ross
Date: 29 Oct 12 - 09:04 PM

$14.95 at G. Schirmers in Manhattan in 1964. The bridge started puling up from the tension of steel strings, so I put a set of nylon strings on it and sold it the next year for $15.

Mark Ross

Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought?
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Oct 12 - 08:35 PM

A Guild D 25, $125.00

Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 29 Oct 12 - 07:37 PM

I bought one of those "First Act" guitars WalMart sells for my grandson at a thrift store for $5.00. I don't claim it, but it lives at my house. Hard to fret, has lousy intonation, but tune it to an open tuning and it's a purty funky thing to do some slide on.

And I bought my first nylon-string guitar for $15.00 from a guy who came into a bookstore I was working in. He wanted to sell some second-hand books, but they were all junk. He was pretty hard up for cash, so he sold me the guitar instead. It wasn't much good, but it sparked enough interest in playing on nylon that I soon bought a better one. I think I gave it to a friend.

Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought?
From: Bobert
Date: 29 Oct 12 - 07:36 PM

For 40 years I played my '66 Martin D-18 that I bought as a teenager... Then I found a $40 S.Yari in a pawn shop, bought it, and have been playing and performing with it ever since...

Answer; $40...

B~

Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought?
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 29 Oct 12 - 07:02 PM

Back in the 70's my son (14) started out with a $50 guitar from Rufus Guitar Shop in Montreal (Which is now in Vancouver). He left it behind when he went away to school, moved on up, practiced lots and now he has two of those custom made ones from that woman in B.C. I sold the guitar back to Rufus Guitar shop. It may not have cost us anything?!

Subject: What is the cheapest guitar you bought?
From: Bert
Date: 29 Oct 12 - 06:52 PM

I'm starting this thread 'cos I bought a guitar for $4.99 at Goodwill the other day. A new set of strings more than doubled it's cost. It doesn't sound too bad, I'm going to have to lower the action a tad. It has a thumb nail sized hole in the side which doesn't affect anything other than the appearance.

Oh, and freebies don't count.