You CAN Get Good at Guitar with Cheap Gear...BUT 

Nothing worse for a beginning guitarist then saving & buying your first pedal, riding your bike home really fast and realizing you only got one cable. 😖

Wait! You started teaching in '97, but you look like you're in your 20's. Looking good, brother.

The cool thing about gear today is that there is a ton of really nice gear available at very affordable prices. Back in the 80's when I started cheap gear literally was crap. Today you can get a decent guitar (one that stays in tune, intonates well, and has decent frets) for a few hundred dollars. This is the golden age of gear for guitar players.

Yes you need good gear, but good doesn't mean expensive. A well set up squier is gonna be able to take you places.

Those blues legends from early last century often had shitty guitars. But they were THEIR guitar and they took the most out of it.

The people who have asked me this same question, I've always given the same answer. Buy gear that makes you want to play. A huge thing for me was buying a guitar that just looking at it, made me excited to pick it up. Almost like I wanted to be worthy of how cool it looked.

Mike is exactly right. My first guitar cost $100.00's. It had one humbucker, it was all flat black with a "strat" style body. No tremolo. I don't even remember what it was. I didn't even have an amp for like 2 months. I had to play it unplugged except when I was at my lessons. This actually made me really want to practice because I wanted to get back to the lesson each week so I could plug it in. This made me take baby steps and made me focus.

I started out on a cheap acoustic guitar my dad bought me. The problem was that it had buzzing frets, so basically half of the frets weren't playing properly at all. My learning kinda stagnated because of that: It wasn't fun to play, I couldn't learn a lot of songs. We eventually repaired the guitar, at the cost of a higher action. It is really hard to play fast, and your hand hurts after playing barre chords. I remember i went to a guitar shop and picked up a low-action shredder Ibanez, and it was just magically easier to play. Didn't even know I was that much better than I thought. Point is - don't let the price stop you, slow you down and make it difficult and not fun to play.

Hey, Mike! My dad used to say “a bad workman blames his tools” and I think it’s a very applicable little saying for guitar. My main guitar is a strat my granny bought me nearly 11 years ago - shortly before I put the guitar down for a decade. So when I picked it up again 4 months ago I resolved to never blame it for not sounding amazing - that’s on me, I have to improve. In a way being a relative beginner on a nice guitar feels good because I know with certainty that the guitar isn’t the issue with my playing, and it makes addressing gaps in my playing easier that way. Plus I really wanna feel worthy of such an amazing bit of kit!

A quote that comes to mind "all the gear and no idea". I know people can easily get pulled into that and I can certainly be one of them, so I made sure to get a decent starter pack by Squier/ Fender, instead of breaking the bank getting some expensive gear when starting out. I'd rather have had something cheaper to learn on rightaway instead of waiting even longer to get something at a higher price point to start learning. I'm so glad i did that. I then saved up my money for just over a year to buy my SG.

Expensive gear will not help you to get good, the only way is practicing :-) I think there is even an advantage of using bad gear: If you can play something on a bad guitar with high action you you can play it then with ease on a better guitar.

Lately I’ve bought a couple of “guitars I always wanted” and after playing them for awhile I keep going back to my strat I’ve had for 20 years.

i love how he just has a guitar in his lap in every video without even playing them

Another avenue to explore is used gear, I bought my kid a used brand name guitar and amp for around $100 and it’s nicer than my stuff when it was new.

This is exactly what happened with me. I started off playing on a classical guitar, which is way harder to play especially for a beginner, i was playing for a year enjoying the classical but i wanted a electric so bad. and then the day came when i went to a guitar lesson and my teacher told me I'm ready to have an electric guitar. I had to earn the electric guitar and it made the experience of playing guitar in general more fun and challenging.

As a 3rd year player I'll say this... In the beginning I always tried to replace failure with gear. My first guitar was a Washburn strat copy with a 10w amp for 100$. I ended up spending 600$ buying a thr10c and a partscaster. I forced myself to learn on that gear and always wanted more distortion because I was sloppy. I assumed my cheap guitar and amp was to blame. Fact is I was trying to do hard rock on a strat bridge and with an amp specifically designed for cleans it just didn't work. I bought a roland GP8 and that was my first experience pressing a pedal and hearing a difference. I now own an acoustic, that same strat but with texas specials, a spark amp, a ts9, a wah and a sugar drive. Now the sound that comes out of my guitar is exactly the one I have in my head. Everytone I want to get out of my strat I can get with my gear. By being limited financially I only bought what I needed and made the most out of what I had. Most of the issues I had with my gear went away when I practiced more. I don't often get the urge to play acoustic but everyday I get an urge to pick that strat up...

i personally think that haveing a realy bad tone doesnt make you worse but it does take away lots of fun playing

From my guitar experience: I got my first guitar about 11-12 years ago. It was cheap accoustic guitar (for about 25-30$) which wasn't really staying in tune. The second one I got was 2 years later - Takamine G340, I got it for around 100$. However, I always wanted to have an electric gutiar and I wasn't excited to play it. So 10 years passed, I could play some basic chords, nothing special. I got my first electric guitar (it was 1 and a half years ago) - it was ~800$ japanese 1990/1991 Burny Les Paul Custom (black). Since then I made pretty good progress - much bigger than through 10 years with accoustic guitar. This guitar really inspired me to play, I love it so much. And now I can see that I wasted 10 years with the guitar I didn't really want to play. Excuses, excuses, but that's how it goes. So yes. You can make cheap gear sound good. But better gear can also inspire you and make your life easier. The most stupid advice you can give to beginner guitarist is "buy the cheap guitar first". If someone can afford more expensive guitar, it's better to buy more expensive guitar, even at the beginning.

I have almost no time to play due to work. I got caught in the collecting trap for a while. Now I have a bunch of guitars I don't have time to play.

As long as your guitar doesn't cut your fingers, doesn't buzz on every fret and holds its tuning, guitar's fine. But nice tube amp with a quality speaker will make all your mistakes quite a bit more noticeable. Even cheap one. Cheap transistor amps got this quality of smoothing bad technique.

Ever have a singer come in, and they have all the PA gear, but can’t sing for shit? Gear is meaningless. Willie Nelson’s guitar has literal holes all over it. Brian May still plays the guitar he and his father built from a tabletop. My first guitar cost 75 dollars, my first amp 40 dollars. It’s about learning your instrument. If you want to ‘sound’ amazing, practice. Learn to train your ear. This is a great video for beginners. Beat the hell out of that Squier!

I have had many students who are able to buy very nice instruments and they stop progressing as much just like you said. I told them to keep the one they had and focus on practicing and every time they didn't listen.

My Hondo II LP copy I got in 1977 was holy grail of guitars for me at 13. I made the biggest strides on that instrument out of all my gear throughout the years.

I had an acoustic guitar with only 4 strings that was my first guitar but even tho I still learnt some songs and managed to make them sound cool

In my personal opinion I love the sounds and tones that you get from cheaper gear much more than what a lot of the more expensive stuff gives you. To me, the emotion just comes out through the music better than it does with the more expensive stuff.

If you can afford it, I suggest starting on a mid-priced instrument. By that, I mean a Made In Mexico Fender or something similar. You can get one for $400-500 used, and it's good enough to last you forever if you want it to.

Dude, I love your perspective. You're so earnest and passionate. Even though I don't play anymore, I take joy and even maybe some pride in being able to still love the instrument through people like you. Keep up the good work!

Over the span of 3 years I went from "Bedroom Nirvana learning beginner" to "album releasing, singer songwriting performer" this was all with the same white fender squire that was at most $120

To me, it’s not abt if your gear is cheap or expensive but more like getting the correct guitar teacher to teach the right way, hence watching your videos is the right thing to do 😂 I had to learn to play guitar the correct way even before if I can make my cheap guitar sing!

Thanks for reminding me about my original guitar, I haven't played it in years and years. Cheap (at the time, 30 years ago ) three different paint jobs and a pick up upgrade until the better guitar came along. Time to break it out and relive some great times.

TBH those peavey bandits are not that bad, especially red stripe.

Love the point he makes. Once you're in a jam / band situation. You realize your gear has to be up to snuff

I felt this. Always leave yourself room for improvement specially with gear. Been playing for 10 years now and just got myself a music man majesty. It was just surreal to own and play something so nice

This is a good point, you don’t need amazing gear, I bought my first squier for $75 at a pawn shop, that got me through about a year and a half. I think everyone should start with a decent guitar (not crappy) but decent, a $200 guitar can be bought for $100 or cheaper at a pawn shop or in the used market. Once I got my fender I had an amazing appreciation for the instrument and my playing greatly improved once I had the drive to play for hours, I was able to put it to use and get my money’s worth. Pro tip: BUY USED, I spent $75 for my squier and $380 for my fender, I even got my amp used (but relatively new) for about %75 of retail

Love your content man.

Definitely!!! I had a cheap Ibanez roadstar 2 and peavey practice Amp and I believe it made me better cause to get a decent sound out of it my picking and palm muting etc. Was top notch. When I'd get on good gear I turned heads. The owner running over to grab there guitar back lol. Actually happened several times. That cheap Ibanez I eventually I put a Duncan distortion and that guitar was instantly awesome

last time i was this early, megadeth still had 2 original members

This was a particularly good video. You managed to explain complex matters both thoroughly and precisely. And in a manner that anybody who is actually interested in hearing about such things would be able to understand. That is not an easy thing for a lot of people to do. That is cool because it shows that you care enough about your lessons to make the effort to put everything together ahead of time so that nothing is left out of your lessons. And having huge holes in your music knowledge sucks. Anyways, keep up the good work. Peace.

My first guitar was a cheap-o acoustic. Did wonders developing calluses on my fretting hand. Main thing was I had the passion and never thought bad of that guitar. Over time, my parents felt that passion and eventually upgraded me to a beautiful Gibson ES-335.

i love my harley benton guitar. it taught me a lot, but now i am ready for the fender strat i always wanted.

A good setup on any guitar makes all the difference, even a squier bullet or any offbrand guitars can be setup to be an enjoyable instrument. I'm still using my 200$ bass I got when I started a few years ago and I love it. I traded in my 15w practice amp for a fender LT25 amp a few months after I started because I wanted to have some digital effects and the ability to save multiple different tones and i havent thought about upgrading anything else since. My recommendation to anybody thinking about upgrading their gear. bump up your amp to an affordable amp like Fenders lt25/lt25rumble for

This was very wise words. I got cheap gear. I love my guitars. Thank you 😊

My first guitar was a Yamaha too. Yamaha Pacifica 521, still have it, so easy to play and made out of alder wood. Sounds great.

I started with an Arbor explorer copy with one humbucker. I ran this into a Acoustic 100 watt solid-state head into a Paradise 4×12 cabinet. My secret weapon? The Boss DS-1! Didn't even have a tuner yet. I felt like a rockstar! Circa 1984.

Thank you so much!!!!!! I’ve been wanting to buy a electric guitar but I have an acoustic and I don’t have the money to buy a really good one I started saving for one already I was starting to shy away from my dream cause I thought I wouldn’t be good enough but now I feel like I can still reach my dreams!!!!!!

A Harmony Strat copy and an old Peavy was my first set up! This is a great video for parents/kids looking to get into guitar (I really like the Squier packs for beginners). The only thing missing from this video was to talk about how a beginner doesn’t need a half stack, and eventually they’ll realize combo is the way to go.

I can’t imagine him getting the hm2 and playing Swedish death metal but I really wish I could

Totally agree with bonding with a guitar you have put the hours into. My first big purchase was a highway one strat, modded it and played it constantly for years. It may not be the best guitar I have owned over the years but it is always the guitar I go back to.

You make me grateful for my gear thank you sensei

The gear doesn’t matter, all that matters is the passion for music!

Great talk. Started on a Sears catalog Les Paul knock off. Wish I still had it.

Great advice Mike. Lots of truth to all of your points.

Great information! Good job😃

Great video. My first set of drums were cheap but well made Linko drums in the 80’s. I still have them - will never sell them. My second kit was a 90’s tama 5 piece. Still play this one at gigs.

my first guitar ever has been Hetfield's iron cross, been wanting it for a decade till i finally got it and started playing! everytime i look at it i wanna pick it up and learn a crushing riff. great feeling that is.

My high school van had 3 on the tree. Now I drive a Y2K Honda CR-V. It’s practically a corvette.

My first guitar was a Jackson Dinky from a pawnshop and my first amp was a Marshall MG30FX both of which I still use and love

Very wise! I wish I had known this 30 years ago! 😯

Behringer do a great line of cheap pedals that are clones of their expensive counterparts.

Great wisdom for the guitar lover like my self..m using a Chinese squire n a blackstar fly it all abt hard work n the luv of this instrument n the tone came out of it...wen my fingers didn't work n feel bored I just left it for few hours n had a cup of tea n watch Hendrix, knopfler or mateus asato videos n I feel inspire n pick up my guitar n all those efforts came back to life...u cant let go of this instrument if u once n felt in luv..its the feeling n the luv of playing dat ll lead u to the the promise land of guitar playing...

Develop your ear, then focus on gear. One other point for beginners -- learning on a cheap acoustic can be really brutal. It will tear up your fingers. You can definitely learn more with a cheap electric. I'd suggest starting with a used, $300 electric and them moving into more expensive gear and better-built acoustics.

It’s crazy how nostalgic I am for my first guitar after watching this. It’s a squier afffinity tele. I love that thing.

You made some excellent points. My first guitar was a cheap Hohner tele knock off; not the Prince guitar and I actually started with a small bass combo that my girlfriend had when she tried (not really) to learn bass. I played that for a bit, sounded bad. I saved up to by a Marshal 8080 valvestate and that rig lasted me for years. Great stuff.

Started with a plywood single cut Les Paul Jr. with a single P90 looking pick up plugged into the Aux. input of a Sherwood integrated home stereo amplifier. I was set with my second guitar, a Hondo Ebony Les Paul Copy. My Amp was a Fender Sidekick 10. What a dream compared to what I started with, but it wasn't perfect. I always figured if I really wanted to play guitar, I would make it work with whatever I had.

This video is so true, I started out on a yamaha around 10 years ago, and started learning pop punk songs. I appreciated it and it got me to a point to where I needed active pickups. I then picked up a schecter and started learning metalcore songs. I was in a music program at the time and I would watch kids start out on gibson Les Paul's and American Strats. They hardly would practice and didnt really respect their guitars. I would spend around 5 hours a day during the summer playing my schecter. I still have both the schecter and Yamaha, and many other guitars now, but I recently got to the goal of getting a Les Paul standard, and I appreciate it, and I worked to get to it. So I understand what you mean exactly

Thanks for your insights, Mike. Most of us, at least those who have enough money to fuel their hobby, will probably go through this gear-fixed phase you mentioned at least once. So we cannot blame each other, as it probably seems easy on paper: Better Guitar is better to play (maybe a less could only could be missing just a proper setup instead, but that's not the topic here), theoretically learning easier and faster to fret notes, a more lovely sound inspires you to play more. If it wasn't the fact the sound still is made out of your fingers ... Shit in, shit out ;) My two cents: Still, the easiest method to decide if you should really go through more expensive guitars (or any related stuff) the first time probably is, if you already feel motivated to do this already, and you are not one of those people having a fully working guitar in their closet sitting for years and just hoping, that super duper custom shop pro axe waiting in the basket of your musician's store website since so long will suddenly bring back the magic to go to the ever life-learning guitar stage again. Might work, or might not. I am not entitled to judge this in any way, of course. I went that route and awarded myself with a new axe (Ibanez S Prestige) last december. So the thing is, already having an Ibanez metal axe before and liking it as well, I wanted something more versatile. I always tell myself I want to use the full potential of that thing, also having a tremolo which is so nice, even with the cons a trem system has. And that doesn't mean to compare to any pro players who played for decades their life for many hours will still be better. I do not know enough how much talent affects the learning rate. Like, if someone gifted with learning guitar faster could do as good as someone else in half the time? All assuming both pratice the same efficent way and the age difference is not too big. Don't know. Luckily there are so many hobbies out there, where people splash ridicolous amounts of money as well. We should ne be too shy compared to other hobbies, when awarding us with lovely gear if this is our wish, while being no BB King, Gilmour, Satriani and others. Just enjoy making music. Nothing else matters, like a certain band had a song with this title :P

I started off with a similar cheap imitation Les Paul, played it for over 10 years, and eventually upgraded to an Epiphone Les Paul Studio. Played that for another 10, and only just recently I finally upgraded to the dream: Gibson Les Paul Standard 50s. I still only consider myself an intermediate guitarist, but holy crap is this guitar ever a joy to play! And it's just like you say: I wanted to learn guitar because of Slash, so finally having THE guitar is totally pushing me to learn even more.

I learned to play guitar on some hand me down rogue acoustic and I just have to agree with everything you said in this video especially about how you touched on the concept of not buying something until you need it lol

Upgrading my guitar helped my playing, and it made me want to play more. My old guitar had an uncomfortable neck, sharp frets, and was a little too heavy. Then I sprang for a Gibson SG, and it was love at first play.

I have this cheap guitar kit les paul style, i put together myself. It sounds fine and well putting your own guitar together and learning to play with it feels amazing, even though I’m struggling a lot.

Totally agree with struggling just enough. Learned to play on acoustic, then bought a used Ibanez ST style guitar to play electric. After a year or two I got offered a friends SG to play a gig and it was like playing a cloud! So easy and smooth, that was when I invested in a mid level LTD that was really my style. Also, I think we can definitely be inspired by great tone, but it takes knowing a less great one to appreciate it.

Still love my Spectrum acoustic (actually my 2nd guitar, 1st when 17, this one at 59). Now I have a Peavey Raptor EXP (that I've modified some with locking tuners and hot rail humbuckers & 5way supers=witch).that I love to death. Electronics guy, so built my own amp with solid state amplifier and decent speaker in a old computer subwoofer cabinet. It does the trick, but still mucking about with it like the addition of a Voodoo Giggity ambiance pedal (highly recommend BTW). I do still think about how nice my Sears 'Bluebird was back in the day... and it was an inexpensive, but well made, well set up git-fiddle! :) Great video!

I had a similar experience as you did, Mike. My first guitar was something I bought off a friend for $25. It was a DIY Les Paul copy of some kind that was painted with brown house paint. The pickups were terrible and the wax had at some point melted out of them (probably from sitting in a hot car, attic, or garage), the tuners were lose, and the action was between 1/2" and 3/4" at the 22nd fret. It was a nightmare. I also played through a Realistic keyboard/vocal amp with no effects. Painful and uninspiring experience...but I never gave up. That guitar and amp are long gone, but the passion never ended. The progress in playing would hit milestones and I would reward myself with a new guitar. Whatever it takes to inspire progress (new guitar, effect, amp, strap, cabinet, picks, etc) is the right move to keep moving forward.

It’s true about ‘your’ sound - I feel like I sound the same now as when I had crappy guitars with crappy pickups - I still sound like ‘me’. I’m sure everyone here knows the feeling

My first guitar was a squier strat which I played through a bass amp, then my parents bought me a fender jaguar and my grandparents bought me a fender mustang amp both for my birthday after I’d played for a year. After that jaguar I was hooked on guitars, buying cheap ones and building partscasters, cleaning some up to sell, and buying nicer guitars and building a collection of nice guitars and amps which after nearly 5 years since I started playing I can say I deserve and they inspire me to play every day. Plus I’ve learned how to make an awful guitar play brilliantly and restore them to better than new so I was able to get a couple of my nice guitars dirt cheap and fix them up.

Great video, with great advice!

Bought my Squier Affinity a few weeks ago. Having a full time job I often didn't feel like I had the energy to practice at the end of the day when I finally had time for myself. Then I started my 'Build my own guitar from scratch' project. Got me the plans, bought all the wood. It's gonna take months to finish and I know it's gonna be an awesome instrument. That alone is such a motivation to practice with my 'cheap' affinity because I wanna be able to play something on my self-made guitar once it's done!

I lucked out my first guitar was a 71 SG that still plays like a dream. It did make learning much easier. Now you can pick up great gear for cheap. The entire rig I'm using now cost about as much as that SG back in 78. Don't get sucked into the top brands and keep an eye on the used gear. Picked up a nice left handed seven string Schecter at a local store. It's now my go to guitar.

My first was a cast iron and plastic red strat no brand. I did buy it pure fore looks en because no idea. Couple years later i got my self a second hand Gibson Marauder, because no idea, but that one turned out right afcourse. I still used a crap Marlboro transistor amp. (I had it fore give away in 2018, zero entries). Anyway i play some mid range guitars now a days. Fore me the game changers where teechers who managed to spark me!

a way i like to view gear is like crayons: if you give someone a box of crayons with every color they'll have huge options to go wild but if you give a professional artist just like green and yellow they'll make amazing art with just the two colors. If you can master using bad gear you'll be amazing on better gear

About the part "New gear inspires you": Trough my personal experience I find that to be true. As any self-taught guitarist out there with little chance to jam with friends for whatever reason, I sometimes hit a point of stagnation in developing my skills. And that usually affects the motivation to pick up the instrument everyday. I found that I regained motivation to play and improved my skills whenever I bought a new piece of equipment: either a new guitar, a new amp, a new pedal... hell!... I bought a slider thingy for €5 and that made pick up the guitar for like 2 to 4 hours everyday for about a mounth. I did not became a slider master and i'm not into slide playing anymore... but it made me learn the basics of that technique, it opened my mind to new tones and, more important, it made me more confortable with different kinds of tunning. So, that's that. The same kind of thing happened when I bought my first looper, and more recently whan I bought a " Digitech Trio+" (wich are amazing when you don't have friends to play with). Everytime I get a new piece of gear, even cheap gear, I regain some enthusiasm and I almost always discover new exiting sounds and tones and i get better a little bit.

Mike brings up an excellent benefit of having an in person guitar teacher. You can't ask a RU-vid video or online tutorial to play your guitar for you to see if their is something wrong with it. Most likely it is fine but just knowing can help a student move forward with confidence.

My favourite part of starting on cheaper gear was that I used my brothers old acoustic to learn and had no idea it played terrible and the action was way too high so when I eventually got my own guitar it was a surprise how easy it was to play

Started on a Bullet Strat starter kit last year. It does the job. I enjoy it and won’t get rid of it (gift from the family). But, I just got an ESP Ltd 256 and a Boss Katana MK2 50. Wow, what a difference in ease and tone. But I also know that if I would have started with what I have now I would have sounded about the same due to my skill level and not the gear. Once I got to where I can change chords well and a few songs (rhythm portions) under my belt, I wanted to expand. Plus get something with the humbucker sound along with my single coil. But glad I started with the Bullet.

I got a gretsche I was playing for a while and I spent so much time tuning it. Never stayed in tune for more than like 5 minutes. Then I started playing my sisters PRS since she wasn’t really using it and because the Gretsche had a broken string (I didn’t have an extra to put on). Now I am using the PRS exclusively because it always stays in tune. I obviously have to tune it but compared to the other guitar it’s great. Maybe the Gretsche is broken or it’s the tremelo bar but I am selling it. Never again..

Good insights and advice. As an older beginner (75) I started 6 months ago with a donated First Act electric. It has a lot of short comings but but far fewer than me! I practice 10+ hours weekly and really enjoy the experience and progressing from nothing to something (especially leads over jam tracks). I've had a D'Angelico semi-hollow body on order for several months not because I'm getting that good but because realistically I probably don't have years and years to evolve. So, the kick up guitar purchase is probably a bit premature but you know, life's moving on... Thanks for your videos!

I learned how to play guitar on a Jackson USA SL1. The neck had a beautiful feel but for the life of me I didn’t know how to setup a Floyd Rose. It frustrated me for months (this was before internet) until I finally got it. It took hours of research from looking at books magazines and bbs forums. The most important thing I learned about getting your first guitar is neck feel and action. Scale length is probably the next thing. I just got a PRS McCarty 594 and the short scale length makes it so easy to play. I wish I had this guitar when I first started.

My first guitar lacked the stick-thing inside its neck, which made the whole thing a bit crooked, so the action was messed up. It was generally really high but even higher on the G, B and E strings. So my muting abilities got pretty bad because I hardly had to do anything to mute. Luckily, I got a new guitar two years later, so it worked out. The point is, cheap guitars isn't a bad thing, but a bad guitar is. And some people might struggle with seeing the difference.

I’m so happy to hear this. I play on all cheap gear. Maybe good strings LOL. As playing is just a hobby, I get great sound at home for a low budget that’s really just for me.

11:17 I'm on that boat right now. I started playing on 2010, being Alexi Laiho a huge influence for me. For the last couple years I've been really lazy when it comes to practice, but after buying Alexi's signature pickup (in my country everything is expensive) I've been motivated to learn how to sweep and some COB songs, since I feel I must "earn the right" to play that pickup.

I started off with a Drive practice amp and a parts guitar my uncle put together and had given me for a Christmas gift was i 14. As soon as he saw i was picking it up and improving, he gifted me an Ibanez RG320 and a Peavy Renown amp, both of which came from pawn shops. He told me i didn’t need super high end gear to play good and I’ve stuck with that the last 11 years. In fact, one of my best playing guitars is an Ibanez Saber i got for $60 at an EZ Pawn, and it came with Seymour Duncan’s lol.

My favourite guitar at the moment is the very first guitar I ever owned. It's an incredibly cheap JHS thing made out of plywood that my Dad bought me for Christmas 1986. I hadn't seen it since the early 90s when I found it rotting in my Grandmother's attic last year. I spent months cleaning it up, replacing hardware, pickups, completely rewiring it and generally trying to get it into a playable condition. Now I can't stop playing it. I've got Fenders, Gretschs, Schecters etc all lying around but I keep going back to this old piece of plywood.

i am slowly upgrading on my basses, i started with playing a 99 Peavy about 3 years ago and a old Crate guitar amp, and then like 7 months ago i got a Epiphone Tobias standard model and Fender rumble, slowly progressing.. thinking about getting a Mustang next. Your videos are great and inspiring and i also love ur love streams! keep it up ur awesome! :)

Oh god I don't miss my first guitar at all back in the day I was so young, still in middle school I used to play like 8 hours daily. Not the best pravtice sessions but learning songs. Still I got so much done with it but the pick ups were muddy, it would go out of tune just by laying eyes on it and the neck was wide like a freeway.

I remember Harmony guitars from the 1970's they were cheap guitars sold at Sears but they also made the Buck Owens red white and blue acoustic guitar and if you can find one of the original 1970 version of one of those today they sell for $3000 and up the first guitar I bought was a 1982 Fender Concord acoustic I got it from a pawn shop for $50 the action on it was terrible eventually i had a bone nut and bridge put on it and it greatly improved the playability of the guitar I still have it although I don’t play it much anymore

Oh man I loved those HM-2 Heavy Metal pedals lol my first guitar was a Sears special plywood Les Paul copy, and the amp was some plastic cabinet thing.

yo that strat is the guitar i really wanna see you do a review for. thats always been my favorite of your guitars.

I have been playing for 17 years, and I still have my very first guitar. Yamaha ERC-121. Base base base model that came in a kit with Amo and gig bag for $150 17 years ago. It's actually a decent guitar, 5 way selector switch, double coils on the neck and pickup and single coil in the middle. It is set up as my low tuning guitar, I was playing some Arch Enemy songs and Dethklok songs on it earlier today, still plays nice, although it could use some TLC, the selector switch and likely alot of the internals are rusting and the signal cuts out alot, but I just give it a whack and it seems to do the trick

When I first started it was on a couple different guitars, but I remember the acoustic/electric Harmony the most. In the early 90s, a group of us ended up in north Florida on the beach almost homeless and would get a free old beater acoustic from who knows where, and make it work. The action was terrible, and we would usually just use the old strings that were already on it. We were able to keep it in tune for a while. Anyway, Nirvana was very popular at the time, and we would sing and play the songs off of their unplugged album down on the boardwalk, and on the beach. Believe it or not, we would usually draw a crowd of other partiers that would join in and sing with us. We did not need a good guitar to make the magic happen. Those songs sound ok on an old beater anyway. But it did make my fingers compensate for the terrible guitar, and after a while, I could make it sound great. When you only have a bad guitar with terrible action, and you finally get something good, you are in heaven. Not to mention, you earned it!

Loved this.