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My early guitars from 1960 quite unwittingly mirrored those of the Beatles.


My first was an acoustic Egmond similar to George's first guitar and which I purchased for £5 from my school music teacher and Aylesbury music luminary Charles Pope.


I then progressed (?!) to my first electric which was a greenburst Rosetti Solid 7 much the same as the one Paul used in Hamburg and converted with piano strings to act as a bass.


Having been defeated by the terrible action and dodgy electrics on the Rosetti I then acquired a Futurama III similar to George's except that mine was red with single-sided machine heads. This was bought for £25 (I cashed in my Premium Bonds!) from the lead guitarist of a local group, The Hellions, who played at our youth club and featured many Shadows numbers in their act. Their rhythm guitarist Ray Cartwright was kind enough to teach me some useful chords which helped me considerably.


Me with Futurama III and Truvoice New Standard TV8-T amp

Uncle Fiesta,
Going off-topic, in the ARC pic what and where is the brick building in the background? Some sort of church - with a house attached on the left? And what is the upside-down heart symbol on the entrance pillar?
Ray

My first guitar a Futurama II this picture from 1963, incidentally I only moved from that house 2 years ago.
Graham.

RayL wrote:Uncle Fiesta,
Going off-topic, in the ARC pic what and where is the brick building in the background? Some sort of church - with a house attached on the left? And what is the upside-down heart symbol on the entrance pillar?
Ray

Google Maps describes it as "Holy Trinity" so I suppose it must be a church. It's at 170 Wells Road in Bristol.

Here's a picture of the symbol on the wall taken from Google Street View.

Graham S wrote:My first guitar a Futurama II this picture from 1963, incidentally I only moved from that house 2 years ago.
Graham.

What was later described by Selmer as the Futurama Duo, this early (and cheaper) version of the Futurama II was made, if I recall, in Czechoslovakia.

With its more normal and logical switching, it at looks better than the Grazioso version as used by George Harrison, Gerry Marsden and Albert Lee.

TimRyland wrote:My first guitar was a Futurama from a local second-hand shop. A few months after buying it, I saw Argent on OGWT. I thought Russ Ballards Strat looked ultra cool with the holes in it, so took a jigsaw to mine. It stayed like that for a year until I saw Andy Powell's Flying V, so off came the neck and down the local timber merchants for some wood and I made myself one. I still have some pictures of it somewhere, along with homemade fuzz and wah pedals.

I had a red Futurama 2 de-luxe. I can't imagine what de-luxe referred to, it was awful but, at least, it got me started on the road to ruin.

My first electric guitar was a Burns Split-Sonic which I bought in December 1984 from Leeds legend Surfin' Dave. The deal was brokered by Dave's guitarist, an American guy called Chris Haskett who went on to play with Henry Rollins. "If you want it, that's cool; if you don't want it, that's cool too!!" I did want it and I paid £115 for it. (Dave wanted £120 but I beat him down...) I kept it for 10 years until Worcester Music City owner Stuart Field offered me his mint condition example. By then I also had a Marvin and a greenburst TR2. I couldn't justify owning two Split-Sonics so I sold the one I'd bought off Surfin' Dave through an ad in Guitarist magazine for £200.

My Egmond in 1959

My first guitar was an air guitar. Still have it somehwere, here's a pic of it.

My first serious guitar from Bells surbiton surrey
watkins rapier 22
This was around 1972/3 before this i had a old piano accordian that was my nans that i used to pick out the tunes on
and of course the usual unplayable acoustic guitars.