The guitar
My first guitar? Of course I remember it!
On my 18th birthday, my siblings and friends gave me one of the most incredible gifts of my life: a guitar!
It’s true that, as a teenager, I once picked up a black acoustic guitar from the street. I cleaned it, repainted it, and even put a strap on it. And wow, it was great fun fooling around while Elvis songs were playing. Even though it had no strings! But that was before I ever played my first C chord on a guitar.
There had always been instruments at home. My father liked playing the piano and the guitar. There was also a bandurria — when he was young, he had been part of a tuna group. At school, my sister learned to play the recorder, and my brother and I, the melodica.
But back to my first real guitar (the one with strings). My sister taught me my first chords, and after pestering for a while, my first guitar finally arrived: a Spanish guitar. It probably came from Bartolomé Pianos, a shop on Craywinckel Street in Barcelona that no longer exists. That was on September 18, 1983. What a surprise it was!
I spent so many hours enjoying it at home, and carrying it along on outings with the scout group… At some point, I felt like adding a bit of country flavor to my style, so I bought my first acoustic guitar. I remember getting it at Casa Beethoven, on La Rambla in Barcelona. That was back in 1987.
As I grew older, I stepped into the electric world with the J3 TS, a hollow-body by Washburn, inspired by the Gibson ES-175. I bought it at UME Sabadell (Unión Musical), a shop that has since disappeared. What a guitar it was! Paired with an amplifier, it was simply brutal. In the end, I sold it because it felt too heavy, and without the amp, it just didn’t have enough punch.
| Brand | Washburn |
| Model | J3 TS |
| Type | Hollow-body archtop electric guitar |
| Top | Flamed maple |
| Fingerboard | Rosewood |
| Electronics | 2 humbuckers |
| Controls | 3-way selector, 2 volumes and 2 tones |
| Bridge / tailpiece | Adjustable rosewood bridge + Washburn jazz tailpiece |
| Finish | TS (Tobacco Sunburst) |
| Notes | Bound F-holes, Venetian cutaway, gold hardware |
Later on, I realized that other artists also play this guitar, such as Keith Richards, Sheryl Crow, Bob Dylan, Liam Gallagher, and Ramon Mirabet…
These last two now live together in harmony.