Elvis Presley Guitars - Acoustic Guitars - Elvis' First Guitar
Gibson Guitars has become synonymous with rock n rock. The preferred musical instrument for a legend of rock icons.  Throughout the years, Elvis had a string of Gibson guitars he used on stage -  his guitar first was but a very humble generic brand 

 In the mid40s, Tupelo Hardware was filling a niche that no one else in its area was providing: musical instruments, including guitars. However, young Elvis didn't care about that at all 

 

Less than 10 years old at the time, the future King was a frequent visitor who had his eye on a .22 bolt-action rifle. "The older boys in the neighborhood liked to hunt, so it was natural that he'd want to do it, too," said Bill Booth, George's son and now the store's owner. Forrest Bobo, an employee at the time, was married to a relation of Elvis' mother, Booth says. Bobo let the boy work the bolt and play with the unloaded rifle when he would come into the store Bobo told him, 'If you play that, you might be famous someday' just to calm his disappointment. Well, we know what happened."  

At one point, he promised Elvis a present, knowing the Presleys were a family of "slight means," Booth adds. The day his gift was to be given, Elvis came with his mother to show her what he wanted. "We would never have sold a rifle to a child, and his mother told him it was too dangerous anyway," Booth recalls. "His whole world fell in. He just cried and cried, he was so disappointed."  

As the child carried on, Bobo suggested a guitar. He told him, "Sit here and play with this guitar-you'll like it," Booth says. Elvis wanted the rifle, but his mother told him he couldn't have it, and that was her final decision. So he cried some more. But finally he plunked on the guitar, because it was that or nothing. Bobo told him, "If you play that, you might be famous someday"-just to calm his disappointment.  

"Well, we know what happened." In the years between that fateful $7.75 sale and Presley's first brush with fame, Booth heard from the youngster from time to time. Although Elvis spent much of the rest of his childhood living in Memphis , Booth says, he often came back to play in Tupelo as an adolescent and young adult. "He came into the store one day looking like he'd slept in his clothes for a week," says Booth, who was also unimpressed with the young man's longer, "greasy-looking" hair. "I walked over and waited on him. He bought a couple guitar picks and left, and I thought he was just some crummy looking guy who had come in."

"I turned to an employee and said, ' Leon , did you see that guy?' He said, 'Oh, that's Elvis Presley. That boy can really sing-I believe he'll make the big time.' About a year and a half later, he was on his way up. You couldn't turn on the radio without hearing requests for Elvis songs."  

Thirty years after Elvis' death, Booth still marvels at the impact of the local boy who made good. In fact, Booth feels that impact every day inside his store.

"It's unbelievable," he says. "People come in to see where he bought his first guitar. Every network & media organization in the world has been here and filmed the place." An occasional challenge is doing business with the extra traffic attracted by the store's place in history. The building was especially crowded this summer, during the week of the 20th anniversary of Presley's death. Anywhere between 30 and 40 people were continually "milling in and out" of the store throughout that period, Booth says - The site of a sale that would help alter popular music, Tupelo Hardware is now one of most frequently visited sites for fans who come to town to trace Elvis Presley's roots.

Even on a regular basis, tourists come from all over the country - and from around the world. "I don't know of a single person in the U.S. in my lifetime who ever attracted so much attention," Booth says. "We've never had delegations come on a tour bus just because Franklin Roosevelt gave a big speech here once - but we do because of Elvis."

Elvis fans will be glad to know that they can now purchase a guitar from Tupelo Hardware where Elvis purchased his first guitar. They come in several sizes and colors with blue being the most popular. Joe Perry of Aerosmith and Pam Tillis have each purchased a guitar

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