What does the phrase "first position" mean?

First finger on the first fret?

Thanks,

John

First position is when you are playing you use the notes between frets 1-4. Maybee frets 5 if you don't like playing open strings.

Depends on the literature. The position FreeSpirit describes is called "half position" for double bassists, and I call it that for electric as well. First position is one fret higher.

Positions have numbers according to the fretwhere the 1st finger is. This way, 1st position is as you told, JohnBarr.

To me, 1st finger on 1st fret = 1st position, 1st finger on 3rd fret = 3rd position, and so on. This is possibly because I come from a classical guitar background, and that's how it's done there.