The ones that got away...

[ER]

Here are my tales of woe, please share yours so I won't feel so bad...

I posted some questions about my '63 VVRI in the tech section and had to share this;

Funny story with this amp, I bought it long ago from an intersting character who was selling a number of amps and I told him I was looking for a 2-10 combo. He had two, the vibroverb RI and a modified blackface bandmaster head made into a 2-10 combo each for $700 bucks. Well I could only afford one and I slaved over the decision for about 5 hours trying one and then the next (he was very patient and understood my dilema), I was agonizing over whether or not I could take them both (I couldn't) and ended up giving the nod to the VVRI for my prefered tone, how it interacted with my guitar, and my playing style at the time. Well it turns out the bandmaster was a K&M (two rock) prototype who knows what it would go for today, oh well. I wasn't to keen on a "modded fender" at the time.

And another; about 22 years ago (I was 19) me and my freind mike went to the city (SF) to check out music stores for gear. We ended up in a musty dungeon somewhere in the mission district where they had a large variety of used gear in various states of decay, I was imediately drawn to this funky looking brown leather covered head with hand-drawn symbols for all the controls and a cloud with thunderbolt and the word "Dumble". They wanted $800.00 which was alot back then for a head and wouldn't budge (probably on consignment), I had $600.00 on me, and my freind mike had maybe $50. This was before the days of ATM machines, plus we needed gas to get home. Oh, well.

As my wife alway tells me, it's only worth that much if you sell it...I'd have sold the K&M, but not the Dumble.

-E

[murphyterence]

I traded a double cut 59 junior for a early 70's Marshall Super Lead 100 from Tony Bowels (now playing with Hank Jr.) It had been modded by Diaz and had some epoxy module made in an ice cube mold and a 5 position switch that lowered the output among other things. Best sounding Marshall I ever heard...but traded for something else as it was rather fickle. I still know who ended up with it but he won't part with it.

[Andy Le Blanc]

I was going to work at Down Home Music in Fairfield Maine one day, and I
drove past a garage sale. I saw a guitar case sitting there and almost turned
in to check it out. I had $65 on me to get groceries after work and was running
a little late so I thought better and went to open the music store for the day.
A couple hours later a guy walks in with a beat case and asks me to look up a blue book
on this guitar he got. It turns out to be a pre war martin with a mother of pearl fret board
worth around $5000. We were both floored and after a bit I asked where he
got it. He said "right down the road here at a garage sale, The old guy had
$65 on it, I talked him down to $50 cause the case is in such bad shape."

[murphyterence]

I sold Dave Roger's a 54 Tele and a 57 strat back in 1980 or so...the strat has made a couple centerfolds and gotten a lot of press through the years. Just two of the many I would like to have back.

http://www.davesguitar.com/product/C20869B.JPG

[ER]

Thanks guy's I'm starting to feel much better!

I unloaded alot of my old gear to get through school, a couple of EV 12" cabinets, a mutron III, an old 110v roland/boss stereo chorus, a '59 bassman that I got as a chassis and made into a head. Those things I can replace.

I also had a black Ibanez-rickenbacker bass that I gave to my freind to make into fretless for me with an ebony finger board (he later worked at Alembic) and some EMG's where I worked at the time, well I started bugging him to finish it and eventually he confessed that it had been done for a while, but that he had "fallen in love with it" so I traded him a couple cheap guitars for it, maybe I can guilt him into making me something now that he's been doing it professionally for 20 years...

-E

[NowFender]

For me it's the one that faded away....my old marshall head with the mushroom tube holders. Lent it out so much don't know who has it now.
Feels like meeting the right woman at the wrong time.

[Darkbluemurder]

A small box Marshall 1987 model, late 60s. Bought it for 500 German Mark (= approx. USD 250, yes it's that long ago) and sold it for the same price. Of course should have kept it but who knew mid to late 80s? The fact that it sounded like shit made me get over it quickly.

I also had an Ibanez TS-9 which I never got along with - too middy, not enough clarity, not enough drive. I tried hard to sell it and got rid of it for 70 German Mark (= approx 35 USD at that time). Hell, now they are something like USD 300-350, right?

[DonMoose]

A lovely little SFPR that I tried to mod into a Marshall circuit (don't recall which one) before I had ANY idea what I was about.

Toasted the iron and the 6V6s. Used it as an extension cab for a while, the tossed it.

Stupid.

[Baxtercat]

I don't want to relive my pains one more time, so here's a bandmate's...
He had an original Explorer [what'd they make: 87 of 'em? I don't know] and sold it for a little profit. Worth more than his house right now though.


That's a good one about that garage sale Martin, BTW!

[Bob-I]

I don't wanta talk about gear I bought and sold in the 60's...

But in 1965 I bought a 59 Bassman from a friends older brother. His puppy ate the speaker cones so I gave him $50 and replaced the speakers for $8 each. He bought a BF Bassman brand new to replace it.

Fast forward to 1977, leaving a gig at a firehouse one of the guys decided to use the fire escape to carry gear downstairs to the trucks. He held my 59 bassman over the railing, by the original leather handle. Of course it broke. We only picked my amp up so we wouldn't be fined for littering. The old pine was so dried out it shattered like glass.

[butwhatif]

I passed on an original, 100% mint '59 twin w/tags and orig box in Detroit in '79 for $750, because I had just bought, and driven from NY with a brand new New Yorker from Jimmy D'Aquisto that I had waited 5 years for. I was broke. ouch