The ONE that got away!!!!

[robbylane]

I think it's safe to say that most of us musicians have come across a piece of gear that we were tempted to purchase, but decided not to. That gear stays in your mind for a few days until you finally decide that you ARE going to buy it.....and you go back to find that it's gone. The other case scenario is when you have sold a piece of gear and then later, REALLY wish you hadn't. Tell us YOUR story.
Here is my "one that got away". Some 7 or 8 years ago, I was visiting a Music Go Round store in Duluth, MN. I came across a Les Paul copy with a blank headstock, as in...no name. The only visible flaw on this guitar was that the pickup selector switch was missing the small rubber nub. The pickups were gold-colored humbuckers. The strings were set to very low action and the entire neck played flawlessly. The price?? $69!!!! I was VERY tempted to buy this guitar. Then, I decided to do something really stupid! I grabbed an actual $2,000 Les Paul to A/B that against the LP copy. Then genuine Les Paul sounded better, of course! That said, I returned both guitars to their display hangers and made no purchase. I then drove 70 miles back to my hometown.
During the next few days, I could NOT stop thinking about the LP copy and how nicely it played. Three days later, I drove back to that store in Duluth, determined to by the LP copy. When I arrived, I searched the store, but the LP copy was gone. Someone else had bought it.
Man oh man.....I mourned over that guitar for at least 2 years. Not depression, but definitely strong regret! I am a guy who has a hard time finding a guitar that TOTALLY pleases me. The lesson that I took from this experience is the obvious; should any instrument "feel" that right to me again, and I can afford it, BUY IT! Since that time, I have followed that creed. Meanwhile, whenever I return to that Music Go Round store, I always check to see if someone might have returned (sold/traded) that LP copy back to the store. Ya never know. Stranger things HAVE happened!

Please share YOUR story in detail.

Robby Lane

[jfraizer]

Hey Robby, I like your recent series of posts.

I'm sure there will be a ton of stories on this thread. I wish I had back some of the guitars I parted with......... Seven years ago the job my husband and I worked at closed down. If that wasn't bad enough, a week later, both of our vehicles died within 24 hours of each others. When it rains it pours.

Well, you do what you gotta do. I ended up selling several guitars. The one I wish I had back is my 86' Gibson ES 335. What was I thinking? Oh that's right, got to pay the rent.

[t4mh]

Two stories, if that is permitted. Me n equipment go way back and years ago I had an ol lady who was not much into my playing or spending money on equipment and both stories are slanted in that way. I am glad all THAT is over with!!!

1) A guitar player friend of mine was going thru a divorce and for whatever reason, he was selling, process of elimination here, the best ever sounding pedal steel guitar I've ever heard, ANYWHERE. An OLD Emmons double neck, excellent and in perfect condition! He only wanted $550 for it. Even back in the day the thing was worth about $2K. After a screaming fight with my ex I was able to come up with $500 to offer, only to find out that another guitar playing friend had already bought the thing for the asking price. He knew what he was buying as I have offered him lots of bucks over the years and he still refuses to part with it....

2) I used to hang around a particular music store and was good friends with the owner. An old lady came in one day, her husband had died and she wanted to sell his guitar which he had never learned to play. This took place in probably the mid 80s. So the owner said leave the guitar and he would take a look at it for her and try sell it for her with a slight commision. So this is obviously an old Gibson, we can tell by the aligator skin case which is in perfect shape except for the slightly scuffed top/back where it had been stood up in a closet and slid back and forth over the years. We open the case and there is a blonde 1956 Les Paul Special, like it just came from the factory! It still had the factory strings on it... We changed the strings and played it. Wonderful!!! Man, what a good sounding instrument! The owner said he would sell it to me for $800 and I was absolutely unable to come up with the money before it sold...Again due to my ex...

Things are much better these days!
Keith

[jazzstan]

In college, a GF's father had a blonde Gibson L-5, probably early to mid 50's. He said he was willing to sell it to me, knowing it would take me a couple of months to pull together the money. Once I had the funds, he told me there had been an accident and some drum gear had fallen and punched a hole in the top, and he would not be selling it. Frankly, I think he changed his mind. (and yes, not long after that, I change my mind about his daughter.)

[t4mh]

Ya know, I don't think I've ever actually seen an L-5. Just pictures. Having one would be just too cool!

Keith

[mojobone]

Factory green-burst '68 Gretsch Country Gentleman, tagged $800, coulda had it for probably $600; Sound Of Music, Kokomo, IN 1985, while I was in town on a dance gig. Sadly, my G-string wasn't full enough. There was this girl, though....

[jazzstan]

A variation: the ones that I LET get away...
In the late 60's I bought a used Red Gibson SG. I don't remember if it was a PAF one or not. A year or so later, I traded it in on some other guitar, and now I don't even remember what I traded "up" to! Also had a Black 68 Gibson 335 12 string for about a year. It had neck problems, so I got rid of it at the time. Ooops.

[jazzstan]

Ok... one more:

About 14 years ago I was driving home from my day gig, going down one of the main streets amidst a bunch of other commuters. I turned into the left turn lane behind a long line of cars and trucks. In front of me was a old pickup truck, and it must have been moving day for somebody, cause it was stacked with all sort of stuff. And then I noticed an old tweed amplifier.

The light changed and the traffic pulled away and I followed the old truck as we made our left turn. This guy made a wide turn and pulled into the gas station on the corner. Sensing one of those serendipitous moments of opportunity, and figuring I could rationalize a half tank to fill up, I followed him into the gas station and pulled up to the adjacent pump. Doing my best to be nonchalant and cool, I told him I noticed the amp, and asked if he'd want to sell it.

“Well, gee,” he said, “ I’m not sure. It’s my Mom’s. We had to put her in a nursing home this week, and I’m just clearing stuff out so we can sell her house. I don’t know how she’d feel about me selling it, so I’ll have to say no. I’m sorry.”

“The amp was your mother’s?”

“Yeah, she was a singer in small group called the Montana Cowgirls, and they did a lot of radio shows in the 1940’s.”

We chatted a bit more, and as the gas tanks were topped off, the conversation ended, and we both drove off.

I don’t regret not getting that classic old Fender amplifier. But I got something even better. The makings of a great story, and good hook that I’ve never fully developed:

“Mom was a Montana Cowgirl, back in the radio days.
She fell in love with a cowboy, and all of his rodeo ways. “