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Post subject: Re: Do you regret having sold any gear in the past?
Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2013 1:05 am
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Short answer--no.

Loner answer--the only time I ever sold anything was my first cheap acoustic that I never bonded with and no longer used--so when I got an offer to sell it for the same price I paid--I took it.

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Fender Play Winter Sale 2020
Post subject: Re: Do you regret having sold any gear in the past?
Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2013 2:19 am
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Well, yes and no!

About 10 years ago I had to sell a wonderful Iron Maiden Signature, made in Japan because I went through a bad time and needed the money.
I really regretted that for many years!
I also got rid of some low to medium budget guitars before that and always regretted it.

Now my attitude has changed.
Thinking back I realize, that most of the time I didn't "cry after those guitars", I "cried after good times I had with them" (melancholy).

Let's face it: I didn't sell them without reason, right??? (except the Iron Maiden one).

Right now I'm in a kind of a radical change in thinking:

I was able to buy lots of gear during the past 3 years and I DID!!!!
(talk about GAS!!!)

After a while, actually JUST RECENTLY during the past 4 or 5 months, it became more and more clear to me that "piling up guitars at home" just doesn't make sense at all.
After all, it was always the same 4 or 5 guitars I picked up regularly, the others were mostly played out of bad conscience about letting them collect dust or maybe for just comparing them to each other.

They're all GREAT and high quality guitars, each with unique touch, feel, sound and soul but for whatever reason there's only very few, with which a real kind of "relationship" evolved.

So, a couple of weeks ago I decided to reduce my collection. I had already gone down from a total of 22 down to 17, which left me with the best guitars I ever owned.
Now I wanted to really listen to my heart and my brain.

Right now I'm selling off a lot of gear. I'm already down to 10 (1 acoustic, 1 Fender Precision bass, 1 Gibson Firebird, 1 Ibanez RG, 5 US Fender strats and my "Sharpie Project Strat").

The funny thing is: even though I really loved the guitars I sold, I don't miss them really, no matter how hard the decision was! That shows me, I'm on the right path!

Somebody said once: get that one guitar which does the job and you're there!!
HE WAS RIGHT!! It just took me several years to recognize.

Well, I play several different styles, so I need 1 for each but that should leave me with maybe 7 plus my project strat (just to have something personal and different from stock guitars).
I decided to keep:

1 Acoustic (I hardly play acoustic) just in case

1 bass (just for personal recordings)

1 Floyd Rose equipped Ibanez (for the harder stuff)

1 Gibson Firebird V (closes the gap between standard strats and the Ibanez)

My #1 American Standard plus an almost identical backup

1 Texas Special US strat in open tuning for slide

1 personal project strat.

Right now I have two additional strats (2x US Buddy Guy Signatures).
These last two are the hardest decision to find.
Other than that, I'm perfectly happy as it is now and

I DO NOT MISS ANY OF THE OTHERS!!! :shock:

Selling the rest freed several thousand bucks instead of nailing them to seldomly played instruments which collect dust, no matter how great they are.

To sum it up:

1st: realize that you can't have them all!!!!!!
2nd: realize that if you sold them, there was a reason! If it had been your soul guitar, you would - for nothing in the world - have parted from it!
3rd: make yourself clear, what you REALLY want!
4th: instead of buying different guitars because each of them can do a certain song better than the other one, buy a very good amp and all of a sudden you realize, that your favorite guitar CAN DO IT ALL!! A high class Amp is cheaper than 10 different guitars!
5th: realize that all of a sudden you're happy and satisfied! :wink:

8 guitars is still a lot but I'll need some more time to evaluate each of them. I won't be done when reaching 8 but I'll have a thorough basis for final decisions then.

I'm sure, there will be more to let go! Guitars in question are the Firebird and my project strat.

IT WAS A VERY LONG AND PAINFUL WAY BUT HONESTLY: I'M HAPPIER NOW! 8)

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Kindest regards from Germany, Dee
My recordings --> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_mu ... dID=564337
STRATS ROCK!!! but Teles and Firebirds, too!


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Post subject: Re: Do you regret having sold any gear in the past?
Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2013 7:26 am
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Aspiring Musician
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Joined: Thu Jan 27, 2011 4:09 am
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Location: Ontario
Yes and no....I regret some of the gear I've lost due to stupidity,insolvency, and plain bad luck (has something to do with not having eyes in the back of my head and being a little to trusting at other times). I think what I miss and regret not having anymore most are a couple of funky old tube amps... two late 1950's 5 watt Nationals with one volume control and an 8 inch speaker, an early '60's twin twelve Harmony 415 that had a gorgeous tremolo and 2 Jensen greenbacks, a Magnatone 240 that had a real pitch shifting vibrato circuit,and lastly an old Stella parlor guitar that was from the 30's or 40's. :wink: :wink:

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Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancin'


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Post subject: Re: Do you regret having sold any gear in the past?
Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2013 8:15 am
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I haven't sold very many guitars compared to what I currently own, but I do regret letting two of them go. The first was a 1971 Tele Custom that I bought the first month I was back from Vietnam, having parted with my Silvertone guitar and Sound amp before I left for Fort Polk. I had always wanted a Fender Telecaster and this was the one.

And contrary to what some people think or say, sometimes you just simply can't hang onto the one guitar you know and love. In 1979 I was behind on house payments and I had nothing else of value to sell to square things with the bank, so I sold my pride and joy, in original Tolex hard shell case, to a drunken $@!&* of a woman who coveted it. I still regret selling that guitar to this day, but I hung onto the house and my son lives there with his family now.

The other guitar I wish I had hung onto was one of the very rare Takamine GZ-300 solid body electrics (1983-84) that I found hanging in a guitar shop in Alexandria, MN, about 1995. It was an odd sort of guitar, but very cool and one of my first guitars with humbuckers and a set neck. It played and sounded a lot better than I was at playing and I foolishly put it on eBay when I living in Texas in 1999. I may buy one again some day if I can find one in good shape for the right money...

Image

The only amp I feel a little bad about parting with was my 1964 Fender Super Reverb, but in the end I decided it was worth too much to gig with and deserved better than to just be sitting around my Music Room at the time. It started out life as the amp used by George Jones' rhythm guitar player, whom I bought the all-original amp from in 1982 for $275. It went to a guy in California who later sent me some surf music recordings he had made with it. He was good.

Image

Image

At least I can still look at the pictures...

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Dennis in CR
Rockin' since 1963


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Post subject: Re: Do you regret having sold any gear in the past?
Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2013 10:07 am
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Aspiring Musician
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Joined: Thu Mar 24, 2011 2:50 pm
Posts: 469
Location: TURKEY
Yes I do regret selling my gear


A Watkins Dominator 17 watt tube amp
A Selmer Treble'n'Bass 50 head (traded for a Fender Bassman head)
The same Fender Bassman head with a custom 4x12 cab
A Peavey 30 watt solid state
A McGregor 100 watt powered monitor
A Vox tone bender fuzz box
A Rosetti Airstream II guitar
A 1963 daphne blue strat with Abbey pickups

Now I just have a Japanese (Fujigen) 1968 sunburst reissue with a refinished neck with dunlop frets and transitional logo
A Zoom 4040 floor effects unit and a small 10 watt amp with a switched out speaker (60 watt, so it doesn't rattle )

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Ted

"All right, guys, uh, listen. This is a blues riff in "B", watch me for the changes, and try and keep up, okay?"


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Post subject: Re: Do you regret having sold any gear in the past?
Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2013 11:51 am
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Joined: Tue Feb 19, 2013 7:31 am
Posts: 49
Location: Pittsburgh PA
The only guitar I really, really regret getting rid of was my first guitar. -Just for sentimental reasons. I think the 'brand' was Kingston. It was basically some really crappy Strat shaped guitar with 1 single coil pickup, lousy frets, and horribly high action. My dad got it for me at a pawn shop in 1989. I sold it back when I was in college because I wasn't playing it. It would be cool to have now though.

I also sometimes wish I held onto this guitar too. Nothing really amazing. Just a Gibson SG Special Faded. I put some zebras in it. It was a fun guitar to play.

Image

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"Each guitar has its own character and personality, which can be magnified once the player engages in beatin' it up." - Billy F. Gibbons


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Post subject: Re: Do you regret having sold any gear in the past?
Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2013 6:42 pm
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Joined: Sun Jul 29, 2007 6:33 am
Posts: 83
Location: Western Massachusetts, USA
Traded in a 73 Princeton reverb for a solid state peavey.
This was back in 1979.

I clearly knew nothing about tone.


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Post subject: Re: Do you regret having sold any gear in the past?
Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2013 6:44 pm
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Location: NL Canada
Hi CRGuitarman-I can feel your pain for parting with that Takemine-it is just beautiful and since it's a Takemine it most likely sounded and played like a dream too.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.


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Post subject: Re: Do you regret having sold any gear in the past?
Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 6:57 am
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Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2011 10:52 pm
Posts: 93
Location: Jomtien Beach, Thailand
I sold my Gretsch 59 double anniversary in 2000 when I decided to move to Asia. I thought maybe it would just unglue itself over here, and wanted it to go to a loving home in a more suitable climate.
I bought it when I was 16, in 1966 for $150 with case. Ok, I'm a geezer. Maybe 34 years was long enough. Traded in a 59 Melody Maker with 2 pickups as part of the deal. that had cost me $65 a year or two before.
You may think "darn those were cheap", but back then minimum wage while in High School was $1.25 an hour. Think hours worked, not dollars.
I bought a Guild Starfire IV new (still made in USA then) to replace it. Lovely guitar, but I have never bonded with it.... and so it goes in life.


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Post subject: Re: Do you regret having sold any gear in the past?
Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 7:16 am
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Joined: Sun Jun 20, 2010 3:54 am
Posts: 268
yeah... i regret having sold my hagstrom 12 string solid body. i never had a 12 string any where near as good before or since. i had to sell it because of finances at the time. wanted to get an apartment with the new girlfriend and didnt have enough saved..

looking back i had been much better off having kept my hagstrom... :lol:


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Post subject: Re: Do you regret having sold any gear in the past?
Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 11:32 am
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Joined: Fri Jul 20, 2007 12:56 pm
Posts: 4033
Location: 16 Miles North Of The Red River
I’ve done my fair share of “horse tradin’” over the years, but only two pieces stand out as regrettable sales.
The first was a 1983 G&L Nighthawk; mahogany body, ebony fretboard, those amazing G&L MFD pickups…glossy black, and the only tremolo that I ever used that didn’t negatively affect tone. It was my go-to guitar for slide playing and open G tuning.
I was in a terrible bind financially, and had already sold five other guitars (as well as a large portion of my LP collection, a stereo and other personal items) in order to make mortgage payments…wasn’t making my living off of playing music, I had another Strat-style instrument (my beloved Fiesta Red US-made 62RI), and I sure couldn’t live in that guitar case. I sold the guitar for more than I paid for it, and I was able to make one and a half house payments with the money I made from the sale.
A year or so afterwards, I found out there were only 246 of these instruments made. Dang it. :evil:
I also found out I screwed myself out of a few hundred dollars in my selling price. Double dang it. :evil: :evil:

This loss/mistake was partially rectified fifteen years later, when I was able to find a reasonably priced Nighthawk for sale…and it ended up being an instrument that was formerly owned by the esteemed Mr. Traweek. :shock: :!:

The second instrument I regret selling was a Fender Bassman Ten amplifier. It isn’t a “classically valuable” amp—silverface, master volume CBS-era—but it was a great-sounding, very versatile, tougher-than-nails amplifier and I miss it greatly. The only thing I had against it was the weight; dang, that thing was heavy! Just such an amp is on my “GAS List”, and I hope to pick one up sometime soon (of course, after I find another job). :?

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Good Vibes To Y'all!

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Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals


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Post subject: Re: Do you regret having sold any gear in the past?
Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 11:50 am
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Roadie
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Joined: Sun Jun 20, 2010 3:54 am
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best of luck on the job search and getting another bassman. i know how you feel i own a twin reverb from that era and i can tell you my back screams are you kidding me every time i have to lift it on to the truck.


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Post subject: Re: Do you regret having sold any gear in the past?
Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 2:12 pm
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Location: Westchester County, NY
As heavy as old Ampegs?


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Post subject: Re: Do you regret having sold any gear in the past?
Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 2:30 pm
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Roadie
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Joined: Sun Jun 20, 2010 3:54 am
Posts: 268
no i think they have to be the ones to take the prize. :lol:


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Post subject: Re: Do you regret having sold any gear in the past?
Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 2:42 pm
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I sold my Gemini VI to a guy who had a Twin but wanted something lighter :)


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