Gear Regrets: Guitar Edition

gearJunkie

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Do you regret a guitar purchase?

How about regretting the sale or trade of a guitar?

Here's a thread to share your worst gear regrets.

Here's one from @Stone to get us started.

Ive not bought much gear and what i sold i never regretted except for maybe my Yamaha PAC510V was really the only thing i may have regretted

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Hahahaha just like my amp regrets: All of them.

1- BC Rich NJ Series Warlock, it was my first guitar I traded for a shitty, generic pedal. Fortunately, I was able to find the exact model, which was a more rare one with a standard Strat trem. It’s awaiting a re-finish.

2-Ibanez JEM Mutt made from Vai parts. I bought it off Dave Weiner back in the late 90’s, the body was a Floral JEM that had been re-sprayed black by Ibanez that came out of The Mothership along with some hardware/electronics and Dave got the neck somewhere else. I traded it for an RG7620 when I wanted to get a 7-string. Ugh. That guitar sounded fucking great, too.

3-Ibanez RG570, it wasn’t just my uncle’s guitar, it was the very first guitar I ever touched. I snapped the headstock in high school when using it, he was obviously not pleased (I wasn’t even supposed to be playing it) and kinda tossed the ”offer” at me of “Well, trade me that new 7-string you just got for it!” I ended up selling it to a co-worker who ripped me off, only paid me $125 then jumped town and I haven’t seen it since. That one hurts a bit. It’s a 1990 with black EMG’s and a white SA in the middle, in case anyone ever sees it!
 
I sort of regret selling my 1st guitar, which was acquired in '87 - a red Ovation HSS Floyd. But, meh, probably wouldn't think very much of it now.

Then I traded an awesome EC-1000, but I could get one of those any time I wanted.

Guess the only one I truly miss is an Ibanez Prestige S - but I hated the V7/V8 pu's, and didn't have the soldering setup I have now, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. May replace it someday but finding fixed bridge S's isn't easy, only the green quilt available now - which isn't bad at all, but I have a Jackson with a similar finish.
 
Two many to count that I've sold and regret selling. Well okay, I can count, but I might forget some.

  1. Washburn N4, swamp ash
  2. Washburn N4, alder
  3. Warmoth super strat, black limba w/wenge neck
  4. Warmoth super strat, mahogany with roasted maple/ebony neck
  5. Ibanez RG1527, cosmic blue
  6. Ibanez RG1527, royal blue
  7. Ibanez SC420
  8. Simon & Patrick 12-string
  9. Ibanez RG7421 (MIJ)
  10. Schecter Blackjack ATX C-7
  11. PRS SE Singlecut Korina
  12. PRS SE Mushok baritone (silverburst)
  13. PRS SE Mushok baritone (tobaccoburst)
I wish I still had all of those. Sold for various dumb reasons.
 
I kind of regret my first guitar purchase, a black MIJ Washburn G-10V. The thing was super heavy and its POS Wonderbar bridge would drop out of tune just by looking at it funny. The headstock was reminiscent of the Kramer Beretta played by a friend teaching me the basics.

What I really wanted was a Charvel Model 6, but that was way out of my price range.

The "happy ending" to this story is that the Washburn was stolen from the choir equipment room at my highschool where I played for the Jazz show choir.

Between my mom's homeowner insurance claim and a stipend from the choir director, I was able to replace it with pearl white Charvel Model 4, which I now regret selling. :facepalm
Here's a pic of the Charvel and the Marshall 4010 combo from the amp edition of this thread topic

1000000899.jpg

Sorry for reposting the same picture, but it's the only one I have of the Charvel.
 
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Man, am I boring when it comes to this subject. There is only 1 that I regret:

1, Peavey Vandenberg in Rockit Pink.

Honestly, it's just that they are worth a lot, and unobtanium nowadays, I don't actually miss playing the guitar, as I have other quality shredders now, and I don't play them much. I don't even remember who I sold it to, when it was, or how much I got, but definitely a SMALL fraction of what they are fetching these days.
 
I only have two that I really regret letting go


ESP Horizon NT-II. Limited run of 6. Not replaceable :(((
919060_10201857837026693_660154491_o.jpg



2014 American Deluxe Telecaster. I definitely need to buy another one of these again, amazing guitar
12019971_10208272910239514_6142612282579769188_n.jpg



EDIT: sort of sad I sold my first electric guitar too, for nostalgic reasons (MIM strat)
 
Only one I regret selling is a Dean EVO DN76 doubleneck. It was a "stupidity of youth" purchase, the guitar was way heavy as well as neck heavy, but it sounded really, really good and played great. I sometimes thought about cutting it in half and turning it into two good guitars. Should have kept it for the sheer novelty of it. It sounded like a good Gibson SG type guitar and had 7 and 6 string necks with a 24.75" scale length.

Random pic of the guitar from the interwebs:
1699011508685.png


One guitar I wanted to love, but couldn't was a Yamaha Pacifica 812WX. It was a really well made and gorgeous guitar, but unfortunately it had a dead spot at the 12th fret that I could not fix and overall it was maybe a bit bland soundwise so I never quite bonded with it. On paper it had it all right, Seymour Duncan pickups and a Wilkinson trem.

Pic of the actual guitar I owned that I found elsewhere on the net. I can tell it is my picture because of the strap.

1699011749884.png
 
Extremely specific inside joke that flopped aside, I have 2 I regret selling:

My Highway One Tele. It was my main gigging guitar for so many years and it was naturally road worn to perfection. Long story, but I accidentally left it in a hot car and the neck warped. I couldn’t afford to fix it so I sold it to someone who didn’t care and replaced it.

I’ve told this story a thousand times around here: my first electric guitar, an Epiphone ET-290N. My parents gave it to me for Christmas and I stupidly gave it to a girl I had a crush on in high school.
 
back in the early 80's I owned a Guild SD300-D electric, that I paid $250 for. I sold it to a friend that gigged with it, which I wasn't, for the same price. Set neck, 24 fret ebony board, Dimarzio's stock.

They go for well over $1000 in very good shape. This is an example, mine was wine/burgandy colored.
guild sd 300D.jpg
 
All guitars that I parted with in the 90s - a '65 Strat, a '92 "pre-historic" 3-pickup Les Paul Custom and my first Les Paul, which was a heavily used '75 LP Deluxe with a pancake body, routed for humbuckers. It's less regret than wondering what I'd think of those guitars today. The strat was 100% a financial issue. I got it through a series of incredibly lucky trades. It was much too expensive to keep at the time (a 20 year old in 1995 with a $3000 guitar?), and even if I had kept it for a while, a dozen cash crunches in my 20s and 30s probably would have forced me to sell it.

The Custom is the one I wonder about the most. Every so often one pops up in my Reverb feed, but I haven't yet decided that I want to drop $6k on a nostalgia trip. And if I was going to spend that kind of money, it's a real question about whether it makes more sense to get one of the new reissues.
 
I only have two that I really regret letting go


ESP Horizon NT-II. Limited run of 6. Not replaceable :(((
919060_10201857837026693_660154491_o.jpg



2014 American Deluxe Telecaster. I definitely need to buy another one of these again, amazing guitar
12019971_10208272910239514_6142612282579769188_n.jpg



EDIT: sort of sad I sold my first electric guitar too, for nostalgic reasons (MIM strat)
One of those tiles pops up on my local Facebook music gear sell page like every month at $1400. Dude seems to not be willing to budge on the price. Same finish, etc. Not sure if he'd ship to CO but happy to keep my eye out for it if you'd like.
 
I had to sell a MIM Strat, late 90's Epi LP black Custom, and a Line 6 Flextone III back around 2010ish when the economy meltdown happened. Before I started collecting that gear, I was an acoustic player and thought I was going to learn to play electrics but never really got serious with it.

When I started back up learning electric, I missed all my old gear, but now the stuff I have is so much better and I just didn't know what I was doing at the time. I just thought if I had an LP, a Strat, and an amp, I had all the bases covered. I hated playing the Strat and the LP was a heavy girl and balanced terribly. It almost fell off my lap, opposite of neck dive, more times than I can count due to the body being so heavy.

Really the only real regret I have is I started learning guitar in high school and a buddy of mine had to go in the army. When he came home after basic and AIT, he had bought a brand new American Fender Strat and wanted me to keep it while he went overseas. Needless to say he came home, got his guitar back, started learning but it did not last long, and asked me if I wanted to buy it before he took it to a pawn shop about a year after.

I didn't but wish I had. I spent a lot of time on that guitar in those pissed off at the world days back in high school even though I didn't play very well at all.
 
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