Rarest piece of Music Gear you've Owned?

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banned

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Anyone own any rare pieces of gear? Vintage Strats, LPs, amps etc.

The rarest piece of gear that I've owned (at least in some people's minds) would be a Mesa Mark 2C+ combo around the 2002-2005 time-frame. I bought it for around $1450 (the shop owner cut me a special deal) and sold it for $1550. ( :( probably should have sold it for more) )

Unfortunately, I don't have any pics.
 
Either my old DS-1 with the serial number 300 or the Dirty B. Hinds Vibe-Change vibe pedal, there’s 420 of them. Nothing too exciting.
 
Oh yeah, I owned an Arion SCH-1 Chorus Pedal - I always thought that it sounded amazing - but then, I gave it away thinking it wasn't a 'name' brand. Man, sometimes we listen with our eyes.

"The Arion SCH-1 Stereo Chorus began life in the late 80′s as a very affordable (perhaps even cheap!) alternative to Boss’s CE-2 and other chorus pedals. It was largely ignored in the pro community, most likely due to its low price and cheap plastic finish, but in recent years it has seen a surge in popularity after Landau was spotted using one"
 
First (or second?) run Tube Screamer. Malaysian chip and all that nonsense. Never use it anymore but can't sell it either. It's the first pedal I ever owned, bought it along with my first Radio Shack alike amp and guitar. At least it's in mint condition.
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Technically, one off custom guitars would be the rarest.

Rarest mass produced? My Yamaha SA-1200S semihollowbody. It's over 40 years old, and even as ES-335 style guitars go it's kinda unique with its solid carved spruce top and beech back/sides. Also has the best tune-o-matic bridge I've ever seen. Never seen another one in the wild, just SA-2200 which are close to ES-335s.

I've never owned anything that would count as collectable or valuable vintage though. That's a pure brand name game.
 
My rarest is probably a Guild Power amp. Mid to late '60s pretty sure, puts out around 70W from a pair of 8417 tubes.
I know very little about it other than a few mentions on a Guild forum around 2006. Can't find any available schematics or even pictures on the web. Seems like there weren't many made, and not advertised much because it's more a sound reinforcement/commercial product? I don't know.

I've been meaning to go over it for a number of years but haven't got around to it. It needs a full service for sure, and I may rewire the sockets to accept 6L6GCs. It was given to me by an old bandmate.

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I have an Acoustic 270 amp and a 4x12 road case that I bought from Frank Zappa's estate sale in 1995. He used two of these throughout the 70s, blended with his Marshalls. One is pictured in the Zappa Gear book, and I own the other.
 
My VVT Simo-Plex is 1 of 2 that exist as far as I know (and JD Simo owns the other one)

I also own a LACS Starfield Cabriolet....finding a USA made Starfield is difficult enough (the brand only existed from like 1991 to 1994) - one handmade in the LACS is just crazy

Literally never seen another one for sale in my life
 
All-original 1966 Fender Deluxe with original tubes (Mullard GZ34, RCA 6V6GTs, Telefunken, RCA, Bugle Boy etc) in excellent condition. It hasn't even had its caps replaced. Still has the "death cap" too. And never converted to 3 prong.

Old forum friend of mine's friend wanted to get rid of it. He bought it new when in college (1960s), used it for a few years then kept it stored in his mom's closet.

It still smells like old lady perfume. Also got a monotone dark grey paisley print amp cover (not sure how old but prolly bought at same time).

Bought it for $1300 back in maybe 2010 (don't quite remember).

This is the amp that does a spectacular 1st Album EVH tone and Nuno tone when paired with the Friedman BEODD... :ROFLMAO:



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banned said:
The rarest piece of gear that I've owned (at least in some people's minds) would be a Mesa Mark 2C+ combo around the 2002-2005 time-frame. I bought it for around $1450 (the shop owner cut me a special deal) and sold it for $1550. ( :( probably should have sold it for more) )
Click to expand...
If it makes you feel any better, I bought mine for $350 and sold it for $400. :facepalm

The rarest piece of gear I own would have to be my Hamer Virtuoso. Google says about 24 were built. (And for that matter, no two of them were quite alike.)
 
mbenigni said:
If it makes you feel any better, I bought mine for $350 and sold it for $400. :facepalm

The rarest piece of gear I own would have to be my Hamer Virtuoso. Google says about 24 were built. (And for that matter, no two of them were quite alike.)
Click to expand...

Wow - that's crazy! Why so inexpensive?

Can you imagine if we'd held on to them? The Gearforum would have had 2 Mesa Mark 2C+s - James would be very happy.

Could have profiled and maybe even loaned one to L6 in Calabasas to do their thing.
 
Oh, btw, I once owned one of these:

Ron's Vintage

www.ronsvintage.com www.ronsvintage.com
Including the stand, great condition, too. Bought it for 300 german marks (around the same in Euro by now). Sounded great at first but in the rehearsal room it started buzzing. So I just returned it and got my money back.
Very likely the buzz was something absolutely trivial. And today that very combination should sell for incredibly big bucks. But back then all I wanted was an amp that worked. Rightly so.
 
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