JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Guitars and Guitarist Forum The ONE that got away...

Have you had ever had that special guitar that you had to get rid of (for whatever reason) and wish you had it back? Is there one now you'll hopefully never have to let go of?

I've had a few...

Steve V

Back in around 1985 I was given an old blonde Telecaster in lieu of rent from a fleeing roommate. At the time I didn't have much use for an electric, but I needed money in a bad way. So I sold it for $120 at a garage sale. Now that I'm older and supposedly wiser, I agonize over it. I love vintage guitars, and I keep wondering about it...How old was it? Was it a 60's Tele? Why was I so stupid?

But I did recover well...three years later I bought my 1972 Rickenbacker 4001 bass, one that used to belong to Tommy Stinson of The Replacements, for $150. It was battle-weary and had lots of wrong parts on it, including a pickguard that was brushpainted with thick green enamel. I've since brought it back to it's former glory. She could fetch $3000 and rising now, but I won't sell. It's no longer about money...it's the bass I was meant to play.

Lyle,

Cool stories....

One of the ones I let get away doesn't have as much financial value but it did have some sentimental value - it was an old archtop Silvertone that I actually learned guitar on. I'd like to have that one back.

Steve V

I used to have an old 1935ish Gibson ES150 that I bought cheap at a shop in Houston that was badly damaged. Someone had dropped it with the cable plugged in and smashed the side in at the jack. I tried my hand at repair figuring it never had any collector value since it was so badly damaged. I managed to restore the side with epoxy and it was stronger than before the damage.

It had been played so much through the years that the wood between almost all the frets up to the twelfth was scalloped badly, so decided to shave the fretboard down and try my hand at refretting. I was just beginning to attempt repairs on guitar and this was an instrument for me to practice on. I pulled out the old frets and shaved down the fretboard. I did manage to pull up a few chips from the face of the fretboard in the process of removing the frets, but I shaved it down nicely. I only had jumbo fretwire, and I should have found some exactly like what I removed, but the tang was wider so I had to widen the grooves for the frets. When I set the new frets they really did not sit flush with the wood when I set them in place. This was my first attempt at fretting an instrument, so it wasn't a beautiful job, but I dressed and finished the frets very well and when I was finished the guitar played fabulously. The big pick-up on it had a raw killer blues-rock sound. I did not have it for a full year after finishing the work on it before someone broke into my apartment and stole it along with much of my stuff, including my saxophone, 1964 Epiphone 12 string, my stereo equipment and about two-thirds of my one-time fairly large record collection.

Of course I was very dissappointed to lose all those things, but the one thing I would love to get back more than all the rest is that old ES-150. I haven't seen it it 30 years or more, but I think I would still recognize it in a heartbeat.

I had a beautiful tobacco-burst Les Paul custom, that I sold off to a friend 10 years ago for $600. I was at a low point in my alchoholism, and it was just gathering dust in the corner. I needed money for vacation,not to mention my bar tab back then was about $200 a week.

Had a Gibson sg model that looked a lot like angus youngs from ther early days of AC/DC that I gave to a friend. Man that guitar had great action and perfect tone. I also had a Les paul look alike by epiphone with a sunburst finish good tone but the best quality was it was beautiful to look at. Pawned it for 40 bucks and have felt like a jerk ever since. Still got my yamaha acoustic that was my dad's before me. I'll never sell it or give it away much to much sentimental value.
Derek

1928 Martin 5-18 that I carried around in chipboard case all over VN that I sold to a friend for $100 and if he ever wanted to get rid of it I'd buy it back. He sold it to a collector for about $1000 in '76, so ends a friendship. Still miss that guitar.

I had a '76 Limited Edition Gibson Explorer with gold hardware. It had a neck like half a baseball bat. Some wierd radius. When you played it with a strap it automatically put your hands way up high on the neck like it wanted you to play solos on it...

The sound of the pickups was so-so though. Since it had all original parts I didn't want to modify anything and diminish its vintage value (even though I could have re-installed the original pickups... just seemed like too much hassle since I had four other solid bodies that sounded great). As I started playing less and less Metal/Hard Rock/Punk/Southern Rock/Prog Rock I played it less and less until it became my 3rd stringer. Kind of a dust-bunny magnet.

Somebody who was looking for one found my post on one of these boards mentioning that I had one and offered me double what I'd originally paid for it. I agonized over it for a little while but in the end I thought it was better that somebody take it out and play it and enjoy it. I had some good years with it. So I let it go. Which is when I quit "collecting" guitars...

But it was fun while it lasted

Chuck

Rickenbacker 450 solid body. Purchased brand new in 1965. Cherry red (Rick called it Fireglo). A real beauty. They are rare. You still see 450-12 strings from time to time, but the 6-stringers are hard to find.

I wish I still had it.

EEEEEEK!

Those are tremendous guitars, and with the full-width mother of pearl fret markers. Bummer!

I had an old Gibson ES 125 single pickup tobacco burst, no cutaway that, at the time, nobody wanted. This was back in the mid-seventies, I finally sold it for $250. I saw one a few weeks ago, could have been the same guitar going for 2 grand. Then again I bought my Les Paul custom right after that, brand new for around $650 with tax.

I use to own a Rickenbacker 331 "Light Show". It originally belong to my uncle and my aunt gave it to me on upon his death in the late 80's. It was in mint condition.

It was such a cool guitar. It had a translucent top with lights underneath that would pulsate in different patterns depending on how you strummed it. Foolishly I traded it for a beat up Gold Top LP in the early 90s, not realizing how collectible the 331 was. I've never seen another one, but I continue to keep my eyes out for one in every pawn shop and garage sale I visit. Some day.