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The One that got away...


Rain

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Craig’s post form another discussion got me thinking about gear that I had to let go of.

This was in early 2019. The only thing left are the Les Paul Studio and the Fender Strat. These are the ones that are absolutely irreplaceable. The rest of the gear was mostly just average, inexpensive stuff. 

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The second half of 2019 and 2020 hit pretty hard and I had to let go of a lot of gear and studio stuff, like my Pro Tools mixing surface (Command 8).

I do regret having to sell the Marshall, but there was nothing unique about it. I can buy one just like it if I want to. I miss having a bass, but that’s also a simple fix. The acoustic and the Riviera I could not longer play due to the angle at which they put my right shoulder.

The black Epiphone Les Paul had something special about it. It was one of those Epi’s which was somehow way better than it should have been considering its price and pedigree. But it’s not entirely irreplaceable, and the white Les Paul covers my needs.

But that SGJ on the floor I’ll forever miss. I’d purchased a SG Standard that spring, with better pickups, locking tuners and all the nice stuff, so when hard time hit and I had to let some things go, I figured it would do. And it does sound 10 times better. But the SGJ was just magic. And it had a 50’s rounded neck, which is quite uncommon as far as I know.

For some reason, even though it was very light, unlike most other SG’s I’ve played, it also felt extremely solid - that rounded neck may have had a lot to do with it. It was just the best guitar to sit in front of the tv with and just jam and practice. And it relic’ed just by me looking at it.

There’s a couple of Marshall I had to let go earlier in my life that I miss, but that SGJ  really takes the top spot. I’d probably buy it back for double what I sold it in a heartbeat (which still wouldn't be that bad because I let it go for peanuts, 

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Edited by Rain
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Man...sorry for your losses.  ?

I can relate.  I want to say it was 1986 that my Dad took me to the store to buy my first guitar and amp.  And I remember him asking the guy there what we should get.  He took us to the Marshall amps and we picked out a Studio 15 1x12 tube combo.  No idea at the time that I was getting a really cool amp.  And I certainly didn't really appreciate it at the time.

Then he took us to the Gibsons.  I pretty much fell in love with a white SG that was there.  Felt and played great.  But then I saw the HOT PINK Guild solid body hanging on the wall for half the price.  And I knew my parents weren't rich...so I chose the Guild because I felt guilty that they were spending the money in the first place.

I've always considered that SG to be the one that got away.

And the Marshall?  I honestly think I traded it at a music store for a solid state 2x10 Ampeg amp.  Because I'm a genius.  ?

The guild as it originally looked:

hookshyboy.jpg.c955a6fe254a6e87b30913a3428a3115.jpg

Many years later I decided to repaint it, get rid of the two single coil pickups, drop in a second humbucker and lose the floyd rose.  We found that the top was made of plywood...lol.  So I had a friend fill the single coil holes and rout out the top so he could lay a chunk of rosewood across the whole thing to get some stability.  Then we pushed that second humbucker all the way up against the neck.  Looks like this now.  Originally a Guild Burnside Blade.  They didn't make a lot of those, and I believe it was built in Korea.  We paid $300 in 1986.  Last I checked it wasn't even worth that now.  But I'll never sell it.  It's still a fantastic guitar...and priceless to me.

blade.jpg.50933ad2c9f0179f329b7d0470367bb5.jpg

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I could part with all of my guitars except for one. My customized and truely road worn 1985 (84?) Made In Japan left handed black strat.

I joined my first band when I had just turned 13. My brother bought me a used red Montaya which was pretty much only good for kindling. The neck looked like one of those plastic pieces of flexible Hot Wheels track. And no amount of trying or switch position would stop the terrible buzzing. It was horrible.

Ronnie the drummer in the band took me to the local music store and bought me the MIJ strat. I still have it and it still plays like a dream. I customized it with EMG's and a volume mute switch shortly after I got it. I had to replace the bridge due to rust from sweating on it over the years and I had to have the frets raised once about 15 years ago. They were flattened but not worn away so they were able to raise them rather than replace them.

After all these years the intonation is still dead on and it still plays like a dream. I played that guitar every weekend for 16 years straight and use it to record and practice to this day.

Ronnie died a few years ago. This guitar has so much sentimental value to me beside the fact that it plays like nothing I've ever tried.

I bought a used left handed Gibson Black Beauty Custom one time. I could never warm up to it and eventually sold it. It was weird, I sold it through a music store in Kansas when I lived near Kansas City years ago. Someone on this forum, back before we moved over to Bandlab, saw it on the music stores website and bought it.

Now that I'm getting older I worry about who will get my strat and make sure it's taken care of when I'm gone.

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With 13 basses and 4 guitars I'be hard pressed to let any of them go, but if I had I'd let these go, they would be in order of first to last

Hofner Ignite
Kala UKE Bass
Danelectro Longhorn
Epi Les Paul
FrankenTele
Player P-Bass
Line6 JTV
Schecter Jazz Bass
Epi Jack Cassady Bass
1971 Gibson EB-3
One of Two StingRays
American P-Bass
Warwick Thumb Bass
The other StingRay
Rickenacker Bass
1985 MIJ Strat
Alembic Series I

 

 

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10 minutes ago, Bapu said:

With 13 basses and 4 guitars I'be hard pressed to let any of them go, but if I had I'd let these go, they would be in order of first to last

Hofner Ignite
Kala UKE Bass
Danelectro Longhorn
Epi Les Paul
FrankenTele
Player P-Bass
Line6 JTV
Schecter Jazz Bass
Epi Jack Cassady Bass
1971 Gibson EB-3
One of Two StingRays
American P-Bass
Warwick Thumb Bass
The other StingRay
Rickenacker Bass
1985 MIJ Strat
Alembic Series I

 

 

Wrong thread Ed.  This is about the ONE that got away, not the 14,372 that got away.

?

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2 hours ago, Bapu said:

Big amps are all gone in favor of small combos.

All amps are gone here in favor of my ART hardware as a compressor/preamp combo into VST's.

I do have an amp just in case I want to play live, but I never record with it. It's a Fender Champion 100, 212 combo. It's a very basic modeling amp with 2 channels. It has a knob with only a few built in modeling presets, but I'm more than happy with it.

I wish someone still made a 1 x 15 combo. Those were my favorites to play clean through. I saw an old Kustom cream colored one in a used guitar shop years ago. It had a bad buzzing sound so I passed on it.

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My first Marshall (and my first decent amp). Well, not the actual amp, but one just like it. 

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Bought it used from a friend of a friend of a friend, for around $250 I think (it was such a long time ago). It was not a tube amp but I seem to remember that it sounded pretty good. Coupled with the Korean Fender Squier Strat that I'd bought the year before, it was the closest approximation to my dream rig I could afford, and my first relatively decent set up.

After I moved to Montreal for the second time, tough times hit and I had to sell some stuff. I hauled that thing on my shoulder and via subway throughout the city going from pawn shop to pawn shop. I got $40 for it - one of the pots was noisy - nothing a bit of air duster wouldn't fix.

I was heartbroken but I was also starving so...

I'd be curious to hear one of them again, to see whether it sounded as good as I remember.

Edited by Rain
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15 hours ago, HOOK said:

Man...sorry for your losses.  ?

I can relate.  I want to say it was 1986 that my Dad took me to the store to buy my first guitar and amp.  And I remember him asking the guy there what we should get.  He took us to the Marshall amps and we picked out a Studio 15 1x12 tube combo.  No idea at the time that I was getting a really cool amp.  And I certainly didn't really appreciate it at the time.

Then he took us to the Gibsons.  I pretty much fell in love with a white SG that was there.  Felt and played great.  But then I saw the HOT PINK Guild solid body hanging on the wall for half the price.  And I knew my parents weren't rich...so I chose the Guild because I felt guilty that they were spending the money in the first place.

I've always considered that SG to be the one that got away.

And the Marshall?  I honestly think I traded it at a music store for a solid state 2x10 Ampeg amp.  Because I'm a genius.  ?

The guild as it originally looked:

hookshyboy.jpg.c955a6fe254a6e87b30913a3428a3115.jpg

Many years later I decided to repaint it, get rid of the two single coil pickups, drop in a second humbucker and lose the floyd rose.  We found that the top was made of plywood...lol.  So I had a friend fill the single coil holes and rout out the top so he could lay a chunk of rosewood across the whole thing to get some stability.  Then we pushed that second humbucker all the way up against the neck.  Looks like this now.  Originally a Guild Burnside Blade.  They didn't make a lot of those, and I believe it was built in Korea.  We paid $300 in 1986.  Last I checked it wasn't even worth that now.  But I'll never sell it.  It's still a fantastic guitar...and priceless to me.

blade.jpg.50933ad2c9f0179f329b7d0470367bb5.jpg

It looks very cool!

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My GEM PXIII I learned to play on. Just look at that bad boy. The box alone is a pure work of art.

image.png.b324c08ff362543547b04413f391bc6b.png

The bossa nova rhythm section still haunts me. It's an Italian keyboard. So I got my hopes up when IK Multimedia anounced their secret project. Imagine my disappointment when it turned out to be just a piano. They could have had glory... 

@Peter - IK Multimedia Get on it! 

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9 hours ago, Nick Blanc said:

My GEM PXIII I learned to play on. Just look at that bad boy. The box alone is a pure work of art.

image.png.b324c08ff362543547b04413f391bc6b.png

The bossa nova rhythm section still haunts me. It's an Italian keyboard. So I got my hopes up when IK Multimedia anounced their secret project. Imagine my disappointment when it turned out to be just a piano. They could have had glory... 

@Peter - IK Multimedia Get on it! 

Nice :D  That looks VERY Ensoniq-y, I'll have to fire up the VFX-SD later today and tickle the plastic-keys a bit in its honor.  There are so many Italian synths and quirky things we should grab, I'm going to have to go out there and nudge them to grab some more interesting gear.

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1 hour ago, paulo said:

Yeah. It's from a rare Beatles tribute album called "Why is the 9th of November such a big deal in America ?"

?

Man. Just when I thought I had your post figured out as Novenber 25th 6002, I see I'm wrong ... again!

?

Edited by Shane_B.
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