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Worst Deal You Ever Made ?????

10407 Views 65 Replies 53 Participants Last post by  jimmy c g
After reading Lenbone's post about selling his vintage babies (59' 175,and his 63' Tele) for very little. I bet there are quite a few of us that have let go some REAL current high dollar guitars for very cheap. But sometimes even when the deal was going down you might have had an inkling, a quezy stomach. Just something that told you...I shouldn't be doing this. but you did anyway. now this may pertain mostly to the (ahem) older members of this Forum, but i'm sure there are some of the younger members that have had similar experience.
Here is mine.
Back in about 74'-75'. I traded a 57' Tele (all original) that I paid $175.00 for, for a 59' dot neck ES-335 in a original custom colour (Candy Apple Red). Pretty good eh? But a few months later, I was lusting after a Gibson Explorer. The originals were so rare, most people had never heard of them let alone seen them. I had only seen two of them. Rick Derringer with the Edgar Winter group and Eric Clapton. I had to have one. As things would have it, Ibanez came out with the Destroyer. a 50's gibson Explorer copy. Kalua Music in Scarborough (remember them?) got one in and (here it comes) I traded the 59' 335 for the Destroyer. I was pretty happy at the time. The Destroyer was a $400 guitar and mine only really cost me $175.
Now the Ibanez was a good guitar and those original models are getting to be sort of modern vintage now and command a healthy price. But dot neck 59' 335's are approaching 30K now. And add to that a custom colour and it sends that price north quite a bit.

So what guitar(s)/amp(s) did you let go, only to kick yourself in the ass, time after time for selling them ?????


cheers
Pete
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I traded a 68 Vibrolux reverb for a Peavey Envoy in '92. I wnted more distortion. It makes me sick to think about it now...the Fender goes for about $1600US while i could get a 90's Envoy for a hundred bucks:mad:
bad deals

Oh My god !!! I'm getting sick just reading this stuff ....what fools we were!!
The worst was trading my '55 Les Paul Special (in '68) on my '64-ES330.
They gave me $300 trade in. I think I'd paid $225 for it. It had the brown cali girl case too. sigh.
Next up would be the '56 Tele. Can't remember what I sold it for. Not much.
Or maybe the '57 Strat I didn't buy (it was $250) when I opted for my Clarke ($225).
The '68 Goldtop Les Paul ($325 I think) - I didn't care for the 'gold'. I'd kill to have it now.
There were a few others, I'm probably blocking them out.

Ok, I think I'll go downstairs now and be depressed.
in 1993 I gave my admira hand made spanish classic guitar for BOSS HD-1 distorstion pedal. I wanted to hear some dist. from my shitty squier strat. Damn.
dwagar said:
The worst was trading my '55 Les Paul Special (in '68) on my '64-ES330.
They gave me $300 trade in. I think I'd paid $225 for it. It had the brown cali girl case too. sigh.
Next up would be the '56 Tele. Can't remember what I sold it for. Not much.
Or maybe the '57 Strat I didn't buy (it was $250) when I opted for my Clarke ($225).
The '68 Goldtop Les Paul ($325 I think) - I didn't care for the 'gold'. I'd kill to have it now.
There were a few others, I'm probably blocking them out.

Ok, I think I'll go downstairs now and be depressed.
that's the spirit, drink those troubles away.:food-smiley-004:
bad deals

I am sure we are not the only ones that have done these stupid deals,which reminds me of another stupid deal i did,,,I had a Marshall Bass Head that I got for next to nothing,and it didn't have any distortion(remember in the late 60's early 70's everybody wanted lots of Dirt)? so I traded that for an Acoustic guitar amp with the built in EQ (REMEMBER THE BLUE ONES)? I was impressed because it had a huge bottom Cab, What a fool I was !!!--Lenny
For me it was the deal I couldn't make. When I was 16 (1966) I borrow this 1956 Les Paul Gold Top with P90s for 2 weeks. But I had to give it back when I couldn't come up with the $110 to buy it.:mad:
My 1962 Jazzmaster. I sold it for...God, I can't talk about it anymore! Excuse me while I step out
1964 blackface Super Reverb near mint with cover- $200.
We needed a carpet for our apartment back in 1973.
I know your pain

big frank said:
1964 blackface Super Reverb near mint with cover- $200.
We needed a carpet for our apartment back in 1973.
74 Gibson Les Paul Custom and a Peavey amp for....a fence.:mad:
big frank said:
1964 blackface Super Reverb near mint with cover- $200.
We needed a carpet for our apartment back in 1973.
A former bandmate of mine sold his 65/66 super reverb for around $250 back around the time or so. He also sold his 65 Tele for around the same price. He got married and his wife didn't want him to be a rock star anymore Told him what his tele was worth about 6 months ago - I'm sure I saw the colour disappear from this face.

However, the bass player still has 63 Jazz Bass.
this thread hurts...LOL
BUT misery loves company so here it goes..

Stuff I no longer have...

Hofner "Beatle bass"
1966 Gibson EBO bass
Mini Moog
Fender Rhodes 88 piano
Honer Clavinet
Hammond B3 and Leslie

OK...a lot more stuff but its starting to hurt just thinking about it...

Still have my 1977 Jazz that I bought new and my VOX Continental Organ that I'm trying to sell...
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microfrets

back in the middle 80's a co-worker traded me her microfrets guitar and hard shell case for a radioshack keyboard. A couple of years later I traded the Microfret and a harmony acoustic on a Maderia acoustic ( Guild entry level guitar ) plus $75.00.....

two summers ago in the Guitar Shop in Kingston, ON... I spotted the same Microfrets model selling for .......................... $2,800.00 .
bad deals

See what I mean? Man thats gotta f#%@*& hurt .
ouch

Sorry to hear the horror stories about long lost gear.
I sold a Vov Essex bass amp to Long and McQuade for a Traynor Bassmaster II and a twin 15 cab that I bought from Kalua back in the 60's

The rodies (the drummer an I) dropped the cab in a drunken moment and cracked the speaker so it had to go.

Never sold a bass as I'm left handed and it takes forever to a any good quality bass to play. So I have the following and these are all left handed
65 beatle bass, 67 gibson EB-3, a US made fender pbass, a japan made fender Jazz bass, a vantage which Im selling by the way, a fender strat, and a gibson sg

highway

:rockon2:
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A Fender California series Strat I won at L&M I traded for a Mexican Fender Tele. I wanted a Tele soooo bad I outright traded an $800 guitar for a $400 at a Tom Lee. The Tele was not even close to the quality of the Strat and had the chunkyist neck.
The first was a Gibson Nylon string I bought from a girl in grade 7. $25 sold it 2 years later for 75.

Bought a 57 pale blue white neck Strat $150. Left home and my buddie had it. He stripped off the paint and painted the head stock black. A good job but....

Sold that in 1969 for $300 and a 63 SG Special that I sold for $350.

Bought a 68 tele in 77 I still have it $425 was pricey at the time but I liked it. Still do. Same with the Grammer acoustic.

I had a friend moving away with young kids offer me his 68 or 69 Les Paul Goldtop with P90's and his 63 Strat for $600. FOR BOTH. I didn't like either.

I don't know where the Paul went but another friend still has the strat. I shoulda damnit.

Another guy would of traded me his old Guild blues bird for a lawn mower. It was nice but I needed my lawnmower.

The ones that got away, what are you going to do.
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Back in about 89 I had stopped at a little hole in the wall bar in the boonies and the owner had a red gibson acoustic that he would let a select few play in the bar. On another visit I asked about the Gibson and was told that the neck had been snapped . Long story , I bought it from him for $150. I knew nothing about old Gibson's at the time . took it into the shop and was told it was a plywood guitar that someone had carved the gibson logo on the headstock. They did a good job of it though. I got my money back . Sad story was the owner bought the guitar from his brother ! Can't trust anybody !!
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