The one(s) that didn’t get away.

[YaDaddy]

Like me, I’m sure that many of you have had that guitar that got away from you. Maybe it was it was a potential acquisition that you missed/slept on buying or a guitar that you had for a time and regret selling. We all have these stories.
Well this post is for the ones that didn’t get away. The guitars that against all odds survived being on the chopping block and are still hanging in the collection.

Here are two of my most recent:

G5622T - Aspen Green
I bought this one from proaudiostar.com about a year ago open box/excellent for a used market price and it’s great, but I rarely see it much less play it. When I recently fell in love with the Speyside version, I rationalized getting that one by telling myself that I would sell the Aspen Green to balance it out. Well…the day came to dig it out, I did the obligatory last playing session and decided that it was too awesome of an example to let go. Stewed on it for a week and yeah it’s back on the herd page for good.

G5420T - Fairlane Blue
Got his one new from GC for an unexplainable nutty low price around the same time as the above. I was just there looking with no plan to buy anything and it became one of those “Well that’s not staying here with that number attached t it” moments. It was spotless and set up great. A real friendly player, but 5420 I got and it rarely saw the light of day. Then one day the same “rationalization train” came along and my brain said I would sell it to make room for the GC exclusive G5427TG in Midnight Sapphire on sale. One blue 5420 is enough. Same dance as the Aspen Green. Too great of a guitar to let go and I’m sure I’d kick myself one day, so back in the herd ya go blue boy.

Feel free to share pics of your keeper that almost got away.

 

[Bertotti]

You know what’s funny is I have ever only traded in one guitar and it doesn’t bother me at all that it’s gone. Otherwise I have all the guitars I have ever bought all four electrics and all three acoustics. These are ones I bought or won or was given. I just don’t want much and don’t really sell anything. I’m also happy I don’t have a lot of the one that got away stories, but I do have one miss O still haven’t had a chance to in-miss. I had the winning bud on a classic fifty head and 2x12 cab. I had it won. And when the winner was announced keeping in mind there was no indication my bid wasn’t the highest, normally there is, someone nodded at the last fraction of a second and won the amp. I was pissed. I emailed the company and they told me the bid came in just a second before the end of the auction Which was why I didn’t see it. I have never bid on anything again. I also don’t think I want one now.

 

[Baba Joe]

As an impatient teen, I wanted a Country Gentleman and settled on a Tennessean. That “settling” ate at me and I thought of selling but lost interest and quit playing instead. I resumed playing forty years later with this same Tennessean but still didn’t love it. Several guitars later I got my Gent, like it a lot but also around that time started appreciating the Tennessean. I don’t think that HiLotrons will ever be my #1, but now like the guitar and it’s tone and am glad that I held onto it. Fifty six years later it’s like a member of the family.

 

[gretsch-to-go]

Sold a 2016 Squier Affinity SSS Trem. Buyer was really after a Super Shredder, but bought my old guy Strat because of the price at the time. Anyway, told him to keep my number/texts and if it didn't work out for him, I'd like to be a 1st in line for the buy back. 4 months later, I get a text asking me if I want it back. Difference in price turned out to be a modest monthly rental, enough to swap a pickguard & plastics, also swap from zinc alloy to solid steel. I was out a new set of strings at the end of the 4 months. As budget affordable as what I have is, they are all keepers though. staying under $ 150 for any of them and what is that a month of electricity bill, maybe applied to groceries for the month. Those dollars won't go that far & replace what you already found/have is fool's gold really. Unloading anything is like that, there should be no regrets. When I do hang up the guitar for good, they'll all be gone that day, new hobby to replace it.

 

[YaDaddy]

You know what’s funny is I have ever only traded in one guitar and it doesn’t bother me at all that it’s gone. Otherwise I have all the guitars I have ever bought all four electrics and all three acoustics. These are ones I bought or won or was given. I just don’t want much and don’t really sell anything. I’m also happy I don’t have a lot of the one that got away stories, but I do have one miss O still haven’t had a chance to in-miss. I had the winning bud on a classic fifty head and 2x12 cab. I had it won. And when the winner was announced keeping in mind there was no indication my bid wasn’t the highest, normally there is, someone nodded at the last fraction of a second and won the amp. I was pissed. I emailed the company and they told me the bid came in just a second before the end of the auction Which was why I didn’t see it. I have never bid on anything again. I also don’t think I want one now.

Got sniped in the last second. Ouch, that hurts!

 

[ForTheLoveOfIvy]

I’m always sad when one of the guitars in my watch list on Reverb disappears…they’re all ones that got away.

EDIT. I misread the thread title.

 

[Bertotti]

Got sniped in the last second. Ouch, that hurts!

I didn’t know there were programs that do that. I just don’t bother with auctions it isn’t worth the waste of my time.

More online with the thread the first time I went to look at the BabyBlondeshell online it was available to order so I waited a couple days to think about. I decide yes I would chase it sadly on my return it was not available to order. I waited a few months then decided to email our buddy @TV the Wired Turtle and it turned out I could order so I did and got it! Not sniping this time!

 

[cielski]

You know what’s funny is I have ever only traded in one guitar and it doesn’t bother me at all that it’s gone. Otherwise I have all the guitars I have ever bought all four electrics and all three acoustics. These are ones I bought or won or was given. I just don’t want much and don’t really sell anything. I’m also happy I don’t have a lot of the one that got away stories, but I do have one miss O still haven’t had a chance to in-miss. I had the winning bud on a classic fifty head and 2x12 cab. I had it won. And when the winner was announced keeping in mind there was no indication my bid wasn’t the highest, normally there is, someone nodded at the last fraction of a second and won the amp. I was pissed. I emailed the company and they told me the bid came in just a second before the end of the auction Which was why I didn’t see it. I have never bid on anything again. I also don’t think I want one now.

That happens all too often. It's how some play the game.

 

[YaDaddy]

This may be more of a boomerang story, but here's another one of mine.
I got a smoking deal on a used 2014 player Strat in Arctic white with high end Fender HSC from Sam Ash. The story was that the owner bought it, played it a couple of times and then in the HSC/closet for the rest of it's existence. It was sold as an Olympic white Strat, but a serial check proved it was originally Arctic White. When I got it everything about it was great, but I was not a fan of the wood figure on the fretboard. I like a really monotone maple fretboard on a Strat. I considered getting a replacement neck, but choose to sell it and try to put together a custom version of what I really wanted. (A very fateful decision that ultimately cost me thousands and thousands of dollars in the form of a custom Strat building hobby.)
When I was at the meet to sell, I had an uneasy feeling about letting it go as I was aware that it had a very unique aged finish. That era of Arctic white would age with a brown tint as opposed to the usual Olympic white yellow tint. I discovered this the hard way after I bought an Olympic white body and realized that it just wasn't the same and didn't match up well with the very pale maple neck that I wanted to use. After about 3 guitars worth of parts going through the house I ended up creating an even more awesome guitar, but not quite the same as I was after.
That guitar I sold was still haunting me years later. The buyer left the meet without the whammy bar and that day I tried contacting him via Facebook to get him the bar, but he never responded. I thought that maybe he just popped into FB once in a while just to buy stuff. I sent a couple more messages and then gave up. Free hammy bar for me! Six months after the fact I tried checking in with him to see if he wanted to sell the guitar back. Still, no reply. Then about 2 years later after a couple more messages it hit me that we texted directly to set up the meet, so I went through my text messages and found it. I tried texting him directly with the same offer to buy back and no response. I tired again weeks later and about a month later he pops in out of nowhere wanting to discuss a sell back. Turns out he's one of these people that if he doesn't have anything to say to you, he won't reply. Doesn't do courtesy responses, nice.
After a bit of back and forth I got it back for less money than I sold it for as he had put the lightest of finish dings on the edge of the lower bout by the input jack. He bumped it into the edge of an Amp. Cost him $75 that he offered without my asking.
Boomerang caught, I began the search for a replacement neck and the last Stratosphere 30% off sale solved that problem for me. It's in the project queue and the gold tuners that came with the replacement neck look so good that it has me thinking maybe I go full gold hardware on it and make it even more unique,

The original:


Replacement neck stacked on top to check the color palette. Gold is looking good!

 

[tartanphantom]

Virtually every guitar I've owned didn't get away, with the exception of the 1/2 dozen or so that I've given as gifts to other people. I've never sold a guitar, and I've only traded one in my entire life.

 

[blueruins]

I’m supposed to be paring down or at least holding steady at 10 electrics.

Thing is, I have a few Fender necks from previous projects lying around. There has been a loaded featherweight Jimmie Vaughan body on Stratosphere shop that I’ve been ignoring for months.

My willpower finally broke this week so it’s on its way to my house where it will get paired with a roasted maple neck.

Not sure what the practicality of 4 Stratocasters is but I like all of them so much I’m having a hard time parting with any.

Now I just need to sell that Clapton body before i start looking at necks again

 

[afire]

Not a guitar, but here's one that got away...until it didn't.

Circa 1930, 18k green gold, possibly the only one of its kind ever made. I spotted it in 2002. I was pretty new to watch collecting, didn't know what it was but it was so wild looking I had to have it. But I sold it within less than a year for two reasons. One is that I'm not a fan of yellow gold and my eyes had yet to be able to discern the difference between yellow and green gold. The second was the fact that it is not a cataloged model and I had some doubts about it's authenticity. Not long after that, green gold clicked with me and now it's my favorite shade of gold. And over the years Gruen's unique line of "Import" models became my passion and sort of a focus of research and I came to know that many of them were never cataloged and some of them may be entirely unique one-offs. And just a couple of years ago I was able to positively identify the actual casemaker with a known connection to Gruen. Even when I sold it, I believed that it was probably authentic. Within a short time after I let it go, I had learned enough to eliminate any doubt in my mind. But now I have proof. It is one of the few watches I let go of that I ever actively tried to reacquire. I knew the New Orleans dealer/collector Julio with a shop in the French Quarter that it ended up with a couple years after I sold it. I tried to get it back but his position was that he'd only let go of it as a trade if I could offer something really special. He was a great guy and fun to deal with, but homey don't play that game. Last week it turned up in the inventory of one of my favorite dealer/collectors and I didn't think twice. Sadly, the description mentioned that it was fresh out of a New Orleans estate. Julio had kept it in his personal collection for all that time. After 20 years apart, I picked it up at the post office this morning. It's still on the strap I installed 21 years ago.

 

[YaDaddy]

I’m supposed to be paring down or at least holding steady at 10 electrics.

Thing is, I have a few Fender necks from previous projects lying around. There has been a loaded featherweight Jimmie Vaughan body on Stratosphere shop that I’ve been ignoring for months.

My willpower finally broke this week so it’s on its way to my house where it will get paired with a roasted maple neck.

Not sure what the practicality of 4 Stratocasters is but I like all of them so much I’m having a hard time parting with any.

Now I just need to sell that Clapton body before i start looking at necks again

You gotta show us when you get that one built.

And 4 Strats? I’m at 6 with 5 in the queue to be built. I’ll let you know about the practicality of 11 when I get them all done. LOL

 

[YaDaddy]

Not a guitar, but here's one that got away...until it didn't.

Circa 1930, 18k green gold, possibly the only one of its kind ever made. I spotted it in 2002. I was pretty new to watch collecting, didn't know what it was but it was so wild looking I had to have it. But I sold it within less than a year for two reasons. One is that I'm not a fan of yellow gold and my eyes had yet to be able to discern the difference between yellow and green gold. The second was the fact that it is not a cataloged model and I had some doubts about it's authenticity. Not long after that, green gold clicked with me and now it's my favorite shade of gold. And over the years Gruen's unique line of "Import" models became my passion and sort of a focus of research and I came to know that many of them were never cataloged and some of them may be entirely unique one-offs. And just a couple of years ago I was able to positively identify the actual casemaker with a known connection to Gruen. Even when I sold it, I believed that it was probably authentic. Within a short time after I let it go, I had learned enough to eliminate any doubt in my mind. But now I have proof. It is one of the few watches I let go of that I ever actively tried to reacquire. I knew the New Orleans dealer/collector Julio with a shop in the French Quarter that it ended up with a couple years after I sold it. I tried to get it back but his position was that he'd only let go of it as a trade if I could offer something really special. He was a great guy and fun to deal with, but homey don't play that game. Last week it turned up in the inventory of one of my favorite dealer/collectors and I didn't think twice. Sadly, the description mentioned that it was fresh out of a New Orleans estate. Julio had kept it in his personal collection for all that time. After 20 years apart, I picked it up at the post office this morning. It's still on the strap I installed 21 years ago.

Green Gold? There’s such a thing? Hmmm planning a new Strat build project.

Picked it up just this AM? A well timed post on my part if I say so myself.

Thanks for sharing that. Such a great story!

 

[afire]

Green Gold? There’s such a thing?

Indeed there is. The difference is subtle, but once it clicks, it really is its own thing. Take away the hint of orange in yellow gold and replace with with a tinge of green. It was hugely popular from the 1910s to the early 1930s. Most watch companies (at least American based ones) used it almost exclusively over yellow gold in that era.

Hmmm planning a new Strat build project

I like where this is going.

 

[Bertotti]

Not a guitar, but here's one that got away...until it didn't.

Circa 1930, 18k green gold, possibly the only one of its kind ever made. I spotted it in 2002. I was pretty new to watch collecting, didn't know what it was but it was so wild looking I had to have it. But I sold it within less than a year for two reasons. One is that I'm not a fan of yellow gold and my eyes had yet to be able to discern the difference between yellow and green gold. The second was the fact that it is not a cataloged model and I had some doubts about it's authenticity. Not long after that, green gold clicked with me and now it's my favorite shade of gold. And over the years Gruen's unique line of "Import" models became my passion and sort of a focus of research and I came to know that many of them were never cataloged and some of them may be entirely unique one-offs. And just a couple of years ago I was able to positively identify the actual casemaker with a known connection to Gruen. Even when I sold it, I believed that it was probably authentic. Within a short time after I let it go, I had learned enough to eliminate any doubt in my mind. But now I have proof. It is one of the few watches I let go of that I ever actively tried to reacquire. I knew the New Orleans dealer/collector Julio with a shop in the French Quarter that it ended up with a couple years after I sold it. I tried to get it back but his position was that he'd only let go of it as a trade if I could offer something really special. He was a great guy and fun to deal with, but homey don't play that game. Last week it turned up in the inventory of one of my favorite dealer/collectors and I didn't think twice. Sadly, the description mentioned that it was fresh out of a New Orleans estate. Julio had kept it in his personal collection for all that time. After 20 years apart, I picked it up at the post office this morning. It's still on the strap I installed 21 years ago.

So the case is a green gold but how about the numbers they look oranger than the case.

 

[dmunson]

I'd call this more of a near miss. I went over to GC (2019) looking for the walnut finish 5622. They didn't have one, but they had just taken in a 2013, cat's eye, three pickup, Georgia green one. Once I sat down with that, and figured out the switching, I knew I had something special. I made a low ball offer (around $400) and the manager let me have it. It appears that nobody had ever palyed this guitar. There was no fretwear and not a scratch on it. It's a favorite till this day.

 

[Bertotti]

I'd call this more of a near miss. I went over to GC (2019) looking for the walnut finish 5622. They didn't have one, but they had just taken in a 2013, cat's eye, three pickup, Georgia green one. Once I sat down with that, and figured out the switching, I knew I had something special. I made a low ball offer (around $400) and the manager let me have it. It appears that nobody had ever palyed this guitar. There was no fretwear and not a scratch on it. It's a favorite till this day.

I never have gotten that lucky.

 

[YaDaddy]

I'd call this more of a near miss. I went over to GC (2019) looking for the walnut finish 5622. They didn't have one, but they had just taken in a 2013, cat's eye, three pickup, Georgia green one. Once I sat down with that, and figured out the switching, I knew I had something special. I made a low ball offer (around $400) and the manager let me have it. It appears that nobody had ever palyed this guitar. There was no fretwear and not a scratch on it. It's a favorite till this day.

A GC manager took an offer on a used guitar? I've always been politely shut down when I've tried that.

What am I doing wrong?

 

[afire]

So the case is a green gold but how about the numbers they look oranger than the case.

Good eye. I don't think any of the major watch makers used anything other than 18k solid yellow gold for applied figures. They would plate them with rhodium when they wanted to go for an all white/silver look on some watches, but presumably felt that doing so for green was overkill.