What's the one that got away? (six-string)

David Mason · From: Cambridge, MD, USA

I have a nice little family of guitars now with really variant characteristics, but the one I would really like to have back is a Travis Bean solidbody with the aluminum neck-through body I had in the mid-80’s. I’m primarily a sitdown guitarist now due to some spinal problems, so I could actually play the thing now - even back then it seemed ungodly heavy, the shape and thickness of a 335 but a solid slab of bookmatched koa. Whoo! I remember that it had a really clear, almost piano-like tone especially on the low strings, but at the time cleanliness was the last thing on my mind.

Jim Phelps · From: Mexico City, Mexico

Here's a recent (edited to say "somewhat recent") thread you'll find some related posts:

Click Here

[This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 26 September 2005 at 12:24 AM.]

Charlie McDonald · From: out of the blue

Missed it the first time; I can only add my Fender Kingman, rescued from the dumpster behind a music store. It was rare for good reason; with a bolt-on neck, it had to have a steel pipe added (by the factory) inside the acoustic big body. I used it for a lap steel.
That was before I heard a Weissenborn, which it sounded like. I wouldn't part with it today, now that I know what I had.

Bill Hatcher · From: Atlanta Ga. USA

Charlie. The "steel pipe" was not added to your Fender Kingman. ALL of them had it. It was touted as being a stabilizer/sustain bar.

There is a Kingman at Gruhns shop in Nashville for $1300.

Mike Perlowin · From: Los Angeles CA

I had a 50's vintage Gibson L-7-C that I traded for my MSA. Actually, didn"t really like the guitar (too big) and I think it worked out very well for me musically, but the guitar is worth a lot more than the steel today.

Jerry Hayes · From: Virginia Beach, Va.

Around 1971 I had a 1952 Telecaster (Ser #1429) that was my main guitar. I spotted a used sunburst '69 Tele in Blackie Taylor's Music Store for only $275 which had binding and a rosewood fingerboard. It was one of the prettiest Teles I'd ever seen so I sold my '52 to a student for $125 and went ahead and bought the other one. I was playing full time then and took the newer guitar to the gig for a couple of weeks and decided I really didn't like the neck so I talked the student into swapping necks with me. So now I had a '69 Tele with a '52 neck. I played that for a year or so and then did the worst thing of all, I traded it straight across for a Mosrite Ventures model.....Oh well, I cringe sometimes when I think of what the '52 would be worth if I had it today or even the '69 with either neck!....JH in Va.

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Don't matter who's in Austin (or anywhere else) Ralph Mooney is still the king!!!

John Rosett · From: Missoula, MT

there was a carvin double neck 6 string guitar/8 string mandolin solid body electric that sold on ebay last week for about $1650. i've been looking for one of these for at least 10 years, and i just couldn't afford to bid on it. i hated letting that one get away.
now that i think about it, there was a member of this board that offered to sell me a '30's eh-150 7 string, then just dropped off of the face of the earth, and stopped returning my messages.

Charlie McDonald · From: out of the blue

Oh, that hurts, Bill; can't tell you how little I got for mine.
"Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you got 'til it's gone...."

[This message was edited by Charlie McDonald on 29 September 2005 at 04:22 AM.]

David Doggett · Posted 29 Sep 2005 5:34 am

In 1966 I bought a red sunburst Gibson J-45 acoustic from my college roomate. It wasn't a great guitar (had the clunky adjustable bridge), but I think I paid about a hundred bucks for it. Now they are selling for two or three thousand. I don't even remember what happened to it (there are a lot of things I don't remember from those years).

Keith Cordell · From: San Diego

'57 Tele, traded away in college for a Yamaha SA 2000... Yeow.

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

I passed up a D'Angelico New Yorker a few years back for 2 grand. I'm still kicking myself for that one!

Marc Friedland · From: Fort Collins, CO

Though I’ve owned many guitars that would have a high economic value to them now, I don’t feel as though I’ve let them get away, as it was always my personal decision to move on or try something new.
I began playing quite often in bands, starting in about 1965. I bought and sold many guitars and amps and usually had to sell the old ones in order to have the money to buy the new stuff. I basically lived in the moment and never gave any thought to holding onto to any of my stuff for possible future value. This didn’t only apply to guitars and amps, but to comic books, baseball cards, etc. If I had saved all of these things, they might be worth a great deal of money today, but I didn’t, and I have no regrets, as I remember quite vividly, enjoying all of them very much at the time. Looking back at it, I obviously did not make a good business decision when I sold what remained of my comic book collection in 1978 for about $200. I had no idea that about 20 years later they would be worth 100 times that amount! After all, I bought them for .10 or .12 each, and some times I even got them for free from a friend or at the barber shop, etc. To give you an example, I had all the #1 issues of Spiderman, Fantastic Four, X Men, Avengers, Daredevil, etc, etc.
Back to the subject - well the same thing goes for musical equipment.
I remember purchasing and playing a Telecaster, Rickenbacker 12 string, Guild Starfire, Epiphone Casino, various models of numerous amps like Standel, Traynor, Ampeg, Baldwin, and all kinds of Fender amps like Showman, Bandmaster, Bassman, etc. I probably can’t even remember every piece of equipment I’ve ever had. In 1967 I purchased a 1957 Les Paul for only $150 from the local music store. A couple of weeks later when we were opening up for the Strawberry Alarm Clock, their guitar player offered me $350 for it. Even though I had no idea why he would make such a seemingly generous offer, I turned him down because I was still having fun playing that guitar. I gave it away to a good friend a few years later, who still has it to this day.
Though I don’t have any of the equipment I purchased in the 60’s, I still have and enjoy playing the two guitars I purchased in 1973, a Martin D35, and a 1962 Epiphone Riviera, and out of all of the guitars I’ve ever had, these are my favorites.
Well that’s all I can think of right now. If I think of any more, I’ll post it later.
-- Marc
www.marcfriedland.com

Jim Peters · From: St. Louis, Missouri, USA, R.I.P.

I had a chance on a Trini Lopez 335 for $100 in the late 60's,an early 60's Strat for $125,( no one wanted strats back then!), but the worst was a solid body Rickenbacher 12 string that my brother let me use for about a year, then he needed money and sold it for 150 bucks, I had 1st dibs, but didn't buy it. The band I was in did a lot of Led Zep like Song Remains the Same, Rain Song and of course Stairway.
I also wish I kept the brown Fender Pro that sold for $125. It had a 15 that woud have been nice for steel. JP

Jon Moen · From: Canada

For me it was a mid 60's Gibson Firebird in around 1980. I just couldn't come up with the cash. It did go to a good player though.

Marc, the lead guitar player in Strawberry Alarm Clock was Ed King later of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Was that the guy?

Jon

Marc Friedland · From: Fort Collins, CO

Jon,
I don't actually remember being formally introduced, but from what you said, chances are it must have been Ed King.
If you're so inclined, you can go to my website and click on MP3s, and there you'll find my juke box. I think the 5th or 6th song down is Incense and Peppermints, which was of course The Strawberry Alarm Clock's big hit. That particular cut was perfomed by my band The Coconut Conspiracy and I was playing the Les Paul. It was recorded by placing a microphone in the middle of the room into a reel to reel tape recorder at a rehearsal one day. Considering I was the oldest in the band at 16 years of age, I think we were a pretty darn good dance band for that time. (If you enjoy that one, Can't Stop Loving You, a Spencer Davis song, would be another good one to listen to.)
-- Marc

richard burton · From: Britain

My biggest guitar mistake:
I was eighteen, green about guitars, had a blonde Hofner Senator F-hole acoustic that was very quiet, I just couldn't get much volume out of it.
I sold it for £11 (about $20).
A few years later, I realised that the lack of volume was because it was strung with flatwound strings !!
I've cursed myself ever since.
The biggest motorbike mistake occurred at about the same time:
I sold my Triumph Tiger-Cub for peanuts.

Nowadays I hang on to everything.

Larry King · From: Watts, Oklahoma, USA

My mistake was selling a '60's 345 to Joe Edwards....he really didn't play it that much...it's been "under his bed" for 30 years. Oh yeah, $280...but at the time I was just another broke picker in Tenn and the light bill was due.

Mark van Allen · From: Watkinsville, Ga. USA

In the late 70's I lived on a communal farm in Michigan, and traded a local a pristine dot neck orange label cherry 335 for an old 8-track player that cost me $15. I sold it a few years later to a pal for $200- he still plays it and tells the story of his fool buddy I'm sure. Good investment for me, but I sure wish I had it now!