Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

OK - I don't know if this thread has been done before, but what stands out as a guitar buying decision you've regretted the most (if you can narrow it down to one).

I bought a "fernandes" gold Top Les Paul in favour of a Jetglo 320 of undetermined vintage about 8-9 years ago for about $400au. This one came to mind when thinking about how nice it would be to get a 320/325 recently, and checkig availability/prices

This was just after I passed up a near mint C.A.R '63 Strat because it had (horror of horrors) a switch installed between the tone pots. It would have been about 5 weeks wages. Now I'm caught between wishing I bought it, and wishing I earnt 1/5 the value of a mint custom colour strat per week!!


What are yours??

The one that always come to my mind first is walking into a music store in L.A. in the San Fernando Valley around 1980, and there was a pristine 1963 Gretsch Country Gent for sale for $500. I remember the gold plating was just gleaming in the store lights. But, that was a bit more than I could handle in those days, so....

The happy end to the tale though is that I got the guitar bug so bad I DID end up buying a fireglo Rick 360-12 a few months later - brand new.

But still, that CG.....

Back in '97 I could have walked out of a local shop with a brand new 4001CS for $875.00.

Howdy,

Buying guitars is something I've seldom regretted. It's SELLING them that I've regretted!

Larry

I didin't order a Lemmy for under $2000

Now they seem to be over $5000 - $7000 ...

In the early 80's I passed on a lightshow for a grand.

I passed on a 370/12RM for $585 in 1990.

As a kid (12 or so... 1965?) my dad took me to Manny's in NYC and I actually held a Ric Jetglo 325 in my hands ---- I was almost speechless! the HOLY GRAIL! Naturally my father refused to even THINK about getting it for me... so I'll just blame it all on him.

I saw a 4001v63 (I think) in Jetglo in a music store in Lemoyne PA when I was traveling to PA for work. It was priced in the $650-$700 range as I recall. I wasn't really in the market for a bass at the time, so I let it go.

It's the one I regret the most.

I bought a Brian Moore i8-1000 in 2004. Very pretty but lousy Chinese fretwork. Should have spent longer trying it out. Bad decision on my part!

Haven't regretted any since (they've all been Ricks!!)

I tell a lie...... I put a deposit on a non-Rick last week!

[warning! Non rick content]

4 Years ago I sold my favourite strat - a '74 Olympic White 3 bolter - to buy a gold-parts '62 Slab-board for 5 times the sale price.

The '74 wiped the floor with the '62. The problem of living on an Island and not being able to touch stuff before you buy it

I think I've mentioned this before, but McGuinn's LS was for sale by a mail-order dealer somewhere in the Midwest (I think) in mid-1980, for $1500.00. It was in his newsletter. It didn't sell the first month, so he said he would lower the price by $100.00 a month until it did finally sell. It went for $900.00 if I recall correctly. And I sat there!!!

In 1999 I told a music store owner I was looking for an old Gibson. He brought out a dusty old case with a blue Les Paul Deluxe inside. He wanted $750 Cdn but I walked. I've see them now for double the price.

Around the same time I purchased a Soldano Atomic 16 tube combo for $450. Traded it in a few months later. The store gave me $400 for it towards my purchase of a POD. Two weeks ago I saw a Atomic 16 selling for $1300!

Two things.

I let a $500 mapleglo 4001v63 slip through my fingers. I saw it online, called the shop, but instead of running down there right away, I WASHED THE CAR. I needn't tell you what had happened when I finally made it to the store.

But the one regret I will take with me to my grave is that I traded my first Rick, the first guitar I bought myself - a September 1967 456/12 - when it broke and I didn't have the money to fix it. I didn't even know the model number at the time, mind you, let alone the date of manufacture. At the time I thought, "hmm well it's quit, hasn't it?" but now I realize that probably a wire had just come loose inside. I went into the shop, and traded straight across for a 1950s Kay hollowbody...

But the tragedy of my first Rickenbacker spurred me to learn about guitar models and soldering and so forth, so at least *something* good came out of it.

yowza... a 1967 Ric 456/12 for a 1950s Kay hollowbody. That one hurts.

Was it like this one with a "converter comb"?