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I've had many. Thinking back about the guitars that have gotten away, I had a pair of L5-S, a '64 L5 CES, '70 L-5 CES, a couple Wes Montgomery's, a couple Johnny Smith's, a 1948 super 400, etc...
But this one stands out...I traded my '64 L5-CES for a Mesa Son of Boogie, which you can buy today (used) for about $800...
Below is a recent ad for a guitar similar to my L5. (Though no guarantees it will sell for this price...)
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11-30-2023 05:14 PM
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I had a Heritage Golden Eagle that was one of the very early models, antique blonde finish. I had Heritage build me a pickguard without the "spike" and put a hotter pickup on it. I loved that guitar and even had them engrave my name on the truss rod cover. But a crisis around a credit card necessitated selling it for cash and the eBay "broker" who sold it would not tell me who bought it, so it's just out there somewhere. I hope it found a good home and someone to just play it. I would love to know where it is. I might even want to buy it back if the owner is willing, though I don't feel entitled to it in any way. Still, even when I'm playing the L5ces, I think about that Heritage Golden Eagle.
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I've had several eagles. A thinline that was my favorite. An eagle custom with one pickup that sounded better than my Gibson L5 Wesmo and a double pickup Eagle that was heavy and uninspiring compared to the others.
Originally Posted by lawson-stone
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Ca. 1982 (in my broke, credit-card-less student days), I saw a BF Fender Vibroverb with a JBL 15" speaker in a shop for $350. This the SRV holy grail amp (though I didn't know it then), not the earlier 2x10 brown version. This was crazy cheap for a pre-CBS amp even then, but I a lot of money for me. I tried it, and it was unbelievable, the perfect blues amp. Didn't have enough money on me for whatever they wanted for a deposit, so I spent the next few days scraping that together and Hamlet-ing about whether it was too much money. Went back the store, and it was gone. They also had a brownface pro for $250 (also stupid cheap at the time), so I got that as a consolation prize, but always wished I hadn't slept on the Vibroverb.
Otherwise, all kinds of guitars that cost a fortune now used to be cheap. At some point it became obvious that the collectors market was going to start spreading beyond pre-CBS Strats, old Les Pauls, and pre-war Martin dreads, and you could pretty much predict what the next thing would be. Should've pulled the trigger on any number of sub-$1000 Martin 00's, J-45's, ES-175's (later on, 125's), Guild, etc., but never did. But I can't say I regret any de-acquisitions. I've only ever sold stuff I didn't use anymore, and/or to finance stuff I truly wanted more.
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I bought a 1960 ES335 in 1975 for $800 in mint condition.
It was a 335/330 hybrid with the center block ending right past the bridge. Light as a feather. Trapeze tp, block inlays, ice tea sunburst.
Must have been a custom build. Great neck and tone.
It was actually stolen and it turned up in a pawn shop and I got it back.
Also my 1978 Super 400. Best sounding guitar I ever had.
A couple really great 175’s too.
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I dunno, what's a '63 Strat worth these days? (Or was it a '62?). Long gone...
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In 1966 I traded an ES-175 and $150 for a 1961 L-5CESTSV (a mouthfull). The asking price was $800. Back in those days the guys I played with did not obsess over pickup part number/type, scale length, tuning key brand/model, etc. We just played 'em. But amps were another story.
Eventualy I traded that guitar in on a new L-5C, that I ordered with a single Johnny Smith pickup in 1967.
Fast forward to today's century and I read on this forum awhile back, that the T variant of an L-5 is a rare guitar. One of those small details, had you known it way-back-when, you might have put that one in storage for future trade bait. Oh well...just play them and enjoy them!
Tom
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Just a regular Ibanez JP20
hanging in a shop
didn’t even get to plug it in
but man what a neck ….
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'59 burst Les Paul when I had my retail store in the late 70's. Bought it from a guy who wanted $260, sold it to a vintage dealer friend of mine the next day for $800 and he consigned it at Gruhn's - hard to tell what it's worth today (just a crummy plain top though ...lol). Mint 1947 Super 400 that I traded for a black LP Custom in about '73 - I heard that it ended up in Acuff's museum. I bought a '68 Tele with Bigsby for $120 in about '73 and played it for 35 years - wore the neck out. When I parted it out in the late 90's, the only thing original was the neck and it went for $700 on Ebay. Back in those days, these deals happened all the time - I had a blond Johnny Smith in the 90's that I traded about $700 worth of stuff for. I could go on.........
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I think you should get a '64 Vibroverb - your life will clearly not be made whole until you do so. Coincidentally, I have one for sale on this very forum, at an excellent price. Happy to work out a payment plan with you! Originally Posted by John A.
1964 Fender Vibroverb
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The one that got away? My first piece of real estate in San Francisco. I bought it for 180K in 1985, put 20K into it and sold it for 255k in 1987. After commissions and closing costs I made a 40K profit of which I gave about 15K to the government in taxes. Today that property is worth 2 million. All of my guitars that I have sold combined do not involve leaving anywhere near that much money on the table.
If only adulthood came with a crystal ball.
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I traded a pre-war blond L5, along with a few others, for a '24 Loar L5. The Loar's neck was a huge V and too difficult to play. Doing a lot of big band stuff these days, I wish I had the blond back.
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Long time since I had seller’s remorse. Decades. One if the first-ever Squier strats comes to mind, sort of a trial run. That thing was great. A late 70s Gibson Explorer. But the sore ones are a mint, original Marshall Silver Jubilee 50W head (sold it in the mid-90s) and a mint, original 100W Super Lead head (ditto).
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I suppose $4k is a small price to pay for fulfillment in life, but I’m afraid that would fill my living room beyond permissible limits. I’ll have to soldier on wondering what would have been. Originally Posted by Hammertone
Hmm, anyone got a madeleine?
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Originally Posted by John A.
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Tasty, but not Proustian. Originally Posted by wintermoon
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I have too many to list all. First that comes to mind that I should have, but didn't is I had a student sometime late 90s offer to sell me his 1970 Byrdland for $800. I didn't want the Florentine cutaway...geez. OTOH I sold my 1954 es175 single P90, to a student for $600 in 1984.
Traded a 1924 the Gibson L4 for a 1958 Epiphone Broadway (later sold to buy the above ES175).
And so it goes..in 2004 I sold all my Gibsons at the time - Les Paul TV special historic reissue, 1998(?)Tal Farlow,
Gibson Blueshawk, 1979 ES175/CC, 92 ES135 - in order to fund the Slaman I have. But after 19 years I still have the Slaman so I haven't big regrets musically.
Maybe financially though.
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We grow old too soon and smart too late. Originally Posted by Stringswinger
Like most people. I passed on some things I should have bought. But the only thing I truly wish I hadn't let out of my hands was my first and only 175. My music dealer was very supportive of me from the day I got my first "good" guitar (a new Gibson LG-1 in 1957). As I progressed and started getting gigs, he somehow always had or found what I needed at a price I could afford. When my 5W Kay amplifier wouldn't do it, he magically came up with a used Ampeg Jet and then a Reverberocket. When I was ready for a real electric ( spring 1960), he came up with a well used but solid 345 that was miraculously close in cost to my LG-1 trade-in. But he knew how much I wanted a 175 and called my parents about a year later to report that he'd "found" a used one I could have in an even swap for the 345.
So at the age of 14, I had a 175DN (a '59 or '60 - I never knew or cared which) in amazingly fine shape. I had to settle for a battered old gray Gretsch hard case, but I didn't care. I played that guitar for about 10 years through college and into grad school. But the bug bit me, and I bought a new L5CN with a DeArmond pickup. In retrospect, I probably didn't have to sell the 175 to get the L5, but I did. I sold it to a friend who wanted to learn to play the guitar and had always coveted mine. He never did learn to play it, but he wouldn't sell it back to me when I realized how stupid I was to have let it go. I tried for years to no avail.
I truly wish I had that baby back. I wouldn't even be playing it now, since I've been on 7s exclusively for for almost 30 years. But we had some fabulous times together and I let it down by letting it go.
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Originally Posted by John A.
Originally Posted by Hammertone
Worth losing an end table for some other, cherished youthful memories from your student days, invoked by the smell of amp dust excited by hot tubes. Originally Posted by John A.
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I should probably qualify by saying I always wished I hadn't slept on the Vibroverb up to the point I could no longer use something that big and loud and traded away my Pro for a Princeton. Nowadays, I'm good with a Quilter, but would love to at least try a Vibroverb again. Feel free to bring it over. I'll provide snacks. Originally Posted by Hammertone
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I keep re-learning that large, bling-y guitars trigger my imposter syndrome. At some point I feel like, "Well well. Lookit me, Johnny Law with the L-4000."
But if your job is to stand, dressed to the nines, in front of a throng of people then a vintage Johnny Smith "CES" is exactly the thing.
I will never have another vintage top-of-the-line Gibson archtop but I am deeply satisfied with my little bunch of four, three of which are true lifetime keepers no matter what the peghead says.
+ + +
Let's face it. If your standard of "deeply satisfied" is like Ms. Madeleine's yer not gonna find that on JG.be! Originally Posted by wintermoon
And what did you get from the monster, Dr. Frankenstein?
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For me, the one that got away was probably the '59 Les Paul that I was offered in the early '70's for $2000, a lot of money back then!
In terms of what I owned and let get away, that's a long list! Of those, the '60 ES345 and the '69 L5CES are the ones I miss most.
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My first archtop - a brand new from the factory special order from my local music store 1997 blond Epiphone Emperor Regent. Had figured woods, dead on inlays and a beautiful buttery sound. Traded it in for my L4CES which I love. I could have had both.
The only visual bummer was the scarf joint for the headstock. It was obvious and drove me nuts. I solved this a few years ago by purchasing a time capsule Antique Sunburst '94 version. I was originally going to get this color but got talked out of it. Worked out perfect and I can't see the scarf joint. YipPy!
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My Dad and I had about a 150lb. Bluefin tuna we lost right at the boat after a half hour fight. Now that my Dad is gone, I will always remember that "one that got away".....
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The ^%$# amp weighs a ton. Come on over to my place. I have an airtight box of pink erasers that I keep for special occasions. They're the good stuff. Who knows where they will take you? Originally Posted by John A.
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