What's your "one that got away"?

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  • octatonicoctatonic Frets: 33725
    In 1995 I was offered an L series Strat for $4000 Australian.
    I didn't have $400, let alone $4k so it wasn't an issue about buying it or not.
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  • Olympic white '79 strat with a black pickguard and completely worn maple board in Soundpad in Barnstaple for most of the 90s, only £299. It got put in my hands to try out every amp/pedal I bought there and I never bought it, despite loving it, because you know, 70s strats are shit aren't they?

    This one wasn't, I was an idiot, and realised it a week after it finally sold. Doh!
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  • also, are we all posting here in the hopes that somebody recognises their 'one that got away' and says 'I've got it now, was thinking of moving it on...'
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  • axisusaxisus Frets: 28280
    I was going to bid on a superb Status bass on eBay about 15 years ago. I really wanted it. I always bid very late in an auction so as not to show that I'm an interested party. Logged on fairly late and .... I misread the finish time, it was sold and a fair bit cheaper than I'd have paid. I was gutted. 

    Another one that haunts me was a fabulous Warmoth Tele partscaster with very interesting features including a carved top and a Floyd trem (yeah probably sounds horrendous but I loved it!). I procrastinated, sent the seller a question then suddenly it was gone, sold to someone else. Doh!


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  • GrokeGroke Frets: 3
    1976 Guild D25 in a shop in Northampton in 1992. Just didn't have the money. Went back a week later and it was gone. I did finally get a D25 from Coda in 2007 but it needed a neck reset so moved it on. Bought a Tacoma built DV6 in 2008 which has been my main acoustic and gigged a lot.
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  • mudslide73mudslide73 Frets: 3049
    edited January 2019
    Mine were/are a 70s Strat in the Rockshop in Shrewsbury in about 95/6. It looked like a growbag that had been in both Rory's and Stevie's allotments. I seriously thought about it all weekend then went back on Monday but it had gone.

    The other is @jd0272 s Esquire. Absolutely right up my street and I'd long worshipped it from afar. When it got sold I'd just committed to buy a new house so it was completely out of the question. Still haunts me.
    "A city star won’t shine too far"


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  • NiteflyNitefly Frets: 4901
    edited January 2019
    Mine was an ES-135 in Jamie Hartnoll's - it was natural/blonde, with gold hardware, for £1200 iirc, and I thought it would the perfect 60th birthday pressie to myself.

    But we were just about to go on holiday, so I thought to myself, "If it's still there when we get back...".  And of course it wasn't. 

    Did anyone here buy it? Jamie was a very popular chap on the various iterations of the forum...

    I consoled myself by getting my ES-330 (which I still have) from him, although that was considerably more money.

    *edit* great idea for a thread, by the way - some very interesting stories coming out!

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  • Tom Anderson Short Classic.  Really wanted one.They're hard to come by anyway, but this one had jumbo frets, which I massively prefer and those are really rare.  Ebay sale, and from a bit of surfing around I established that the seller bought it direct from the US (I found the guitar on the website of the American shop that sold it) and for whatever reason (money issues?) had decided to sell it by the time he got it.

    It was this instant sale that made me a bit nervous. In those days resale on TAs was shit, so it basically meant a guy had ordered a guitar and decided to sell it at a 50% loss before he'd even seen it.  He lived within a 2-3 hour drive from me, so I contacted him and asked if I could come and see the guitar.  But we were getting close to the Ebay deadline and he said he couldn't be available.  He wasn't especially gracious about it, it was a case of "look if you want the guitar bid for it".

    So I decided I didn't like the smell of the whole thing and didn't bid.  Guitar went for IIRC £1,300, must have cost him about £2,500.  If he'd let me see the guitar he'd at least have had a competitive bidder and might have got a couple of hundred more.

    I think nowadays with a better understanding of how to make sure I was protected by Paypal/Ebay I'd have taken the risk.  At least 95% probability it was a genuine sale and if it wasn't I could have made sure I was protected.

    As it was, I've never seen a Short Classic with jumbos in the UK since and that was quite a few years ago.  I ended up compromising with a medium fret version and had to pay a few hundred more for it too.
    “To a man with a hammer every problem looks like a nail.”
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  • JerkMoansJerkMoans Frets: 8774
    edited January 2019
    There was a 1961 Les Paul/SG Special on here a few months ago that I missed until it had been snapped up, and which still haunts me scream

    Otherwise I've generally never seriously regretted stuff I've missed out on: there's always been a reason, even if it's 'I'm effing skint and need to fix the car / pay tax / feed the kids'.  Ultimately, they're just objects.  Beautiful and so, so precioussssss, but in the main replaceable.  Ish.



    Inactivist Lefty Lawyer
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  • stonevibestonevibe Frets: 7080
    Gibson Firebird.

    I worked in a guitar shop, we go it in and I played it. 

    Fell in love.

    I demoed it to a customer and they bought it...

    Win a Cort G250 SE Guitar in our Guitar Bomb Free UK Giveaway 


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  • FX_MunkeeFX_Munkee Frets: 2477
    Kramer Nightswan, just couldn't afford it at the time.
    Shot through the heart, and you’re to blame, you give love a bad name. Not to mention archery tuition.
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  • tone1tone1 Frets: 5112
    pumkin said:
    tone1 said:
    Definitely @pumkin ‘s Brazillian Olympic White Strat with Tortoiseshell guard.... I literally missed it by 24hrs :s
    Apologies @tone1 you didn't get it and I shouldn't have sold it .... I think the guy I sold it to moved it on to ... hopefully it's in a good place !
    @pumkin LOL.... Definitely no apology needed.... I’m still loving the Goldtop  :)
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  • LastMantraLastMantra Frets: 3822
    I bought a vibro-champ for £25, left it at a friend's house, he got arrested and ended up getting a lengthy sentence, never seen it again.
    At the time I didn't know how to tune in an amp and thought it sounded really treble-y and harsh...wish I had it now tho. Probably be a lovely contrast to my WEM in a dual-amp setup. 
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  • DefaultMDefaultM Frets: 7271
    Axe fx ultra, power amp, cab, footswitch, everything you'd need basically. £750 BIN on ebay at a time when all of it would have cost £3k+.
    It seemed too good to be true so I left it, but it sold and I've always wondered if it was genuine.
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  • I actually own my one that got away, a fiesta red Strat... when I went back to the shop it had gone; it then turned up on my 31st birthday (my girlfriend had bought it). That's the short version anyway.

    I guess other than that I regret not buying a Les Paul Studio I saw in local classifieds in about '97 going too cheap because it was in slightly rough condition. I never went to see it but it would almost certainly have been better than the succession of Ibanezes I owned instead.
    My YouTube channel, Half Speed Solos: classic guitar solos demonstrated at half speed with scrolling tab and no waffle.
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  • timmypixtimmypix Frets: 2304
    also, are we all posting here in the hopes that somebody recognises their 'one that got away' and says 'I've got it now, was thinking of moving it on...'
    The thought may have crossed my mind. Maybe it'll work for someone!
    Tim
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  • 2003 Rickenbacker Blue Boy 330. Looked fantastic - nice limited edition colour. Sounded awful with the high output version of the Hi-Gain pickups that they came with in the early 2000s. Couldn't find a set of second hand Toasters to swop in so I stupidly moved it on. 
    Wunjo on Denmark Street bought it for cash. I can't even bring myself to look at photos of me playing it - makes me feel awful. 

    I have a 360 Mapleglo with Toasters that sounds great, but if I could get my BlueBoy back.....
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  • MistyMisty Frets: 135
    edited January 2019
    '62 Strat, belonging to a friend of mine around '83. I was thinking of getting a Strat, and he lent it to me. I tried it, not knowing anything useful about Strats at the time, and gave it back to him as I felt it needed a bit of TLC. Actually it was a really nice all original Strat, with it's original case, and it just needed a new set of strings and a set up. He sold it for £450, dammit. I thought I'd done the right thing in buying a USA vintage reissue Strat instead for about the same money. What an idiot.

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  • DominicDominic Frets: 16004
    Tom Anderson hollow drop top strat with Humbucker in bridge..........played and sounded superb
    Got a bee in my bonnet about wanting a chunkier neck, sold it cheaply and have never found a guitar that was so easy to play fast and sounded as good
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  • GadgetGadget Frets: 895
    Manson Explorer.

    Was on sale in my local music shop in Reading in the 80s. I was only a beginner and didn't have the money.
    I think, therefore.... I... ummmm........
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