Ever missed out on a guitar?

Nitefly

Jamie Hartnoll had a Gibson ES-135 (or possibly 137?) in a few years back, blonde with gold hardware, so it was a custom of some kind.  As I recall it was around £1250.

I thought I'd buy it as a 60th birthday treat to myself, but was going on a 2-week holiday the next day.  Of course when I got back from holiday it had gone... 

DefaultM

Lazer blue ibanez rg550 and someone had replaced the inlays with disappearing pyramids. I think that's what it was anyway. Saw it on eBay about 10 years ago and I remember being annoyed that I was out void.

lasermonkey

Back in 1986 there was a Sonic Blue Ibanez Strat-like guitar (probably an early Roadstar) in the music shop above HMV in Bedford. Apart from a hybrid '64/'74 Strat which briefly belonged to a friend, it was the only Strat I've ever liked. I turned up with the money soon after, but it had gone. I ended up buying the Gibson Challenger I which was there instead, a terrible mistake. Awful, awful guitar.
 

agibbo

Mine was an early 80's Yamaha SA2000 they had in PMT Birmingham around 15 years or so ago. It was mint condition and for sale for about £500. I played it on the Saturday, loved it but my mate told me to sleep on it and come back the next day (as I'd recently bought a Gibson Les Paul). I went back the next day and it had gone! I was gutted!

usedtobe

Early ibanez artist. More than once, as it happens..

builttospill

US Guild X-170T in black... a beautiful guitar... tried to save for a deposit on it but it sold within a week or so of it being advertised 

robgilmo

Local auction had an early 80's 62 reissue MIJ Fender Tele, double bound, rosewood, CAR ,  lovely thing, I wasn't very flush at the time (I'm never really flush) and could only bid £333 and even then I could barely afford that.

It sold for a few quid more, like 340 or something.
Listed as having no serial number but the number was on the bridge on these guitars so punters were a bit shy to bid on it.
You know when you find ''the'' guitar? I was proper gutted. 


http://www.tdpri.com/attachments/576a5a73e1eac-532_7-jpg.362757/

dogload

Not swapping my Hondo Les Paul for an original 60's Epi Casino, cased and including a Bigsby as well s the fitted trapeze tailpiece. 

In my defence it was 1981, I was 15 and had no idea what I was turning down. Never heard of Epiphone. My mate had paid 70 quid for the Epi and I'd paid 80 quid of hard-earned pocket money for the Hondo.

Bollocks.

jeztone2

i almost bought Nigel Pulsford of Bush's Custom Shop Strat 12 years ago. it was under a grand, which I thought was a good deal. but it sold pretty quickly.

ChrisCox1994

A fender custom shop hard tail strat with a suhr solid rosewood neck. Amazing. In a guitar shop 2nd hand for 1200 then saw it again in the pawn shop down the road 6 months later for 600.

SteveRobinson

The only one I can think of it when I was offered a mid-80s ES-175 for £600. I mulled it over for an hour and by the time I said yes it had been sold to a dealer.

I wasn't too bothered, it was a bargain but I had no use for it (hence the hesitation) and would only have sold it on.

koneguitarist

Early 90's I was offered a reissue ES335 Dot in sunburst about £400 just couldn't get cash together quick enough. It was gorgeous.

ICBM

ICBM said:

Squier Vista Series Jagmaster

You might laugh, whoever that was .

No really… if I had just bought the Squier then I wouldn't have disappeared down the PRS rabbit hole for ten or twelve years. I wanted a 2-humbucker guitar with a Strat trem really - saw the Jagmaster in a shop and was going to try it but the place was full of Saturday afternoon jammers so I wandered off. Went back on the Monday morning to buy it when the shop was quiet, and on the wall next to it was a PRS for what at the time was a silly low price, I think because it was pink (badly faded from purple), which had come in over the weekend. So I bought that instead.

SteveRobinson

The Vista Series Jagmaster is an all-time classic in my book. 

mellowsun

Hmm, not really. There's more I regretted buying as I didn't really need them. Plus those I regret selling.

I slightly regret not buying a Parker Fly (one of the proper ones).

I almost bought a Ric 660 once but I'm glad I didnt now, in retrospect 

ICBM

SteveRobinson said:

The Vista Series Jagmaster is an all-time classic in my book. 

It is. The one I passed on wasn't my favourite colour though - off-white - if it had been sunburst or black I might have bought it on the spot without even worrying about trying it.

Blueingreen

At least a couple of years ago (maybe even 3?) I decided I wanted a Tom Anderson short fenderalike with trem.  I massively prefer jumbo frets.  A short classic S came up on Ebay, jumbo frets.  I had minor reservations about the colour, but they really were minor.

There were some odd features to the sale.  The seller had bought the guitar direct from the US, and according to his blurb on Ebay had decided to sell it before it even arrived. I was able to locate pictures of the guitar with an American dealer prior to sale. His blurb gave no explanation why he'd decided to take an immediate and very significant loss on the guitar before he'd even seen it.  This made me a bit suspicious - maybe he HAD opened the case and there was something not right about it etc.

The vendor was located a couple of hours drive away from me, so I contacted him and asked if I could come and see the guitar.  He said no, you can bid for the guitar if you want it.

By that point I'd decided it was all a bit too suspicious and didn't bid.  It went for £1,300 or so, a fantastic price for a brand new £2,300 or so guitar if genuine.  I'd have happily paid that and even a bit more.  By letting me see the guitar he might have had a competitive bidding situation and picked up 2 or 3 hundred quid more.

To this day i've wondered if I was being overly cautious.  I'd have had some protection from Ebay/Paypal.  Part of my thinking was, this one's come along quite quickly, I might not wait long for the next one, but as far as I know no short-scale, jumbo fretted TA has come on the used market since.  I'm still looking for that elusive guitar and feel I might have missed out on my only chance to get one, barring ordering one to my own specs at more than double the price.

Strat54

jeztone2 said:

i almost bought Nigel Pulsford of Bush's Custom Shop Strat 12 years ago. it was under a grand, which I thought was a good deal. but it sold pretty quickly.

Ooops...sorry. I sold it pretty quickly though as I had far too many Relics back then......bit more than a grand though.......Swallowed...Swallowed.....

My nearly guitar was a genuine but refin 1952 Tele. In the early 90's Pre internet days by the time I saw it advertised and drove 80 miles the guitar had gone the day before.......£1100....add a zero to the end now for one of any description.....ffs.

Teetonetal

I really wanted a pink paisley tele when they reissued them in the mid 90's. I saw one and a blue flower in the window of Sharon Music in maidstone and it was a wow moment. They were 499 GBP and I'd only just left school. No money what so ever. Took me until 2015 to actually buy one, a new Japanese version. It's a bit meh unfortunately. 

RobDavies

I wanted a Rickenbacker Pete Townshend sig when they came out in '93.

Managed to find a dealer who had one, organised finance (I was skint at the time) and was on the phone to the dealer, giving him my delivery details when he stopped me.....

Apparently someone, five minutes previously had walked into the store and paid cash and walked out with it.