This is in the Amps section but it applies to guitars or other major pieces of equipment we use.
In my own case it was trading in a Peavey DB210 for a Line6 Flextone 2. What was I thinking of? I don’t remember actually buying the DB210 but it was resident in our music room for at least a couple of years until I decided that the Flextone was the amp I needed (due to all the amp models that it had). The DB210 was not very highly rated as an amp but it sounded good to me and it ‘worked’ for me. The Line6 amp performed as per its spec but it sounded flat and undynamic, whereas the DB210 was everything the Line6 was not. As I said before, what was I thinking of?
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. [Albert Einstein]
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
Comments
stupid stupid stupid.
The TOA died when out of warranty and was unrepairable. The outboard gear became rapidly worthless.
I challenge anyone to beat that!
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Or Selling a Marshall Jubilee head and 4 x 12 cab for £300 in 96 ish
But probably thinking investing over 200K in building a large recording studio was a good idea in 2010
I've certainly learnt my lesson in digital all in one effects / modellers. There's been so many times I've thought getting one was a good idea but none of them has ever worked out. I've always found plugging into a real amp was so much more enjoyable after a few gigs with a modeller. Luckily I've never blown a huge amount on one, £345 being the most i paid I think.
On the whole though I've made more money from playing music than I have ever spent on buying gear, and there's been quite a few gigs where the gig money was enough to purchase ever single thing I used to do the gig. So I'm not complaining.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Best: I bought a Carr Mercury 8W a few years ago and l can't envisage ever selling it. It makes every guitar I own sound good.
It may seem strange but the one I regret most was Peavey Classic 30 that I bought new in Holiday Music Leytonstone (am I right about that name?) in the early to mid 90s and sold on about five years later for another Marshall as the drive sound wasn’t great. The clean sounds were however lovely and as my tastes in amps changed I wish I had held on to that one. Nuthin fancy but as good as a Fender IMHO.
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
Worst: Les Paul Custom from around 1970 bought for iirc £220, sold for £400. I’ve no complaints, I needed the money and it was a fair price at the time. But typically I tend to hold on to stuff rather than sell it, and if I’d done the same with that guitar (and the Wal) I’d have a couple of very valuable instruments on my hands.
OK.
I sold a beautiful 1970 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe Goldtop to a bloke in a pub car park in Windsor for £250 in order to fund a Jap Strat with a locking trem for about £350. This was 1984, but still.
I still have the Strat. It smirks at me
Other than that I probably should have held onto my Laney GH50L which again I sold for peanuts buy a Marshall. I love the Marshall and don't currently need 50w, but it was a great amp and probably just needed a different boost pedal to get what I wanted out of it.
Best - Buying a 74 twin reverb in 2022 for £50
24 hrs later, what the Fxxk have I done.
Worst buying decision, a brand new Marshall dual reverb head, which sounded so terrible I gave it away for free when it was a few months old.