The One That Got Away?

[edwardofhuncote]

There's been a fun thread running over at TalkBass about "the one that got away"... I have a couple, and I bet you guys do too. 


Actually, the one that really hurt the most (I've mentioned here before) was a Martin D-16H. (H was for 'herringbone') C.F. Martin & Co. made a special run of them in 1992 with some custom features, and I got the very first one that came into Roanoke. It had a beautiful Engleman spruce top, and lightly quilted mahogany sides and back, and that awesome tortoise binding they hadn't used for years. It had herringbone purfling back strip and rosette, and gorgeously scalloped braces under that white-gold top. I was in love at first strum. The guy that ran (and still runs) the local music store let me pay it off on an extended layaway for six months, and would occasionally even let me take it to a gig or fiddler's convention while still paying on it. It was plain-and-simple, made just for me. 


Anyway, long story short, hard times came, and I had to sell it to pay bills and subsequently a divorce lawyer.    There was no extended layaway plan for that, so I cried every night for six months...  over the guitar more than anything else. It's been nearly 20 years ago now, and I swear if I ever see #518842 again, I would buy it back in a heartbeat, even if it's a box of splinters and I have to pay full-new price. 


Here we were back in the glory days... note that someone has been scissored out of the Road Warrior pic... yeah - she was the reason it got sold. The other picture was taken backstage at the Roanoke Civic Center. I'm 99.9% sure this picture actually captured the conversation where I was hired by Acoustic Endeavors to be the new bass player, a relationship that would finally put me on the road, thus beginning my professional music career/crash diet. If I'm right, that would have been early Spring of 1994. (dig that Dale Earnhardt 'stache and Indiana Jones hat!)  


So... which one did you never get over? Bass, guitar, or whatever?

[cozmik_cowboy]

Mine are not "got aways" but "never quite weres".  When I worked at GC '83-'84, there was a NOS '82 Martin M-36 that the regional manager had deemed unsellable (fret-end sprout) that I could have had for $750.  Also a '59 ES-330-TD for $150, and ES-220-TC & ES-125-TC for $125 each.  I, alas, was not a good enough liar to make enough at GC to afford them.  The 330 is, of course, the acme of electric guitar development (present company excepted, of course), and that M-36 is still the yardstick by which I measure acoustics (to date surpassed only by my late friend Mick Scott's David Dollack custom - modeled after an M-38).

Peter

[5a quilt top]

While living in Madison, WI in the early 80's, I had the opportunity to purchase a pre-owned Alembic Series guitar from a store called "Good & Loud Music". This guitar was eventually purchased from them and used by Stanley Jordan, who was living in Madison at the time.

[edwin]

When I was 16, I was a resident oboe player at a summer arts camp, which consisted of playing in a wind quintet coached by the inimitable Benjamin Zander, and teaching a couple of students. The photography guy was a musician, too, and he had in a tweed case, a two tone sunburst maple Strat that had belonged to his neighbor who bought it new and then passed away. The widow let this guy hang on to it and I had a Hagstrom II (actually still have it) that he loved and he wanted to trade me straight up for it. At the last minute, he got cold feet because he thought his neighbor's widow would have been upset to see it go. The thing was virtually unplayed, still had all the tags in the case. I'm thinking probably 1957.

Oh well.

Oh, and there was the late 50s ES355 in Missoula MT that rang like a strat. It was the liveliest Gibson I ever played. They wanted about $1k for it. This was ca. 2004. I wish to this day I had bought that guitar.

There was a cocobolo medium scale SII here on the board that I still kick myself over. This was ca. 2009 or 10.

[bigredbass]

To my mind, the rarest of the great 80's Japanese basses, the ESP Horizon 2.  Five string, neckthru, all EMG, with the daffiest reliefs for the tummy cut, the sorta countersunk knobs, and the little fan-shaped reliefs in the horns, plus the to-die-for Gumby peghead.  Dark, barely see-thru navy finish.  Local store here in Nashville, just wasn't in the cards at the time, but I still think about it occasionally.  Like a lot of Japanese ESP's, this is once more proof that they just have a different take on things than us Gaijin.  How rare?  I see Daion Mark 20's far more often, and they're pretty scarce.

http://www.espguitars.co.jp/original/horizon-bass/index_end.html#hrzb2

Interestingly, the Horizon 1 (as well as the very first SoundGear Ibanez') are dead rip-offs of the TUNE Bass Maniac, the other 'shoulda' on this list.  They're still around, maybe one day, with a TUNE WoodBass to go with it.  The Bass Maniac is one of those designs whose impact was more far-reaching than its' own success.

https://reverb.com/item/4306568-tune-bass-maniac-tbj51-5-string-active-bass-brand-new

[811952]

'76 Ric 4001 mapleglow with a Badass bridge. Sold it to fund having the Alembic built, so I can't really say it wasn't worth it. I'm in a pretty good place at the moment, but I still wouldn't mind owning another Rickenbacker for pure nostalgia.


I had a shot at the Modulus 18-string monster when it was new ($3k with flight case) but had the Alembic built instead. The Modulus would have been fun, and I would be a different bassist entirely if I'd jumped on that deal. So it's probably best that it never happened.



I'm currently pared-down to four basses, and I think I've got things pretty much covered:
Alembic Series 1.5 custom 4-string
Fender American Precision Bass
Lakland 5502 5-string fretless
Peavey Cirrus Tiger Eye (USA) 5-string fretted


Life is good. Very few regrets.


John

[edwardofhuncote]

Found another picture of my long-gone D-16... the cat playing it here is Dan Tyminski, who later went on to fame and fortune as the singing voice of George Clooney in the movie "Oh, Brother Where Art Thou" and as the guitarist with Alison Krauss & Union Station. At this time though, he was just picking up on guitar, and was mostly known as a mandolin player with the Lonesome River Band based in nearby Franklin Co. Virginia., but he often subbed on banjo with our band. (called Clockwork) This is another from a shoebox of pictures from various fiddler's conventions and festivals... late at night, after the main stage was quiet, some really cool jams would happen out in the camping area. I don't remember this one for some reason, and I'm not in the picture.    I also realize (rather sadly) looking at that picture... three of those people are gone now.   

I have really been missing that guitar lately. Maybe I should run a WTB Craigslist Ad, just to see if by some wild chance it turns up.