Stupid, stupid, stupid...

[King Elvis]

What is the stupidest thing you have ever done regarding your gear?

Here is mine:

I used to have a 1978 Marshall MKII Super Lead 100 watt half stack. Back in about 1989 I was going to school and I was really broke and I was just playing in my room and stuff. Anyway, I was really broke and my mothers birthday was coming up and I wanted to get her a puppy. Did I mention that I was really broke??? So, the only thing of any value that I had was the Marshall. I loaded up the Marshall and off to the pawn shop I went. The a**hole there offered me $100 bucks for it??? $100 bucks, can you believe it??? The stupid part is......

I TOOK THE $100 BUCKS!!!!

 

[bullyhill]

Well I didn't take the 100 bucks, or in my case 150 bucks, but I did put a 1986 PRS Custom 24 in a hock shop in 1991 to take a girl to great adventure. I bought it new for a lot more of course and picked it up on the last day (6 months later) before it went on the shelf. Then I lent it to a dude who took it off to some art school in PA and got it back without the tunning pegs. I was trying to sell it to him for 500 bucks , he didn't buy it and I am still looking for circa 86 pegs for it?

 

[Track Rat]

Back in 1973 I traded a Guild 12 string acoustic guitar for an Ampeg B-42X amp (a lot like a Dual Showman). Nice amp but a dumb trade.
Then back around 1983, I sold a 1980 white Stratocaster with a maple neck to a friend CHEAP to pay for some studio time on the pretext that I'd buy it back at a slight profit to him for helping me out in my time of need. I look him up about three months later to buy my Strat back as we agreed only to find out he had sold it out from under me. It was the best Strat I've ever owned.

 

[W.I.S.C.]

I used my Ziljian China "16 as a weapon to beat down my ex-best friend.Both were utterly destroyed.Then he dismembered the rest of my kit.So then I nearly killed him with a strait up beat down and a 3 legged table to the head...C-ya!!Unmatched in cruelty and brutality.Then I got married and had kids and saw the real cruelty and brutality,worse than any beatdown I ever gave or got.Owch...my wallet is killin me...

 

[VOXVENDOR]

Dumbest thing I did............

I spent $400 on an Emulator II+ HD.....Depeche Mode used them in 1984-86, So I figured they were awesome...

And in 1984 they were $13,000 so figured $400 in 2000 was a steal...

I realized it really sucks..... "Up to 1 MB of Sampling Ram"... Thats what the ads boast........ I mean it was good for it's time... But $400-$500 could have bought me a current sampler with 64MB Ram..

 

[savageblues]

When I was 13 or so I had saved enough money (I think $150) to buy a guitar amp. My dad drove me to this guys apartment where he had the TV blasting while I played my guitar through the amp. We took it.

I knew nothing. It was a Sonax 775G a solid state 4x10 jobby. I brought it home and plugged in my guit in the silence of my bedroom....FFFZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...All this noise. It worked but had this terrible noise at idle.

I think I cried (at spending my money on such a POS).

We tried to fix it but couldn't trouble shoot the problem (I retrospect, I probably could now though). I did play it begrudgingly for few years though...and was able to get a few bucks for it when I sold it.

 

[esactun]

The dumbest thing I ever did with my gear was buying some of it. Ever heard of the Razor Snake?

 

[dyuob]

*sigh* The Dumbest thing I ever did was, once a long time ago, when I was really broke and needed rent money, I sold a Gibson ES 335 td for around $300.00. Cherry finish, near new, and I miss her even to this day. I should have just kicked my ex wife out and made her get a job instead.

 

[Lopp]

Aside from buying a Zoom product, an Alesis compressor, and a Boss DS-1 pedal?

Installing a Kahler floating bridge on a '73 Strat because that was cool in the 80's. Granted, the person who owned the Strat before me had seriously abused it. However, I proceeded to perform Vai "Crossroads" tricks by shaking the Strat by the bar on the Kahler and ended up cracking the body.

Eh. I still have it. It isn't worth shit and looks like shit. However, it plays and sounds great.

 

[Cyrokk]

Mine is clumsiness.

I was in a band just after highschool. The bass player was the leader of our trio and had some deal where he had a rented PA and equipment in his house, including a Gibson Les Paul.

Nothing like tripping and knocking an expensive guitar off the stand and on the floor. Luckily there wasn't a scratch, but I (and the band as well) felt as if a gun went off while I was cleaning it.

And then I got my just desserts: I made the mistake of letting a non-musician hold my Takamine. He dropped it on its back while standing up. Hit the linoleum and made the obvious noise of blasphemy. Again there was no scratch and it took all my energy to restrain from killing him.

Cy

 

[WATYF]

lol.. speaking of "dropping guitar" stories.. I've got a few good ones... (none of which involved me, fortunately)


We were up on stage getting ready to play a while back and my sis-in-law, who sings, was walking across the stage... as she passed the guitar stand, which was one of those triple guitar stands (at the time is was holding up a Taylor and a strat) she bumped up against it and brought the whole thing crashing down. The whole stage just froze and stared. She was so embarassed that she coulda curled up and died right then and there...


The funniest one is from years ago... we were playing in a youth band at a church up in Chicago, and the youth "room" was at the back of their gym. So my bro is walking across the gym towards the door to the youth room, carrying his Epiphone acoustic (it was a great lookin' bird's eye maple guitar) and these kids are playing volleyball across the gym... Well, one of 'em spikes the ball all the way over, and it hits my brother's guitar, smack dab in the middle of the back of the body. It made the loudest "crack!" I've ever heard. (considering we were in a gym and the sound was ricocheting everywhere)... well anywhoo... my brother turned at this kid and gave him the most evil look I have ever seen.... he coulda burned that kid's soul right out of his body if he had stared long enough.



WATYF

 

[Doug H]

"and a Boss DS-1 pedal" I've bought two or three and lost them all. Still my favourite crunch pedal.

This is embarrassing.

I bought a plywood strat for $350. The guy said it was a real strat that had the neck replaced. I'd been playing long enough to know better. It did have a killer sound for a shitty guitar, and the neck was pretty solid, but was probably worth half the price.

I once paid $75 for the most rediculous excuse for a bass you have ever seen. It was lot's of fun, but what a piece of shit.

Top of the list is probably selling my re-issue 57 strat in a sacrafice sale for $700. CAN It was one of the original reissues made in the old Fender factories (the story goes). I was really broke at the time. I like the early 60 strats better but wouldn't object to having a 57 lying around, not to mention it would probably be worth $1300 or so now. It was a beautiful guitar.

 

[jimistone]

its a toss up.
either:

roudering out the pickup holes on a late 50's blonde gretch contry gentleman and installing gibson humbuckers

or...getting a 70's natural finish bug up my ass and sanding a perfect 3 color sunburst finish off my '66 strat.....i wish someone had of told me that it was a 3 peice alder body..oh well

or...selling my 75 les paul custom for $250 so i could by a boat motor i wanted at the time (it died in 1 month)

i can screw up a vintage guitar so fast it will make your head swim!