What's your "one that got away"?

roberty

Refinished OG Nocaster, $NZ5k back in 2005, played it and loved it, even had the money, but it seemed like a lot back then

tbm

60s Hagstrom Viking in great nick for CAN$550 about 12 years ago. Not a value thing, just a lovely guitar.

There was a white SG standard on here for AGES a few years back. Seller was asking for £650 for it I think. I hummed. I hawed. It sold.  

beed84

A Hofner Ambassador built from NOS parts. Arguably the best guitar I've had by a country mile. 

DrJazzTap

American vintage 59 strat in sonic blue. Was the strat for me

Tikibird44

In the Early Eighties I lost the toss of a coin and had to play the bass. I decided I had to have a Yamaha BB800. I don't really remember why, I must have seen someone with one and thought they looked cool. After searching the small ads of the local Liverpool Echo I eventually found one for sale on the Wirral. I sold my CSL Telecaster Deluxe [ Big Mistake] to help fund the purchase and went to try/buy the Yamaha. I met the seller at his house and he let me try the bass. It was a bit different than I expected as it had a different active pick up and, as I remember, a serial number with a lot of zeroes in it. I still decided I was going to have it as I didn't really know what I was doing. It was then that the seller said he had a pre-CBS Fender Jazz that I could have for the same money [£300] and I said NO!
The Yamaha turned out to be a neck heavy, battery eating monster that I eventually swapped for a Riverhead  which I still have which was light, sounds good and is really easy to play but I always regret not going for the Fender.

GuyR

Tikibird44 said:

In the Early Eighties I lost the toss of a coin and had to play the bass. I decided I had to have a Yamaha BB800. I don't really remember why, I must have seen someone with one and thought they looked cool. After searching the small ads of the local Liverpool Echo I eventually found one for sale on the Wirral. I sold my CSL Telecaster Deluxe [ Big Mistake] to help fund the purchase and went to try/buy the Yamaha. I met the seller at his house and he let me try the bass. It was a bit different than I expected as it had a different active pick up and, as I remember, a serial number with a lot of zeroes in it. I still decided I was going to have it as I didn't really know what I was doing. It was then that the seller said he had a pre-CBS Fender Jazz that I could have for the same money [£300] and I said NO!
The Yamaha turned out to be a neck heavy, battery eating monster that I eventually swapped for a Riverhead  which I still have which was light, sounds good and is really easy to play but I always regret not going for the Fender.

That is a genuine tale of tragedy, surely Hollywood would be interested?

JerkMoans

GuyR said:

Tikibird44 said:

In the Early Eighties I lost the toss of a coin and had to play the bass. I decided I had to have a Yamaha BB800. I don't really remember why, I must have seen someone with one and thought they looked cool. After searching the small ads of the local Liverpool Echo I eventually found one for sale on the Wirral. I sold my CSL Telecaster Deluxe [ Big Mistake] to help fund the purchase and went to try/buy the Yamaha. I met the seller at his house and he let me try the bass. It was a bit different than I expected as it had a different active pick up and, as I remember, a serial number with a lot of zeroes in it. I still decided I was going to have it as I didn't really know what I was doing. It was then that the seller said he had a pre-CBS Fender Jazz that I could have for the same money [£300] and I said NO!
The Yamaha turned out to be a neck heavy, battery eating monster that I eventually swapped for a Riverhead  which I still have which was light, sounds good and is really easy to play but I always regret not going for the Fender.

That is a genuine tale of tragedy, surely Hollywood would be interested?

Too fantastical. They’d have to tone down the sense of abject catastrophe.

horsehead

I know i moan on about it, but my JXG black 'Lil Bitch' Cabronita. It was seriously stunni g and put together by parts I've had off you lot. It played like a dream with just a bridge TV Jones and an earvanna nut. 
I stupidly thought I needed a 5E3 that I traded it for only to realise that it wasn't my bag (man) 
I would give my left nut for it back

timmypix

There are some tragedies in this thread - oh, the great god hindsight.

Had one pop up a couple of weeks ago that maybe some of you saw on Facebook - a guy selling a PRS Singlecut in natural with some very pleasing play wear (pickmarks through the finish between the pickups, don't know why that does something for me but hey ho), and he was letting it go for a grand as there was an amp he wanted urgently. 

I stared at it all evening to the point of my girlfriend going "just get it", but it was collection only from Leeds and I was busy that weekend so wouldn't have been able to get it. I think that was snapped up by the next day. Maybe not quite as big a regret as the Les Paul in my first post here, but I'm still thinking about it two weeks later.

Kebabkid

A Wal bass for £250 in the late 80s.

Have you seen the price they fetch now?

RearWing

In 1977 at JSG in Bingley, West Yorkshire there was a white John Birch Firebird in near pearlescent white. I knew John well and asked him if I could try it out, he said yes, and I took it to the far end of the shop and plugged it into a Marshall half stack through a phaser. I played it for about forty minutes really enjoying the feel of the neck and the sounds from the JB pick up’s; as I put it back on the wall, John called out “you should buy that, it’s the only guitar i’ve heard you play properly”.

This at the time was high praise for a sixteen year old and stupidly I was too embarrassed to say “yes I should”; instead I mumbled something inane and went home.  When I went back in the shop a couple of days later, John was telling someone how good the Firebird sounded, saw me and said “that bloke heard you play and bought it without trying it himself, he thought if you sounded good, he would sound great!”

To this day I wish I had bought that guitar, with it who knows what might have happened!

simonhpieman

WELL....

In chronological order:

BOND PROTOTYPES
In 2000, a Stereophonics/Blur/Travis-infatuated Pieman and his pal were doing their twice weekly scan of their local pawn shop hoping to discover Gibsons and only finding the same Squier and Encore strats. Only this time there were 3 guitars that all looked like variations on the starship enterprise.
Each had the word "Bond" on the headstock and each had a stepped sawtooth fingerboard. We both had a quick play and agreed this was weird.
Noticing two teenage oiks handling his merchandise, the assistant came over and explained that the son of Mr Bond had brought in almost every remaining Bond prototype and oddity that remained from the ruins of his Dad's factory.
Given only a few hundred(?) of the only production Bond guitar were made (the electraglide as famously used by The Edge and others) and each of these guitars was £250 I can only wonder what they'd be worth now. Neither of us knew any of this at the time, mind, and had never even seen an electraglide. And anyway, it wasn't something Kelly Jones played so why would we care? Pair of idiots...
Anyway, for those interested, and if my memory serves, one was a "regular" electraglide, while the other two seemed to be more like normal electrics, no electronically controlled pickups or anything, just the weird Bond fingerboard. Same shape as the electraglide, though. One was definitely white as that's the one I picked up, while I think the other was natural wood.

70s STARCASTER
Some 18 years ago, 15 year old Pieman drops into his local weird guitar shop, Langdons in Bournemouth (Boscombe). In the window is a 70s 335-TD in walnut for £899. But it's not that. It's the almost mint Fender Starcaster hanging on the wall, natural blonde, just £599.
"You don't want that," says the proprietor. "It's rubbish."
Thus began my infatuation with Starcasters. I had the money and everything. Finally got one recently, in less than mint, for a LOT more. Kicking myself to this day. I'd have cherished that £599 one to this day. (I did make out of there like a bandit the following year with a seafoam green Squier Venus for £180 with free levy's strap, however!)

70S JAGUAR
Tried it on Denmark Street. Loved it but thought £1700 was a bit steep (it was at the time) and left it. Emailed a couple of days later having changed my mind and decided to bite the bullet.
The reply stated that Paul McCartney's son had bought it, a story later confirmed by a guy I play with now who was in James McCartney's band at the time. Apparently he just rocked up to rehearsal with 10 or so new vintage guitars that he'd splurged on. Which reawakened my anger when I found out about it some 5 years after the event!

70S NATURAL JAZZMASTER
Saw this on ebay one December, maybe 8 or 9 years ago. Glorious ash body with white pickguard, blocks and binding on the neck. I LOVE natural ash with white pickguards.
It sold on eBay for £1200. I couldn't quite bring myself to do it for some reason... At that point I'd never owned a guitar worth over a grand.
I still have dreams about it. There are only 2 photos of one of these online and I have the feeling they're of the same guitar. 70s JMs are rare enough. Seems natural ones are even rarer!

67 JAZZMASTER
My offset search was ongoing. I saw a lovely 67 sunburst Jazzmaster on eBay and it was local to me in Hackney so I went and tried it in his studio through an AC30. It was absolutely glorious! I tried a lot of JMs around that period and this was by far the best post-dot neck JM I tried by a distance.
I offered the guy something like £1800 to end the listing but he was convinced it'd sell for over £2k.
We were both wrong and it went for about £1900. Over my budget but not by enough that I couldn't have stretched to it. Kicked myself.
It was relisted on ebay a week later for about £2200 by the buyer. And while I can't remember how quickly, it sold too. Scumbag.

There are probably more. Why do I love guitars so much?!