Your biggest Steal or Best Buy???

BassmanDk · #1 02-24-2006, 08:46 AM

What item are your biggest steal or best buy?
Did you find a '62 Jazz in a pawnshop for $200,- or a Fliptop in your cousins garage?
I'll start:
I think my best buy was in a London guitarshop. I saw a older P-bass hanging among a lot of junk. Tried it and it was sweet. Sounding and playing fantastic ( the bass, not me

) When I asked about the price i got a shock. I could have it for 150 pounds or about $ 250. It wasn't a original '60 but put together from old parts. Doesn't matter to me. A good bass for that money. I should know; i have a Musicman, Sadowsky, old Jazz'es and customshops. This isn't better but it is close and for that money?
I worked in a shop once where a guy came in with a Gibson Les Paul he found in his new house in the attic. It had just been left there by the previous owner!!!

Now it's your turn....

superbassman2000 · #2 02-24-2006, 08:57 AM

I once got to talking to a secratary at my dad's workplace and i mentioned to here that i played bass, and she said that she had an amp sitting in her basement that i could just have if we came and picked it up, and when we got there, she gave me a gibson scout tube amp from the 60's...very nice amp, awesome price too! (nothing

) she said she would have liked to give me the guitar with it (a black gibson Les Paul she bought in 1972) but she had already given that away, and the guy she gave it to lost it!

BassmanDk · #3 02-24-2006, 09:06 AM

A freind of mine had stopped playing guitar 'coz he began to get a lot of jobs on bass. But he didn't had a bass. His father, a carpenter i think, was out doing some work on a house and stumbled upon a bass case. He mentioned that his son was seaching for a bass. The owner said the bass hadn't been played since he bought it new in the '60. Then they seach the internet for the price of a new Fender Jazz for comparison. They agreed on deducting off the price since it wasn't "new" anymore. The father came home with a Fender Jazz from '62 in mint condition for about $500,-!!!!!!! Needlessly to say my friend was pretty happy. But the bass wasn't that good as i recall. Hadn't been played on all those years! This happen about 9 years ago.

JacksonsMen · #4 02-24-2006, 09:08 AM

i got my first bass a MIM Pbass for 80 dollars in a pawn shop...

best steal was my dad's late friends late mother (odd, both within a year of each other) gave me a martin D-16 (vintage from the late 70s) that had belonged to her husband and had been under her bed for 9 years....thats a steal right there....FREE! i'll never sell it though, no matter how much its worth

**SoComSurfing** · #5 02-24-2006, 09:12 AM

I'd probably have to say my Hagstrom H8. My dad sold it about 10 years ago for around $450, I bought it back from another shop about 4 years ago for $200.

BurningSkies · #6 02-24-2006, 09:19 AM

Free Fender Twin Reverb? Its a 74 or so silver face.

The guy I used to work for gave it to me when I was playing guitar in a band for a while...I didn't have a guitar amp.

When I went to visit his house he had music gear scattered throughout, including a vintage Princeton up on end in the bathroom, used for a fan stand. Most of the amps were being used as end tables etc.

He also had a few other black face fenders, a Marshall with matching 4x12 cab, a 60's Tele, 60's Strat, both a Ric 12 and a 6, a 50's Les Paul and a few other bits and pieces.

Minger · #7 02-24-2006, 09:35 AM

Meh, I havn't hit anything really good - Ibanez RB800 on Ebay with a Gig Bag. The guy ends up shipping it like 3 weeks later, refunds me 20 bucks, and gives me a HSC - I end up paying 170ish.

Not bad, considering a case probalby costs about 70...

bigtexashonk · #8 02-24-2006, 10:03 AM

A 1965 Hofner 500/1 Beatle Bass from a guy who's brother brought it back from Germany while in the service and never learned to play bass.

Bought it in the mid 70's for $125.00. I almost ran away with it after I paid the guy. I was sure he would change his mind.

Still have it and will only part with it when they pry it from my cold dead hands, but then it will go to my son who has already insisted on it passing to him.

Smart kid.

hippiesandwich · #9 02-24-2006, 10:13 AM

I snagged a 100% original Rickenbacker Tuxedo bass from eBay when a music store in New York listed it for $650 BIN.

Mojo-Man · #10 02-24-2006, 10:14 AM

In the last 25 years I've got two.
In 1987.
1- 1962 sunburst Fender Strat.
100% original, with tolex case.
I met original owner outside music store, seen case knew what is was, started talking to him.
He said all he wanted was two Shure 58 mic.
I went inside bought two mic's. on my credit card, and ran home with guitar.
2- 1983- Had just started playing bass, was at rehersal space with a band I was in.
This is true, someone knocks on our door, says he has bass for sale.
Comes in and pulls out of a gig bag, a candy apple red 1963 jazz bass.
All orig. except no covers.
Says, he must sell quick, I offer him $300.00 dollars and bass is mine.
I sold both instruments in 1994 to buy my house.

jimmys · #11 02-24-2006, 10:18 AM

I got a '79 fender jazz bass and a not too crappy Peavey combo amp for $400 from a guy where I went to church. It had a sweet cherry burst finish. But, I was pressed for money so I sold it for $1k on eBay. I wish I still had the bass but its hard being a broke college student.

nad · #12 02-24-2006, 10:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mojo-Man

I sold both instruments in 1994 to buy my house.

hahaha awesome.

Fretless Stingray and Tobias Growler for under $600 each, not super mega fun happy steals of the century, but definitely good deals.

beadgc · #13 02-24-2006, 10:26 AM

Non-bass, but when I was in college in 1970 I bought a Fender "Nocaster" -- a very early Esquire, with no decal on the headstock, for $50.00 at a a garage sale in northern Pennsylvania. It has a very grimy butterscotch finish, a big fat neck with a bit of birdseye, and the pickup was so microphonic that you couldn't play it in a band situation without howling noise. The three-way switch gave you treble, more treble, and mud. It had an aluminum insert over the nut for playing like a lap steel, and the guy selling it had bought it new and never played it. It was in an old acoustic guitar case.

I knew it was a Fender, but didn't know it was particularly collectible. I had to drive back to my dorm and borrow the $50.00 to buy it.

People told me it was a rare bird, and I later swapped in, straight up, for an early Gibson ES-335. Back in those days, even super-rare vintage pieces like those traded under $500. Today, that Nocaster would be worth something north of five large.....

Daywalker · #14 02-24-2006, 11:03 AM

I got my Thumb-5 Brand new with a case and all for $1600OTD. That's the best deal I think I've gotten. Or maybe the Fretless Corvette 4 I got for $500 with a gigbig, tuner, leather strap, wax, etc. I sold the Vette though, does it still count?

Fuzzbass · #15 02-24-2006, 11:05 AM

I got my first fiver, a '97 Fender Roscoe Beck V, for $630 shipped. It's in excellent condition overall. It wasn't a steal because, as the seller explained, one of the previous owners had stored it in humid conditions, so much of the hardware was tarnished or rusty, and there were rust stains in the nut slots. But dings and scratches were minimal, playability was excellent, and there's nothing wrong with it functionally. So I consider it a heckuva good deal.

anonymous278347457 · #16 02-24-2006, 11:06 AM

I got a MIM fender jazz for £200 off ebay.
Its not bad since most other jazzes that I bidded on went for 250+
and in shops its 300+

but its not such a great deal compared to the stuff you guys are describing

Coop Soup · #17 02-24-2006, 11:11 AM

In 2001 I got a Warwick Corvette FNA 5 for $699... brand spanking new.

RunngDog · #18 02-24-2006, 11:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BassmanDk

A freind of mine had stopped playing guitar 'coz he began to get a lot of jobs on bass. But he didn't had a bass. His father, a carpenter i think, was out doing some work on a house and stumbled upon a bass case. He mentioned that his son was seaching for a bass. The owner said the bass hadn't been played since he bought it new in the '60. Then they seach the internet for the price of a new Fender Jazz for comparison. They agreed on deducting off the price since it wasn't "new" anymore. The father came home with a Fender Jazz from '62 in mint condition for about $500,-!!!!!!! Needlessly to say my friend was pretty happy. But the bass wasn't that good as i recall. Hadn't been played on all those years! This happen about 9 years ago.

I really love stories like this (as well as the guy who got the Strat for a pair of Shure mikes) -- especially the price discount because the bass wasn't new anymore!

By the way, if the bass wasn't that good, let your friend know I'll give him $600 for it, sight unseen.

Spacelordmother · #19 02-24-2006, 11:12 AM

wow... you guys have come across some AWESOME

deals!

mine isn't as good, but i'm still happy. i bought a MIM jazz V with a badass V and Barts on the bay for $450 shipped! the seller threw in a hardshell case beacuse he didn't feel safe shipping the bass in a boxed gig bag! thanks Wayne!

anonymous278347457 · #20 02-24-2006, 11:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spacelordmother

wow... you guys have come across some AWESOME

deals!

mine isn't as good, but i'm still happy. i bought a MIM jazz V with a badass V and Barts on the bay for $450 shipped! the seller threw in a hardshell case beacuse he didn't feel safe shipping the bass in a boxed gig bag! thanks Wayne!

thats pretty good, he "threw in" a hard shell case? wow thats lucky

Mine was shipped in a gig bag in a box stuffed full of bubble wrap, and it was packed so tight that i was scared that i would rip my machine heads off