I've actually won a fair amount of stuff in my lifetime, mostly from radio station call-ins, but the only gear related item I've ever won was 6 packs of Martin SP acoustic strings from Premier Guitar several years ago. Gave 3 packs to my daughter's best friend when I gifted him an acoustic to take to college with him, and the other 3 packs are still in my acoustic case.
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Anybody won a Gear Giveaway?
- Thread starter DiabolusInMusic
- Start date
I won a pair of powered studio monitors from EDEN at a clinic in NYC ..Mannys Music.
Ive never won a music related contest.But 2 Christmases ago I won all the parts to put together a pc from Overclockersclub.com for which I'm a member .
An AMD ryzen cpu, dark rock pc case, dark rock power suplply, dark rock cpu cooler(massive thing),16 GB kingston hyper x fury ram, kingston fury ssd drive, MSI gamer plus sli motherboard and to top it all off an Nvidia titan XP video card..Video card alone is prolly 12-to 1500$ Immediately fired up folding (folding at home from Stanford University)Fine card. My old card did 30-40,000 points a day in the old pc, new card does 1.1 million points per day,big upgrade I'd say.
An AMD ryzen cpu, dark rock pc case, dark rock power suplply, dark rock cpu cooler(massive thing),16 GB kingston hyper x fury ram, kingston fury ssd drive, MSI gamer plus sli motherboard and to top it all off an Nvidia titan XP video card..Video card alone is prolly 12-to 1500$ Immediately fired up folding (folding at home from Stanford University)Fine card. My old card did 30-40,000 points a day in the old pc, new card does 1.1 million points per day,big upgrade I'd say.
I signed up for the big Bass Player magazine giveaway multiple times and did get selected for one of the consolation prizes which was a D'adderio tuner that also had an LED display that would show every chord you can think of (144 different chords and four to six places where you could play each one on a guitar neck). It also had a beeping metronome function that you could set any time signature and vary the BPM speed. That also came with a couple Planet Wavse shielded chords and a cheap nylon guitar strap. A couple of the LED's burned out on the tuner / chord finder / metronome, making it worthless.
I once signed up on an ad in the back pages of Bass Player and was selected as a field tester for Trace Eliot bass strings. I received six 4-string sets, 3 medium gauge and 3 light gauge, and I think there were some nickel plated steel and some stainless steel. I had to report back on what I liked or didn't like. I liked everything about the strings. They were a little like Dunlop Super Brights, but not quite as flexible. They apparently didn't catch on, because I saw them advertised in Bass Player for a while, & then they disappeared
About 4 years ago, the wife of a friend of mine bought a lottery ticket and won $250,000. They were already so well off, there was no noticeable change, but I'm sure some account of theirs looked better overnight....
I once signed up on an ad in the back pages of Bass Player and was selected as a field tester for Trace Eliot bass strings. I received six 4-string sets, 3 medium gauge and 3 light gauge, and I think there were some nickel plated steel and some stainless steel. I had to report back on what I liked or didn't like. I liked everything about the strings. They were a little like Dunlop Super Brights, but not quite as flexible. They apparently didn't catch on, because I saw them advertised in Bass Player for a while, & then they disappeared
About 4 years ago, the wife of a friend of mine bought a lottery ticket and won $250,000. They were already so well off, there was no noticeable change, but I'm sure some account of theirs looked better overnight....
I had a very unique situation; in some ways you could say I won the lottery(so to speak), but on the other hand the law of averages was with me, I'd done my homework, and I put some effort into it. Not exactly a game of chance. So, don't be hatin'.
Some of you fellow elderly people here might remember a magazine called Musician, from the 80's on through to the 90's. Yes, a world in which there was a place for a magazine called 'Musician'. You didn't have to be a musician to get something out of it, but they always featured timely articles...interesting, challenging, and well thought-out, on a variety of current, under-the-radar trends, forgotten legacies, ground breakers, game changers, etc., but little time for mainstream stuff. Since the early 80's, I had been a huge fan of fretless bassist Mick Karn, a very esoteric player/artist who came to prominence in a British band, 'Japan'; one that could be described as progressive new wave with heavy world music(primarily Asian)influences. He went on to a wide variety of projects and collaborations, one being a King Crimson-ish trio with drummer Terry Bozzio and avant guitarist David Torn, called 'Polytown', 1994.
To promote their album, their label, CMP(from Germany)partnered with Musician for a contest requiring entrants to write an essay describing/singing the praises of the band. Having been in record wholesale/retail for a long time, I'd seen plenty of industry promo publicity hype, so I purposely avoided that direction and went with a more flowery(poetic, or something)account. The likelihood is high that I was only one of a few submissions; Karn was a notable Wal Bass user, as well as Trace-Elliot amplification, so they pitched in the prizes; that's right, baby, I won the contest, and eventually received a Wal fretless and a little TE combo amp, the weird one with a slot port in front of the driver. It took me a while to make the arrangements, I had to get up in the middle of the night to call Wal in the UK, and fortunately I was at NAMM that year to talk to TE directly and get the amp.
Ironically, I wasn't that smitten with the bass; Wal necks have this unusual "V" shape that I really couldn't get used to, and while I loved the electronics, I sold it off after a couple of years. The amp was a bit underpowered, and because of the unusual cab design, lacked in the upper mids/high end department; it too went away. Still, that made up for all the times I entered those early Bass Player contests and didn't get anywhere. In addition, I got to see the short-lived band live, free and up close, at an in-store appearance at Virgin Records. That in itself was far more special. Karn died from cancer in early 2011.
Some of you fellow elderly people here might remember a magazine called Musician, from the 80's on through to the 90's. Yes, a world in which there was a place for a magazine called 'Musician'. You didn't have to be a musician to get something out of it, but they always featured timely articles...interesting, challenging, and well thought-out, on a variety of current, under-the-radar trends, forgotten legacies, ground breakers, game changers, etc., but little time for mainstream stuff. Since the early 80's, I had been a huge fan of fretless bassist Mick Karn, a very esoteric player/artist who came to prominence in a British band, 'Japan'; one that could be described as progressive new wave with heavy world music(primarily Asian)influences. He went on to a wide variety of projects and collaborations, one being a King Crimson-ish trio with drummer Terry Bozzio and avant guitarist David Torn, called 'Polytown', 1994.
To promote their album, their label, CMP(from Germany)partnered with Musician for a contest requiring entrants to write an essay describing/singing the praises of the band. Having been in record wholesale/retail for a long time, I'd seen plenty of industry promo publicity hype, so I purposely avoided that direction and went with a more flowery(poetic, or something)account. The likelihood is high that I was only one of a few submissions; Karn was a notable Wal Bass user, as well as Trace-Elliot amplification, so they pitched in the prizes; that's right, baby, I won the contest, and eventually received a Wal fretless and a little TE combo amp, the weird one with a slot port in front of the driver. It took me a while to make the arrangements, I had to get up in the middle of the night to call Wal in the UK, and fortunately I was at NAMM that year to talk to TE directly and get the amp.
Ironically, I wasn't that smitten with the bass; Wal necks have this unusual "V" shape that I really couldn't get used to, and while I loved the electronics, I sold it off after a couple of years. The amp was a bit underpowered, and because of the unusual cab design, lacked in the upper mids/high end department; it too went away. Still, that made up for all the times I entered those early Bass Player contests and didn't get anywhere. In addition, I got to see the short-lived band live, free and up close, at an in-store appearance at Virgin Records. That in itself was far more special. Karn died from cancer in early 2011.
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A friend of mine won a car (a Mitsubishi of some kind) in a local singing contest. She's a talented singer but I'm not sure if she still sings.
Does winning a free pick count as a giveaway? (everyone got a pick at the cash register)
Speaking of 7-11, back when I was a wee lad, I actually won a green 7-11 BMX bike!" It was all tricked out with their logo and everything. Not even kidding. Alas, I don't have the pics to prove it, but it was a boss bike. It was heavy as all get out and of course THAT is the reason why I couldn't do any tricks other than that one where you would do 360s (on the ground, natch!) with your handlebars.
Also, back around 1990 or '91, I called into the local rock radio station and won two front row tickets (literally Row 1, seats 1 and 2) to see Dio, Yngwie Malmsteen and Heaven's Edge (local Philly band - this was their first and last arena show) at the old Spectrum arena in Philly. The funny thing is that I honestly thought the prize included the tickets AND backstage passes. When I met up with the DJ before the show to get the tickets, I asked about the backstage passes and he looked at with me with some measure of confusion. Turns out I had "only" won the tickets. That was fine by me of course, however, he was a real standup guy and got me and my buddy backstage anyway! We met Yngwie's band, who were all from Sweden and very cool and down-to-earth. The singer said he got discovered while singing in an outhouse! No Yngwie though. He was way too cool to come out of his dressing room for a meet and greet. The best part was meeting Ronnie James Dio. He was so incredibly cool. One guy must have brought in a whole crate of vinyl with his entire catalog (up to that point) and he signed every single copy for him. Such a genuinely sweet guy to his fans. RIP. Oh, and the show was great! What a view!
My wife wins stuff all the time (if "luck" is actually a thing, then she received an extra helping). I should have her enter all of the gear giveaway contests!
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In 1981 I won a drawing at a music store for a black Fender Stratocaster. About a week before I had purchased a Fender The Strat. Still have both.
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I've entered contests and giveaways of all sorts. In my entire life, my success list is:
- When I was about ten I played cricket. My club had a competition where you had to bat so many overs and bowl so many overs and they did some mathematical formula on the runs you scored batting, runs you conceded bowling, and any wickets you took. I came third and won a cricket ball.
- When I was about 17 my first workplace used to hold a raffle every Friday. I won two weeks in a row; the first week was a digital alarm clock, the second week was a frozen chicken and a bottle of wine (winner, winner, chicken dinner). Except I was not legally old enough to drink so they swapped my wine with the third prize, which was another chicken.
- In my mid 20s I entered a 10km road race and got sponsored to raise money for dialysis equipment, because my mother had renal failure and was in a dialysis ward at the time. I won a prize for raising the most money. It was a weekend in a motel in an East Coast town. I gave it back to the ward and told them to give it to someone who needed it.
- When I was about 30 I did a radio station call-in and won two pairs of Ray-Ban sunglasses.
- When I was about 35 I did a radio contest where you had to answer three questions. I won dinner for two at a pizza restaurant.
- When I about 40 I put my business card in a huge jar and got a phone call to say I'd won a set of suitcases worth a few hundred dollars. All I had to do to claim my prize was sit through a two hour presentation where they tried to sell me an interest in a time share apartment.
- In my early 50s I answered a question on the radio and won a couple of movie tickets.
I won a Geddy Lee Jazz Bass in a Sam Ash/Fender/Atlantic Records giveaway back in 2000. Nobody seems to believe me, though, since I don't have any kind of official documentation.
I won a free ride in a police car and four hours in "the tank" for drinking 6 beers in an hour and a half and then operating a motor vehicle. Ended up only costing me about $5k total!
Actually I think you were lucky. I met him at the G3 show in Phoenix in 2003 and he was pretty much a stuck up guy. He did sign an autograph and pose for a photo with me, but very much into himself. April was way beyond stuck up.
i've entered all sorts of giveaways over the years, but never won anything..
about 10 years ago, my son entered a contest from thrasher skateboard magazine, and won a killer selection of boards, hardware, shoes, hats, a lifetime subscription to the magazine, and a ton of promo clothing.. about a year later, he won a squier strat guitar/amp/accessories pack from musicians friend.
about 10 years ago, my son entered a contest from thrasher skateboard magazine, and won a killer selection of boards, hardware, shoes, hats, a lifetime subscription to the magazine, and a ton of promo clothing.. about a year later, he won a squier strat guitar/amp/accessories pack from musicians friend.
