Anybody won a Gear Giveaway?

[jeff62]

Mid 80s... was in a Guitar Center for something and there is a huge box (like a cubic yard size) of 2”x3” paper entries - 20 of which would be drawn later that day to go to the Starship mansion in Golden Gate Park (San Francisco) to spend an afternoon with Craig Chaquico.

I dropped an entry and lo and behold, was one of the drawee’s that got a call later that afternoon. We got to spend about 2 hours with Craig. He seemed pretty laid back and very cool. There was a grand prize drawing for the 20 in the room. Didn’t win that though... and glad I didn’t. It was for a BC Rich guitar that Craig signed but the winner proceeded to play a few licks with Craig in front of the room. I was no where near that good of a guitar player and was happy not to fall on my face in front of Craig.

 

[Cave Puppy]

I won a Sweetwater Win It Wednesday. It was a fancy Yamaha unpowered Mixer that I couldn’t exchange and sounds like poorly executed farts. My old Mackie 1202 vlz sounds better. I was shocked and pretty stoked about winning. I have also won a Jeep but that was way back in 1986.

 

[TrevorR]

Out of curiosity, is the name on that Gordon Smith on, say, a truss rod cover that could be removed and disappear? I just saw something like that recently with no name on the headstock.

No, transfer onto the face of the headstock...

If you do come across a Gordon Smith they’re cracking little no-nonsense guitars!

 

[TrueNorthMatt]

Not bass related, but I entered an online Much Music contest about 15 years ago, and while being at it, I put an entry for my sister... but forgot to tell her about it.

She later got a call from one of their VJs. She was a teen at the time, and was really impressed... and confused! Ha ha ha!

Long story short, we ended up with a Nintendo Game Cube and a couple of good games!

 

[TrueNorthMatt]

When I was in first grade, I won a football signed by Franco Harris in a raffle. Awesome score.

But it said "for display only." Ok.

The signature, I realized a couple weeks later, was printed. Uh, ok I guess. Still looked cool on its little plastic tee in my room.

I picked it up one day, and it 1) had gone absurdly flat, 2) the "leather", which was clearly junk plastic, cracked into a million pieces like safety glass, and 3) crumbled and fell all over my floor. Even the laces fell off. What remained of my football was a creepy deflated thing that was more inner-tube than football.

Ever since, I've been convinced that raffles and giveaways are poo.

I'm kinda sad for the little boy who had to live this, but I must admit I laughed hard reading your colorful short story. Thanks!

 

[bearhart74]

Back in my senior year of high school (1985) a friend of mine and I entered a give away on a TV show called "Friday Night Videos" on like NBC or something. They were giving away a bunch of KISS stuff, like one of Gene
Simmons' basses, Ace Frehley amp, Paul Stanley guitar and Eric Carr's drum set. Ok, I'm sure none of this stuff actually belonged to any of them, but hey, I was 17, ok? Anyway, to enter, just send a postcard with your name, address, weight, height, favorite cake flavor, and SS number, to 5150 Sunset Blvd. Hollywood CA. So my bud Richie and I bought a few dozen packages of post cards and about a hundred stamps, which back then were something like 11 cents, but it was still expensive when you didn't have any money. We figured no one would have sent in more entries than we did, and had already divided up the way we were going to keep the gear. Oh, did I mention there were cables and mics too? We were going start a band! There was no way we were going to lose!

I'm still waiting to hear if I won.

Richie moved about two months later, I don't even know how to contact him if they call me to tell me I've won.

Wait, did I remember to put my phone number on the card? Maybe that's why I haven't heard anything...

BnB

there is a blues song in this

 

[nilorius]

Where i live, such type of games are not played.....never.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

No, transfer onto the face of the headstock...
View attachment 3399191
If you do come across a Gordon Smith they’re cracking little no-nonsense guitars!

Thanks. I finally remembered where I saw it and went back there. Different headstock. Similar overall look though.

 

[DrayMiles]

My best friend won $10,000 worth of Digitech gear. He also won some contest from Carvin...

Recently I looked online and saw that he's going to be playing with Vinnie Vincent.

So yeah, some folks do win...

 

[JoshS]

Point being, I think most of those giveaways are just a way for companies to farm emails, phone numbers and addresses. They state that you can see a list of winners, but from my experience those names are either fake or people like me that were told they won but don't receive the prize.

I've "won" vacations like that from trade shows, but when you try to investigate, there is always something shady. To your point, I think SBL should make the winner do a little video of themselves playing the prize (Sire or Fodera, I believe). Even just plucking around on it if they are a beginner.



I won a bowling ball once at a bowling alley when I was a kid. The "advertised" one was this pearl-swirl that looked amazing. The actual one was this late 60s looking sparkle burst. I loved it, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't as advertised.

 

[NYCBass]

I won a G&L L-2000 Tribute about 10 years ago.

 

[Joe Nerve]

I won a Carlo Robelli acoustic bass at a Sam Ash raffle.

The greatest thing about that story is that my guitarist actually won it. You could only enter once, and he put in an entry for each of the band members. I wasn't there. My name won. He gave me the bass.

I don't know how many people would have done that.

 

[SteveBassJr]

Back in the 90s a friend to of mine entered a bass player magazine giveaway. One of those card inserts from the mag.
He won the Bass rig from the Arsino Halls house band gear.
Warwick dolphin 5, Warwick 610 and the Warwick amp.
Unreal. He still has the 5 and just sold off the cab 20 something years later.
Pretty cool!

 

[MadScience]

No but I found 60 bucks in the pocket of some old shorts one time

 

[DiabolusInMusic]

Yes, I have won such a thing.

Go on...

 

[TexasHeat]

About 10 yrs ago, Recording magazine sent me an email that I came in 2nd or 3rd (can't remember) in their giveaway. Cool, I said. They said I won a bunch of virtual instruments, soft synths, some VST plugs and a midi interface. Not so cool, I said.

Then the stuff never showed up. Eventually I wrote back asking where it was and eventually they sent it. I gave it all to my brother who was all into keyboards and synths and midi.

I almost won the lottery once. Missed it by one number. I got a few thousand out of it, which was very cool, but I didn't get the 13 million.

 

[JRA]

i got nothin'.

 

[joebar]

I won a pool table a lifetime ago- I don’t remember entering a draw for it. I had no room for it so I sold it.

 

[PJMustangFreak]

Dillion USA once mailed me a box with a t-shirt, a heavy duty strap, strap locks, strings, and a polishing cloth. This was about a decade ago, I think. They were giving out prizes to top reviews or something. At that time, I had recently purchased their DT69 "Dirty Rosie" rosewood telecaster.

 

[Hnz]

Nope...