Coolest thing you ever found that was thrown away and needed fixed?

[Thumpin6string]

Not really a dumpster find, but I bought an Epifani UL410 project for $50. Fixed a loose connection and replaced 2 blown speakers and it is still my main cab. I think I have a total of $150 in it. Killer cab that loves my Eden. Oh and the Eden I got on Ebay for $150. So only $300 for a whole rig.

 

[SubHuman]

Very cool stuff! TB'ers...helping save Mother Earth one dumpster find at a time!

What can we say...we're just great people and we love finding FREE stuff! Ha!

 

[turf3]

Not bass equipment, but in the space of two weeks, after my stereo amp failed (and I didn't have a CD player at all, I was running a line from my Discman) I found a Sony 50 CD changer, in perfect working condition, and a TEAC amp/receiver in perfect working condition, both at the curb, in two separate places. Always keep your eyes open when you're out for a run.

 

[bobfarabaugh]

Those are great little amps. I have one from same era minus the reverb. You can hear exactly what your instruments sound like through these little amps.

i plugged my Forte into it along with and Eden 12 and was surprised how good it sounded with a bass.

 

[TN WOODMAN]

A 1988 Fender red knob "The Twin" guitar amp. It fell about 4 feet off a loading dock in about 1995 and the owner left it behind after a gig because it didnt work (not surprisingly). I paid 200 to have a few things repaired, retubed it and still have it. It's an amazing amp, but weighs 5 tons.

Those red knob Fender amps were/are great. I've still got a solid state Deluxe 85 that worked fine the last time I used it. It's been a while though. Steve Cropper is still using the model Twin you speak of as far as I know.

 

[TNCreature]

I bought a used Ampeg speaker off CL that someone was selling, saying it was their dad's "amplifier". It was very affordable and I don't ask questions in case it was a sensitive area.
When I met them I paid for the speaker and they threw this into the car:
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I said what is that? They said their dad used this powered mixer as his bass head, it was a set and they didn't need it. I used that as my band's rehearsal mixer for many years.

 

[devnulljp]

-People know I like to tinker, so I've been given lots of stuff over the years. Lots of old EHX pedals, including a few of those super expensive Big Muffs -- triangles and ram's heads. They're usually pretty easy to fix inside as they have real parts, not all SMC.
-I got a DX-7 for free on our local list. One broken key ... $20 on ebay for a new one and I replaced it. Ended up giving it to a friend though as I'm not much of a keys player.
-Cool old Traynor 2x12 speaker cabinet -- the guy's cat peed on it so it smelled awful, but I volunteer at the SPCA so we have some industrial strength pee-stink-remover. I soaked it in the bath for a couple of days in that stuff, dried in the sin for a week, sanded the inside, and it was fine.
-I *gave* a friend a 1957 Gibson Skylark guitar amp because I lost the will to fix it. He said he replaced a capacitor and it works great. Doh!
Lost count of the number of pedals and guitars and things I've snagged super cheap or free off CL because they "don't work" that didn't take more than 5 minutes to fix with a soldering iron.
Even got an old Boss chorus pedal that "didn't work on power supply" and they were just using the wrong voltage (those old ones need 12V not 9V).

Here's my old cat inspecting the collection at one point a few years ago

 

[shadven]

Someone dumped a 197x Ampeg V4B head on my front porch because they knew I was a bass player. It fired right up and sounds great. For a while I used it all the time now it's my rehearsal room amp.

 

[Fender_Bender]

Nothing music related yet but I did find a nice lamp in a dumpster 20 years ago. A neighbor needed a new lamp for her son and I tried to give it to her for free but she kept insisting on giving me $20 even after I told her I got it for free. The same dumpster yielded garbage bags full of shake.. but that's a story for another day and place.

 

[JGbassman]

My current wife. The needing fixed was purely because neither of us wanted any more kids.

 

[HardNHeavy]

This cabinet and head was in basement of our old rehearsal bldg. The bldg. manager offered it to me plus the head for $150 back in 1984. The cab was empty and I put 2 EV 15's in and still rockin it....Also a perfectly good casio keyboard i picked up after gutting out a house, the owner didn't want nor a Samick strat guitar, which the other guy took for himself.

 

[DirtDog]

Nothing. I'm the guy who puts all that stuff on the curb!

I keep broken stuff around forever with the intent to repair....but that rarely happens. So out to the curb it eventually goes. As long as it doesn't go straight to the landfill, I'm happy.

 

[iiipopes]

Ibanez SW35 tilt back combo amp. Recently, a friend of my boss pulled it out of a garbage truck. He gave it to my boss. My boss plays guitar, not bass. He gave it to me. I cleaned it up, the usual spray the jacks and pots. Works great, nice clean, linear tone. It's my new bedroom personal practice amp.

 

[ZedLepp]

I just remembered this story. My friend called me one day and another one of his friends needed help cleaning out an old double wide on some property that was just acquired. Found an old Fender silver face bandmaster amp head. That became my payment for helping out. Lost it when our band room got broken into, wish I still had it.

Edit - Just needed new tubes.

 

[c-level]

i ventured into the poorest county in virigina and almost got shot at to purchase a fixer upper micromoog. and the dude threw in a Farfisa Fast 5. a roland d20 that still needs love that someone was about to just leave on the curb at the local music trading post. sketchy beat microphones that need cleaning and new internal windscreens. thats about as germane as ill get to this post, but a long list of 20-50$ fixer uppers as well. $20 bandmaster 2x15 w one working speaker. etc etc

 

[trevcda]

As someone who was known to buy just about anything musical with a mains cord hanging of the back of it, I've certainly run across my share of stuff over the years. One of my favorites has got to be a 1987 Marshall 3530 Silver Jubilee Bass amp, that I pulled out of a pawn shop as-is bin for next to nothing. It needed minor repair work and now works like a champ. Not my picture, but one like it. I think it may be time to find it a new home.

 

[muggsy]

Years ago my wife's stepfather gave me these old JBL bookshelf speakers he didn't have room for. The woofer surrounds were rotted and needed to be replaced, and the grill cloth was torn, but otherwise they looked OK. After having them in a closet for 15 years, we moved last year and they ended up in the garage, which I'm now trying to clear out to make room for our cars. Thought about selling them as is but a quick Google search revealed that they're prized by old-school audiophiles, so I bought a kit to replace the surrounds and sent the grilles out for repair. Last week I hooked them up to my main sound system, and immediately retired the KEF speakers I was using for the stereo channels. These things kick ass.

 

[60bass]

mid 70's SUNN Concert bass head thet I got in the late 70's. It was in a bar fire and the tolex got burnt off in some places and there was a lot of smoke damage. Amp was dead wouldn't put out any sound at all. I was sure I knew exactly what was wrong with it. I knew the bassist and he was getting ready to toss it in his garbage and I asked if I could have it? He said sure it doesn't work anyways. I asked again to make sure and he was OK with it.

Took it home and sprayed Deoxit contact cleaner on the preamp out and poweramp in jacks (which was what I figured was wrong with it) as the jacks were coated with a heavy layer of soot and shorting out. I used some fine sandpaper to clean the jacks as they were switching type jacks. After spraying I plugged it in and it worked, albeit somewhat noisy. Stood it up on end and drenched the whole inside with contact cleaner spraying it out and letting it dry. It worked perfectly afterwards. Looked cool too with all the fire damage. I used it for years.


Oh and BTW the drummer in the band had a red Ludwig Vistalite set and it melted into a giant blob of acrylic.

 

[60bass]

Back in the 70s when I was a young teen a music store burned down in downtown Seattle. Folks were tossing Les Pauls and such out onto the street. My gang was from the suburbs so we were late to the scene and I ended up with a Morley power wah fuzz and some other charred and reeking gear. A pal got a Casino amp head which he plugged a cheap mic into and the mic melted before our eyes.
We were taking public transportation with blackened charred and stinking gear back into the suburbs.
I still have the power wah fuzz.
I also "rescued" this beauty which should have gone to a landfill: a Peavey SC 15 front loaded sub that was left out in the rain and was full of bat pee. It's currently blocking my basement hallway.View attachment 3878549

Way cool I'm diggin that Ovation bass. Those were WAY UNDERRATED basses.

 

[BassFishingInAmerica]

Not bass, but music related. In 1978 I pulled this Technics turntable, along with two 3 way tower speakers, another Pioneer turntable and 3 Acutex cartridges. I gave the Pioneer to my friend. Still play the Technics daily.