When I lived in Vancouver I knew a guy who was a garbage man with a route going through rich neighbourhoods. He had tons of free tv's, vcr's etc etc.
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Coolest thing you ever found that was thrown away and needed fixed?
- Thread starter SubHuman
- Start date
In the trash bin at a local (now long out of business) music shop. J.R.Reed music in Austin,Tx in 1979. A model 001 Takamine classical guitar. Someone had scraped about 1/4 of the the finish off with a pocket knife. (I still have the 'before' photos somewhere). They gave it to me when my dad asked them why they had it in the trash. It had been traded in. It sounded great, but looked awful. It also had holes from an old pickup and volume/tone pots. It cost me nothing. So I 'refinished' it and I've played it on recordings ever since. I've played a lot of classicals - and none of them sound as good as this one.
Yes I imagine "Sanitation Engineers" find all kinds of treasures! My parents used to threaten me " if you don't go to college you'll end up being a garbage man" Hmmm...
I have long been a scrounger and curious about tech things in general, over the years I have had some pretty cool stuff but the first I recall was.... I came across a rather strange looking table top apparatus that had TV tuner dials on it and some strange connections that weighed about 50 pounds. I struggled to get it home, about 15 blocks which was a long way on bicycle. I stopped by Tarpley's TV, the neighborhood repair shop. Old Man Tarpley liked me for some reason, and asked him what it was and he said it was a 3/4" Video Cassette Recorder and asked what I was doing with it, told him I found it in the trash. He looked inside and found that there was a broken belt that drove the mechanism. He tried to order the belt from but it was several hundred dollars, the machines were several thousand dollars at the time, so he found the pieces and measured them and had his wife sew a canvas and rubber belt that he and I re-thread in place through the mechanism. I remember my Dad being pretty proud to be the first house in the neighborhood with a Video Tape Recorder it was 1972.
My brother pulled 4 wooden doors out of dumpster. He's a woodwork teacher at a High School so took them in and showed his students how to strip the awful paint off.
Solid cedar. Sold the 4 matching doors for $1400. His students were amazed and he's constantly helping them restore old things in class.
Some parents were worried where there kids were suddenly getting money from. They were relieved to know it was from restoring 'junk'.
Solid cedar. Sold the 4 matching doors for $1400. His students were amazed and he's constantly helping them restore old things in class.
Some parents were worried where there kids were suddenly getting money from. They were relieved to know it was from restoring 'junk'.
Back when people still threw out copper pipes and wires, the sanitation guys would throw them up on the top of the truck and use the proceeds for beer money.
Hammond M3 tonewheel organ (1953).
Was sitting unused in some old lady's mansion for decades until she died. Because it didn't work, it got no bids at the estate sale and I was informed that they were just going to pitch it in the dumpster so I took it.
There is a guy in Chicago who works on old Hammonds so I brought it to him to fix. He completely rebuilt/refurbished it and now it works like new. Only charged me $150.
I had it in my home studio until a couple of years ago when I had to move to a smaller apartment. I traded it to a friend of mine who put it in his commercial recording studio. Now clients can choose either the classic B3 Hammond or the smaller M3.
Was sitting unused in some old lady's mansion for decades until she died. Because it didn't work, it got no bids at the estate sale and I was informed that they were just going to pitch it in the dumpster so I took it.
There is a guy in Chicago who works on old Hammonds so I brought it to him to fix. He completely rebuilt/refurbished it and now it works like new. Only charged me $150.
I had it in my home studio until a couple of years ago when I had to move to a smaller apartment. I traded it to a friend of mine who put it in his commercial recording studio. Now clients can choose either the classic B3 Hammond or the smaller M3.
Wow...Hammond M3 tonewheel organ! They were going to throw it away!
That's a piece of history. Glad you saved it.
Yeah I love those home remodeling shows where they sledgehammer all of the "old junk" off the walls and replace it with new plastic stuff! Ha!
Also found a pair of pioneer HMP 40s in the trash, not the best of HMP series but they do sound good. Mid 70s speakers connected to mid 70s pioneer receiver.
Not exactly a dumpster but my '78 Musicmaster bass came to me after it was found in a barn, in the hay loft, in the old original chipboard case. My friend's parents had bought the hobby farm and came across it after they were cleaning and organizing that area of the barn. They gave it to me for free.
I still wish I had taken "before" shots of it, it was rough, beyond rough condition. The chrome was all pitted and the paint was coming off in big flakes. I spent a bunch of time restoring the chrome, sanding the body and getting it redone. All the electronics still worked, unbelievably. This was in late '96, before we even owned a home computer so it was the first time I'd ever heard of or seen a short scale.
It's since been repainted by my son when he was in high school as an art project. This bass has been "my baby" ever since.
I still wish I had taken "before" shots of it, it was rough, beyond rough condition. The chrome was all pitted and the paint was coming off in big flakes. I spent a bunch of time restoring the chrome, sanding the body and getting it redone. All the electronics still worked, unbelievably. This was in late '96, before we even owned a home computer so it was the first time I'd ever heard of or seen a short scale.
It's since been repainted by my son when he was in high school as an art project. This bass has been "my baby" ever since.
My wife found a chandelier sitting in someone's trash and brought it home. It sat for years and then when we moved into a really big house where it wouldn't look ridiculous we had it restored. Turns out it was made in Europe in the 40's and worth a couple of grand. It cost $600 to have it restored, but we've never seen another one like it.
Musical: a relative that does construction found the pieces of an 80s Peavey T-20 bass in a house that was foreclosed. He knew I played bass, so he gave them to me in a box. I did a restoration project with it and ended up selling it.
Non-musical: golf clubs, a mountain bike, and an unopened case of imported craft beer at the dumpster in my former condo complex.
Non-musical: golf clubs, a mountain bike, and an unopened case of imported craft beer at the dumpster in my former condo complex.
Two weeks ago found this in a flight case free for the hauling they said it didn't work
Took it home cleaned it up and it works just fine
Duke
Took it home cleaned it up and it works just fine
Duke
Not exactly what you asked, but I got an electric chainsaw once for $35... they said, "it runs fine, but doesn't cut!"
Yep... having the chain on backwards'll do that, all right!
Yep... having the chain on backwards'll do that, all right!
A free acoustic guitar on CL (listed before it was to be thrown away) that was missing the frets and nut, and the fingerboard looked like the frets were removed by a drunk woodchuck. All the non wood parts had been removed, and were included in a pile and a pill bottle. The bridge and neck had been repainted, which I later determined was because the neck had been broken and reset... I never determined why the bridge had been painted.
I turned it into an ABG using random stuff that included a hinge and part of a hard drive casing. Sounds pretty good, too, but I call it a work in progress, because I have plans...
I turned it into an ABG using random stuff that included a hinge and part of a hard drive casing. Sounds pretty good, too, but I call it a work in progress, because I have plans...
A friend of mine bought a Wurlitzer 140 electric piano from a garage sale for ten dollars because "it didn't work"... I paid my friend $20 for it and all that needed repairing was the on/off switch on the volume control. It had worked loose and a wire had snapped off. I resoldered it, tightened the volume control down, and it's worked great ever since. These thing goes for stupid money nowadays.
