I’ve bought several guitars and basses without playing them but they were from trusted manufacturers that had good customer service and that I knew would correct any problem, should the bass or guitar show up with something not right with it.
I am also very cautious on what I will pay for an instrument. If it is new, if I go through Guitar Center, I get a minimum of 20% off so if I decide to sell the bass or guitar for whatever reason, I generally won’t lose any money or at least, not as much money.
With used instruments, I rarely buy used but on certain occasions will. 2 weeks ago I purchased from Music Go Round, a 1995 Ibanez SR 800 Soundgear bass that is metallic blue. The bass is still in almost new condition with not even a scratch on it. I owned the same exact bass that I bought new in 1995 and loved the color. I sold it a few years later to one of my youth kids, who still owns it to this day. I bought this bass for nastalgia sake and it made me relive that time in my life. My family of Soundgear basses is now reunited for good. Now all that I need to do is find another 20th Anniversary Soundgear bass. I stupidly traded mine in, straight across on a brand new Ernie Ball Music Man Stingray bass, a few years back. The Guitar Center store manager wanted my bass. I brought it in to try an amp out and he asked if I wanted to sell it. I didn’t really want to but at the time was playing Music Man basses. He had 1 brand new Stingray in the store that he had just got in. In fact, I think he had just put it on the wall when I came in. I told him the only bass in his store I liked was that bass. He offered to do a straight across trade. The Stingray was I think around $1,500.00 or $1,600.00 so I knew I was getting the better deal so I did the trade but ever since then have missed that bass so much. I bought it off of a member on here and if the opportunity ever presents itself to get another one that is all original and in good shape with everything it came with new, I will do so in a heartbeat.
Back in I think it was 1989 or maybe 1990 at the latest, I bought my first brand new bass. It was an Epiphone by Gibson Accubass. Brand new it was only $199.99 at Guitar Center. The bass was Epiphones version of a Precision bass. It had a P style pickup with 1 volume and 1 tone knob. For the money, the bass was amazing! It had many features on it typically not found on basses in that price range. String through body bridge, matching headstock and a thumb rest on the pickguard. Back in December, I found one ironically, at Music Go Round again. They only wanted $89.99 for it. I figured what the heck. It was cheap and it to made me reminisce on the time that I had my old one and the many great memories that I had with it. I bought the bass and when it showed up, I found out from the serial number, that it was built in June of 1992. The year and month that I graduated from high school. The bass was also in amazing shape too. There is one scratch on the body and that is it. The tone pot doesn’t work though but when I found that out, the Music Go Round was kind enough to send me out another tone pot. I now just need to install it.
I have 2 other used basses that I would gamble with, buying. The first one is a Charvel 2B in metallic blue. I traded it and my original Epiphone Accubass on my first Ibanez Soundgear bass, a 1993 SR 400 in candy apple red. I have always wanted another Charvel 2B Line my original one because again, of nostalgia sake and the memories that I have of that bass.
The other bass that I would buy again and gamble on getting it without playing it would be a Guild B-4ce acoustic bass. My 2 Ibanez SR 500 Soundgear basses and by Guild B-4ce were my main basses for years. In 2003, my family moved to Colorado from California. In California, I had gotten injured at work and had been on workman’s comp for 2 years already. It sucked! We moved to Colorado because cost of living was cheaper and my wife’s family could help out with watching our kids if we needed that. Something got messed up on my workman’s comp checks not being processed and mailed to me. My family was hurting even worse financially and we had no groceries. I pawned the bass for grocery money and to pay some other bills. 2 weeks later, my workman’s comp checks finally came in. I went to go get my bass back and the owner of the pawn shop had cleaned everything out of the store and moved out of State. He took my bass and countless other people’s property that the pawn contracts had not expired yet. As far as I am concerned, that bass was stolen because of what the guy did. That bass was also very unique too. At the time, I hated chrome hardware. The bass originally had chrome tuners on it. I swapped them out for gold tuners that I think were Gotoh but can’t remember the make for sure. I have found a few Guild B-4ce basses for sale the last 2 years or so but the asking price for the condition that they were in, was more than I wanted to pay. But, I am still looking and should I find another one that isn’t in bad shape, I will try and get another one again.
The only other time that I will take a gamble on an instrument that I have not played, is if it is for sale but is priced way below it actual value. Sometimes you run into something that is to good of a deal to pass up. A number of years ago I came across a MIA Fender Precision bass with original Fender hardshell case and strap for sale at a garage sale. The lady was a recent widow and the bass was her husbands. The bass was in mint condition without a scratch on it. The lady was selling several things for money and was asking only $100.00 for the bass. When I started looking at the bass, the lady told me that if the price was to high, she would even take $50.00 for it. She told me she went to the local music store and saw the new ones going for $200.00 or $300.00. Obviously, those were Squiers and all she saw was the basses looked the same but didn’t know the difference between her late husbands bass and those. She had a 2 year old son and I told her not to sell the bass. I told her the bass was worth a minimum of $1,000.00 and educated her on the differences in the cheap Squiers and the bass she had. I told her to not sell the bass, but instead, keep it for her son and let him have his Dads bass. She thought that was a fantastic idea and said with the loss of her husband, she hadn’t even thought about doing that. I then gave her my business card from the guitar company that I was working for at the time. I told her if she ever needed to sell the bass because finances were bad, to call me first. I told her that I would buy the bass and keep it for when her son would want the bass and if he wanted it, I would make sure he got the bass back. She thanked me and put the bass back in the house. It’s now been 4 or 5 years and to my knowledge, she probably, still has the bass and if her son is around 6 or 7 years old now, maybe even 8, he may even be starting to learn how to play it now.
) and took very minor tweaking....My Peavey Cirrus was in the general ballpark....and there were a few I remember that I didnt buy that I thought about a lot......
