Has anyone ever thrown out a bass?

[Billy3000]

I've never thrown any out. I've had some in pretty bad shape, but there's always somebody out there looking for a project. I got an old Aria electric guitar that was sitting beside a dumpster at a shop up in maryland. The two horns had been chopped off, it didn't have pickups, pickguard, tuners, or anything but the body, bridge and neck were all there. I planned on revitalizing it myself but never got the time so I gave it to a friend who is working on it now. He's having a lot of fun with it. He cut new horns and glued/doweled them to the body, is refinishing it, and making it better than new probably!

I also had an old yamaha bass that the singer of my old band left at my house, It needed neck work, and the wood on the top of the body around the elctronics was splitting off, a year after the band broke up I sold it on craigslist to the highest bidder and got $100 out of it!

I teach lessons and no matter how many times I tell a student's parents before starting lessons with me that if they need help finding an instrument I will offer suggestions, countless students parents end up buying their kids the cheapo no name or First act acoustics that have action that might not even work for slide! the tuners don't work or hold at all. One time while trying to get one in tune, the bridge literally broke off of the guitar! I always tell them that their kid is never going to stick with it or get anywhere on a guitar like that, so I always suggest they buy a new one and give that one to a younger sibling who will use it as what it is, a toy. That's kind of the equivalent of trashing it, but seeing as it's a toy and not a real instrument, I don't see any problem with it.

 

[audiomitch]

I tossed out a plywood body P bass knockoff. I used it to practice my routing techniques, which actually worked pretty well. The body itself was quite a dog, though. The neck was an absolutely twisted pile o' dung, so it went out with the body. Saved the hardware even though it was cheap.

 

[TinIndian]

Never threw one away but I rescued a cheap plywood Epiphone from the dumpster and fixed it up for a guy who wanted to learn. In the end it wasn't a bad player, for a beginner.

 

[bassfunk329]

A squier affinity P, botched refin, and then the truss rod broke. Repair would have been far more than the value of the bass, so I tossed it. Saved all the hardware and pickups though, so it's still half with me.

Weird I did the except destroyed my body but neck was garbage too small world

 

[jlepre]

I have, but it was an old POS $85 copy that I broke the pickguard and input jack by stepping on the cord by accident. I was only 13, and nobody told me how to thread the cord under the guitar strap.

The GOOD thing with this mishap, is that my mom had told me that I can't get a new bass until this one is broken....KARMA?

EDIT: I just remembered the bass that I purchased to replace THIS one was a '75 Pbass that I foolishly traded a few years later. I recently reunited with the owner of this bass, and I was hoping to buy it back. Unfortunately he ruined it trying to do a mod project many years ago, and the moron THREW IT AWAY! KARMRA?

 

[tat2jim]

In the late seventies I tossed a Gibson EB2 out. I snapped off the headstock.

 

[Bochafish]

I threw out my first bass. It was a 16 year old's first attempt at building a bass. It worked, I bought it for $5 and played it for 3 years.

 

[JimiLL]

Id never pick up an instrument that was doomed to go in the trash

 

[UncleFluffy]

I (unintentionally) abandoned one in a damp cellar once, which is a shameful act even for a crappy no-name P copy.

Since then I've fixed up and passed a couple on to kids just starting out to keep the good karma flowing but never had one so messed up that it had to be trashed.

 

[bass4worship]

My drummer give me a bass and I put it in the trash, neck was wraped bad.

 

[Antny]

This past summer, my pinstriping buddy found a real Fender Jazz bass in the trash. The electrics on it were boogered up, so I fixed it for him. He striped it and sold it for $1500 at an art show. It was a mid-70's Jazz, original natural finish and maple neck/white inlays. Really nice condition. Can't imagine why anyone would have tossed it. People are strange.

 

[Spinal Tapper]

Never tossed out a bass, but TB'er SpinalTapper rescued one once, an Ibanez, which he then gave to me. I pulled out a set of working EMG's, which I then used on a parts project of my own. I wound up putting it back to stock condition (other TB'ers donated some parts, I did the labor and pulled off about 10,000 stickers {fun stuff}).

When completed I put it in an extra gig bag I had and donated it to a local church for their music program. They were happy to receive it, and that sad little Ibanez received a new lease on life. Hopefully some kid is on his way to becoming one of us...

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/what-should-i-do-dumpster-bass-626048/

Whoa, right on! Glad it found a home in a church music program. Thanks for fixing that up and donating it - that bass really sure did turn out nice. I'm glad someone is getting the chance to play it.

 

[Hoover]

Not a bass, but I threw out my very first electric guitar. It was a Zimgar department store POS, & I could never get the action closer than 0.5" from the fingerboard. In hindsight, I could have used it for lap steel, or as a Fred Frith "string console", but at the time I just wanted a guitar I could play like normal people, so I pitched it in the trash

...after running it over with my friends car two or three times.

 

[capnjim]

I tossed a cheapo classical guitar..I did find a Gibson Grabber in the trash (It was missing a tuner...I almost left it.)

 

[Hot Rats]

I've trashed 4 Warmoth bodies over the years. Destroyed two basses to pieces. Trashed an indonesian jazz neck to scavange the truss rod washer......

 

[dtsamples]

I never threw any away, but I did donate one of my extra basses that had been sitting unused to Doernbecher Children's Hospital for Christmas. I do hope it went to a kid looking to play.

Awesome.

 

[JimB52]

I know a guitar tech who found a LPB '65 Fender Jazz in a trash can. It was 15 years ago, and didn't have a case, but still.

 

[GM60466]

I threw away a bunch of SX necks

 

[allexcosta]

Before:

After:

 

[Billy3000]

Before:

After:

WOAH!!!!


That is one hell of a restoration project!!!

I'm absolutely shocked at the "I found a gibson grabber" and "I found a 65 jazz in a custom color" posts too! How could anybody just throw these things away?!?!?