Maybe a depressing thread but what is your lost love? The one that you sold or traded for whatever was really important at the time and gives you the most regret.
I sold an unbelievably rare and cool Kids 12-string Bass. It was a monster. A dream bass. I sold it to fund a Life Insurance license before learning that I was not cut out to sell.
Who wants to share some trauma?
OK, this hurts. In 1965 I started playing bass on a piece of
green Japanese bass before Japan figured out how to build good basses. Then in 1966, I bought a 1965 Fender Jazz bass. I played that bass through high school, some college, toured with a nightclub group for 3-years in the early 70's playing 5-ights a week, 50-weeks a year, and then played weekend gigs after that until February 1976 when I had moved my wife and two kids to Oregon.
We stayed at her parents place for a couple of weeks waiting for our apartment to be cleaned and painted. On the first day it was available I loaded up my VW bug and took my wife and kids and a few clothes to our new place to spend the night. I had grabbed my '65 Jazz in its hard case and tried to put it under the kids feet on the floorboards between the front and back seats. It fit there fine but then the kids feet didn't and they were pretty antsy. So I took it out and put it back in the house and drove everyone about 20-minutes away to our new place. Plan was to come back the next day for it and the rest of my touring gear. By strapping down the back seat of the VW Bug I could actually get my big amp in the back put the bass across the top of it and a duffel bags on each side of it. So I thought that was a reasonable expectation.
That was the worst mistake I have ever made in my life.
While my in-laws were away that evening, their house got burglarized. Among other things they took my '65 Jazz, my Standel piggy back amp with 215 ported and powered cab, my two Shure mics (565SD and a 585) and only one of my very heavy Atlas mic stands with boom. And as you may guess, with two kids, both toddlers, I didn't have the money to replace them. Took me almost 10-years to find another bass with the same shape neck (60's slim C-shape with a 7.25" radius), but I found it in 1985 and bought it. Didn't gig again until 1997 though when I borrowed an amp from my son.
I really miss that bass and my Standel amp. Here's a shot of me playing it in about 1972. That's my Standel amp peaking out from behind me. That's Steve Bivins (RIP), our guitarist standing in front of his Vox Super Beatle amp, which was the driving force for me to buy the Standel. He and our keys players both bought Super Beatle amps that just buried my poor 1966 Fender Bassman amp. My Standel amp buried anything if I was inclined to do so.
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Actually, this is probably a little better picture of my '65 Jazz:
