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Pandemic Purchases
- Thread starter Bar Band Bassman
- Start date
I had lots of time during the pandemic to think about it, and spec'd my dream custom bass. I got it delivered by my builder Walko Guitars in 2022 and it's amazing 
Made two fretless, one amp and one cab purchases. The TF sadly has departed, but I think the other 3 are keepers, especially my Franken Fender Jazz.
Got this Vintera Mustang, cannot bond with it, haven't tried very hard to sell but sure wish I had not bought...
I bought this hollow LP kit from Guitar Kit World right at the beginning of the pandemic. I believed I'd be out of work for an indefinite amount of time, or perhaps I'd have to spend the year dead (for tax purposes). As it turned out I was designated essential to the company I worked for (now retired), and didn't have much time for hobbies as I was working 10 hour days. It proved to be a pain in the ass project anyway, so I built it to the point that it was playable, installed one pickup wired directly to the jack, and hung it on the wall. I don't play it much, but it has a certain sentimental value, as a souvenier of the pandemic, which, to my surprise, I survived.. Some day I might finish it, or perhaps get a root canal instead. As I said, it was a pain to work on, and the kit had defects that I had to resolve with the distributor.
Tom
Tom
I mostly sold during the pandemic, but I did buy a Dean 6 string banjo and a Yamaha BB235 and a Duncan SPB1 CS, and still haven’t picked a 5 string J pickup. Shortly after it lifted, I bought a couple drum sets and some cymbals. I still have the cymbals and Ludwig set. Thinking seriously about a cheap bop kit, too. I might if I ever get drum gig calls.
I was furloughed from my then day job, was getting $784 a week on the COVID payments and I bought nothing. I loved sitting at home in my sweats and listening to that cha-ching every Thursday. I've never once filed for unemployment. But I thought about all these years and years I've paid in (I'm 69, and I started work and having taxes, etc., withdrawn when I was 15), and I said, 'OK, I had no control over this, I'll ride it while it lasts'. 10 or 12 weeks later, I got recalled to work and that . . . . was that.
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Hey your dream bass isn't white! ...just kidding', looks great!
Attachments
Bought this a few months into the pandemic. Local buy - meeting with the guy out in his front yard with masks was a whole to-do. It kept me busy through the whole thing, although I did buy and sell a bunch of pedals.
From Mid March 2020 to December 2020:I was pretty restrained in my pandemic purchases. Really just two things: Marleaux Diva. Ordered the build Mar 17, 2020, just when the lockdown started. Got it in Sept. Quick! I figured if this dang virus was gonna kill me I was goin' out playing one of my dream basses.The other was the Epiphone Vintage Pro T-bird in the second pic. I saw it and thought "Finally! A T-bird that captures all the features I consider essential to the design. Mahogany, neck-thru, large tuners (neck dive be danged!), groovy 2-tone finish." So, yeah.
Show me what you got! Basses especially, but amps, effects, accessories, whatever moved you to hit the "buy" button!
BBB
View attachment 5472505View attachment 5472514
- Dean Exotica Supreme ABG (2013) Black with MOP inlays and MOP Rosette w/Aphex® set 34" MIC used
- Fender (2016) American Standard Jazz Bass Black with Maple FB bolt-on passive 34" used MIA
- Dean Edge Q4B (2006) bolt-on active Bartolini pups 34" bolt-on MIK used
- Dean Edge Rhapsody HB Fretted (2001) 34" bolt-on passive MIK used
- Exquisite Reverse P/J (2020) bolt-on passive 34" MIC new
- Ovation Celebrity ABG (1991) 34" set MIK used
- Fender Kingman V1 ABG Dreadnaught 34" (2010) set neck MIC used
- SX URSA 3 JR MN ALDER 3TS P/J 30" (2020) bolt-on Passive MIC new
- C.F. Martin B-1e Satin Natural (1993) ABG 34.15" MIA used
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I went through so much gear during that time , I must have been out of my mind . I either returned or sold everything . I had a dozen different cabs and amps and a couple basses , the most expensive was a Sadowsky that I returned......didn't know how to properly dial it in , should have given that one a little more time . Thanks to Sweetwater for sending me all that equipment and paying for all the returns minus three or four items .
April 2021 - I acquired my 2021 7ender MIA Precision Bass as a birthday gift. It’s my first Precision and it has one of the nicest necks I’ve ever played. It also introduced me to the happiness that is a P Bass affer being a Jazz Bass guy for years.
November 2022 - I acquired my 2022 Satin Autumnglo Ric 4003. I traded my old 1972 7ender Jazz Bass for this bass and I couldn’t be happier. I also got to meet Carey Nordstrand (who’s a friend of the previous owner of my bass) in the process.
December 2022 - I bought my Ampeg RB-112 amp because the speaker blew in my old 7ender Rumble 100 over the holidays. It’s a nice combo amp for bedroom practice.
I also acquired my beloved Aguilar Agro pedal as a holiday gift. It’s my first pedal and it revolutionized my sound! You can hear the difference in sound between my two albums. The Red Album has the Agro while Vices doesn’t.
November 2022 - I acquired my 2022 Satin Autumnglo Ric 4003. I traded my old 1972 7ender Jazz Bass for this bass and I couldn’t be happier. I also got to meet Carey Nordstrand (who’s a friend of the previous owner of my bass) in the process.
December 2022 - I bought my Ampeg RB-112 amp because the speaker blew in my old 7ender Rumble 100 over the holidays. It’s a nice combo amp for bedroom practice.
I also acquired my beloved Aguilar Agro pedal as a holiday gift. It’s my first pedal and it revolutionized my sound! You can hear the difference in sound between my two albums. The Red Album has the Agro while Vices doesn’t.
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I'm a poor and simple man and my recent expenditures reflect that side of me.
I spent a bunch having my LinnDrum restored and a spare Drumulator refurbished. The repairs cost many many more times what I originally bought them for, and I think the Drumulator was given to me.
I bought several antique drum machines and middling synths and studio monitors and a new/used mixer:
I added to my CraigsList dulcimer collection. Did you know you can find a nice handmade 40 year old instrument for as little as $20?
I spent a bunch having my LinnDrum restored and a spare Drumulator refurbished. The repairs cost many many more times what I originally bought them for, and I think the Drumulator was given to me.
I bought several antique drum machines and middling synths and studio monitors and a new/used mixer:
I added to my CraigsList dulcimer collection. Did you know you can find a nice handmade 40 year old instrument for as little as $20?
That’s a lot of dulcimi!
After decades of out-of-control impulse spending on gear, I was uncharacteristically restrained during the pandemic and I’ve mostly managed to stay that way.
My “real” job is in the theater business, which was devastated during covid. The checks from the government plus the fact that my wife was able to continue working from home at her full salary and neither of us needing to commute or buy meals out meant that we actually fared pretty okay during the lockdown but I was out of work for 11 months and that was a bit of a wake-up call. If I had still been out of work when the checks stopped we would have had to seriously alter our lifestyle. I took that to heart and decided I really didn’t need to go accumulating more gear.
Instead, I rearranged the parts on a few of my parts basses and did some reorganizing of my workshop.
The only actual gear purchase I made during lockdown was when my friend Mike, a really great bass player with a really bad back, called and asked me if I wanted to buy his 1967 Ampeg SB-12. Hell yes! For that I made an exception and he gave it to me for a great price, to boot!
Now that the scare is mostly behind us and I’ve been back at work for several years I suppose I could go back to buying toys, and there are still some toys I’d like to own, but right now I’m focusing on selling off the gear I’m not using. I’m in no hurry but once the unused stuff is cleared out I can start thinking about using that money for new toys. I’ve got retirement coming up in a few years so I need to consider how long a person can continue buying things.
My “real” job is in the theater business, which was devastated during covid. The checks from the government plus the fact that my wife was able to continue working from home at her full salary and neither of us needing to commute or buy meals out meant that we actually fared pretty okay during the lockdown but I was out of work for 11 months and that was a bit of a wake-up call. If I had still been out of work when the checks stopped we would have had to seriously alter our lifestyle. I took that to heart and decided I really didn’t need to go accumulating more gear.
Instead, I rearranged the parts on a few of my parts basses and did some reorganizing of my workshop.
The only actual gear purchase I made during lockdown was when my friend Mike, a really great bass player with a really bad back, called and asked me if I wanted to buy his 1967 Ampeg SB-12. Hell yes! For that I made an exception and he gave it to me for a great price, to boot!
Now that the scare is mostly behind us and I’ve been back at work for several years I suppose I could go back to buying toys, and there are still some toys I’d like to own, but right now I’m focusing on selling off the gear I’m not using. I’m in no hurry but once the unused stuff is cleared out I can start thinking about using that money for new toys. I’ve got retirement coming up in a few years so I need to consider how long a person can continue buying things.
The pandemic costed me a lot of money.
Started off with acquiring a multi-scale Ibanez (third from the left) and, a couple of months later, a neck-through Ibanez (second from the left)...
Followed by a 1998 Warwick Thumb...
Aaaand the final blow to the wallet was the MTD 535.
Started off with acquiring a multi-scale Ibanez (third from the left) and, a couple of months later, a neck-through Ibanez (second from the left)...
Followed by a 1998 Warwick Thumb...
Aaaand the final blow to the wallet was the MTD 535.
