Hard truth is that 99.9% of amps are too big and loud for the person that buys them. I had a Roland JCM-120. Great clean tones but even on stage it was just toooooo loud.
My dad just got an orange 100w crush and a Marshall 4x12.
He found a used 4x12 after and bought it.
Now he stands in a 12x14 room with both stacks connected, hamming with gain and volume set to about 4.
I canāt even go back there without headphones on, and he jams while I drum with no ear pro.
Told him last time ādude Iām sorry but I canāt watch you play back here with no ear pro, get some or Iām done. We wonāt be jamming in two years otherwise you will be deaf.
1000% right about the ear pro. Having just come from my appointment, assessing my tinnitus and hearing loss, I can vouch.
Even better that you regularly jam with your dad. That is so awesome.
I love my 120 at home. Plug into the low side and itāll sound the same at .5 as it does at 5. Anything higher than that will get you arrested, though.
Yes., but Katanas sound decent at low volume too. I have the 50w on 0.5w and rarely go past 4 or 5 unless I'm playing something ultra clean with out of phase pickups.
Yep. Iāve seen so many young/new players make that mistake. They think (somewhat understandably) that more = better, but tube amps donāt really work that way.
And it sucks having an amplifier that is way too loud to be practical. Sort of like owning a Porsche 911, but you only get to drive it at 10 mph in the driveway. Except for the rare occasion where you get to take it out (read: band practice or shows). Then, you get to drive it at 25, or maybe even 30 miles an hour.
But people do it, all the time. I remember watching this guy buy some really high-wattage amp, and it was just like āah, yes. Clearly heās heading out on a tour where heās going to have to play a bunch of 2,500 seat capacity theaters un-miced.ā I realize most of those high-wattage amps have wattage selectors, but I just donāt understand the point of having a 150w commercial production amplifier in this day and age.
I did the same thing. All tube Marshall 50w head and a 4x12 cab. I live in an apartment. I still love it though. Thankfully itās got a power output reduction switch so I can cut down the output without cutting tone. Never had it on anything but low š
My mark bass 800w tube/ss stack. Its ridiculously loud, although im a bedroom player (albiet my "bedroom" is a massive empty bodyshop lol). It so insanely overkill, but i still crank it n jam. My ears will regret it in a few years but thats a tomorrow problem, today we rock š¤.
I've got two. First one was a real world auction (also online) that had a Martin OM. It was sight unseen and I decided to put a $300 bid on it just to start. Well just before the bidding starts they say they haven't authenticated it. I ended up winning for $300 (bigger red flag). Got it and it was not only a Chinese copy but an extremely poor made one. The bridge wasnāt glued on and was floating. The sound hole inlay was a sticker and peeling. It was actually kind of funny just how horrible it all was.
Second time my brother called me all jazzed up about how a music store was going out of business and they had amazing deals. Was busy dealing with work but thought I'd send him some money to get a guitar on the cheap. Turns out he fell for an online scam and by proxy I did too. $200 down the drain.
Not the biggest ripoffs but I felt super stupid each time. That being said Iāve always had good luck with guitars I buy so getting ripped a few times out of all the good ones is just the price you pay I guess.
That is a lost cause especially since they said they couldnāt authenticate it. I should have just withdrawn my bid but at auctions you sometimes get lucky. I got a first year Fender Clapton Strat for $150 in mint condition at a real world auction. So I was hoping for a repeat haha.
No, it was a 100% legit American Strat. I checked the neck pocket, pots etc.. on that one. Also, this was around 2013 and no one was making copies of a 1992 Strat with Lace pickups.
It seems crazy but I've gotten loads of deals from real world auctions. Back then, you just had to find them, be around when the auction takes place (usually morning or day) and luck out that others aren't bidding. The Martin Chinese copy I got in like 2018 when Chinese rip offs were way more common.
I also had a 1932-34 Gibson L-00 with the original case for $300. Only issue was it needed a new bridge which cost about $50 to replace at the time.
Hey, at least youāve got some great deals from auctions. Congratulations congratulations on those!
If youāve got several of those, Iād say that makes up for a few inexpensive losses for sure.
Was it the fake Sam Ash closing sale in the last month or so? Somehow Facebook is allowing paid promotion of the scam and I fell for it too but got all my money back through PayPal
I'm pissed that I keep flagging those ads for Facebook review and they keep deciding that the ads don't violate their ad terms of service. I even specify the FB page of the legit business (sam ash) they're scamming. No use.
What tipped me off about that one was if you go to that pages history at all not even a month ago they were just posting Mexican weddings, not even joking
Bought a MIJ fender start for my 18th birthday with birthday money and savings. Went to uni in a different state and left it in my room thinking itād be safe. Came home to visit for Christmas break and mum had moved my stuff to the shed so she could have a spare room, the shed leaked, somehow got into my hard case and the guitar had been sitting in a pool of water in its hard case for nearly a year. Everything was f@cked on it. Mum felt so bad but didnāt have the money to replace it, somehow my cheap Yamaha in its soft case was perfectly fine though.
Bro I temporarily lived at my uncles and this exact shit happened to me, all my shit ruined. Only difference was my Strat was MiM, but sounded so fucking good, still havenāt found another Strat that could compare Iāve moved on to other guitars
Dang, that stinks. I can imagine being in the same situation. My Mom would have probably wanted to replace it, but it wouldn't have felt right taking that much money from them after everything they did for me. It wouldn't have been a small purchase for them either.
Every harley benton Iāve purchased, youtubers promise the sky with them saying they feel like 1000ā¬ instruments. In reality theyāve always felt cheap, but with great specs.
I feel that way about Squiers when it comes to YouTubers. They're serviceable instruments, but ultimately they still have a budget feel to them. I've yet to play one that feels like a Mexi or American Fender. I think a lot of it has to do with the neck and electronics in them.
Or the classic YouTube or Sweetwater review comment: I'm a guitarist for 40 years and I've owned USA Gibsons and Fenders. Let me tell you, this thing plays better than everything I've owned! Really punches above it's weight for a $200 guitar!
āPunches above its weightā is just YouTuber slang for āitās a piece of shit thatās a little better than some of the other pieces of shitā
Iām all for the barrier to entry for good playing guitars being low so new players can learn on better instruments, but some of these people are delusional.
Man I disagree with both of these. As long as you move up to a Classic Vibe Squier and a higher end HB theyāre very good!
I mean Iām not saying as good as a $1000+ American made guitar but Iāve absolutely played CVs that were nicer than some MIMs Iāve played, and my HB feels nicer than any Epiphone Iāve played except the recent Prophecy (havenāt played the custom shop ones tho)
Honestly the neck on my Squier CV telecaster is one of my favorites I've ever played. The pickups sound like a telecaster should, no complaints there. The pots and switch feel fine and do what they're supposed to, maybe they will need replacing eventually but that's no big deal. The tuners do feel a little cheap, that's the only real complaint I have and I'll probably upgrade them and add brass saddles, but aside from that it's a great telecaster.
I've owned and still own much more expensive guitars but I reach for the Squier often for practicing and I can't find many things to complain about. I played a MIM fender and didn't think it was all that special.
Both of mine are easily on par with the Mexican jazz bass I used to have. Especially the 2023 jmjm, that neck is killer. They did a solid on the fret work. Even my 2015vmjm is what turned my opinion around on squier.
The hardware is the weakest points and the easiest and cheapest to upgrade and replace. Swapped in fender trems and bridges, with that Iād easily bet either that theyād hang with any typical Mexican guitar in the least.
I recently bought an EART and to me it felt like what the sky-high promise of budget quality should be. Itās the headless one and Iām absolutely blown away by the quality especially the feel of the neck and fretwork. Iāve played much more expensive guitars, though never owned them so itās hard to compare but itās felt every bit as nice as them. Iād probably recommend them at the price point over squier or HB, though they donāt have as much variety.
I bought a digereedoo (sp?) Witht the exact same thought process. "Oh this is dope" get it home, and "wait, i gotta relearn how to breathe to play this thing, at least its a beautiful to look at" š¤£
I've still got the thing. Every so often I take it out of its case, run my hands over it, sigh wistfully, and put it back.
Look, Ravi Shankar played into his 80s, I've still got time š¤£
Did the same with accordion. Always wanted to learn, but man 120 buttons you can't see is awful hard to figure out. I'll stick with stringed instruments at least.
I have a GLX mi10.
A small 25ā¬ 8ā high 6ā x 6ā box with a stupid looking speaker. Sounds allright clean.
But the distortion, if you crank it, is a really expressive, squealing, rough sound.
"It's like an electric AND and acoustic," people would tell me. That only made it the \*worst\* of both worlds, combining into a guitar that could not competently handle either gig. Bad tone. Bad wood. Bad everything.
Not exactly regrettable, but I bought a Jonh5 telecaster for a great deal. It was the earlier version with 3 humbuckers and mirrored pick guard. It looked awesome but it weighed a tonne and I hardly used it. Sold it again for nearly what I paid, so not regrettable, but a good sized purchase that I got very little use out of and definitely wasnāt right for me.
First a used Takamine acoustic, that was a bit too clinical, and ultimately characterless for me.
Directly traded + paid an extra $60 for a similarly clinical and characterless Yamaha acoustic, which was surely worth less.
From the initial $600 spent on the Takamine, plus $60 on the Yamaha, got rid of the Yamaha for a measly $90.
Iām now enjoying my Martin, which Iāve owned for 16 years, but spent 10 years without until recently when I brought it to the country Iām living in now. Was also about $600 to start, but lovely and warm, comfortable, and first like a glove.
Man, I loved my yamaha acoustic. Would have happy kept it as my only acoustic if it hadn't gotten smashed. You're the first person I've seen hating on one. Thought they were generally loved as underrated guitars.
2x Cheap 15W amp that sounds like a old phone.
70ā¬ acoustic thats impossible to play and is more like a toy and is now hanging on a wall at my mom's place for style.
I spent one summer as a teen working in a factory, and I bought a nice acoustic with the money. I wanted to go pro at this point, which meant to me some mellow jazz stuff, etc, for the crowd that thinks electric guitars aren't real instruments. Music I just played for the money & experience, not because I enjoy it. I think I had like 5 such gigs with it in the about 20 years I owned it. I don't like unplugged stuff, I don't need it, I barely use it. It's still great to have one, but half the money would've also done the trick. Could've saved a lot of money if I knew back then what I know now
As a first guitar i bought with my own money i got myself a Dean Razorback.
Soon i found out that it's just not my cup of tea, i'm more on a bluesy side of things. Plus playing this guitar daily eventually gets it to some rough shape with lots of tiny dents on it's edges.
It still sits in the case, i rarely getting it out to play, more to admire it's look.
Not guitar (aside from the Kramer Pacer reissue that I sold last year), but I had a "technician" work on a 76 Fender Pro and paid about $800 for tech work and new speakers. It blew up in three weeks, so I had to spend ANOTHER $900 with another competent tech who fixed it up really nice.
My first guitar. I was 17 and my friends were getting into guitars. One of them bought some kind of cheap Squire so I had to one up him. I went to Sam Ash and they had a used Japanese squire with a locking tremolo. It looked so cool. Spent every last cent I had to buy it for $300. Got it home and realized I had no idea how to tune it with the Floyd Rose. This was around 1995 so no internet. It took me until about 2005 to finally figure it out. I hated that guitar so much. I still own it but it is in horrible shape and havenāt played it since 2005.
I bought an early 90ās Epiphone Sheraton from a friend of a friend. This was around 1994-95. My friend told me he knew a guy that was selling a guitar.
The guitar was in mint condition with a hard shell case. It played beautifully. I was so happy. I believe I paid around $200 for it. That was a lot of money to me at the time but it was worth it, until it wasnāt.
Two days later the police came to my door asking if I had recently purchased a guitar. I panicked and said no. I was young, stoned and thought they had come because I was smoking weed. I was absolutely petrified.
They then informed me that the guy had stolen a guitar from his roommate. They said someone informed them he might have tried to sell it to me. Once I learned it was a stolen guitar I felt sick. I didnāt fess up immediately because I had just lied about buying a guitar. The cops gave me their contact number and left.
I tried to contact the friend who set up the sale but had no luck. I started calling everyone I knew who might be friends of the thief. This was before cellphones so I couldnāt reach anyone.
I paced back and forth in my apartment getting sicker, angrier, and knew I had to call the police back.
I finally found the nerve to give them a call and they returned to my apartment. I told them I bought it from the thief and just wanted to get the guitar back to its rightful owner. I was asked to look at mug shots to identify him. They tracked the dude down and arrested him. The guitar made its way back to the owner and I was out $200. I ended up cutting ties with my āfriendā as I believe he knew it was a stolen guitar in the first place and was also the one who notified the police of my purchase.
A few years after that incident I picked up an Epiphone Dot but it wasnāt even close to as nice as the Sheraton.
When I was 15 I got a job at Wendys because I wanted to start buying my own gear. I think minimum wage was like 5 dollars at the time, and I was legally only allowed to work a few hours a week.
Anyway, I finally save up 100 dollars to order the EVH Phaser Pedal. Waited a few weeks for it to come, but when it did I was so excited. I plugged it all in and my heart just sank.
See I thought the EVH Phaser Pedal was also a distortion pedal. For some reason I just assumed the pedal would recreate Eddie's tone. But no, it was just a phaser pedal. I was just young and really, really dumb.
For me it was my worst trade. I bought a Hiwatt Custom 50 combo. It was amazing but I couldn't handle the loud and I guess I was too dumb or lazy to try an attenuator. Anyways I traded it for a really cool Yamaha SG. But I thought it was a nicer model so I lost probably 300 in value on the trade. Eventually sold the Yamaha (to Bill Kelliher of all people) but I was able to buy a Goodsell amp and I guess alls well that ends well.
Jackson King V - (black, MIJ, pre-Fender era)
I was going by looks only, not comfort or ergonomics, the neck absolutely wasn't the right one for me. Should've known better.
Big mistake!
Same, bought a King V cause it was rad looking but as I got older and became more knowledgeable it became clear it was not a quality guitar. Still tho, pretty cool looking!
My most regrettable was buying a USA select series Jackson RR1 in 2000 and pawning it and my valve state 2000 half stack for $300 total for heroine money. They were mint and literally 1 yr old with no real playing on them.
So, hereās one about being saved. Iām a longtime off and on player of Ibanez and USA select series Jackson (RR1 etc). This time around of getting back into playing I shopped for a Jackson for 4-5 months. Watching prices and deciding what I wanted. I didnāt want a Flying V again yet, heard about the āAmerican madeā Jackson SL3 etc. it doesnāt say made in USA on headstock and no binding or case but the price was $1899.00 new I think. Iāve also heard theyāre made in Japan and shipped here where theyāre assembled. Not really made in USA.
So, upon finding several for sale and wanting only neck through, I almost bought one of those SL3ās. I had it negotiated and was honestly trying to pay (I was doing something wrong obviously, hadnāt set up my account yet) had him agreed to $1300. All of a sudden he stops replying to my msgs, turns out someone else bid and paid at the same time.
I was disappointed and congratulated him on selling it especially after I got his hopes up.
I then decided to buy another USA select series Jackson SL1 soloist. I paid much more but it plays like the RR1 that I didnāt play much but what I did play I LOVED. With this SL1; binding, , better fret work, ebony fretboard, hardcase, original Floyd rose etc and I couldnāt be happier.
Not paying the extra $50 for flame top on my sure s7. I mean, I like it as it is. I just want the flame top one.
I have few regrets! Mostly cos I don't sell anything.
Yamaha THR10II, was attracted by the size, but then I regretted buying it very quickly: the app was not working, headphones with it were not good, couldnāt use pedals. I lost money selling it.
Nothing all that regrettable thank God, but Iād say the most disappointing was an Epiphone Casino I bought a couple years ago. Iām a lefty and live in a pretty rural area of Ireland so trying instruments out before buying isnāt possible. I, like many people, became obsessed with John Lennonās Casino from the Get Back series and found a lefty version on Thomann. I was so excited the day it arrived and remember opening the box, unpacking the guitar and immediately underwhelmed to disappointment. The build quality felt cheap, the hardware felt cheap, it played okay but sounded awful. I swapped the pickups for Lollar P90s, rewired everything to better pots, jack, switch, etc. but by that point I completely fell out of love with it and sold it. Sad story
Line 6 AMPLIFi 150. I bought it on release day because as a 15 years old I thought it was the coolest shit in the world to control my amp with my phone and select from a dozen different amp models and cabs. I thought Iād never need another amp again. But what happened was the amp just sounded like muffled, muddy shit in every tone and the Bluetooth was so spotty I had to turn my Bluetooth on and off several times over the course of my playing because it would just randomly disconnect and it was the only way to reconnect it. I somehow endured this amp for 10 years before I traded it in for my DSL. When I got the Marshall I couldnāt believe an amp could sound so good because I was used to garbage for so long.
Gibson les Paul I bought new in 2009. Nothing comes even close to my disappointment. Felt like a ver expensive, very heavy toy. Muddy pickups, wouldnāt stay in tune. At least I got to sell it off for a decent price because when it comes to Gibson, the quality of the instrument is the last thing considered.
It was my Maverick F-1. It's not the guitars fault persay but it has a floyd rose and for my second guitar I should've held off. Little did I know at the time what a hassle they would be. I thought I was the dogs bollocks, learning guitar setup and other special things and I just wanted to be Steve Vai so bad.
During one of the most formative times in my playing, the high E-string would keep popping out of the bridge, most likely because I was tightening the bridge saddles too much, and after repeated happenings, I became too shit scared to play. Bends were out of the question. I ended up breaking my quite vigilant practicing habit and lost a ton of my skills for a very long time. If I hadn't wanted that guitar and floyd so badly, my playing could be on a completely different level by now. Who knows.
Probably my HB sc custom plus emg plus floyd rose. Nothibg wrong with the guitar I just found out I don't like les pauls or floyd roses. Also weighs way too much
My 2017 Gibson Les Paul Tribute T. Bought it back
in high school and gigged with it for a few years.
Don't get me wrong, it sounds great but my issue with it is how it has terrible playability even after multiple setups. I basically have a love-hate relationship with the thing.
Purchase was probably the $1800 or so I spent on higher end Warmoth parts to put together this telecaster I have. It dosent play or sound particularly well, and if I sold it I would probably be taking a $1200+ loss. Thats the danger of putting together your own guitar - its yours for life unless you want to take a bath.
My biggest regret was selling my Larivee acoustic for like $800 about 15 years ago. It was a birthday present for my 18th, it had koa back and sides, cedar top, mahogany neck and ebony fingerboard. It sounded amazing and you cant get one with similar specs for less than $3k now.
Not exactly guitar, but guitar-related: when I was a kid I bought a compressor pedal that I had no idea how to use. Sold it not long after in frustration.
Iāve got a recent one!
I bought a floor model LTD EC-1001 from a local shop earlier this year for a new years sale for $520ish. Fatal mistake of buying on extreme discount and not giving a real good once overā¦. Realistically, it wasnāt that bad of a guitar however there were a few issues I had with the guitar, functionally and personally.
Before this, I never had an LP style guitar which typically arenāt my type of shape but for a $600-$700 discounted guitar, it was easily negligible for me. The fretboard was an issue for me as some of the fret edges snagged and there were more than a handful of nicks and dents on and around the edge of the fingerboard that made for uncomfortable playing.
The Fishmans and electronics also had some issues I couldnāt get to the bottom of - First the neck and bridge pickup were either installed incorrectly, or had been flip flopped at some point as they were in opposite configuration. I only found this out after the bridge went super low output and I took it apart to inspect. After swapping them around, that seemingly fixed the issue for about 2 weeks then the neck pickup went completely dead - swapped selector switch to check that off and still no noise out of the neck pup. At this point I came to the conclusion that this is an isolated, serious case of QC neglect or a WAY abused demo.
After all that, I mentally checked out of the guitar and traded the bastard for a Boss GT1000CORE lmao
I bought a Synyster Special off eBay years ago for like Ā£500. I thought that's reasonable and those guitars, particularly left handed versions are pretty rare
When it came the wiring was off (neck position was actually the bridge pick up, and vice versa). Not a huge issue, but I noticed the serial number had been scratched off, so the seller definitely didn't acquire it through legal means...
I bought a beautiful strat with a Koa top, there actually wasnāt much wrong with it but for some reason playing it gave me a trigger finger (never had issues like that with my other guitars.) It wasnāt a bad guitar, just not one for me I guess. I ended up selling it for what I originally paid for it, so call it a wash. (If you canāt already tell, I havenāt bought too many guitars.)
My biggest regret is actually not related to a purchase, but a sale. When I was a poor college grad many years ago, I bought a ā80 LP custom and to help raise funds for it, I traded in my ā72 SG with original T-top pickups. I still kick myself on that one, those pickups alone could have fetched a pretty penny.
PRS Soapbar SE. I was unemployed, had little money, and sold some stock shares so I could buy it. It wasn't a good guitar and I ended up trading it for a Epiphone LP. Completely irresponsible of me at the time.
Believe it or not, it was yesterday. I fell for the Sam Ash going out of business sale scam. Buyer BEWARE, donāt fall for it.
I saw those sales the other day ā damn, an $800 Strat for only $130 including shipping. I should never have believed it. Stupid, stupid, stupid , too good to be true.
But there were five or 600 guitars left when I looked the other day, then yesterday there were only four left and I thought shit! I have to get it right away! Stupid, stupid, stupid. Too good to be true.
So I bought it using PayPal, actually I bought two, a white one and a black one. Then I looked at the PayPal activity, money was going to Nick King, or Neil King, not Sam Ash. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
With just a little bit of research I saw that other people had fallen for the same scam.
So then I had to spend a bunch of time with Paypal, and because the payment is pending, they canāt cancel it yet. So now I have to keep tracking it into the future and making sure it gets canceled, otherwise I have to submit a claim.
I will continue to save up for my Shur now, or whatever I decide to get.
Those ads sure look like a scam, but what happens? Does the money disappear? Is there a guitar in the mail? I'm not sure what the end result is of paying for those deals.
Not a guitar purchase, but I bought a native instruments maschine off Kijiji for $300 cuz I wanted to use the drum pad to loop)ā¦ itās a tech nightmare. Now it just sits on my desk and mocks me. Iām sure I could figure it out with a good 6 hours of work but Iām just trying to jam man/
I got the Maschine Mikro mkii for the drum pads. The hardware is good but it's an absolute nightmare dealing with drivers and NI's software libraries. And the sampling controls are so fiddly it ruins any sense of flow.
Now I stay away from music gear that needs a computer to run.
Probably my Peavey 6505mh. It worked fine it just didn't have either of the specific distortion characters I wanted and since the clean channel wasn't very good it wasn't a good pedal host, either. I replaced it with a Revv G20 and have had no complaints since.
My little brother loved playing ukelele, but didnāt have a guitar.Ā
I bought him a really nice acoustic as a HS graduation present.Ā
Now heās way better than me. Fuck that guy.Ā
I bought a MIM player's series Telecaster last year, because so many guitarists say, "every guitarist needs a Tele ". Turns out that I don't need a Tele. There's nothing wrong with the guitar, per se, I just hoped for a different experience with it. I'm mostly a metal guy, playing super strats, and the Tele is uncomfortable to play. The slab body digs into my ribcage, and wants to flop forward all the time. I didn't really like how the maple fretboard felt, compared to my usual rosewood. Single coil pickups are just not for me. I just can't vibe with this guitar. It does the Tele twang thing just fine, but it's something I could do without.
2017 Les Paul Studio Bourbon burst - ordered online, had a lot going on , played a month after receipt - the strings are so loose playing that you bend by touching and intonation is fucked.
1800 guitar played 3 times sits in the case
Pretty recently, I got a player tele. I thought it'd be a fun modder. I picked it up with a quarter pound already in the bridge for Ā£450, which is a really fair price then realised that for the price of the guitar plus mods, I could've just bought a better guitar that I really wanted.
So I stuck it on eBay, and it didn't sell.
I got a harley benton PRS copy and love it. Every time I look at the fender now, I'm reminded I could've bought an SE so the tele lives in a case.
My more modern Gibsons (SG Satin, SG Standard, and two Les Paul Standards). The SG Satin was unplayable from guitar center due to extreme fret buzz and the others glossy necks were annoying. I love my 72 SG Deluxe and 72 ES-335 though.
Is there no way to return it? Sounds like you got a lemon, but this experience is exactly why I'm hesitant to buy an instrument without playing it first. High-end violin shops even let you test an instrument for a week with no commitment (obviously the prices are quite a bit higher...).
There's no excuse at 2k for an established brand to not get an electric guitar right, that's just disheartening stuff to hear.
I bought a nice mij mustang and modded it to Kurt cobain specs only to realize I hate mustang controls and found the tremolo system annoying and uncomfortable due to the way the bridge sticks up. It was too beautiful of a guitar to route it for a toggle switch and I didnt want to ruin the aesthetics, so I just sold it. I love the cobain jaguar, but I think if I were to ever do it again I'll definitely go for a much cheaper duo sonic instead if I want a similar guitar to Kurt's mustang
Amplifi TT. It was supposed to be a tiny audio interface with an amp modeller and Bluetooth support, but it never worked properly. It wasnāt cheap either. I swapped it for a helix stomp XL and it was the best decision I ever made
Dean Dave Mustaine V. The one with the bloody angel wings on it. Just top to bottom disappointment.
It was awkwardly large and the whole thing felt cheap. It had tiny starter guitar feeling frets, the pickups were basically scooped Duncan Blackouts which is already a terrible sounding pickup IMO, but they somehow took all the body out of it while maintaining all of the muddiness. I actually took it into a guitar tech because I thought there was something wrong with it.
I was 19 when I bought it so I spent a lot of time in denial because I thought it looked cool but I hated playing it. Once a month I'd take it out of its case hoping this would be the time I would click with it and I'd just end up finding a new thing to hate about it.
Bought a Solar A2.6 and had to return it within 2 months, first the electronics just completely broke, then after they got fixed they were stuck on the single coil setting, shame because it was a proper nice guitar
I got a Dime Washburn Camo V fairly recently, one of my newer guitar acquisitions. I mostly just really don't vibe with the neck profile, and theres only really one way to play it sitting, just as with any V.
Cool guitar for sure and it checks off my V box for guitars I'd like to own. Produced in 2004 and it's fairly uncommon I think.
It's just that the V neck profile forces my wrist to bend really uncomfortably, but it might also just be a skill issue.
Epiphone Wilshire. eBay find. Somebody tried doing the frets and messed the fretboard up. It was impossible to setup and play hahaha. Also smelled paint before I opened the box. Dude painted it red with deck paint.
PRS 10th Anniversary S2 Custom 24. I bought it because it has the same pickups and wiring setup as the Core model, plus everyone raves about their QC. Sometimes I need a guitar with humbuckers, and I do enjoy the coil splits, but I just donāt have enough use for it to justify keeping it at this point. If I pick it up 5% of the time itās a lot. My CIJ Mustang is used around 65% of the time, while my American Standard Strat fills the other 30%. Now I just use an EQ pedal if I need to thicken the sound.
ESP LTD F-200.
I'd been playing guitar for about a year, going through a numetal phase and was convinced it was going to make me better. Spoiler - it didn't.
Couldn't take to the Floyd Rose, sold it a year later.
Not a guitar but the Spider Jam I bought new. I thought the jam tracks, mic input and looper and other features w out of be great. I just can seem to dial in a ton I like with it.
Ibanez RGA321fm, looked nice but was super heavy, didnāt play that great and I didnāt like the sound. Although I sold it for the same I bought it for.
Ibanez S521MOL, sounded awful, annoying neck dive, felt cheap, neck had a slight twist. Sold it for a loss
Fender Champion 20 amp, it just doesnāt sound very good and I ended buying a Marshall DSL 5CR which Iām really happy with. But hey the Fender cost nothing.
Gibson SG. Beautiful guitar but, like most Gibsons, the g-string absolutely would not stay in tune. After being embarrassed a few too many times at gigs I sold it.
Honorable mention to a brand new Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier head I bought directly from the company with an artist discount. Some Boogies sound incredible. This one was hot garbage. Had it worked on by a certified tech. Still sounded awful. Talked to the folks at MB several times. They wouldnāt take it back either. Now I refuse to touch their gear, ever.
My EVH 5150 stealth 50w amp and it's corresponding 2x12 cab.
It's expensive, too big, too loud and too much for what I need for my bedroom setup.
Bought it 'cuz people were like: "Yeah, doesn't matter. That's a real amp, the smaller modelling amps sound like shit."
Well, this one ain't great either if I can barely push it to 1 on the volume knob.
Tokai 80s strat with a Floyd. After everyone raving about how good they were, I bought one from a local shop. Within a week I'd realised what a huge mistake it was. The neck pocket was oversized and the neck kept moving, resulting in it going out of tune. It had a hump at the 17th fret where everything would choke out. I've never owned any Strat style guitars since..Swapped it for a really nice Destroyer DT400 a month later.
Vintage Midge Ure model. Seemed like cool idea to get a Les Paul style guitar with a vibrola. The pickups were the worst I have encountered, the tuners are cheap and it was way too heavy. The p90ās were not standard size and difficult to mod. My worst purchase.
Fender Strat. I gave it the ol' college try twice with them, and my current (and last) one is up for sale. I am just not a single coil guy. The Fender necks are too chunky, and the selector switch is in the wrong spot. I genuinely don't understand why they are so popular.
Both Gibson SGs.
I'm not even a Gibson hater.
One was basically new lightly used and the pickups had super weak output.
The other could not be set up properly. You either had high action or fret buzz.
SGs are super comfy to me but I gave up after this
I had a dual humbucker 1985 or so, Japanese made Fender Tele with a Kahler tremolo. I was playing a lot at the time and the thing rusted so fast. (I also had a les paul, which did not rust).
A BC Beast bronze series and a Hamer Californian
The BC looked cool for my then 14 year old eyes. Soon I realized it's ugly as hell and I'm no black metal demon player either. Playing anything but black or death metal on that guitar just looked off and it was very uncomfortable too. It didn't fit any case only the dedicated ones, which cost as much as the guitar itself. Selling it was challenging, but I had a friend who was into extreme stuff, so he liked the shape and ended up buying it.
The Hamer had a strange red color that wasn't too pleasing to look at. The tremolo on it was a pos. Now selling this one was almost impossible. Had it listed for half of the price than what I've paid for it, but no luck. Finally somebody took it off my hands, was so glad to get rid of it.
I bought an Eastman t386 after hearing great stuff about the brand. Even after swapping out the pickups the neck pickup is flukey and Iāve never really clicked with the instrument.
Single purchase was a pedal called the āVibrator.ā Itās supposed to be a tremolo, and it was about $20 from Musicianās Friend back in the very early ā00s.
Not a big financial loss, but it sounds bad and has an embarrassing name, so I think it counts.
I traded a squire classic vibe Strat and a prs se custom 24 into guitar center for a Mexican strat and case. I never play it. The damn thing never stays in tune, the frets are scratchy as fuck and amount of polishing helps. But hey it looks really goodā¦ā¦ā¦..
Most expensive thing was a PRS SE24. Sounded great. Couldn't get it to stay in tune for the life in me.
Runner up, Digitech Death metal. I sold this recently for 20 quid lol
I bought a Schecter with a floyd rose on it. Donāt know if the floyd rose was just worn out or what, but it would not stay in tune. Beautiful guitar otherwise.
I bought an acoustic bass once. $600 apparently wasn't enough to get one that wasn't a total piece of crap. Speaking of pieces of crap, I also got a Dean Palomino. I will never touch a Dean ever again.
I canāt say āregretā because the thing was all I could afford at the timeā¦.. But a āMitchellā brand dreadnaught.
This was Guitar Centerās āhouse brandā and cost around 150 bucks as I recall. All plywoodā¦.
Very cheaply constructed. The pickup system did work, but you had to either loosen or remove the strings and put your hand through the sound-hole to put in a new battery. The first time I pulled the cable out of the end-pin jack, the whole Jack assembly came outā¦. no retaining nut inside, it was just pressure-fitted. I had to re-solder the leads.
So, a very cheesy instrument butā¦. It sounded surprisingly decent and enabled me to get back into flatpicking until I could afford something decent.
Two actually. Bought one of those Ibanez 7 string guitars when they came out in the early 90ās. Thought i could grow accustomed to those horrible locking trem systems. Wrong. First time i changed strings was the last time. Sold it immediately. disclaimer: i was playing six hours a night 7 nights a week, changing strings often was a must. Second: Charvel Surfcaster. Gorgeous looking, played well. Poorly constructed. Wouldnāt stay in tune for more than five minutes. Put locking tuners on, didnāt help. Whatās happening?. .the neck was flexing, not sure why. Put an EMG Xpander (now discontinued) and a pre-amp in it, made those lipstick PUs sing but it wouldnāt hold pitch no matter what. Struggled with it for six months then sold. I was bummed ācause it played extremely well.
Iām really surprised to hear you say that about the SL3. I played one in a shop the other day, and I really liked it. Granted, I didnāt really try out the trem, or even assess how it sounded, but I thought the playability was nice. Itās also surprising to learn that theyāre impossible to sell; it seemed like people liked them, but I havenāt dug that deep.
What would you recommend instead? Iām getting closer and closer to just saying āfuck it,ā and just sell a bunch of things so I can buy a Tom Anderson or whatever and just be done with it. But if you see this and wouldnāt mind, Iād be much obliged if youād expand on your thoughts.
I was 15 and really liked pop punk. I went to the local store and said I wanted a distortion pedal, he recommended me a metal zone. It didnāt work out
I bought one of [these](http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/24392/rock-band-3-pro-guitar-price-revealed). Seriously one of the biggest pieces of shit ever created.
A few years ago, I purchased a Maverick X1 with the rosewood and maple fretboard. I always wanted one as a kid but didn't have enough money. This guitar was a right POS, crap tremolo, surprisingly fat and wide neck, sounded muddy etc. I could go on and on, but it was such a bad guitar. Sold it off asap
A tragically messed up ES-335 that Iām still working on a year later. It looks cool on my wall but it plays like shit. If youāre the original owner that said, āAre you sure you want it?ā Iām a victim of my own hubris. I apparently canāt fix everything. After I factor in the additional tools Iāve purchased and countless hours I think itās safe to say I could have just bought a working example.
I play bass as my primary instrument, and mostly fretless. Someone local to me was selling a Douglas fretless guitar for $250 and I bought it on a whim, mostly out of curiosity. Turns out fretless guitar is a whole different beast and definitely not my thing.
When I started playing electric I picked up a Squier Strat not knowing what I wanted really out of an electric guitar. I upgraded the pickups to boutique high gain ones with the help of a friend and in the end I realized I just donāt like strats and sold it at a pretty big loss from the price of the guitar plus pickups.
Lmao, youāre out of your mind, and it doesnāt look like you know what youāre talking about. You say cheap tremolo even though it comes with a 1500 which is pretty much the best Floyd you can get lol. It also comes with fantastic pickups, Gotoh locking tuners, and a soft molded case, among other things.
I have no idea what youāre talking about, but itās not the USA SL3.
"American" Stratocaster that is probably a Partscaster or from another country.
Didn't pay a lot for it so I can't say I really got ripped off, but it is still frustrating. I want to give the seller the benefit of a doubt though because it was an old guy my Dad knew and he wasn't in the best health. He may have just been mixed up because I think he had owned several Fenders over the years.
Harley Benton SG. I have a couple Epiphone SGs that I love. I bought a Harley Benton because I was impatient and was disappointed in every aspect of it. Sold it at a loss.
Not really regretting but I never quite felt at home with this guitar. I bought it on a whim. A guy who owned a music store in my town was being shut down because he never paid his taxes. He had a 91 Fender Japanese Blonde Foto Flame in his basement laying on the floor no case in a puddle of water. I offered $300 and he took it because he needed the money. I cleaned it up and it looks great, but like I said, the guitar never really grew on me. The neck is to fat, I hated the pickups so I changed them out a bunch of times and still am just not satisfied with it. It just hangs on the wall waiting for one of my kids to want it enough to play it. I wonāt ever get rid of it though. Paid way too little just to sell it and I know if I do I will regret that too.
I bought a Gibson SJ200 on reverb. The guitar came and was in excellent condition. I'd played them before and had dreamed of having one.
Living with it was a disappointment. It wasn't comfortable to play and the sound on the one I had was not rich or complex, just kind of dull. Tried different strings, a few different kinds, did a setup, no change. The guitar just didn't sing. I think they are guitars for pick strummers, not fingerstyle. At least, that one was.
Sold it at a loss, as happens. I suppose it's somebody's closet queen now, still not being played.
I bought a US Jackson Soloist too, Slime Green at that, but it was on clearance. GAS was bad at the time, I wanted a white one so bad but couldnāt pass up the deal.
I play it a few times a week, but definitely one guitar I wish I didnāt buy. I agree 100% with your statements. Although, itās the one guitar my wife thinks is cool.
I once bought a Gibson ES-345 that was under someoneās bed for a long time and had corroded a bit. I figured I could fix it by swapping hardware, but the pick-ups were the lovely Gibson tarbacks so that was a no go. I managed to trade it for a Les Paul Standard and came out ahead after that sale, but it def taught me to make sure to check the Gibson pickup era!
This 12 string acoustic I bought off eBay. I came home drunk, clicked buy it now. Was shocked when this big box showed up at my house a week later. Bridge was busted and I didnāt see that in description because I was drunk. Oops.
This was when I was maybe 15-16 years old. I thought having a huge Marshall stack was the coolest thing a guitarist could own (Slash, Angus Young, Jimmy Page, etc.). I bought a used Marshall head amp at a used equipment store, knowing absolutely nothing about how amps worked or what I was doing. I basically destroyed it trying to use it on a friend's homemade cabinet speaker in my garage and a few years later I ended up selling it back to the used equipment store for pennies on the dollar.
I always say this, but looking back to when I first started playing, I wish I could have taken a guitar lesson that didn't involve playing guitar but just how all the equipment works, amps, effects pedals, tuning, strings, etc.
Line 6 Variax 500 (I think) left handed. I bought it about 5 years ago after seeing it second-hand in a music shop. I'd wanted one of these when they came out but was too broke to get one at the time. They only ever made one lefty model so I thought it must be a sign and bought it.
It's just not good. One of the saddle pickups doesn't work properly so the D string sounds oddly muted compared to the other strings when going through the modelling output. It also needs its own other power supply to connect through to make it work, making it a ballache to get out and setup. Honestly, I genuinely can't even remember what colour it is because I bought it, played around with it for a weekend, put it back in the case and then forgot about it until this post.
Gibson Les PaulStudio or PRS SE277 baritone.
Les Paul is listed due to common stock Gibson problems (2012 model). Put new tuners on, new nut, but ultimately learned I just don't gel well with the body shape and scale length.
277 listed because I learned there are far better baritone models (for my taste) at that price point. Also learned I prefer single coils for baritone as as result.
Can't complain too much here, however. If you read between the lines above you'll see that I learned what works for me. Which is different from the next person, and ultimately what counts.
Edit:
Randall Warhead (used) circa 2005. Only description I'll add is "that's what happens when you're 16 and have a summer job."
I have a B.C Rich Warlock N.J. Series with a Floyd Rose Bridge. The guitar is beautiful, but itās a pain in the ass to tune and maintain for someone who is an amateur hobbyist as I am. I received it as a birthday gift as a child back in the 90ās and have always had the hardest time with it.
\~15 years ago there was a Chinese or Taiwanese inlay artist selling guitars on eBay. It was obvious ripoffs of classic designs, but the actual mother of pearl or abalone inlays were nice.
I got one for about $400-600, including $200+ shipping. It was an Ibanez RG knockoff with some inlay work with spiders on it.
I don't know why I got it. I don't like spiders. The guitar itself isn't very good. The fret wires almost all jut out badly from the sides, and the neck is almost unplayable past the 12th fret. It has an imitation floyd bridge that mostly works. I don't think I ever changed the strings on it once in all the time I got it. The sound is meh.
I did play it for a while after I got it. I was excited to have something new at the time. Now I'm not sure what to do with it. It's my only other Floyd rose guitar, so there's that.
A marshall half stack where i couldn't go past volume 1. š
Hard truth is that 99.9% of amps are too big and loud for the person that buys them. I had a Roland JCM-120. Great clean tones but even on stage it was just toooooo loud.
I keep my JC-40 below 3 usually š¤£. I'm just a bedroom player. I couldn't possibly fathom owning a 120 for home use š¤£!
My dad just got an orange 100w crush and a Marshall 4x12. He found a used 4x12 after and bought it. Now he stands in a 12x14 room with both stacks connected, hamming with gain and volume set to about 4. I canāt even go back there without headphones on, and he jams while I drum with no ear pro. Told him last time ādude Iām sorry but I canāt watch you play back here with no ear pro, get some or Iām done. We wonāt be jamming in two years otherwise you will be deaf.
Love that you play with your dad
1000% right about the ear pro. Having just come from my appointment, assessing my tinnitus and hearing loss, I can vouch. Even better that you regularly jam with your dad. That is so awesome.
WATT???????
Anyone else picturing Michael J Fox in Back to the Future getting blown across the room by Doc's amp setup?
I have a Vox AC4 TV and even on the 1/4 watt attenuator setting it still feels too loud to play at home.
š¤£ Sounds pretty sweet though I bet!
I love my 120 at home. Plug into the low side and itāll sound the same at .5 as it does at 5. Anything higher than that will get you arrested, though.
I have a Boss Katana 100-watt amp and play with my Spark Go the most. š
Would you say a Boss Katana MKII 100w is too loud for a bedroom player? I found a used one for $250, and it seems like a pretty good deal.
Yes., but Katanas sound decent at low volume too. I have the 50w on 0.5w and rarely go past 4 or 5 unless I'm playing something ultra clean with out of phase pickups.
Yep. Iāve seen so many young/new players make that mistake. They think (somewhat understandably) that more = better, but tube amps donāt really work that way. And it sucks having an amplifier that is way too loud to be practical. Sort of like owning a Porsche 911, but you only get to drive it at 10 mph in the driveway. Except for the rare occasion where you get to take it out (read: band practice or shows). Then, you get to drive it at 25, or maybe even 30 miles an hour. But people do it, all the time. I remember watching this guy buy some really high-wattage amp, and it was just like āah, yes. Clearly heās heading out on a tour where heās going to have to play a bunch of 2,500 seat capacity theaters un-miced.ā I realize most of those high-wattage amps have wattage selectors, but I just donāt understand the point of having a 150w commercial production amplifier in this day and age.
Depends on amp I guess. I bought a used VM2244 and a 4x12 with greenbacks and it was *amazing* at bedroom volumes.
I did the same thing. All tube Marshall 50w head and a 4x12 cab. I live in an apartment. I still love it though. Thankfully itās got a power output reduction switch so I can cut down the output without cutting tone. Never had it on anything but low š
My mark bass 800w tube/ss stack. Its ridiculously loud, although im a bedroom player (albiet my "bedroom" is a massive empty bodyshop lol). It so insanely overkill, but i still crank it n jam. My ears will regret it in a few years but thats a tomorrow problem, today we rock š¤.
Just wear earplugs donāt be an idiot
What? I can't hear you bro.
I've got two. First one was a real world auction (also online) that had a Martin OM. It was sight unseen and I decided to put a $300 bid on it just to start. Well just before the bidding starts they say they haven't authenticated it. I ended up winning for $300 (bigger red flag). Got it and it was not only a Chinese copy but an extremely poor made one. The bridge wasnāt glued on and was floating. The sound hole inlay was a sticker and peeling. It was actually kind of funny just how horrible it all was. Second time my brother called me all jazzed up about how a music store was going out of business and they had amazing deals. Was busy dealing with work but thought I'd send him some money to get a guitar on the cheap. Turns out he fell for an online scam and by proxy I did too. $200 down the drain. Not the biggest ripoffs but I felt super stupid each time. That being said Iāve always had good luck with guitars I buy so getting ripped a few times out of all the good ones is just the price you pay I guess.
You should get you money back from the auction.
That is a lost cause especially since they said they couldnāt authenticate it. I should have just withdrawn my bid but at auctions you sometimes get lucky. I got a first year Fender Clapton Strat for $150 in mint condition at a real world auction. So I was hoping for a repeat haha.
> I got a first year Fender Clapton Strat for $150 in mint condition Uh, don't you think that is a Chinese copy also?
No, it was a 100% legit American Strat. I checked the neck pocket, pots etc.. on that one. Also, this was around 2013 and no one was making copies of a 1992 Strat with Lace pickups. It seems crazy but I've gotten loads of deals from real world auctions. Back then, you just had to find them, be around when the auction takes place (usually morning or day) and luck out that others aren't bidding. The Martin Chinese copy I got in like 2018 when Chinese rip offs were way more common. I also had a 1932-34 Gibson L-00 with the original case for $300. Only issue was it needed a new bridge which cost about $50 to replace at the time.
Hey, at least youāve got some great deals from auctions. Congratulations congratulations on those! If youāve got several of those, Iād say that makes up for a few inexpensive losses for sure.
Yea for sure!
I guess I need to start buying guitars at auctions instead of trucks. A few hundred bucks down the drain is sounding really good to me by comparison.
Was it the fake Sam Ash closing sale in the last month or so? Somehow Facebook is allowing paid promotion of the scam and I fell for it too but got all my money back through PayPal
saw an ad that seemed to be from the official Sam Ash page on Facebook but all the thousand dollar guitars going for $180 tipped me off pretty quickly
Yep that was the one. Had I been not so busy I think I would have seen the glaring signs. I thought my brother was going directly to Sam Ash
I'm pissed that I keep flagging those ads for Facebook review and they keep deciding that the ads don't violate their ad terms of service. I even specify the FB page of the legit business (sam ash) they're scamming. No use.
What tipped me off about that one was if you go to that pages history at all not even a month ago they were just posting Mexican weddings, not even joking
Bought a MIJ fender start for my 18th birthday with birthday money and savings. Went to uni in a different state and left it in my room thinking itād be safe. Came home to visit for Christmas break and mum had moved my stuff to the shed so she could have a spare room, the shed leaked, somehow got into my hard case and the guitar had been sitting in a pool of water in its hard case for nearly a year. Everything was f@cked on it. Mum felt so bad but didnāt have the money to replace it, somehow my cheap Yamaha in its soft case was perfectly fine though.
Thatās not a regrettable purchase thatās just a sad story.
Forgot to add I was only able to play it a half dozen times. It was a thing of beauty!
Everything made by Yamaha is near indestructible, they probably use the same resources as a good old Nokia brick
Ouch!!!!
Very!
Bro I temporarily lived at my uncles and this exact shit happened to me, all my shit ruined. Only difference was my Strat was MiM, but sounded so fucking good, still havenāt found another Strat that could compare Iāve moved on to other guitars
Bro itās so devastating
Natural relic. Hope you were able to save it at least in some way
Dang, that stinks. I can imagine being in the same situation. My Mom would have probably wanted to replace it, but it wouldn't have felt right taking that much money from them after everything they did for me. It wouldn't have been a small purchase for them either.
Every harley benton Iāve purchased, youtubers promise the sky with them saying they feel like 1000ā¬ instruments. In reality theyāve always felt cheap, but with great specs.
I feel that way about Squiers when it comes to YouTubers. They're serviceable instruments, but ultimately they still have a budget feel to them. I've yet to play one that feels like a Mexi or American Fender. I think a lot of it has to do with the neck and electronics in them.
nO wAY dUDe mY sQUiEr pLaYs bEtTeR tHaN aN aMeRiCAn sTraT
Or the classic YouTube or Sweetwater review comment: I'm a guitarist for 40 years and I've owned USA Gibsons and Fenders. Let me tell you, this thing plays better than everything I've owned! Really punches above it's weight for a $200 guitar!
āPunches above its weightā is just YouTuber slang for āitās a piece of shit thatās a little better than some of the other pieces of shitā Iām all for the barrier to entry for good playing guitars being low so new players can learn on better instruments, but some of these people are delusional.
Man I disagree with both of these. As long as you move up to a Classic Vibe Squier and a higher end HB theyāre very good! I mean Iām not saying as good as a $1000+ American made guitar but Iāve absolutely played CVs that were nicer than some MIMs Iāve played, and my HB feels nicer than any Epiphone Iāve played except the recent Prophecy (havenāt played the custom shop ones tho)
Honestly the neck on my Squier CV telecaster is one of my favorites I've ever played. The pickups sound like a telecaster should, no complaints there. The pots and switch feel fine and do what they're supposed to, maybe they will need replacing eventually but that's no big deal. The tuners do feel a little cheap, that's the only real complaint I have and I'll probably upgrade them and add brass saddles, but aside from that it's a great telecaster. I've owned and still own much more expensive guitars but I reach for the Squier often for practicing and I can't find many things to complain about. I played a MIM fender and didn't think it was all that special.
Both of mine are easily on par with the Mexican jazz bass I used to have. Especially the 2023 jmjm, that neck is killer. They did a solid on the fret work. Even my 2015vmjm is what turned my opinion around on squier. The hardware is the weakest points and the easiest and cheapest to upgrade and replace. Swapped in fender trems and bridges, with that Iād easily bet either that theyād hang with any typical Mexican guitar in the least.
I recently bought an EART and to me it felt like what the sky-high promise of budget quality should be. Itās the headless one and Iām absolutely blown away by the quality especially the feel of the neck and fretwork. Iāve played much more expensive guitars, though never owned them so itās hard to compare but itās felt every bit as nice as them. Iād probably recommend them at the price point over squier or HB, though they donāt have as much variety.
Not a guitar, but a sitar. I'm like "looks cool, how hard can it be?" Answer is "very"
I bought a digereedoo (sp?) Witht the exact same thought process. "Oh this is dope" get it home, and "wait, i gotta relearn how to breathe to play this thing, at least its a beautiful to look at" š¤£
I bought a $100 sitar on craigslist once. Sold it for $100 on craigslist about a week later because it was VERY hard.
That's actually hilarious.
I've still got the thing. Every so often I take it out of its case, run my hands over it, sigh wistfully, and put it back. Look, Ravi Shankar played into his 80s, I've still got time š¤£
Did the same with accordion. Always wanted to learn, but man 120 buttons you can't see is awful hard to figure out. I'll stick with stringed instruments at least.
Line 6 Spider IV 15W
I got one and I like it. Paid a transient downtown $20 for it. Suprised me with some of the tones it could do.
Queens of the Stone Age's tone in part comes from cheap old Crate amps. Don't discount what cheap amps can do in the right hands!
I have a GLX mi10. A small 25ā¬ 8ā high 6ā x 6ā box with a stupid looking speaker. Sounds allright clean. But the distortion, if you crank it, is a really expressive, squealing, rough sound.
Every Ovation Acoustic ever purchased.
Testify. Edit: Mine got stolen after an NYE gig from my coked out coworker. I was likeā¦ meh.
"It's like an electric AND and acoustic," people would tell me. That only made it the \*worst\* of both worlds, combining into a guitar that could not competently handle either gig. Bad tone. Bad wood. Bad everything.
Not exactly regrettable, but I bought a Jonh5 telecaster for a great deal. It was the earlier version with 3 humbuckers and mirrored pick guard. It looked awesome but it weighed a tonne and I hardly used it. Sold it again for nearly what I paid, so not regrettable, but a good sized purchase that I got very little use out of and definitely wasnāt right for me.
I got one a few years back , yeah it's heavy AF! I got it setup in D standard , not a bad thing but not my favourite
My prs custom 22. It's a beautiful guitar but it's not for me (too vintage, sticky neck) and I'm taking a big loss on reselling it.
Same man, same.
Tbh it's my own damn fault. There were no local dealers so I ordered online. Rookie mistake on a huge purchase like this.
First a used Takamine acoustic, that was a bit too clinical, and ultimately characterless for me. Directly traded + paid an extra $60 for a similarly clinical and characterless Yamaha acoustic, which was surely worth less. From the initial $600 spent on the Takamine, plus $60 on the Yamaha, got rid of the Yamaha for a measly $90. Iām now enjoying my Martin, which Iāve owned for 16 years, but spent 10 years without until recently when I brought it to the country Iām living in now. Was also about $600 to start, but lovely and warm, comfortable, and first like a glove.
Man, I loved my yamaha acoustic. Would have happy kept it as my only acoustic if it hadn't gotten smashed. You're the first person I've seen hating on one. Thought they were generally loved as underrated guitars.
Man, martins just feel right
I should have bought a Martin instead of a Taylor
Epiphone firebird. Weighed a TON, the fretboard was as wide as a canoe paddle and the "gold" hardware started growing green spots after 3 months.
2x Cheap 15W amp that sounds like a old phone. 70ā¬ acoustic thats impossible to play and is more like a toy and is now hanging on a wall at my mom's place for style.
Just adding a second comment...this is a very real thread. As guitar players, we've all made quite a few mistakes when our GAS get's the best of us.
I spent one summer as a teen working in a factory, and I bought a nice acoustic with the money. I wanted to go pro at this point, which meant to me some mellow jazz stuff, etc, for the crowd that thinks electric guitars aren't real instruments. Music I just played for the money & experience, not because I enjoy it. I think I had like 5 such gigs with it in the about 20 years I owned it. I don't like unplugged stuff, I don't need it, I barely use it. It's still great to have one, but half the money would've also done the trick. Could've saved a lot of money if I knew back then what I know now
As a first guitar i bought with my own money i got myself a Dean Razorback. Soon i found out that it's just not my cup of tea, i'm more on a bluesy side of things. Plus playing this guitar daily eventually gets it to some rough shape with lots of tiny dents on it's edges. It still sits in the case, i rarely getting it out to play, more to admire it's look.
Thatās how I was with my Dean DBD ML - it sits in its case til its time to show someone my old Dimebag guitar lol
Not guitar (aside from the Kramer Pacer reissue that I sold last year), but I had a "technician" work on a 76 Fender Pro and paid about $800 for tech work and new speakers. It blew up in three weeks, so I had to spend ANOTHER $900 with another competent tech who fixed it up really nice.
Canāt imagine spending double what the amp costs to get it repaired
My first guitar. I was 17 and my friends were getting into guitars. One of them bought some kind of cheap Squire so I had to one up him. I went to Sam Ash and they had a used Japanese squire with a locking tremolo. It looked so cool. Spent every last cent I had to buy it for $300. Got it home and realized I had no idea how to tune it with the Floyd Rose. This was around 1995 so no internet. It took me until about 2005 to finally figure it out. I hated that guitar so much. I still own it but it is in horrible shape and havenāt played it since 2005.
Go play it now. Maybe you'll love it
Martin Backpacker. Even given its size there was no way did I think something could sound that weak.
I bought one on Craigslist for $50 and sold it a couple months later for $50.
I bought an early 90ās Epiphone Sheraton from a friend of a friend. This was around 1994-95. My friend told me he knew a guy that was selling a guitar. The guitar was in mint condition with a hard shell case. It played beautifully. I was so happy. I believe I paid around $200 for it. That was a lot of money to me at the time but it was worth it, until it wasnāt. Two days later the police came to my door asking if I had recently purchased a guitar. I panicked and said no. I was young, stoned and thought they had come because I was smoking weed. I was absolutely petrified. They then informed me that the guy had stolen a guitar from his roommate. They said someone informed them he might have tried to sell it to me. Once I learned it was a stolen guitar I felt sick. I didnāt fess up immediately because I had just lied about buying a guitar. The cops gave me their contact number and left. I tried to contact the friend who set up the sale but had no luck. I started calling everyone I knew who might be friends of the thief. This was before cellphones so I couldnāt reach anyone. I paced back and forth in my apartment getting sicker, angrier, and knew I had to call the police back. I finally found the nerve to give them a call and they returned to my apartment. I told them I bought it from the thief and just wanted to get the guitar back to its rightful owner. I was asked to look at mug shots to identify him. They tracked the dude down and arrested him. The guitar made its way back to the owner and I was out $200. I ended up cutting ties with my āfriendā as I believe he knew it was a stolen guitar in the first place and was also the one who notified the police of my purchase. A few years after that incident I picked up an Epiphone Dot but it wasnāt even close to as nice as the Sheraton.
When I was 15 I got a job at Wendys because I wanted to start buying my own gear. I think minimum wage was like 5 dollars at the time, and I was legally only allowed to work a few hours a week. Anyway, I finally save up 100 dollars to order the EVH Phaser Pedal. Waited a few weeks for it to come, but when it did I was so excited. I plugged it all in and my heart just sank. See I thought the EVH Phaser Pedal was also a distortion pedal. For some reason I just assumed the pedal would recreate Eddie's tone. But no, it was just a phaser pedal. I was just young and really, really dumb.
For me it was my worst trade. I bought a Hiwatt Custom 50 combo. It was amazing but I couldn't handle the loud and I guess I was too dumb or lazy to try an attenuator. Anyways I traded it for a really cool Yamaha SG. But I thought it was a nicer model so I lost probably 300 in value on the trade. Eventually sold the Yamaha (to Bill Kelliher of all people) but I was able to buy a Goodsell amp and I guess alls well that ends well.
Fender Kurt Cobain Jag Stang I hated that bridge
Jackson King V - (black, MIJ, pre-Fender era) I was going by looks only, not comfort or ergonomics, the neck absolutely wasn't the right one for me. Should've known better. Big mistake!
Same, bought a King V cause it was rad looking but as I got older and became more knowledgeable it became clear it was not a quality guitar. Still tho, pretty cool looking!
We're all getting smarter and wiser as we get older, I guess. :-)
My most regrettable was buying a USA select series Jackson RR1 in 2000 and pawning it and my valve state 2000 half stack for $300 total for heroine money. They were mint and literally 1 yr old with no real playing on them. So, hereās one about being saved. Iām a longtime off and on player of Ibanez and USA select series Jackson (RR1 etc). This time around of getting back into playing I shopped for a Jackson for 4-5 months. Watching prices and deciding what I wanted. I didnāt want a Flying V again yet, heard about the āAmerican madeā Jackson SL3 etc. it doesnāt say made in USA on headstock and no binding or case but the price was $1899.00 new I think. Iāve also heard theyāre made in Japan and shipped here where theyāre assembled. Not really made in USA. So, upon finding several for sale and wanting only neck through, I almost bought one of those SL3ās. I had it negotiated and was honestly trying to pay (I was doing something wrong obviously, hadnāt set up my account yet) had him agreed to $1300. All of a sudden he stops replying to my msgs, turns out someone else bid and paid at the same time. I was disappointed and congratulated him on selling it especially after I got his hopes up. I then decided to buy another USA select series Jackson SL1 soloist. I paid much more but it plays like the RR1 that I didnāt play much but what I did play I LOVED. With this SL1; binding, , better fret work, ebony fretboard, hardcase, original Floyd rose etc and I couldnāt be happier.
š¤ I'm proud of you for fighting your addiction.
Not paying the extra $50 for flame top on my sure s7. I mean, I like it as it is. I just want the flame top one. I have few regrets! Mostly cos I don't sell anything.
Yamaha THR10II, was attracted by the size, but then I regretted buying it very quickly: the app was not working, headphones with it were not good, couldnāt use pedals. I lost money selling it.
Single coil pick up guitar. I just donāt like them. Thought Iād try it out and nope.
Nothing all that regrettable thank God, but Iād say the most disappointing was an Epiphone Casino I bought a couple years ago. Iām a lefty and live in a pretty rural area of Ireland so trying instruments out before buying isnāt possible. I, like many people, became obsessed with John Lennonās Casino from the Get Back series and found a lefty version on Thomann. I was so excited the day it arrived and remember opening the box, unpacking the guitar and immediately underwhelmed to disappointment. The build quality felt cheap, the hardware felt cheap, it played okay but sounded awful. I swapped the pickups for Lollar P90s, rewired everything to better pots, jack, switch, etc. but by that point I completely fell out of love with it and sold it. Sad story
2 Gibson Les Paul's. Expensive, but pretty, garbage. Won't stay in tune no matter what. Goes out of tune in 15 seconds. Selling them both.
Line 6 AMPLIFi 150. I bought it on release day because as a 15 years old I thought it was the coolest shit in the world to control my amp with my phone and select from a dozen different amp models and cabs. I thought Iād never need another amp again. But what happened was the amp just sounded like muffled, muddy shit in every tone and the Bluetooth was so spotty I had to turn my Bluetooth on and off several times over the course of my playing because it would just randomly disconnect and it was the only way to reconnect it. I somehow endured this amp for 10 years before I traded it in for my DSL. When I got the Marshall I couldnāt believe an amp could sound so good because I was used to garbage for so long.
Gibson les Paul I bought new in 2009. Nothing comes even close to my disappointment. Felt like a ver expensive, very heavy toy. Muddy pickups, wouldnāt stay in tune. At least I got to sell it off for a decent price because when it comes to Gibson, the quality of the instrument is the last thing considered.
Celestion Neo creamback speaker. I got it because itās light but damn it that thing just sounds as if it was put a thick blanket over it.
Chapman tele
Oh? Whats up with it? never tried one but was curious
It was my Maverick F-1. It's not the guitars fault persay but it has a floyd rose and for my second guitar I should've held off. Little did I know at the time what a hassle they would be. I thought I was the dogs bollocks, learning guitar setup and other special things and I just wanted to be Steve Vai so bad. During one of the most formative times in my playing, the high E-string would keep popping out of the bridge, most likely because I was tightening the bridge saddles too much, and after repeated happenings, I became too shit scared to play. Bends were out of the question. I ended up breaking my quite vigilant practicing habit and lost a ton of my skills for a very long time. If I hadn't wanted that guitar and floyd so badly, my playing could be on a completely different level by now. Who knows.
^per ^se
Probably my HB sc custom plus emg plus floyd rose. Nothibg wrong with the guitar I just found out I don't like les pauls or floyd roses. Also weighs way too much
My 2017 Gibson Les Paul Tribute T. Bought it back in high school and gigged with it for a few years. Don't get me wrong, it sounds great but my issue with it is how it has terrible playability even after multiple setups. I basically have a love-hate relationship with the thing.
Purchase was probably the $1800 or so I spent on higher end Warmoth parts to put together this telecaster I have. It dosent play or sound particularly well, and if I sold it I would probably be taking a $1200+ loss. Thats the danger of putting together your own guitar - its yours for life unless you want to take a bath. My biggest regret was selling my Larivee acoustic for like $800 about 15 years ago. It was a birthday present for my 18th, it had koa back and sides, cedar top, mahogany neck and ebony fingerboard. It sounded amazing and you cant get one with similar specs for less than $3k now.
Not exactly guitar, but guitar-related: when I was a kid I bought a compressor pedal that I had no idea how to use. Sold it not long after in frustration.
Iāve got a recent one! I bought a floor model LTD EC-1001 from a local shop earlier this year for a new years sale for $520ish. Fatal mistake of buying on extreme discount and not giving a real good once overā¦. Realistically, it wasnāt that bad of a guitar however there were a few issues I had with the guitar, functionally and personally. Before this, I never had an LP style guitar which typically arenāt my type of shape but for a $600-$700 discounted guitar, it was easily negligible for me. The fretboard was an issue for me as some of the fret edges snagged and there were more than a handful of nicks and dents on and around the edge of the fingerboard that made for uncomfortable playing. The Fishmans and electronics also had some issues I couldnāt get to the bottom of - First the neck and bridge pickup were either installed incorrectly, or had been flip flopped at some point as they were in opposite configuration. I only found this out after the bridge went super low output and I took it apart to inspect. After swapping them around, that seemingly fixed the issue for about 2 weeks then the neck pickup went completely dead - swapped selector switch to check that off and still no noise out of the neck pup. At this point I came to the conclusion that this is an isolated, serious case of QC neglect or a WAY abused demo. After all that, I mentally checked out of the guitar and traded the bastard for a Boss GT1000CORE lmao
I bought a Synyster Special off eBay years ago for like Ā£500. I thought that's reasonable and those guitars, particularly left handed versions are pretty rare When it came the wiring was off (neck position was actually the bridge pick up, and vice versa). Not a huge issue, but I noticed the serial number had been scratched off, so the seller definitely didn't acquire it through legal means...
MIM Jazzmaster. Had faulty wiring and volume would cut when you switched pickups. Awful setup. Just a bad guitar for $700.
I bought a beautiful strat with a Koa top, there actually wasnāt much wrong with it but for some reason playing it gave me a trigger finger (never had issues like that with my other guitars.) It wasnāt a bad guitar, just not one for me I guess. I ended up selling it for what I originally paid for it, so call it a wash. (If you canāt already tell, I havenāt bought too many guitars.) My biggest regret is actually not related to a purchase, but a sale. When I was a poor college grad many years ago, I bought a ā80 LP custom and to help raise funds for it, I traded in my ā72 SG with original T-top pickups. I still kick myself on that one, those pickups alone could have fetched a pretty penny.
Zoom 505
PRS Soapbar SE. I was unemployed, had little money, and sold some stock shares so I could buy it. It wasn't a good guitar and I ended up trading it for a Epiphone LP. Completely irresponsible of me at the time.
Believe it or not, it was yesterday. I fell for the Sam Ash going out of business sale scam. Buyer BEWARE, donāt fall for it. I saw those sales the other day ā damn, an $800 Strat for only $130 including shipping. I should never have believed it. Stupid, stupid, stupid , too good to be true. But there were five or 600 guitars left when I looked the other day, then yesterday there were only four left and I thought shit! I have to get it right away! Stupid, stupid, stupid. Too good to be true. So I bought it using PayPal, actually I bought two, a white one and a black one. Then I looked at the PayPal activity, money was going to Nick King, or Neil King, not Sam Ash. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. With just a little bit of research I saw that other people had fallen for the same scam. So then I had to spend a bunch of time with Paypal, and because the payment is pending, they canāt cancel it yet. So now I have to keep tracking it into the future and making sure it gets canceled, otherwise I have to submit a claim. I will continue to save up for my Shur now, or whatever I decide to get.
Those ads sure look like a scam, but what happens? Does the money disappear? Is there a guitar in the mail? I'm not sure what the end result is of paying for those deals.
Not a guitar purchase, but I bought a native instruments maschine off Kijiji for $300 cuz I wanted to use the drum pad to loop)ā¦ itās a tech nightmare. Now it just sits on my desk and mocks me. Iām sure I could figure it out with a good 6 hours of work but Iām just trying to jam man/
I got the Maschine Mikro mkii for the drum pads. The hardware is good but it's an absolute nightmare dealing with drivers and NI's software libraries. And the sampling controls are so fiddly it ruins any sense of flow. Now I stay away from music gear that needs a computer to run.
A Squier Bullet I got off Marketplace. I didn't realize it was a hardtail and the frets were awful. I immediately sold it.
Probably my Peavey 6505mh. It worked fine it just didn't have either of the specific distortion characters I wanted and since the clean channel wasn't very good it wasn't a good pedal host, either. I replaced it with a Revv G20 and have had no complaints since.
My little brother loved playing ukelele, but didnāt have a guitar.Ā I bought him a really nice acoustic as a HS graduation present.Ā Now heās way better than me. Fuck that guy.Ā
PRS Hollowbody 2. The thing had no sustain and I was constantly having to get frets fixed. Sounded horrible with flat wounds.
I bought a MIM player's series Telecaster last year, because so many guitarists say, "every guitarist needs a Tele ". Turns out that I don't need a Tele. There's nothing wrong with the guitar, per se, I just hoped for a different experience with it. I'm mostly a metal guy, playing super strats, and the Tele is uncomfortable to play. The slab body digs into my ribcage, and wants to flop forward all the time. I didn't really like how the maple fretboard felt, compared to my usual rosewood. Single coil pickups are just not for me. I just can't vibe with this guitar. It does the Tele twang thing just fine, but it's something I could do without.
2017 Les Paul Studio Bourbon burst - ordered online, had a lot going on , played a month after receipt - the strings are so loose playing that you bend by touching and intonation is fucked. 1800 guitar played 3 times sits in the case
Pretty recently, I got a player tele. I thought it'd be a fun modder. I picked it up with a quarter pound already in the bridge for Ā£450, which is a really fair price then realised that for the price of the guitar plus mods, I could've just bought a better guitar that I really wanted. So I stuck it on eBay, and it didn't sell. I got a harley benton PRS copy and love it. Every time I look at the fender now, I'm reminded I could've bought an SE so the tele lives in a case.
My more modern Gibsons (SG Satin, SG Standard, and two Les Paul Standards). The SG Satin was unplayable from guitar center due to extreme fret buzz and the others glossy necks were annoying. I love my 72 SG Deluxe and 72 ES-335 though.
Is there no way to return it? Sounds like you got a lemon, but this experience is exactly why I'm hesitant to buy an instrument without playing it first. High-end violin shops even let you test an instrument for a week with no commitment (obviously the prices are quite a bit higher...). There's no excuse at 2k for an established brand to not get an electric guitar right, that's just disheartening stuff to hear.
I bought it used off ebay thinking it has to be good at those price point, boy was I wrong
I bought a nice mij mustang and modded it to Kurt cobain specs only to realize I hate mustang controls and found the tremolo system annoying and uncomfortable due to the way the bridge sticks up. It was too beautiful of a guitar to route it for a toggle switch and I didnt want to ruin the aesthetics, so I just sold it. I love the cobain jaguar, but I think if I were to ever do it again I'll definitely go for a much cheaper duo sonic instead if I want a similar guitar to Kurt's mustang
Amplifi TT. It was supposed to be a tiny audio interface with an amp modeller and Bluetooth support, but it never worked properly. It wasnāt cheap either. I swapped it for a helix stomp XL and it was the best decision I ever made
Firehawk fx. Which I sold for a helix which I sd for a tonex. I like the tonex for it's simplicity
Dean Dave Mustaine V. The one with the bloody angel wings on it. Just top to bottom disappointment. It was awkwardly large and the whole thing felt cheap. It had tiny starter guitar feeling frets, the pickups were basically scooped Duncan Blackouts which is already a terrible sounding pickup IMO, but they somehow took all the body out of it while maintaining all of the muddiness. I actually took it into a guitar tech because I thought there was something wrong with it. I was 19 when I bought it so I spent a lot of time in denial because I thought it looked cool but I hated playing it. Once a month I'd take it out of its case hoping this would be the time I would click with it and I'd just end up finding a new thing to hate about it.
Bought a Solar A2.6 and had to return it within 2 months, first the electronics just completely broke, then after they got fixed they were stuck on the single coil setting, shame because it was a proper nice guitar
I got a Dime Washburn Camo V fairly recently, one of my newer guitar acquisitions. I mostly just really don't vibe with the neck profile, and theres only really one way to play it sitting, just as with any V. Cool guitar for sure and it checks off my V box for guitars I'd like to own. Produced in 2004 and it's fairly uncommon I think. It's just that the V neck profile forces my wrist to bend really uncomfortably, but it might also just be a skill issue.
Epiphone Wilshire. eBay find. Somebody tried doing the frets and messed the fretboard up. It was impossible to setup and play hahaha. Also smelled paint before I opened the box. Dude painted it red with deck paint.
PRS 10th Anniversary S2 Custom 24. I bought it because it has the same pickups and wiring setup as the Core model, plus everyone raves about their QC. Sometimes I need a guitar with humbuckers, and I do enjoy the coil splits, but I just donāt have enough use for it to justify keeping it at this point. If I pick it up 5% of the time itās a lot. My CIJ Mustang is used around 65% of the time, while my American Standard Strat fills the other 30%. Now I just use an EQ pedal if I need to thicken the sound.
it was an entry level white jackson kelly it was a nice enough guitar i just didnt play it enough
ESP LTD F-200. I'd been playing guitar for about a year, going through a numetal phase and was convinced it was going to make me better. Spoiler - it didn't. Couldn't take to the Floyd Rose, sold it a year later.
Not a guitar but the Spider Jam I bought new. I thought the jam tracks, mic input and looper and other features w out of be great. I just can seem to dial in a ton I like with it.
A Zoom GFX5 multi effects unit. $350 and it sounded like hot garbage. I gave it to my friend and bought analog pedals instead. Much better!š
Ibanez RGA321fm, looked nice but was super heavy, didnāt play that great and I didnāt like the sound. Although I sold it for the same I bought it for. Ibanez S521MOL, sounded awful, annoying neck dive, felt cheap, neck had a slight twist. Sold it for a loss Fender Champion 20 amp, it just doesnāt sound very good and I ended buying a Marshall DSL 5CR which Iām really happy with. But hey the Fender cost nothing.
Although i still have and use the guitar a lot, my PRS SE Custom 24 i bought way back in 2013. I'd played it a few times in shops and got on really well with it, and was toying between that or a lower end Gibson SG to fill the needs. In essence, I was really against clichƩ metal guitars. I didnt want anything spiky. No active pickups and no floyd-rose bridges. So... I took the plunge on the PRS and bought it as a performance guitar for live shows, but my band at the time was playing in B standard. I even had it fit with Seymour Duncan Distortion Mayhems and setup to B professionally, much to the disdain of the guy in the shop. Then probably played it for 8 months before purchasing a Jackson V out of desperation of something more appropriate for the style of music I was playing at the time. ...with EMG's and a floyd rose, ha. But needs must. I still own it, and keep it in Concert Pitch now for more mellow stuff more appropriate for a guitar of its type. But i've gone from loving PRS to kinda not even being interested in MIA ones anymore.
Legator Ghost headless multi-scale 7-string, back in 2019, I think. It is the prettiest, most expensive paperweight I own.
None - take your time and try before you buy.
Gibson SG. Beautiful guitar but, like most Gibsons, the g-string absolutely would not stay in tune. After being embarrassed a few too many times at gigs I sold it. Honorable mention to a brand new Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier head I bought directly from the company with an artist discount. Some Boogies sound incredible. This one was hot garbage. Had it worked on by a certified tech. Still sounded awful. Talked to the folks at MB several times. They wouldnāt take it back either. Now I refuse to touch their gear, ever.
Schecter hell raiser 7 strings. I saved for it for a year and then I didn't like it, it was too chunky and heavy for my playing
My EVH 5150 stealth 50w amp and it's corresponding 2x12 cab. It's expensive, too big, too loud and too much for what I need for my bedroom setup. Bought it 'cuz people were like: "Yeah, doesn't matter. That's a real amp, the smaller modelling amps sound like shit." Well, this one ain't great either if I can barely push it to 1 on the volume knob.
Tokai 80s strat with a Floyd. After everyone raving about how good they were, I bought one from a local shop. Within a week I'd realised what a huge mistake it was. The neck pocket was oversized and the neck kept moving, resulting in it going out of tune. It had a hump at the 17th fret where everything would choke out. I've never owned any Strat style guitars since..Swapped it for a really nice Destroyer DT400 a month later.
Vintage Midge Ure model. Seemed like cool idea to get a Les Paul style guitar with a vibrola. The pickups were the worst I have encountered, the tuners are cheap and it was way too heavy. The p90ās were not standard size and difficult to mod. My worst purchase.
Kramer '84, the neck on it sucks and started warping after a bit.
Fender Strat. I gave it the ol' college try twice with them, and my current (and last) one is up for sale. I am just not a single coil guy. The Fender necks are too chunky, and the selector switch is in the wrong spot. I genuinely don't understand why they are so popular.
Both Gibson SGs. I'm not even a Gibson hater. One was basically new lightly used and the pickups had super weak output. The other could not be set up properly. You either had high action or fret buzz. SGs are super comfy to me but I gave up after this
I had a dual humbucker 1985 or so, Japanese made Fender Tele with a Kahler tremolo. I was playing a lot at the time and the thing rusted so fast. (I also had a les paul, which did not rust).
A BC Beast bronze series and a Hamer Californian The BC looked cool for my then 14 year old eyes. Soon I realized it's ugly as hell and I'm no black metal demon player either. Playing anything but black or death metal on that guitar just looked off and it was very uncomfortable too. It didn't fit any case only the dedicated ones, which cost as much as the guitar itself. Selling it was challenging, but I had a friend who was into extreme stuff, so he liked the shape and ended up buying it. The Hamer had a strange red color that wasn't too pleasing to look at. The tremolo on it was a pos. Now selling this one was almost impossible. Had it listed for half of the price than what I've paid for it, but no luck. Finally somebody took it off my hands, was so glad to get rid of it.
Greg Bennett Les Paul style. Justā¦awful
Oscar Schmidt 12 string acoustic š
Cheaper Ibanez S series. Just donāt.
I bought an Eastman t386 after hearing great stuff about the brand. Even after swapping out the pickups the neck pickup is flukey and Iāve never really clicked with the instrument.
Single purchase was a pedal called the āVibrator.ā Itās supposed to be a tremolo, and it was about $20 from Musicianās Friend back in the very early ā00s. Not a big financial loss, but it sounds bad and has an embarrassing name, so I think it counts.
I traded a squire classic vibe Strat and a prs se custom 24 into guitar center for a Mexican strat and case. I never play it. The damn thing never stays in tune, the frets are scratchy as fuck and amount of polishing helps. But hey it looks really goodā¦ā¦ā¦..
Marshall MG50fx amp.
Most expensive thing was a PRS SE24. Sounded great. Couldn't get it to stay in tune for the life in me. Runner up, Digitech Death metal. I sold this recently for 20 quid lol
I bought a Schecter with a floyd rose on it. Donāt know if the floyd rose was just worn out or what, but it would not stay in tune. Beautiful guitar otherwise.
I bought an acoustic bass once. $600 apparently wasn't enough to get one that wasn't a total piece of crap. Speaking of pieces of crap, I also got a Dean Palomino. I will never touch a Dean ever again.
I canāt say āregretā because the thing was all I could afford at the timeā¦.. But a āMitchellā brand dreadnaught. This was Guitar Centerās āhouse brandā and cost around 150 bucks as I recall. All plywoodā¦. Very cheaply constructed. The pickup system did work, but you had to either loosen or remove the strings and put your hand through the sound-hole to put in a new battery. The first time I pulled the cable out of the end-pin jack, the whole Jack assembly came outā¦. no retaining nut inside, it was just pressure-fitted. I had to re-solder the leads. So, a very cheesy instrument butā¦. It sounded surprisingly decent and enabled me to get back into flatpicking until I could afford something decent.
Two actually. Bought one of those Ibanez 7 string guitars when they came out in the early 90ās. Thought i could grow accustomed to those horrible locking trem systems. Wrong. First time i changed strings was the last time. Sold it immediately. disclaimer: i was playing six hours a night 7 nights a week, changing strings often was a must. Second: Charvel Surfcaster. Gorgeous looking, played well. Poorly constructed. Wouldnāt stay in tune for more than five minutes. Put locking tuners on, didnāt help. Whatās happening?. .the neck was flexing, not sure why. Put an EMG Xpander (now discontinued) and a pre-amp in it, made those lipstick PUs sing but it wouldnāt hold pitch no matter what. Struggled with it for six months then sold. I was bummed ācause it played extremely well.
Classic Vibes Squire Jazzmaster. Close second was a lower end Jackson Randy Rhoads. Got what I paid for I guess.
Iām really surprised to hear you say that about the SL3. I played one in a shop the other day, and I really liked it. Granted, I didnāt really try out the trem, or even assess how it sounded, but I thought the playability was nice. Itās also surprising to learn that theyāre impossible to sell; it seemed like people liked them, but I havenāt dug that deep. What would you recommend instead? Iām getting closer and closer to just saying āfuck it,ā and just sell a bunch of things so I can buy a Tom Anderson or whatever and just be done with it. But if you see this and wouldnāt mind, Iād be much obliged if youād expand on your thoughts.
Buying distortion pedal for a shit amp
I was 15 and really liked pop punk. I went to the local store and said I wanted a distortion pedal, he recommended me a metal zone. It didnāt work out
I bought one of [these](http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/24392/rock-band-3-pro-guitar-price-revealed). Seriously one of the biggest pieces of shit ever created.
Ibanez half stack when I was a teenager. I thought you HAD to have an amp that big. Sounded okay. But poorly made
A few years ago, I purchased a Maverick X1 with the rosewood and maple fretboard. I always wanted one as a kid but didn't have enough money. This guitar was a right POS, crap tremolo, surprisingly fat and wide neck, sounded muddy etc. I could go on and on, but it was such a bad guitar. Sold it off asap
A tragically messed up ES-335 that Iām still working on a year later. It looks cool on my wall but it plays like shit. If youāre the original owner that said, āAre you sure you want it?ā Iām a victim of my own hubris. I apparently canāt fix everything. After I factor in the additional tools Iāve purchased and countless hours I think itās safe to say I could have just bought a working example.
I play bass as my primary instrument, and mostly fretless. Someone local to me was selling a Douglas fretless guitar for $250 and I bought it on a whim, mostly out of curiosity. Turns out fretless guitar is a whole different beast and definitely not my thing.
When I started playing electric I picked up a Squier Strat not knowing what I wanted really out of an electric guitar. I upgraded the pickups to boutique high gain ones with the help of a friend and in the end I realized I just donāt like strats and sold it at a pretty big loss from the price of the guitar plus pickups.
Lmao, youāre out of your mind, and it doesnāt look like you know what youāre talking about. You say cheap tremolo even though it comes with a 1500 which is pretty much the best Floyd you can get lol. It also comes with fantastic pickups, Gotoh locking tuners, and a soft molded case, among other things. I have no idea what youāre talking about, but itās not the USA SL3.
"American" Stratocaster that is probably a Partscaster or from another country. Didn't pay a lot for it so I can't say I really got ripped off, but it is still frustrating. I want to give the seller the benefit of a doubt though because it was an old guy my Dad knew and he wasn't in the best health. He may have just been mixed up because I think he had owned several Fenders over the years.
Gah sorry to hear about your Jackson. Ive been eyeballing those pretty hard lately.
PRS Private Stock. Absolutely gorgeous but didnāt play nearly as good as my other ones.
Harley Benton SG. I have a couple Epiphone SGs that I love. I bought a Harley Benton because I was impatient and was disappointed in every aspect of it. Sold it at a loss.
Not really regretting but I never quite felt at home with this guitar. I bought it on a whim. A guy who owned a music store in my town was being shut down because he never paid his taxes. He had a 91 Fender Japanese Blonde Foto Flame in his basement laying on the floor no case in a puddle of water. I offered $300 and he took it because he needed the money. I cleaned it up and it looks great, but like I said, the guitar never really grew on me. The neck is to fat, I hated the pickups so I changed them out a bunch of times and still am just not satisfied with it. It just hangs on the wall waiting for one of my kids to want it enough to play it. I wonāt ever get rid of it though. Paid way too little just to sell it and I know if I do I will regret that too.
I bought a Gibson SJ200 on reverb. The guitar came and was in excellent condition. I'd played them before and had dreamed of having one. Living with it was a disappointment. It wasn't comfortable to play and the sound on the one I had was not rich or complex, just kind of dull. Tried different strings, a few different kinds, did a setup, no change. The guitar just didn't sing. I think they are guitars for pick strummers, not fingerstyle. At least, that one was. Sold it at a loss, as happens. I suppose it's somebody's closet queen now, still not being played.
I bought a US Jackson Soloist too, Slime Green at that, but it was on clearance. GAS was bad at the time, I wanted a white one so bad but couldnāt pass up the deal. I play it a few times a week, but definitely one guitar I wish I didnāt buy. I agree 100% with your statements. Although, itās the one guitar my wife thinks is cool.
I once bought a Gibson ES-345 that was under someoneās bed for a long time and had corroded a bit. I figured I could fix it by swapping hardware, but the pick-ups were the lovely Gibson tarbacks so that was a no go. I managed to trade it for a Les Paul Standard and came out ahead after that sale, but it def taught me to make sure to check the Gibson pickup era!
This 12 string acoustic I bought off eBay. I came home drunk, clicked buy it now. Was shocked when this big box showed up at my house a week later. Bridge was busted and I didnāt see that in description because I was drunk. Oops.
7 string Ibanez. Thought I could be a 7 string guy but nope.
Not a guitar, but a Kemper Profiler. š
This was when I was maybe 15-16 years old. I thought having a huge Marshall stack was the coolest thing a guitarist could own (Slash, Angus Young, Jimmy Page, etc.). I bought a used Marshall head amp at a used equipment store, knowing absolutely nothing about how amps worked or what I was doing. I basically destroyed it trying to use it on a friend's homemade cabinet speaker in my garage and a few years later I ended up selling it back to the used equipment store for pennies on the dollar. I always say this, but looking back to when I first started playing, I wish I could have taken a guitar lesson that didn't involve playing guitar but just how all the equipment works, amps, effects pedals, tuning, strings, etc.
Line 6 Variax 500 (I think) left handed. I bought it about 5 years ago after seeing it second-hand in a music shop. I'd wanted one of these when they came out but was too broke to get one at the time. They only ever made one lefty model so I thought it must be a sign and bought it. It's just not good. One of the saddle pickups doesn't work properly so the D string sounds oddly muted compared to the other strings when going through the modelling output. It also needs its own other power supply to connect through to make it work, making it a ballache to get out and setup. Honestly, I genuinely can't even remember what colour it is because I bought it, played around with it for a weekend, put it back in the case and then forgot about it until this post.
Gibson Les PaulStudio or PRS SE277 baritone. Les Paul is listed due to common stock Gibson problems (2012 model). Put new tuners on, new nut, but ultimately learned I just don't gel well with the body shape and scale length. 277 listed because I learned there are far better baritone models (for my taste) at that price point. Also learned I prefer single coils for baritone as as result. Can't complain too much here, however. If you read between the lines above you'll see that I learned what works for me. Which is different from the next person, and ultimately what counts. Edit: Randall Warhead (used) circa 2005. Only description I'll add is "that's what happens when you're 16 and have a summer job."
I have a B.C Rich Warlock N.J. Series with a Floyd Rose Bridge. The guitar is beautiful, but itās a pain in the ass to tune and maintain for someone who is an amateur hobbyist as I am. I received it as a birthday gift as a child back in the 90ās and have always had the hardest time with it.
\~15 years ago there was a Chinese or Taiwanese inlay artist selling guitars on eBay. It was obvious ripoffs of classic designs, but the actual mother of pearl or abalone inlays were nice. I got one for about $400-600, including $200+ shipping. It was an Ibanez RG knockoff with some inlay work with spiders on it. I don't know why I got it. I don't like spiders. The guitar itself isn't very good. The fret wires almost all jut out badly from the sides, and the neck is almost unplayable past the 12th fret. It has an imitation floyd bridge that mostly works. I don't think I ever changed the strings on it once in all the time I got it. The sound is meh. I did play it for a while after I got it. I was excited to have something new at the time. Now I'm not sure what to do with it. It's my only other Floyd rose guitar, so there's that.