the gear that got away -- list your lost items here

Inspired by the "gear I once owned" thread, I am starting a thread where we can talk about our most missed pieces of sold/lost/stolen gear... I'll start!

keys:

this is a tie, http://equipboard.com/items/fender-rhodes-stage-piano-mark-i-73 (co-owned with a studio partner, lost it in the 'divorce'), http://equipboard.com/items/korg-poly-800 (reluctantly sold during a tough financial period during my divorce.... if I had known she was going to drop dead before we even saw a court room I woulda kept it and paid my lawyer more slowly)

guitar:

http://equipboard.com/items/gretsch-g6128tcg-duo-jet-electric-guitar (needed to sell a valuable guitar after my car took a crap unexpectedly when I lived in DC, having just tried to use this guitar on stage with terrible hum from the single coils resulting I reluctantly sold her.... miss her)

effects:

http://equipboard.com/items/roland-chorus-echo-sre-555 (I actually borrowed this from an old friend, then he moved to LA and told me to keep it, then he changed his mind after a few years... great CE1/Juno6 chorus, decent spring reverb & a more feature laden space echo section, I will never see his like again)

amps:

http://equipboard.com/items/supro-1624t-dual-tone (I had an old, airline branded one.... super Pagey one trick pony, couldn't justify keeping it when it wasn't even at my house, but I regret selling it because it did its one trick so well... a great bedroom amp thru inefficient the stock Jensen... loaned to a friend for so long I just told him to pay me for it already! the new ones don't sound the same)

studio:

another tie, http://equipboard.com/items/teac-model-15-mixing-console (too big for my house these days, people knock on these boards but mine sounded glorious for summing and the pres were fine for a lot of things, kinda in the 80s MCI camp... I didn't mind getting some money for this at the time and getting space for other stuff in the rec room down the road, but man, I miss having this guy), http://equipboard.com/items/audio-technica-4050-at4050-multi-pattern-condenser-microphone (stolen, probably by hip hop clients because someone forgot to put it back in the mic locker... mighta been me... I saw it sitting on a shelf and thought nothing of it, then I saw it NOT sitting on the shelf and never saw it again)

By now I just remember a few things: • A 4x10 guitar cabinet that I left at my former drummer's family attic (I think that we prefer not to talk to each other) • A vintage Big Muff Pi that I can't even remember who I lend to • Then just a nice Philips Fidelio headphones that I left on a flight to Frankfurt… it was probably kept by the dude that sat next to me • A small uni speaker bass combo that I lend to a classmate (who just happened to multiply the asshole he already was)

Onyx Telecaster. "exchanged" by a bandmate who wanted it, gave me an atrocious Quest Atak 2 in return. I didn't like the idea, and one day I got home from work to find it in my room, and all my dad would say was "let's not talk about it". Technically: recovered item... not lost.

Onyx Precision bass in Silverburst. Equally as well built as my beloved Telecaster. Loaned it to my keyboard player who lived a city away, kept meaning to return it and confessed some time later to it being sold.

Onyx Jazz Bass, ALSO in Silverburst. Purchased on lay -away from a local music store. Went out there to make final payment, the store was empty and they had skipped out.

Boss OD-1. Just the right amount of bite for a Jazz Chorus, Went to jam at ex bass player's house, other guitarist was trying it with his rig, I said he could use it and I would get it back next week. Next week never came, entire band deny ever seeing the pedal.

Dunlop Cry Baby Wah - modded pot to give extra treble. Loaned to Bosses son. They sold business and son had moved interstate.

Ibanez Tubescreamer Soundtank TS5. I simply didn't have this pedal anymore... just gone.

DOD Thrashmaster - Yes the Flouro Pink one. Lost this to a bass player who liked to paint things. Painted a swirling mess of thick paint that clogged it up and disabled pots. He was left with it.

Boss Volume Pedal - The singer of a metal band who was sharehousing with a guy I was jamming with wanted to experiment with this, offered me $50. I said no. Realised at next gig the pedal wasn't in gig bag. Singer denied any action.

1 x Unloaded 4x8 Fender sound column. Left at parents home when I moved out. Folks moved house, This didn't.

On Stage stands Boom mic stand... my baby, I travelled every gig with this one. Lost when the Theatre Restaurant I worked at caught fire.

... then there were about 4 mics that went with me and others came back.... brands gone, beyer, I think a sennheiser... no name specials etc

I would bet you threw that TS5 out and just forgot.... the shitty tac switches on them always went bad and were impossible to replace! I've owned a few TS5s. They were my 1st OD pedal and I really liked them versus nicer tubescreamers, still do, but they always break. Even when I got a TS9 I usually had a TS5 around because they're different. Eventually I got into the SD1 though and now I'm a huge fan of the MXR badass OD which is like the best sounding SD1 ever. But man, TS5s, always breaking but sorta nothing quite like one. Not really a poor man's TS9, just another flavor.

For some reason, I vehemently hate losing things. It gets under my skin and pisses me off for a long time - like some kind of grudge against Fate. As a result, I am fully aware of the gear I have "lost"...

• a really nice trombone stand, which I lent out and never saw again
• a decent mic stand w/ boom

Everything else gear-wise I found or recovered. I learn a lot from reading artist interviews. Once, many years ago, I read that somebody wrapped their gear with colored tape to separate it from venue gear (and avoid getting misplaced). I wrap the ends of all my cables with yellow tape. Just a little stripe to show it's mine. Same stripe appears on my stands, DI boxes, etc. The only thing I don't tape are my instruments and my amps. Nothing sticky touches those.

When I was a scummy high schooler there was a mess regarding my bandmate's relationship with eachother. One of the guys left a brand new Fender bass in some old van belonging to my crackhead's singer's friend. No idea what happened, but he drove ofd and I think he's in jail or rehab last I heard. No word from him or any family.

Bassist hates singer, due to some bullshit with parents finding out about stuff...

Looking, back, it was actually a really shittt situation. I always wanted to find that bass again just to see that guy smile again because he was a genuinelly good person.

Yeah that is horrible. Theft of any sort is nasty low business, but someone's gear... that extends to a much more personal level. I heard of people back in the day "finding" gear in alleys... which sounded like they were alleys behind venues, probably where a van was having gear loaded into it.

I was at a Seether gig a few years back, after the show the singer came out and started Left of stage in the area between the crowd control barrier and th estage, shaking hands, signing stuff and saying hello. He had a swarm of security guards around him, but was being genuine and treating his crowd well. Roadies were packing up on stage.

Some moron jumped the security barrier at the other end of the stage and grabbed the singer/ guitarist's pedalboard with both hands and was obviously going to try and steal it.

Before roadies or security could react, five guys from the crowd jumped the barrier and beat this guy to the ground.

I guess they don't like thieves either.

I hope my gear's new owners found some displeasure from their actions.

I would like to feel confident in denying that... It did sound good, but I remember one recording session having slap it repeatedly after several run throughs left me foot humping this poor plastic pedal to try to get it to turn on.

When it came time for the song to be recorded (actually the song Jellybean on my soundcloud...) you can hear it fail at the start of the third verse. It did it on the other songs that demo too. I think I switched then to the DOD Thrashmaster or maybe the TS10.

A mediocre 90's Ibanez from Asia. I don't remember the exact model. I absolutely loved it. I remember playing almost every I song I knew, when I got it (at the age of thirteen), because it sounded so different and so much better than the classical guitar I had before. I was so in love with the sound of the steel strings. It felt like I became a much better player just by switching the guitar. Everything was so clear and brilliant out of the sudden. I sold it to a friend, who wanted to start playing when I got a Yamaha a few years later. He never did I guess. Last time I saw it, the guitar was laying in a bathtub at a party - with no strings on it. It looked pretty beaten. I regret that it got treaded like this. I was kid back then with no sense of nostalgia.

I know it probably only sounded that good in my memories. I guess it is more about that special feeling when I first touched it.

Sentimental value can go a long way, even so much as to make a crap guitar make you sound like Billie Joe rocking on stage.

My first one was electronically dysfunctional to begin with, and my I put clone EMG'S ON THEM

Oops, unintentional caps lock. Still, stupid desicion. It has a killswitch now, even if it makes the entire guitar ring out when you flip it. Still, I feel like if I could, I'd make that my main guitar if I dabbled in metal.

Hey narcist, I totally empathize with you on this one. I have been tweaking my Peavey Detonator (my first electric) for years in an attempt to save it from obsoleteness.

First I replaced the nut (with graphite) and bridge (Wilkinson floating trem). Then I swapped out the Tone pot for a passive mid sweep/boost Tone pot. Tuners followed (Wilkinson EZ lock) and most recently, complete pickup swap: n = DiMarzio Satch; m = DiMarzio Area '58, b = DiMarzio Fred.

The tone pot has a Sprague orange cap, soldered well, not garbage. Very effective on the sweep side. The "boost" not so much, so I rarely ever used it. It was a cheaper alternative to installing better pups. Now that I have real pups, I plan to leave that Tone on center detent indefinitely.

I have sold guitars before, but I don't consider them "getting away" or lost ... I sold my PRS Custom 24 in order to buy my wife her Canon 5D Mark III (it's like a really nice pro camera). I hadn't played the PRS in over two years with no future plans to play it, so it made sense. No regrets. I sold my Carvin electric 12-string as well. Sometimes I regret the Carvin yet I have not needed it since for any gig. Part of purging, for me, is actively reminding myself that I don't have to maintain a stockpile of gear "just in case" I "might" need it "some day." This might be blaspheme on a website called Equipboard, but it's a healthier lifestyle.

PS: Having that Area '58 in middle position has given me a whole new outlook on middle pups. It sounds like an amazing NECK strat position.

bump!

so terry... do you still have the tele?

Hells yes! It is the charcoal sparkle with the blue pearl pickguard in my porn pics!

if that makes no sense understand that Terry and Iw ere facebooking and goijg beer for beer for like 4 hours! I am shockingly not so drunk... needs work