Bargain Finds

[ribbetingfrog]

I got a guitar out of a bin once.

Gear4music job.

spent £13 on parts sorting it out and sold it for £30!

Like winning the lottery.

 

[Stub Mandrel]

I found this neck in a skip 🙂

The eBay body blank belonged in one... it was almost as soft as balsa!

[scalpy]

Never happens to me, although I do go looking. I passed on a 70s valve Park combo for £60 once, like a fool. And a friend of mine did work experience at a secondary school and found a large keyboard in the cupboard. The teacher said the students didn’t like it as it had no drum machine. He offered £50 and she threw in the cab that went with it. Mk1 Fender Rhodes. 

[tauzero]

I was rather surprised that a Barefaced One10 was still on That Ebay a day after it was listed at £135 BIN, so I bought it.

I was the only bidder for a Line 6 HD500 that had a start price of £50.

[Shaggy]

Picked up a late 1970's Fender Bassman 135 head in a local junk shop for £50 a few years back. No output at all, but a reasonable guess was it was just one or more of the valves needing replacing - which turned out to be the case. 

More recently found an early '60's Broadway semi-acoustic 6-string with dual Fenton-Weil pickups in another junk shop (I can't resist passing one...... ) for £30 - in a bit of a state but restored into a nice guitar (it's somewhere in the Guitar porn thread)

Absolutely mint USA Peavey Classic 30 (all valve) combo for £90 in a Crack Converters

Edited May 7, 2019 by Shaggy

[Rich]

My best bargain as it turned out was my Wal, for which I paid £330. One of my few appreciating assets

The one that got away was the pre-EB Stingray I saw and didn't buy for £250. *slaps self*

[Shaggy]

23 minutes ago, Rich said:

 

The one that got away was the pre-EB Stingray I saw and didn't buy for £250. *slaps self*

I feel your pain - I did get a pre-EB MM Sabre for £400 (with a spare neck too), but the 'Ray would have been an even better score.......

[casapete]

52 minutes ago, Shaggy said:

Picked up a late 1970's Fender Bassman 135 head in a local junk shop for £50 a few years back. No output at all, but a reasonable guess was it was just one or more of the valves needing replacing - which turned out to be the case. 

More recently found an early '60's Broadway semi-acoustic 6-string with dual Fenton-Weil pickups in another junk shop (I can't resist passing one...... ) for £30 - in a bit of a state but restored into a nice guitar (it's somewhere in the Guitar porn thread)

Absolutely mint USA Peavey Classic 30 (all valve) combo for £90 in a Crack Converters

Think I feel a 'holiday' to S.Wales on the cards....

[Shaggy]

19 minutes ago, casapete said:

Think I feel a 'holiday' to S.Wales on the cards....

Lol - when the sun shines (which isn't often), there's no better place on earth.......

Unfortunately the junk shops and second hand musical instrument shops which every town used to have a couple of, have all but gone 

[casapete]

We play Swansea fairly regularly, and was saddened to see Cranes has closed down. We always went there for a mooch round  and bought stuff - great staff and nice vibe. Another victim of the internet according to local news. 🙁

[Shaggy]

16 minutes ago, casapete said:

We play Swansea fairly regularly, and was saddened to see Cranes has closed down. We always went there for a mooch round  and bought stuff - great staff and nice vibe. Another victim of the internet according to local news. 🙁

Indeed; I used to frequent Cranes and they always had nice vintage stuff as well as new.   Swansea has had a succession of music shops come and go, but at least it has a fairly healthy live music scene.

You tour far afield casapete - what's your band? 

[Quilly]

I bought an Ashdown CTM-100 from a lad in Wales for £500, not exactly bargain basement but well below the going rate and a cracking amp.

[thepurpleblob]

On 05/05/2019 at 12:10, TheGreek said:

Picked up various bits of Trace Elliot gear for a song...some people just want to get rid of it.

I turned a Trace Elliot cab into a cat bed last week. Literally couldn't give it away.

[casapete]

2 minutes ago, Shaggy said:

Indeed; I used to frequent Cranes and they always had nice vintage stuff as well as new.   Swansea has had a succession of music shops come and go, but at least it has a fairly healthy live music scene.

You tour far afield casapete - what's your band? 

I play bass in The ELO Experience, doing mainly theatres around the UK. We often do Swansea Grand Theatre, last there in November 2018. Always a good gig for us.

[Quilly]

5 minutes ago, thepurpleblob said:

I turned a Trace Elliot cab into a cat bed last week. Literally couldn't give it away.

I say a brand new(ish) 1048h go for sale in Dublin for €300, that about £250..absolute steal.

[DrBike]

My wife got me a Squier P-Bass from a car boot for £65.  I think the guy wanted £80 for it, she called me and sent a couple of photos.  She had £65 on her so I told her to make an offer, which he took!  It's a really nice bass and I'm still playing it now seven years later.

I also got a Vintage V4 off ebay from a shop.  It was brand new and they'd posted it as £85 buy it now.  I've a feeling that they'd missed of the first digit.  I didn't really need another bass but it was too much to resist.  It became a project bass and now has an upgraded bridge and pickup, although doesn't get so much of a look in as the P-bass above plays so nicely.

[Stub Mandrel]

2 hours ago, Shaggy said:

Indeed; I used to frequent Cranes and they always had nice vintage stuff as well as new.   Swansea has had a succession of music shops come and go, but at least it has a fairly healthy live music scene.

You tour far afield casapete - what's your band? 

Last couple of visits to Cardiff - PMT crammed to the gills, Cranes, a few doors away, almost deserted.

From, the Street Cranes looks like a shop for 'serious' musicians - "please show your Grade 8 certificate to the attendant before approaching the instruments". But out the back, loads of nice guitars (not many basses) and knowledgeable friendly guys.

OTOH, PMT sucks in all the wannabees and djent-merchants and has killed off most of the competition.

[Shaggy]

3 hours ago, thepurpleblob said:

I turned a Trace Elliot cab into a cat bed last week. Literally couldn't give it away.

Definitely a marketing opportunity for cat-owning bassists there!  Yup - I've an old Trace 1x15 and 2x10 taking up space, but can't face letting them go for peanuts....

3 hours ago, casapete said:

I play bass in The ELO Experience, doing mainly theatres around the UK. We often do Swansea Grand Theatre, last there in November 2018. Always a good gig for us.

That's so cool!   I'll def try to catch you next time you're down.  A range of potential basses you could play if being closely authentic, but I'd really hope it would be the old Ovation Magnum (below) - plus the '70's satin suit of course 

23 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Last couple of visits to Cardiff - PMT crammed to the gills, Cranes, a few doors away, almost deserted.

From, the Street Cranes looks like a shop for 'serious' musicians - "please show your Grade 8 certificate to the attendant before approaching the instruments". But out the back, loads of nice guitars (not many basses) and knowledgeable friendly guys.

OTOH, PMT sucks in all the wannabees and djent-merchants and has killed off most of the competition.

Last time I was in Swansea Cranes (to pick up a Davidson mandolin sent over from their Cardiff store) they had several 1960's Gretsches and a couple of old Gibson guitars in plus a Wal bass - I could have spent ages there.    The only PMT store I know is in Cambridge (where I have family so go over regularly) - nothing of interest there whatsoever....

[Machines]

USA Gretsch 6131 Firebird, brand new for £299 from SoundControl Brum. They had it marked up as an Electromatic, even stuck to the price when asked if it was right.

They're out of business nowadays, not sure why.

[casapete]

2 hours ago, Shaggy said:

That's so cool!   I'll def try to catch you next time you're down.  A range of potential basses you could play if being closely authentic, but I'd really hope it would be the old Ovation Magnum (below) - plus the '70's satin suit of cours

I agonized over what bass(es) to use for ages. Gibson G3 Grabber was a favourite of Kelly's in ELO, along with the Ovation and sometimes a Jazz. Unfortunately an accident leading to a shoulder injury stopped any thoughts straight away (Gibsons around 10lbs and Ovations even more!) so had to settle on my sunburst Precision Lyte. At around 7lbs it means I can do 2 hrs of playing without too much bother.

I do confess to previously being seen in a 70's style velvet suit but fortunately now we go for the more recent Jeff Lynne's ELO look of black jacket / jeans with a grey T-shirt - thank god......😄

[joeystrange]

I remember Steve Hodson off of Oceansize talking about how he found a “really old, way older than me” (at a guess maybe ‘70s) Gibson Grabber in a skip and was able to buy it for £200.

[FatDrunkStupid]

I foolishly took a punt on a new, full warranty Yamaha TRB-1005J on eBay since the seller was a "known" shop and the asking price was less than half MRP (significantly cheaper than the several used examples currently on t'bay). It arrived today, brand new in original box, all protective stickies still attached, sealed manual, battery and toolkit. Only a minor setup required. I'm still mystified by it all.

[Baxlin]

Bought a 'damaged' (but new) semi acoustic bass from Gear4music, at just over half price.  The only damage was theat the jack socket had come unscrewed and had dropped into the body.  Ten minutes with a bit of bent wire, and a locknut from my spares box fixed it.  Thanks G4M!

[uk_lefty]

My mates uncle found a very rare 70's epiphone electric in a skip. My mates dad is a serious guitar collector, can't remember exactly value but they thought it was around £500 worth in the early 2000's. 

I think quick access to eBay and internet records of sales has wiped out a lot of bargains but if you're willing to travel you can get some good deals and I find it's mainly on amps. I got a Carlsboro bass amp that was HUGE for about thirty quid and almost two hrs drive, sold for a profit because it was just far too big. I had a Vox Escort 50 lead and bass amp for about fifty quid posted, still kicking myself for selling it in 2005. The original bassist from my first band sold me a "150 watt" Peavey TNT that was in my guitarists house, they had fallen out but coincidentally I knew his younger brother so bought this massive amp for a tenner, spent fifteen having the on/ off switch repaired and had a stupendously loud practice amp. He also sold me a more portable, for the 90's, 100 watt Torque amp that was ok for ninety quid which was a good deal and I occasionally linked them together to create a ridiculous combo stack. I bought a great Trace set up for a bargain because it was for sale right over Christmas and the guy selling it needed cash to repair his car, bad time to sell, plus he lived in the derrière end of nowhere so it was quite a detour to do the collection.

Not second hand but in the old days of the Musicyo  website I got my Kramer fretless for about £250 imported due to the amazing exchange rate to the dollar. It's a cracker of a bass and I still gig it today whether the gig "needs" fretless or not!

[LewisK1975]

On 07/05/2019 at 14:13, Stub Mandrel said:

Last couple of visits to Cardiff - PMT crammed to the gills, Cranes, a few doors away, almost deserted.

From, the Street Cranes looks like a shop for 'serious' musicians - "please show your Grade 8 certificate to the attendant before approaching the instruments". But out the back, loads of nice guitars (not many basses) and knowledgeable friendly guys.

OTOH, PMT sucks in all the wannabees and djent-merchants and has killed off most of the competition.

Sorry to be a pedant - but the shop a few doors away from PMT in Cardiff is Gamlins.  Cranes was at the other end of St.Mary street near the castle and was closed a few years ago now..

Edited May 10, 2019 by LewisK1975