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Have I Made A Mistake? The Great Conundrum...


binky_bass

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I think most of us at some point have been in a position to either trade or sell one of our basses to acquire another... sometimes its a no brainer, sometimes it's a no-goer and sometimes it's a huge internal debate/struggle to come to a conclusion about which you'd rather own - the one you already have, or that shiny new thing calling out your name! 

 

I'm in such a position now, where I've pretty much committed to moving on a very special bass to acquire another very special bass! (I'll post details once everything is done and dusted.)

 

I'd be interested to know what trades have been made out there where you've either regretted it, or thought you might regret it but ended up actually being really happy with the new acquisition. Pictures of the old and new basses are encouraged! :)

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I bought a GB Rumour and loved it. I had a Status Kingbass at the same time but was so enamored by the Rumour that when a Spitfire came up I felt I had to jump on it. I traded the Kingbass for the Spitfire. 

 

Big mistake.  The Spitfire, though a nice bass in it's own right, wasn't even half the bass the Rumour was, and didn't live up to my expectations.

 

Needless to say,  it didn't stay long and I wasn't able to get the Kingbass back.

 

I eventually moved the Rumour on (for a lot less than the market price)...again another mistake. 

 

Sellers remorse is a real biitch.

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5 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

Sellers remorse is a real biitch.

Yup - and that's the perpetual fear! I have a feeling I may end up with sellers remorse shortly! Hopefully that'll be somewhat mitigated by the new bass at least meeting my expectations! 

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Yeah, am ashamed to recognize it's happened to me.. 

I really wanted a BTB846SC-DTL & could not afford one. One popped up on the second hand market one day, i offered my Sire P7 5-string Swamp Ash & a semi hollow Ibanez guitar i had... i have been missing that P7 since then. I recently got a P7 4-string Alder in another trade, & i really like it but, still, it's not the same... reallymy regret that stupid move cuz i ended up selling the BTB after a year...

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Over the years, I’ve basically bought and traded my way up into higher end basses. My ‘collection’ now features three Overwater basses which, as good as they are, will never recover the initial purchase value if I was to sell. Fortunately, I’ve hit a stage where I am happy with my arsenal and not looking to add any more anytime soon, so no chance of sellers remorse.  

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Three years ago I stupidly traded in a Warwick '98 BO Thumb for a MIM jazz bass.

 

I was skint at the time and just wanted a change and hadn't played for years...

I realised I have not only lost the bass, but I pretty much have also lost all the capital I had invested in it..

 

I swapped a bass which was at £700 for a straight swap... saw it online at the shop for £1250 the week after..

 

If I know try and sell the jazz bass now I'll be lucky to get £350-400 for it... so my take home is only trade up, never trade down!

 

 

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All things considered I've never regretted letting a bass or amplification go, as what I have now is probably as good as I could ever need. My dabbling with some seriously nice basses from Wal, Sadowsky, Musicman, Fender Custom Shop, Rickenbacker, Status, etc, and equally good amps by Mesa, Ampeg, Aguilar, Phil Jones, Musicman etc has allowed me to calibrate very precisely the sweet spot between what I like and what I don't like and what I need and what I don't need. I now have two very different electric basses (one fretted one fretless), two very different double basses (one wood, one aluminium), and two very different rigs (one very rude Californian and one very polite Scandinavian). Do I miss all the other gear? Not really. Do I regret selling any of it? Possibly on a financial and an ego basis, but certainly not in terms of instrumental value no 👍 

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1 hour ago, binky_bass said:

I think most of us at some point have been in a position to either trade or sell one of our basses to acquire another...

 

I'm lucky that I haven't had to sell a bass in order to buy the next one.

 

For me every bass has to be an upgrade, ie better than the last one (or there is no point in buying it). That philosophy has worked well for the last 30 years.

 

I worked my way through Fender, Wal and Lakland to arrive at Mike Lull and Sadowsky basses. I did make a few mistakes along the way, they were moved on very quickly, but so far I don't regret selling any bass.

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I treat each bass I've had as an experience which I am able to upload to my internal library of tone knowledge, and that helps me appreciate my next purchase and judge whether I want to keep it or not. At the same time I'm mindful about rose tinted spectacles and every bass I've sold has been for a reason. Sometimes I think I'd really like to play the Smith basses I sold, but then I remember why I sold them and can now better appreciate the qualities they offered which I did like in my next bass. Also - if you sell something and really regret it, then you more often than not have the fun of searching for another, safer in the knowledge that you're going to like it (instrument variances aside). 

 

Basically what @Beedster said. And that's how you end up with a hodgepodge mutilated vintage mustang, which anyone who plays it will know is the embodiment of everything that's good 😄

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Well, the deed is now done. For good or for ill.

 

The deal was an outright sale of my ACG 30.5" bass to then buy a Grabber Green BFR Music Man Bongo 6 that GuitarGuitar just got in. 

 

The price for the ACG was very fair indeed, and I doubt I'd have ever sold it if it wasn't for the fact that I have 4 other ACG basses, all of which see significantly more play time that the baby ACG. Plus the BFR Bongo 6 is rare as hens teeth and I'd not likely see another for sale any time soon. So why not shift on something I essentially have in triplicate for something that's rare, cool and that I'll use. Plus it came with 3 new sets of Rotosound SM666 strings, which I could definitely use!

 

Not sure if I'll live to regret it, but it's done now. I still have 4 ACGs, so can't be too sad I suppose...

 

Here's the one out, and the one in:

 

20230412_170220.thumb.jpg.b216b17450e2937763af2711402ca057.jpg

 

Screenshot_20230529_204756_Reverb.thumb.jpg.12ed0156370663f951056a6eeb758bf7.jpg

 

Screenshot_20230529_204807_Reverb.thumb.jpg.7389490125026ff3f943d54a873d905b.jpg

Edited by binky_bass
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What an absolute beauty of a Bongo, and they sound absolutely incredible (I should know, currently have a 5 string for sale on the marketplace wink wink).

 

The only sellers remorse I've had was a Stingray 5 HH that I wish I still had. It's not remorse as such, I just wish I'd kept it a bit longer than the 3 months before I traded it for something more special!

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A good looking Bongo and a good looking ACG I'd say.

 

As for seller's regret, do you have six months to listen? (Neither did my counsellor.) After all the years, I'm getting very close to the gear I want - maybe three more to buy (?) then no more seller's blues.

 

Enjoy the arrival of the Green Goddess tomorrow.

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1 hour ago, binky_bass said:

Well, the deed is now done. For good or for ill.

 

The deal was an outright sale of my ACG 30.5" bass to then buy a Grabber Green BFR Music Man Bongo 6 that GuitarGuitar just got in. 

 

The price for the ACG was very fair indeed, and I doubt I'd have ever sold it if it wasn't for the fact that I have 4 other ACG basses, all of which see significantly more play time that the baby ACG. Plus the BFR Bongo 6 is rare as hens teeth and I'd not likely see another for sale any time soon. So why not shift on something I essentially have in triplicate for something that's rare, cool and that I'll use. Plus it came with 3 new sets of Rotosound SM666 strings, which I could definitely use!

 

Not sure if I'll live to regret it, but it's done now. I still have 4 ACGs, so can't be too sad I suppose...

 

Here's the one out, and the one in:

 

20230412_170220.thumb.jpg.b216b17450e2937763af2711402ca057.jpg

 

Screenshot_20230529_204756_Reverb.thumb.jpg.12ed0156370663f951056a6eeb758bf7.jpg

 

Screenshot_20230529_204807_Reverb.thumb.jpg.7389490125026ff3f943d54a873d905b.jpg

 

That's a special bass 👍

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1 hour ago, ped said:

I treat each bass I've had as an experience which I am able to upload to my internal library of tone knowledge, and that helps me appreciate my next purchase and judge whether I want to keep it or not. At the same time I'm mindful about rose tinted spectacles and every bass I've sold has been for a reason. Sometimes I think I'd really like to play the Smith basses I sold, but then I remember why I sold them and can now better appreciate the qualities they offered which I did like in my next bass. Also - if you sell something and really regret it, then you more often than not have the fun of searching for another, safer in the knowledge that you're going to like it (instrument variances aside). 

 

Basically what @Beedster said. And that's how you end up with a hodgepodge mutilated vintage mustang, which anyone who plays it will know is the embodiment of everything that's good 😄

 

Yep, my unwritten rule for how a bass should feel and play is "Like a Wal, but not a Wal", and you can only come to that place by having owned and played (a lot) one or more Wals 👍

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1 hour ago, NancyJohnson said:

Sellers remorse.  The Travis Bean.  The Bongo 5HH.  The white Gibson Thunderbird.  

Kinal MK5, Overwater Progress 5, ‘78 Precision, MIJ Marcus Miller Jazz, Lakland DJ5, Lakland JO4, Warwick $$, Shuker 5, countless Stingrays, countless  Fender Precisions, Gretch Thunderjet, ESP Horizon 5 ……. on and on and on….

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