Ever bought gear you regretted buying?

[BigRedX]

Luckily this has never happened to me.

 

In the early days of playing I had no money so every purchase other than a new plectrum or a single replacement guitar string had to be carefully considered.

 

By the time I actually had serious disposable income for musical equipment, I was very good friends with several people in musical instrument retail, and I was able to try anything I wanted to buy for up to week at home. TBH I'd usually done my research first and I can only recall two items that didn't make it to the end of the trial period without a purchase - A Trace Elliot Bright Box that went back to the shop the same day I bought it because it made no difference to my bass sound, and a Kurzweil synth module that proved far to complicated to program.

[Rayman]

As pointed out in another thread, many years ago I purchased a brand new rig, a Markbass CMD121P and NY121 extension cab. As soon as I got it home I knew I was in trouble. First rehearsal and subsequent gig confirmed it. Although it was a beautiful thing, light, well built etc…. I found it generic and sterile sounding, and actually ended up selling it and getting my old Ashdown ABM rig back, along with my sound.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 5, 2023 by Rayman

[Steve Browning]

I think 'regret' may be too strong a word, but I've tried to get on with a Stingray, but just don't. I think the same could be true of everything bar a good old Precision.

 

I've flirted with most things (even a Ric 4000) but nothing suits me and my playing style like a Precision, a rosewood board Precision too.

[Ed_S]

I've had regrets after gear purchases that haven't turned out the way I'd hoped, but they've generally been more to do with regretting that I no longer have the more suitable gear that I sold to fund the new thing rather than directly regretting buying the new thing itself.

 

I do regret a custom build that didn't go all that well, but mainly because it was funded by close family as a gift for my 30th. I couldn't overlook the issues or pretend that I instantly (or indeed ever) got on with it, which was obviously a bit of a kick in the teeth all round.

[Rexel Matador]

An 8x10 cab. Overkill for almost all gigs, hugely cumbersome to move around, and impossible to sell on for those same reasons. I ended up using the speakers to make a couple of smaller cabs though, so all was not lost.

 

All that said, on the rare occasions that I did get to use it, it was pretty epic.

Edited October 5, 2023 by Rexel Matador

[BassTractor]

Not much, but I do remember:

- Ashdown MAG C410 evo II 300W combo.
Large and heavy, but I know that before ordering. However, the blue speaker cones belied their being just so-so. I've been verrry verrry content with other Ashdown gear, like the 30W Little Båstard with two original LB 12" cabs.

- Rockinbetter bass.
Again, I already knew about the ergonomics, but it came so shoddily put together it might as well have been an original from R.I.C. Decent sound from one pup only.

[tauzero]

This looks like a case of buyer's remorse:

 

[Al Krow]

19 hours ago, Nothingman said:

It’s all part of the journey. 

You work some rubbish jobs.

You wake up next to some mistakes.

You buy duff gear. 

Life’s a wave, just gotta ride it. 

Loved that post! 

 

 I've bought and sold a lot of bass kit over the past decade - it's been an interesting, fun journey and I've got a much better idea of what I'm after these days - the last bass I bought was 2 years ago which is quite a feat for me, haha! It's more now a case of applying some TLC and judicious upgrades to basses that I otherwise love, rather than replacing them outright e.g. getting the onboard electronics properly shielded, fret dressing and upgrades to the preamps. Finding someone as skilled and easy to work with as @Garymac to apply his bass-tec skills has been a boon.

 

I've also moved from trying to get the best rig within my budget to being content to go through the FoH to focus on getting the best balanced sound for my band.

 

Second hand purchases tend to hold their value if you look after them, so it's not put me too much out of pocket along the way.

 

Regrets? Spending far too much time on kit and getting into passionate debates over the minutiae of tone with fellow BC'ers and not enough on the fretboard and actually making music would be my only real one. But I can maybe do something to put that right now 😊

[fretmeister]

Hartke LH500 - just astonishingly meh. Dull beyond words. Loud is the only good thing. Almost every one I've seen in use has effectively been as a power amp for BDDI or Helix etc.

Dingwall ABZ. Well built with a gutless sound. Not helped as at the time string choices were severely limited.

Xotic SP Compressor. Hissy pile of stinky poo.

Mesa Prodigy 4:88. Amazing tone, completely ruined by the loud-as-a-jet £2 cooling fan they used. There are dozens of really quiet fans and Mesa specced out a pile of derrière that would be rejected from the cheapest Wish.com PC. Totally ruined the experience of buying such an expensive product. Stupidly I tried to get on with it / tolerate it and was then too late to return it, and the distributors at the time were 'holes. Traded it as a shop and lost loads on it.

[cetera]

Dingwall D-Roc and NG basses.

Loved the look and the feel was good.
Sounded meh.... then I noticed that everyone paired them with Darkglass pedals to get them to sound half decent.... but then they all ended up sounding the same...

Sold them and got more Spectors instead

 

[gjones]

I bought a TC Electronic Classic450 head but really didn't get on with it. The low mid control didn't appear to have much effect on the sound. I thought it might have been my amp that was faulty, so went to a local shop that sold them, tried their demonstrator and the low mid didn't work effectively on theirs either.

 

I sold it and bought an Ashdown instead. 

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

When I was first getting into flatwounds I ordered three sets of Rotosound jazz flats. Tried one set - hated the tension and the gap between the windings varied for each string making each one feel totally different.

 

I've bought many pedals to try out with my rig and then flipped them when they weren't quite what I'd hoped for, but I imagine a lot of us probably do that and if you buy secondhand you don't lose any value.

 

The most immediate case of buyers remorse I had was when I wanted a hard case for a mustang bass, but for the same price the Fender cases were being sold at, I could order a custom-made heavy duty aluminium flight case, so I foolishly thought that would be a reasonable option and ordered one. When it arrived it was beautifully made and was well up to the job it was designed for, but I immediately knew it was far too big and heavy for my needs and would be totally impractical to use.

[TheLowDown]

I don't think I've ever truly regretted buying any gear because there is always something to learn, even if the lesson learnt is that it wasn't right for me. I wouldn't have known otherwise so it's never a waste.

[Jackroadkill]

22 hours ago, MichaelDean said:

I had a Hohner Arbor series p bass copy. I fancied a p bass and was lusting after that one as it was apparently a birth year bass and the white/white/maple colouring looked cool. Didn't really like it. It felt like a wide neck to me (probably 44mm), heavy, tone wasn't great. Should have moved it on sooner, but I didn't lose any money. It had the look, but I didn't gel with it at all. Still haven't played another straight p. I do quite like my pj though. 

 

My first bass was one of those, waaaay back in 1995; it cost me £115 and I loved it.  However, as I knew nothing about gear at all, I would, wouldn't it?!  I found out the body was plywood and started to go off it.  I ended up covering it in paint and stickers and making it heavier by adding a belt of about 50 7.62mm dummy rounds to the strap and adding a home-made humbucker mounted on velcro under the strings.

[JapanAxe]

Schecter Rob DeLeo PJ. Probably the last thing I bought on the basis of ‘This will do’ rather than ‘Hell yeah!’. Soon got fed up with it, and put off PJ basses for life. Couldn’t get what I wanted for it on eBay so left it with Hank’s in Denmark Street. They sold it but their cheque bounced and then they went into some arrangement with creditors that meant that I got nothing. At least I was able to write it off against tax.

[Old Horse Murphy]

20 hours ago, neepheid said:

No regrets - anything I've bought that hasn't worked out has helped me understand what I do like a bit better.

This is me too, but many times over with the same things again and again.
 

If the definition of madness is doing the same thing the same way repeatedly and expecting different results then I'm well and truly in the basement of the loony bin. 

[Old Horse Murphy]

.

Edited October 5, 2023 by Old Horse Murphy
Double post. Oh the irony

[Geek99]

Same thing over again ? 
 

 

an Ibanez srx595 5 string 

had I done my homework I’d have known X meant “xtra wide” not suitable for my average sized hands 

[Roger2611]

Too much to list them all, a Rockbass $$ Corvette being the stand out turd it was horrible in every single way, Thunderbirds, I just don't get them...well stop buying them you idiot! A Custom Shop 63 Precision but that helped me understand why there are so many CS guitars looking for new owners, yes they may be great instruments but not necessarily the great instrument you wanted! A Spector Forte, it was nice but not that nice, a Mesa Boogie D800, yes it says Mesa on it but old school Mesa it certainly isn't 

[White Cloud]

11 hours ago, BigRedX said:

By the time I actually had serious disposable income for musical equipment...

I've been playing for 45 years and still haven't arrived at this stage yet!

[javi_bassist]

A lot of pedals probably. 

 

Lately, I bought a set of Sadowsky pickups for my Yamaha BB605. Not really a regret per se, but I decided to get another bass and I am selling my BB605 and I sold the pickups. 

 

My Schecter CV5 is also a piece of gear that I only have used for one gig and now I am selling. Not a regret because it's an awesome bass. But I have decided to own less basses than I own now and I decided shortly after getting it. 

[BigRedX]

Actually prompted by @White Cloud's response, I've had a rethink, and while I don't regret buying any individual piece of musical equipment, with the benefit of hindsight I do regret all the money I spent building my home studio in the 90s (both in terms of equipment and actual construction and sound-proofing work), only to ultimately discover that my engineering skills were the definite week link in my recordings, and most of the several tens of thousands of pounds would have been better spent hiring a good studio, engineer and producer for a month or so. That way I would have come away with a great album's worth of recordings with a reputable producer's name attached to them, instead of a handful of "finished" songs that I've never been 100% happy with and the rest of the album in various states of incompleteness. I would probably have had more than enough money left over to release and properly promote the album too.

[joeystrange]

Never exactly regretted buying anything but I have bought a few things that I’ve then sold fairly quickly as they turned out they weren’t quite what I wanted.

Just a couple of pedals, mostly, which I lost money on but with them being relatively cheap I don’t regret losing a bit of money. If it was expensive gear I may have felt differently.

[SumOne]

I wouldn't say regret, but I've bought and sold more Basses and pedals than I can remember, if I added up the financial cost I'd probably have a different view on it being a regret!

 

 

"Well son, the funny thing about regret is that it's better to regret something you have done than to regret something that you haven't done. And by the way, If you see your mom this weekend, will you be sure and tell her......"

[BillyBass]

17 hours ago, TheLowDown said:

I don't think I've ever truly regretted buying any gear because there is always something to learn, even if the lesson learnt is that it wasn't right for me. I wouldn't have known otherwise so it's never a waste.

That is a good way of looking at it.  

 

Like many here I have bought things following praise from others or a review and ultimately realised it wasn't for me.  I once bought a 2nd hand woolly mammoth clone on here for £35 or £40, the seller said it was in great condition.  It wasn't, but mostly, I realised that fuzz on bass wasn't what I was looking for. So was this a waste of £40 or a cheap lesson?  A bit of both probably.