BJFE / BearFoot fx Guitar Effects Community

Have you guys ever fallen in love with a piece of gear only to let it get away? This has happened to me a few times. Interestingly enough, all with amps, and all due to lack of funds at the time.

Here's a run down of my broken heart items:

1965 Fender Super Reverb --- saw this one in Guitar Center when I lived in Indy. Nothing special about the looks, but this one had that special Super Reverb magic on the inside for sure --- vibe---mojo --- whatever it was, it's the best Super I've ever heard.

50's Tweed Fender -- I think it was a Princeton. Very simple amp. Volume and Tone. Man oh man, did it have great tone, and with it being a small amp, you could crank it and it sounded like heaven. Also at the GC in Indy.

1957 Fender Super Amp -- 2x10. Best amp I have ever personally plugged into. Indescribably amazing. Amazingly enough, someone found it in a dumpster and brought it in to a small shop in INdy and sold it to the owner, who briefly put it up for sale and them decided to hold onto it. I need to call that guy and see if he still has it!

What about you guys? Do you have any that got away?

the '58 three color sunburst strat I traded to Buddy Guy.

it was an AWESOME guitar, and had been tweaked by Roger Sadowsky for me.

It was the BEST 50s maple neck strat I ever had......and I had a few!

but Buddy still has it, and loves it, so it has a VERY good home now

photo of me with it and "Mujiber" from the David Letterman Show

and then photos of Buddy with it now

I'm shocked in some many ways....you owned a 58 strat (dream), you traded it to Buddy Guy (wow, really cool....how?...what did he trade you???)....you now play that Key West guitar when you could be holding the 58?????????

Eskimo_Joe wrote:I'm shocked in some many ways....you owned a 58 strat (dream), you traded it to Buddy Guy (wow, really cool....how?...what did he trade you???)....you now play that Key West guitar when you could be holding the 58?????????

over the years, I had over a thousand guitars. When I was doing pretty good in the music biz and had a deal and toured, etc, I usually had about 25 guitars in my "stable"

I did a blues festival, and also had worked with Buddy's label Silvertone Records, so I went to go hang out with him.

He saw the '58, and freaked out.

he MADE ME sit on a folding chair directly behind his amp during his show, and would periodically come back there and look at me to see if I was still there!

End of night, we are on bus, and drinking some Remy XO. Buddy tells me he will "trade me ANY of his guitars for the '58".

I told him that the '58 was worth more than any of his custom shop strats.

But he will not take no for an answer.

So I made him trade me the red polka strat, because it was unique, the rest were black. And a big fistful of dollars

Red polka dot strat was NICE, masterbuilt by the same guy who built Claptons, as Buddy had played Eric's and wanted one, with the same electronics, etc.

Last year of college, I was needing money, so I sold the red polka dot strat to the Hard Rock Cafe for a BIG chunk of change. It now hangs in the Atlantic City Hard Rock. Unfortunately you can't see the back of it on display, because on the back is a HUGE inscription to ME --- I made him do it

Then I started to wonder WHY Buddy wanted THAT '58 so bad.

I researched some of his older albums, and saw a '58 3 color sunburst maple neck strat on the ocver of "A Man and the BLues"

The wear marks were VERY similar on that guitar.

And that guitar was stolen from Buddy in the 70s, and never seen again....hmmmm......

I bought it from a well known vintage dealer in Minneapolis.

So......in some strange way.....I think I managed to get Buddy back the guitar he recorded with early in his career.

I know this sounds like a strange story, but it's all true

more pics...me with red polka dot guitar:



THE NIGHT Buddy traded me the guitar.....him playing it at Sarasota Blues Fest:





the polka dot, in front of my Doug Hoffman custom handbuilt 30 watt combo (doug was one of my best friends back then, and he designed this amp for me!!!)

and a good press photo of me with the '58.

It really sounded great, in that classic, glassy, 50s maple neck strat manner.

Buddy keeps it at home, and doesn't tour with it, it stays in Chicago with him.

I wish I could get him to leave it to me in his will....I sure do miss it

wow, what a story!

not to go crazy, but my other great love was this guitar-

1981 Charvel San Dimas pre-production model "HOT ROD FLAMES" strat -- was made for Jeff Beck with solid maple body, but mineral stains came up in the finish, so Jackson Charvel builder Mike Eldred kept it and played it for years in his bands.

In the early 90s, I bought it from another early Charvel collector. It was AWESOME -- but - the maple body was HEAVY, and I do a LOT of gigs, some 4-5 hours a night. I use LIGHT guitars....

So I sold it to a friend, and it eventually ended up in a collection with an astute gentleman who knows what he has and will probably never sell it. It's well over $10K at this point, and was featured in the very first one sheet color ad they did for NAMM.





one of the most awesome Charvels on the planet!!!!

but with all this talk of ones that got away -- i like this one AS MUCH as any guitar i have owned.

Dimarzio said it wasn't the worst he had ever seen

I didn't realize we had a celebrity in our midst!!

Seriously cool story there Bobby.

nibus wrote:I didn't realize we had a celebrity in our midst!!

Seriously cool story there Bobby.

well, Buddy Guy and Jeff Beck were the only celebrities there -- I am just a guitarist who keeps on playing guitar, and I have been lucky to have had some special guitars and have jammed and met some great guys over the years. Buddy especially -- even though that was the best 50s strat I had ever owned, at least it is not in some vintage shop -- it is in the hands of the man who inspired ME, inspired JIMI, inspired Clapton, and hundreds and thousands of others. God Bless Buddy Guy, and I am proud to have gotten that guitar back to him!