Do you have gear that you regret acquiring? What did you do with it?
I’ll start.
Ever since I decided to take bass seriously (coming up on 2 years ago, when I joined BassBuzz) I’ve lusted after the Fender Dimension basses. I think they just look super cool. I picked up a NOS single H MIM Dimension, which was a great bass, but wasn’t what I was looking for. I picked up a single H MIA Dimension, which was a great bass, and was close to what I was looking for, but still missed the mark a bit. Recently I acquired an HH MIA Dimension, which is an amazing instrument and by all rights should be my “Holy Grail” #1 bass, but… it’s just not doing it for me.
I love the look of the bass… the violin burst is awesome, and I love the shape of the body and how the pickups sit on it. But every time I pick it up and play it… it’s just not as comfortable as my other basses, the neck feels awkward compared to my other basses, and try as I might, I just can’t get the tone I want out of it (which is already exactly what’s coming out of my other basses). I’m not sure what to do, it’s a bit of a let-down. And what makes it worse it that it was a gift, purchased for me solely because I’ve been going on about HH MIA Dimensions for 2 years.
I only regret selling my WW streamer. The deal I got for that bass for was outright bizarre. There was a very tiny dent on the neck. Sold it with profit, but I still miss that one weirdly enough.
The only regret purchase I have so far (bass related) is the Harley Benton.
I wanted so badly to have a two string bass I did not have the patience to wait until the right thing came along (which did 3.8 seconds after the HB arrived).
Lesson - wait for what you really want, waiting has a zen to it.
The other basses (or saxes for that matter) I have bought and sold were part of the learning process of what I like, want etc. No regrets there.
Hasn’t happened too often for me, but that’s probably because I spend a million hours deciding (well obviously not a million, but way too long). I’ve bought 2 guitars purely from reading/watching reviews.
My PRS SE Custom 24-08 is everything I expected and very happy with it.
My Epiphone SG Special P-90 is a bit hit and miss - I’d played an SG in a shop before, but not this one. I liked the idea of having a SG and P-90 pickups and the body colour is nice, but it has multiple parts that look cheap and tacky - the pickguard (chipped really easily), the tuners (I know they are going for the vintage look, but don’t do good job of it), I’m not a fan of laurel fingerboards (yes I knew it had one and it’s ok, but not my preference). I’ve also since tripped and dropped the guitar which took a decent sized chip out of the headstock. I’ll probably hang on to it as it’s my only guitar with P-90s and it makes me want to black Black Sabbath whenever I pick it up so it’s still “worthy”.
I also bought an Fender Elite Strat that I had played a few times in the shop and really liked it. The one I ended up getting wasn’t the same as what I’d played as they’d since sold and got new stock. I’ve had some fret buzz issues which the shop actually made worse when I took it back, but I’ve since mostly resolved those via neck relief adjustments. I don’t think I regret the purchase as such, but it was a big buy for me and just didn’t hit the high expectations I had for it after playing it in the shop. I’ve also read many tales where people have still had to do work on higher end gear so came to terms with it and realise I’m very lucky to own what still is a very nice guitar.
A while back I had a budget LTD guitar. Can’t even remember why I bought it really and it didn’t really get played. I let that one go to make room for one I did like.
I also nearly bought a LTD Surveyor 87 Bass in rainbow crackle. I loved the look of it, but the neck didn’t feel right when I played it. I walked away as it just felt like that one wouldn’t work for me so avoided the regret.
Commit to it. One of the problems about multiple basses, how do I say this and make sense. I may pick up a new bass and play it, and say but it’s so much easier on this other bass, and just walk over to the rack and pick up the other bass, problem solved. But I’ve never given myself the opportunity to bond with the new bass. So I say commit, force yourself to play the new bass and only the new bass for a period of time, say 3-4 weeks. Restart B2B, and just go through the fundamentals with it, and introduce yourself to it.
Then you would really know. Take my Squier 50s P. Sounds great, the neck is not comfortable, I know I’ve gone through the commit routine with it. If I were to record (a P sound) I might pick that. To practice and gig, D5 hands down. That’s a daily driver.
But you have to commit. As long as you have an out, the doubts will be there.
I can tell you right now I have a cull coming up. If my new custom bass is as wonderful as it looks, I will be doing a big cull. D5 - keeper. FGN - keeper. MDB5 - keeper. Custom - keeper. Dark Queen - keeper. Everything else will go.
If my StingRay Special feels and sounds as good as I think it will, I will regret the purchasing of several of my cheaper basses when I could have just bit the bullet, and bought the Stingray long ago. I also have a cull coming. I will keep my 54P, my Sting ray, and my Warmoth quilted PJ. I am going to sell the others and some amps that I have that I don’t use. I was going to give away some stuff, let it be known locally, and no one took me up on my offer.
Not with a bass, but I did regret a guitar trade in.
I bought a Squier Mustang. It weighed nothing and was super comfortable, but it had a touchy pickup selector switch and a bridge that had some buzzing. I loved the sound of it and wanted an upgrade of the same thing.
So I traded the Squier in for a Fender Player series of the same guitar. It had slightly better hardware all around. But what I didn’t realize how much I would miss it was curved edge at the top the Squier had for your forearm. The Fender didn’t have it.
In the end, I wish I’d kept the Squier and simply upgraded the hardware myself to keep the more comfortable body.
I ended up selling the Fender because that bad decision annoyed me enough to want to be rid of it.
This was my first thought too… Gotta give it time to adjust to it - of course it feels more natural on the basses that you’ve been using… Good advice there.
A small GRS with my Deluxe Bass Big Muff but it’s not very expensive and I will hopefully sell it soon, nothing very important. It’s not a bad pedal at all, it just does not fit my personnal tastes.
Another GRS with my Line 6 POD X3 Pro rack, which is great but it has really no use for me as I always use the Bass POD Pro, and I already have a POD X3 bean which is more convenient than the rack for occasionnal use. Might sell the X3 Pro.
Also a bigger GRS with this 1957 german parlor guitar, which is far from being as good as what the seller told me. Well, I plan to sell or trade it to a collector, but the value will not be huge and I will certainly loose some money in the operation.
