How about some more missing guitars?
 


 






 
And, of course, Space Cowboy now owns this little gem:
 

 
Yep, there's even more!
 
I will say that it's a LOT easier to move now...

 
I miss my curly white guitar lead.
 
It made me play better.
 
 

SteveStrummerUK
 
I miss my curly white guitar lead.
 
It made me play better.

I kept that.

Craig,  I've always considered you a friend and had so much respect for you - but now you really are my hero. I don't know how I'd survive selling the guitars you've had to sell... :P
 
More seriously, man, it must have been tough. But I trust you're doing fine. :)
 
 
 
 

I think it needed to be done.  That said, there are some things I wish I still had and probably a few others that can go (they're just not worth enough for me to take the time to sell them).  I thought I needed to have all things for all people (I had thought about having a commercial studio eventually).  Nah!
 
Things are starting to take off and NEXT TIME I'll do things better.
 
(Who knows, maybe I'll end up meeting someone - hopefully doing close to as well as you did - and then I won't have time for all those toys anyway - LOL!  )

I can't remember how many guitars I've sold.
I know at least 4 LP's  starting with my first a '69, a Gibson 347 which was a decked out 335 with
coil splitter and fine tuning tail piece, a Gibson L5-S, a '70 model Strat (3 screw fat head..not sure exact year), a Jap Strat ( that I had the most fun with) ..If I could complete the list it wouldn't matter because none of these are missed and I'm sure none of the ones I can't recall are missed. lol
 
Every year they offer instruments that are suppose to be made better with better materials and design...why the old ones are of value has nothing to do with the instrument in most cases. It's to do with peoples quirks and stupid reasoning they dream up with goof-balls following them.
The only reason for an old instrument having value is "sentimental" such as a pickers first guitar.
Everything after that one is memory and hopefully one that contributed in learning and enjoyment.
I know...some will put sentimental value on everything they get their hands on...I've seen them on the tube and they are referred to as hoarders. Glad I don't watch much TV. Weird **** and people on it IMO.
 
I have seventeen guitars now- a bass,a lap steel and mandolin and would sell
and should sell all the guitars but one (the first one I built). No, I wouldn't miss any of them either.
The reason is because they can be replaced...and until they stop making guitars it just doesn't matter
and getting a new one is great fun and I sure don't want to be a hoarder. Now the issue is compounded
because if I really want one...I'd build it.
 
And if I were someone like Beep looking for one I'd save my money (about 4-500 dollars) and
wait for November and jump on one of the new Silvertones (in black metalflake) - either model- the Jupiter or 1449. (I believe they're considerations for any picker.)
 
I thought..."they don't build 'em like that anymore" was for good reasons but I could be wrong. Maybe the new and improved Strats hand made with the fine tonewoods and compound radius fretboards and plek'd frets...it's all just fluff and BS. Maybe that hold one in the closet for the last 50 plus years was just years ahead of it's time...yeah, right.

Some very nice instruments Craig.  At least you know the Space Cowboy gem found a good home.  
 
I agree with you Spacey, I have sold many more, but they did n't have as much sentimental value as the ones I mentioned.  The Rick that I posted was my first electric and It was the beginning of my passion for guitars.  Not to mention that a 63' would have some vintage value these days.  The 83 LP was my first Paul and they are still my favorite instrument.  It was a fine make back then.  Nice wood, sounded great.  Incidentally, I sold both the Rick and the LP at the same time to buy engagement and wedding rings.  I am still married to my wife, 25 years later, so maybe it was a romantic thing to do.  However, I kind of wish I had just taken out a loan back then for the rings.  I said to myself at the time, that I would just buy something similar later, when we have some money.  Ya, right.  Never happens like you plan.
 
I took a break from guitar for 10-12 years after selling those two.  Maybe it was a period of grieving; I'm not sure why.  I just kind of walked away from all music; did n't even listen to the radio much.  My father passed during that time period as well.  It was kind of my lost years in the music world.  I woke up again when a friend of mine passed away at a young age.  My father also passed at 53.  A light went off in my head that I was missing out on something that I had always loved and I never even understood why I walked away.  Call it mid life crisis, or what you will.... but my wife was in shock when I came home one day 10 years ago with a fine specimen of an instrument, my Larrivee acoustic.  She said, I hope that ends your mid life crisis and I replied, not even close.  There are more where this came from.  I guess I just decided that I needed to live for the things that I love.
 
I am actually pretty content with the 2 electrics,  1 acoustic and the Rick bass that I have.  I can't play much more than that anyway.  The only missing element for me these days might be to get either another Strat or Tellie, to round out the spectrum.  These days, I usually trade one, to buy another.  Kind of keep the herd manageable. 

A good friend of mine summed it up very nicely. I asked him why he never kept a guitar and kept flipping them, often at a loss. He said that there's so many cool guitars he could never own them all, but he could own them all for a while. I have to confess that I was a bit wounded when he did the same with custom amps he had me build him. It's funny when you make something specifically for one person. There's a ton of talk, constant updates and eventually they get it and claim it's the finest they ever owned. When they off it 6 months later you assume that it's because there was something wrong with it and you feel bad.
 
All possessions are transitory. Good ones get passed along and junk gets thrown in a tip. I think that's why vintage instruments are so cool. They have stories, and the people that play them all add something. I have a 1932 Gibson L00 and it's amazing. It's falling apart but has the greatest tone. I'm taking it in for a rebuild in the fall but won't be having any finish work done. I just want to make sure it won't implode when I wind it up.
 
I wish it was easier to post pictures. I have over 5,000 on my computer and at least 30% are of gear.

Yeah, the custom stuff (like the Marshall '79 JMP head modded by Mike Soldano and the guitar Space Cowboy has) along with the extremely hard to find stuff are the most difficult to let go.  Especially when you take into consideration that I got about $13k for about $80k worth of gear!
 
But that's ok.  I'm holding on to my copy of SONAR Producer v4.0!

It's one thing to have an instrument that one loves and had to give it up for financial reasons or
it was destroyed/stolen or something happened to it beyond ones control.
I understand Craig but I don't think it has to be a unique item. One can love their instrument for many personal reasons.
 
I've never had those reasons but would understand someone missing something for those reasons.
 
If one sells one to make a profit and later regrets and misses it...?... probably best not to talk about it I think.
If one sells it or trade-off for a different guitar and later regrets and misses it..?..again, probably best to mark it up and try to learn from the mistake.
 
Mike I can unfortunately relate to and understand the "crisis". The value of material objects is truely known when one suffers the loss of those closest to them.
In the late '80s I sold out everything. Walked away from a life, hometown, friends and everything to move my family away...away from it all and no guitar, amp or anything else I'd ever bought meant a thing. The only thing that mattered was having my family close to me and as far away from "that life" as I could get them. As you, music was dead. If a radio was on I didn't hear it. I didn't play for ten years...dropped the one thing that was as much a part of me as breathing. For the things that happened under my control I have not one regret and miss absolutely nothing. There are friends that I miss but that's life.
 
IF there were a guitar I missed I'd want to know exactly why I missed it.
The reasons are important to me. They will give me insight to the instrument or myself. Either will be
a "gain" should I find the truth.
If the reasons are details of the instrument I'd be in luck. More than likely I could find one that would
fill that particular and probably better and at the least, as good. And if it couldn't be found...well it could probably be built.
"Memory" is a funny thing. I can easily see one missing an instrument from a time long gone and if they
had that exact instrument today...something has changed...it's just not the same. Nothing remains the same.
Then there is always the fact that people just want what they can't have and if they get it there is limited satisfaction and they're on to something else.
 
I don't miss the scale-length of the LPs I owned and don't care for it on the LP I currently own. - something I learned about the guitar and myself.
I don't miss the amps. They're more choices now and probably better made but I have no use for earsplittinloudandboomer.
 
What I miss are the good times with some great musicians. I know it was part of times in my life that
have come and gone. The world was different so it is history never to be repeated...unlike a guitar or amp that is being made in more ways by more people than I can imagine. Both can be improved and I can benefit from new ideas and ways of construction - material choices and designs...the rest? I have the memories and sure glad about that but with instruments...I'm not missing or regretting the past but hopefully learning by it. I know they could sell LPs for cereal boxtops and they'd still feel like a toy to me. Now that is what's important. Knowing ones "truth". If ones truth is "money" and what they may be able to buy and sell one for...well I truthfully don't have anything to talk to them about when it comes to guitars.
 
See what happens when I get put on hold waiting for guitar parts? LOL
( and waiting for a recording host that doesn't give me fits causing me to throw computers in the trash
yeah I can't slammin Cake but I see it as they deserve it. No different than building a guitar with a Z in the neck IMO)
 
If one pays X amount for a guitar- take 1/3 of that and ask yourself; did it really cost that just to build it?
If you paid over $3,600.00 and think the answer is yes...IMO it's time to learn more about what one is
exactly paying for and if those reasons are worth the extra cash.
No offense meant either...if "look at what I got" is the reason that's fine by me. Knowing the reason is what's important after all.