Hindsight is always 20/20... If I'd kept all this and lugged it around with me for 30 years it's probably worth around $150K today...
1954 Stratocaster, ser. no. 1012
- Bought it from Charly Wirz in 1981 for $1100, threw in the '54 Champ Amp below; hated the baseball bat neck on that thing but it sure sounded great. Playing in a bar and a guy offered me $3000 around 6 months later, grabbed that cash fast, but about 1-2 years later the Japanese started collecting them and ran the prices to 5-6 figures
1957 Stratocaster
- Bought in a pawn shop in a bad part of Dallas for I think around $150 in 1973. Somebody had tried to spray paint it candy apple red over the original burst; stripped it down to bare wood and clearcoated it. Sold it for $300 in 1975 as part of a convoluted deal.
1961-2 Stratocaster
- 3 tone burst with slab rosewood neck, picked it up in '74 from a player that wanted an LP for $250 or 300. Sold it for $350 in 1975 when liquidating gear prior to moving to Germany while in the Army.
1954 Tweed Champ amp
- Included in '54 Strat deal. Some retarded cowboy had pulled off the tweed tolex and recovered it with some weird fabric that had pictures of cowboys on horses on it. Sold it to a friend of mine for $150 in 1981, never really used it.
1958 Tweed Champ amp
- Mint; got it in a deal in 1974 with a '58 MusicMaster in a tweed case for $80 worth of dirt weed. Never used it much, sold it for $75 a few months later
1968 Tele
- Bought it off this English guy while in the Army in Germany in 1977 for $300. Quit using it after I stopped playing in this R&B band about a year later, sold it for about the same amount, can't remember
1962 SG Special
- Cherry red version; bought it in a pawn shop in Dallas for $175 in 1973. Traded it as part of a deal for a Shure Vocal Master PA system the next year.
1972 SG Custom w/Bigsby
- Bought it in a pawn shop in San Francisco for $250 in 1974, sold it for I think $350 in '75 when liquidating gear going into Army.
60's Blackface Super Reverb
- My main amp for quite a while, traded the Vibrolux and I think $200 for it in 1973; liquidated it going into Army
60's Blackface Vibrolux
- Girlfriend's brother was hard up for rent and sold it to me for $100 in 1972, traded in for Super Reverb
1962/3 Fender Bassman + 2x12 cabinet, white Tolex model
- Hard luck musician in Dallas sold this to me in 1982 for $450. Resold it a couple of years later for $600.
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