What's your experience with impossible-to-find gear?

shemihazazel

shemihazazel

Fractal Fanatic
My go-to instrument is the Gibson BFG silverburst in my profile pick. In the last couple months I've been digging around online for a second one I can keep around as a backup, but I cannot find them anywhere. Not on ebay, reverb, craigslist etc. I think Gibson only made a couple hundred of them in that finish, so I'm not surprised they're so hard to come by. But goddamn!

Anyone else care to share their own impossible-to-find gear experiences?
 
In the 80's it was trying to find a Fender Strat with a big CBS headstock. Quite common nowadays, but back then next to impossible to find as Fender had completely discontinued any guitar with that headstock. Probably to disassociate themselves with their poor quality record of the 70's. Ordering them through a music store only produced a standard Strat with that standard headstock. Throughout the Netherlands I journeyed far and wide back then to visit music stores to see if they had one. From 1987 to 1992 (I think), I found only three of them. One a vintage hard tail, the other two were MIJ Strats, which I both bought, and still own one of them. Unfortunately I lost the other, or it was stolen. :(

Was there other rare impossible rare gear that I lusted after? Probably, but I reckon 99% of it was more out of my budget then actually impossible to find. But back then those Strats really were impossible to find.
 
My only experience with rare gear is that I only found it when I wasn't looking specifically for that item. I saw some videos of the original ADA flanger pedal and thought it was really awesome but couldn't find one online. Years later I just stumbled on one for sale locally. Another time, I saw a strange guitar on craigslist, an Ibanez 442R. I did a little research and found it was only made for one year so I snatched it up.

Actually, I only found those items because I constantly keep an eye out on the local craigslist for any cool stuff. So your best bet is probably just keep an eye out at all times.
 
Gear is only rare when I'm looking for it, and I'll have to pay top dollar when I find it. I'll find more cheaper after I've bought mine.

Seriously though, I think a lot of gear sits around, but people never post it for sale. I've bought a handful of rare items/vehicles in the past by posting wanted ads on select forums. The right person sees it, and PMs you, and all is good in the world. It's worked out pretty well in the past.
 
The best story is a metal flake tiger stripe flying V built by GMP that I saw in someone's NAMM show pics some years ago. So far as I know there's only one and it was love at first sight. I didn't really bother to look for it as the odds of me stumbling across it would have pretty much been zero.

Randomly out of the blue I one day got a call from hippietim, who I've never met in real life and who had no idea I really wanted that particular guitar, "Dude, guess what I'm holding. Let me buy it and send it to you. You really need this." Yes, yes I did really need that. What are the odds, right?

But wait there's more: a couple of years later I got a message from a guy who'd seen a pic online and told me about ordering the guitar, falling on hard times and having to sell it. He said it was his favorite guitar and he'd love to buy it back. Given that the name, address, phone number, store & price he gave me matched the original receipt which was still in the case I could hardly turn him down so I sent it home for what I had in it.

Honorable mention: I tried to order a Washburn EC-36 in, IIRC, the very late 80s only to find out that they'd just stopped production and none were available. A year or so ago I finally acquired a really nice one that looks like it has never been played.
 
I always wanted one of those late 90’s Schecter Avenger 7 strings, from when they first started making them in South Korea. A friend had one in college he bought for almost nothing off craigslist, and it was such a great sounding guitar. It also weighed a ton and the shape wasn’t ergonomic at all, but man, that sound.

Problem was, I’m left handed and while I knew they made some lefties, I never saw one for sale. Fast forward a few years, I find one on eBay in Australia, and true to 90’s schecters it’s selling for almost nothing. Only lefty I’ve ever seen for sale, so I talk to the seller to make sure he’ll ship it half way around the world, and I buy it.

Good thing i got it, as it’s one of my best sounding guitars (and also one of my cheapest which is kind of annoying) and I’ve never seen another lefty one for sale since.
 
I looked for an original Mesa Mark IIC+ 60w combo with EQ for YEARS. They would come and go on Ebay, but I was hesitant to purchase such an expensive and fragile piece of gear sight unseen. Even then they would come up and poof, gone within hours usually. I watched craigslist every day in my city. Finally, one came up locally, but the guy was looking to TRADE for it (which drives me nuts). I literally offered him every piece of gear I owned in trade, or alternatively cash if he wanted. We ended up doing an even trade for an ES-335. This was about 10 years ago.

It was my most treasured piece of gear for a long time. The problem is that it is so rare and hard to replace, I didn't want to play out with it. I originally ended up buying an Axe FX III so that I could have something "replaceable" to take with me to practice. What is really interesting, now that I have the Axe Fx III, that thing has been sitting untouched in its hard case for weeks! I imagine reading all these threads my story isn't all that unique however...

I hope you find your BFG backup!
 
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