What was the best investment you've ever made on gear?

Probably the old 59 LP I bought way back in the day. I bought it in San Diego county at a garage sale in 1980 IIRC. The guy who originally owned it died in a car crash and his brother was selling off a gigantic amount of gear to pay for expenses. And he was letting stuff go for short money. I guess he didn't care what some of that stuff was worth. If you can believe it, I only paid 500 bucks for it.

Fast forward a couple years, and my mom passed away from cancer. I offered to sell that Gibby to help with expenses from that, but he said no way. He would make do somehow. Fast forward a few more years, and my dad passed away from a heart attack after an extended illness. Now, I HAD to sell the Gibby because there was no money left after paying most of the hospital bills.

I ended up selling it for 8500 in 1989. Handsome profit to be sure, but I had to pay 7900 out of it to close out various expenses. I wonder what it could be worth today. Probably at least 5 or 6 figures if I had to guess.
 
Best is a Squier 50's strat. I know even the CV series can sometime even be hit or miss, but i picked up a great one. Swapped out the bridge for a Fender one with full sized sustain block and now the guitar is one of my best strats.

Worst? A Taylor Solidbody Walnut Custom. It looked cool... that's about it. Fit and finish were great, but I couldn't get used to it. The sounds coming from it were OK, not amazing, and i quickly went back to my LP.
 
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I thought $350 shipped for my Peavey was pretty good (see below). The Concert I got in part payment of a bill is pretty sweet too, but given how much I was owed, can't say that is best bang for the buck. And my used strat is a darned nice guitar that I got for very little.

So, I am going to say either my used 2006 MIM 60th Ann. Strat,

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And this amp.

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My modded CV tele is a favorite guitar right now, but the strat's neck feels just that much nicer, and got me hooked in the first place. First love kind of thing.
 
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I purchased a red explorer in 1983..... Mostly because it was "83" and it was a red pointy guitar....... Little did I understand then.... A 1983 candy apple red korina explorer would sound so good decades later.... The Tim Shaw pups still hummmmmmm
 
Come to think of it my MIM Jimmy Vaughn Strat may be one of the best investments. Got it in trade for a Charvel Model 2 that I had bought for $110 bucks on Ebay, put a used EMG 81 I had lying around in, and had set up. That was a pretty sweet guitar but the JV strat is a great player, really versatile, and frankly worth more.
 
Best is my G&L Tele - a marriage 20 plus years strong.

Ibanez Sabre - could never bond with the guitar even after changing pickups.
 
Probably the Twin Reverb that I bought from a friend of mine back in '85 or so for $150. I still have it, and still use it even though it's overkill for pretty much everything, weighs a ton and is built like a tank. Still, there's something to be said for 100 watts of tube driven overkill...
 
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Tough choice but the best investment would have to be my Yamaha Pacifica 812s. Picked it up for £199 at a guitar show back in 1995. I believe the original street price was £799 which dropped fairly quickly to £499 from memory. Yamaha then discontinued the model and I got it on clearout. Extremely versatile and still going strong 19 years later.

Worst is easy, an Encore Electro Acoustic I was "mis-sold" at the local music shop not long after I'd started playing. Didn't know enough to realise that the neck joint repair that had been done on it was next to useless, and the salesman wasn't kind enough to mention it (tw*t). It was basically unplayable in a couple of months so I ended up doing a Pete Townsend on it a year or so later after stripping all the bits of it that might have some use like the tuners, strap buttons, etc.
 
dmc69 said:
Best is a Squier 50's strat. I know even the CV series can sometime even be hit or miss, but i picked up a great one. Swapped out the bridge for a Fender one with full sized sustain block and now the guitar is one of my best strats.
Click to expand...

Yep, I replaced the block on mine with a $25 brass one from GuitarFetish. It makes a noticeable difference in sustain.
 
Well, I could say the Mesa Studio preamp (steal of a deal and it's been a solid performer for over 20 years on various regimes but you have to use the recording outs to get the magic of the sound) or the VG-99 (but that was a gift to me so I didn't really buy it).

And I have some great deals but investment wise? Well none of them are great investments but one sticks out in my mind where a minute after playing it I caught myself saying "Oh $h1t, I'm buying this."

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It really sings but it's heavy as a rock.

I've got other great guitars but that thing is the kind of guitar that just....changes the way you play.
 
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