My first JCM 900 4102 combo is coming home.
I’m going to pick it up tomorrow afternoon. I bought it new in 1992. I had it until 2014. I didn’t know it at the time but my head wasn’t working straight at all. July of ‘16 I had a massive mental and physical breakdown, and ended up in the hospital for a couple weeks. That was followed by a long and really messy recovery. It stemmed from undiagnosed mental health issues I’d had my whole life, but looking back now I can see that I really started to nose-dive HARD around mid ‘14.
Anyhow, one of the things I did then was begin divesting myself of stuff I’d treasured forever, with no explanation. A friend mentioned he loved the amp, and I had two of them, so I sold it to him dirt cheap. Even though it was my favorite amp. He kept it for a while, then sold it on. It was lost track of for a bit, but for the last couple years has lived with my buddy a couple of suburbs away.
During my recovery period after the breakdown, my physical health seriously declined. I had to sell the second one because I wasn’t physically capable of moving it. The guy who bought it had to come to my house and drag it out of my basement because I couldn’t even lift it. I sold a lot more stuff then and went totally ultra-light with everything from guitar amps to PA gear, because I honestly did not believe I would ever be “me” again and be able to move the stuff.
More and more things got figured out with my health, and today I’m happy to say I’m finally in better shape mentally than I’ve probably ever been in my life. And while I’m not in the best shape I’ve ever been in physically, I’m light years beyond where I was from ‘16-‘20. I can definitely carry and move heavy gear and play all night standing up like I used to. It’s not even hard. It makes me really happy, because a few short years ago I didn’t think I would ever be able to do it again.
I have a lot of very deep regret about things I did when I was seriously starting to decline. A lot. Even though I know it wasn’t exactly my fault, I’m still the guy who made the awful decisions. One of which was letting my 4102 that I owned for more than 20 years go away for no good reason at all.
But, they say all is well that ends well. I contacted my friend who has the amp today, to see if there was any possibility of ever getting it back. He told me he only bought it and held onto it a couple years back because he knew it was mine, and that I would eventually want it back. He wanted me to be able find it easily when that day came.
So we made a deal, and my old Marshall will be coming home to stay. I’m not looking forward to carrying it around, as it outweighs a Twin Reverb by easily 10-15 pounds, but I am looking forward to hearing it behind me again.
I’m going to pick it up tomorrow afternoon. I bought it new in 1992. I had it until 2014. I didn’t know it at the time but my head wasn’t working straight at all. July of ‘16 I had a massive mental and physical breakdown, and ended up in the hospital for a couple weeks. That was followed by a long and really messy recovery. It stemmed from undiagnosed mental health issues I’d had my whole life, but looking back now I can see that I really started to nose-dive HARD around mid ‘14.
Anyhow, one of the things I did then was begin divesting myself of stuff I’d treasured forever, with no explanation. A friend mentioned he loved the amp, and I had two of them, so I sold it to him dirt cheap. Even though it was my favorite amp. He kept it for a while, then sold it on. It was lost track of for a bit, but for the last couple years has lived with my buddy a couple of suburbs away.
During my recovery period after the breakdown, my physical health seriously declined. I had to sell the second one because I wasn’t physically capable of moving it. The guy who bought it had to come to my house and drag it out of my basement because I couldn’t even lift it. I sold a lot more stuff then and went totally ultra-light with everything from guitar amps to PA gear, because I honestly did not believe I would ever be “me” again and be able to move the stuff.
More and more things got figured out with my health, and today I’m happy to say I’m finally in better shape mentally than I’ve probably ever been in my life. And while I’m not in the best shape I’ve ever been in physically, I’m light years beyond where I was from ‘16-‘20. I can definitely carry and move heavy gear and play all night standing up like I used to. It’s not even hard. It makes me really happy, because a few short years ago I didn’t think I would ever be able to do it again.
I have a lot of very deep regret about things I did when I was seriously starting to decline. A lot. Even though I know it wasn’t exactly my fault, I’m still the guy who made the awful decisions. One of which was letting my 4102 that I owned for more than 20 years go away for no good reason at all.
But, they say all is well that ends well. I contacted my friend who has the amp today, to see if there was any possibility of ever getting it back. He told me he only bought it and held onto it a couple years back because he knew it was mine, and that I would eventually want it back. He wanted me to be able find it easily when that day came.
So we made a deal, and my old Marshall will be coming home to stay. I’m not looking forward to carrying it around, as it outweighs a Twin Reverb by easily 10-15 pounds, but I am looking forward to hearing it behind me again.
.
