What Is The Best $100 You Ever Spent

This, in kit form.

 

In 1998:
$99 for a 70’s Mustang Bass that I sold that afternoon for $450. My wife was so happy when I gave her that $100 profit I made...

 

Tried to think of something more clever - and not gear - but I think it was a used USA Pro Junior from New York Music in Youngstown, in the late 90s, for $99. It was the tweed/Jensen version and my first tube amp.

I was in High School and we used it to play bad Dead Milkmen covers at the VFW. Still awesome though, learned me that a good amp can be played just like a guitar.

 

I forgot that I lended a good friend $50.00 who was down on his luck and he gave me, as collateral, an old Gibson lap steel guitar. A couple of failed attempts to learn it and I put it away.
30 years later I learn it’s a 1947 BR9 (student model). The pickup has a tortoise shell bobbin that I’ve been told would make a great shadow box piece.
Some day I’ll make it a showpiece but for now it’s living in an original cardboard case in my office closet

 

That looks interesting. I like how the boost is sectioned off into its own little area.

 

Here are several of my best $100ish I ever spent. Other than the Champ, all the rest are fairly recent.

$59.95 - '74 Fender Jazz Bass
$80 - '75 SF Fender Champ
$92.38 - '88 Carvin DC 127
$100 - '09 Fender Highway 1 Honey Blonde Tele
$115 - '96 MIJ Fender Jagstang
$115 - '90 MIJ Fender P-Bass

 

In terms of music gear..... I really did buy a $50 1950's Les Paul when I was a teenager. My friend realized what it was and helped me to sell it to Gruhn Guitars. I wish I had kept it of course, but that sale kept a roof over my head at a really tough time in my life. That check allowed me to stay in school, and develop a career that I love. So yeah, best $100 I spent.

 

Many, many years ago, before I met Mrs. Steerforth, I was involved for a time with a woman who seemed to thrive on conflict.

One morning I got up and she immediately began trying to provoke an argument. I don’t like arguments, I see them as a waste of time and energy. I therefore refused to be provoked, much to her chagrin.

Nevertheless, she continued trying. When it became apparent that she had no intention of ceasing fire that day, I pulled out my wallet removed a hundred bucks and held it out to her and said, “Why don’t you go do some shopping? It will make you feel better. Make a day of it. Take your time. There’s nothing going on. Have fun!”

Back then, you could buy a lot for a hundred bucks. It was enough for a nice shopping trip. Her eyes lit up, she took the money, and even seemed slightly remorseful about giving me such a hard time. She left and indeed made a day of it.

Meanwhile, I enjoyed a peaceful day of relaxation and fun.

I had such a fine day in fact, that shortly thereafter I made her absence a permanent feature in my life.

Best hundred bucks I ever spent.

 

I got a gig once. I didn’t know how long I’d do it, but figured it was fun, and REALLY good money, I’d see how long it lasted.

After the first couple shows, I found myself wishing I had a strat. I thought it would fit the gig super well. So I went up to GC to see what they had on the used wall. There was a metallic blue HSS strat tagged $110. I thought it must be a squier but as I got closer to it, nope. MIM. Pulled it down and played it, and it played well enough. Nothing special, but functional.

Plugged it in and it sounded fine. Again, nothing special, but everything worked. I thought it couldn’t possibly be tagged correctly, so I flagged down a sales guy. He checked it against the computer and said “yep. That’s the price. It’s got a case with it, too.” I figured it would be a crappy gig bag, but who cares? Right?

Guy goes in the back and comes out with a beautiful G&G tweed case.

So I bought an MIM standard HSS, with a G&G hard shell, for $110. I played it on that job several nights a week for a hair over a year, and made a really nice pile of money. At the end of the gig, I sold it to a buddy for $200. I still have the case.

That’s the best *sorta* $100 story I can think of at the moment.

 

I picked up two fire tv sticks for $29 a piece on a black Friday sale. Love how they work and loved cutting the cable!

 

I dunno about $100, but the best $1.49 I ever spent was on some dental-type picks from the bargain bin at ACE Hardware. Use em ALL the time!

 

Some new underwear and Carhartt t-shirts. I'm good for another five years.

 

Off the top of my head as I'm brushing my teeth...

There were several years where I didn't play guitar anymore. I had a couple, but they were somehow tied to bad memories and sadness from when I had to quit (for various reasons). Saw a Squier Affinity starter pack someone was selling used on CL for $75. Bought it on a whim, figuring I could flip it. Played the absolute crap out of it instead. Put a $50 loaded H-H pickguard on it, played the absolute crap out of it even harder. Got super interested in guitar again. Bought a bunch more of those cheapie Affinities and modded them. Then sold them all off and bought nicer guitars. When I bought the first Affinity I had 4 guitars. Now I'm up to like a dozen.

Bought a Vox AC-15 for $217 from a guy on CL.

Bought a Marshall 4010 for $800. It sounds amazing, but it's dang loud!

Traded in $150-worth of musical gear and got a $450 discount on a brand new Fender Rumble 500 bass amp from GC.

Bought a small tube amp (Sundown/Moog Rocky S25) from a guy on CL. I think I paid $175 for it. We got to talking about amps and electronics and tinkering on stuff. Then he later worked on another amp that I had, then figured out some ebay basket case I bought, built a cabinet for it, fixed a couple more amps, sold me another amp, helped me move an organ, accompanied me to hamfests, drank beers with me and has invited me out to lunch a couple times with his family. He's a really cool guy and has been somewhat of a mentor to me when it comes to tinkering on electronics or programming languages. Whether he realizes it or not.


I'll think of more tomorrow, but befriending the guy in the last one is something I really cherish. Not for all the free repairs and cabinet work, but because he's such a neat guy. We haven't hung out for about a year now (due to covid) but we email each other weekly.

 

Walked down, but took the donkey ride up out of the Grand Canyon

 

Well, there was this one night in Manila...

 

Guitar wise, I bought an Epiphone ET-290 for $95 back in like 1987. It was actually an awesome sounding guitar. My little brother has it now. I can't get him to sell it back to me.

Non-guitar, it was the $10 I spent for a stuffed tiger for my daughter at our local zoo when she was 5. She had missed her school day at the zoo due to having chicken pox, so I had taken a day off work so we could go. She was inseparable from that tiger for at least 10 years, and at 28 she still has it.

 

Down payment on my Rolex Watch in 1983. I'm still wearing it.

 

When I was a kid, we paid $10 for a puppy. Pure mutt. Whip smart. Healthy as can be.

 

That's $450

Stay on topic please.

 

The laptop that I'm typing this on, a 2009 MacBook Pro 15" that I bought used from a friend about 5-6 years ago, $100, still workin' like a charm (despite that the screen is almost broken off at the hinges from my son walking on it in the night.)