Best gear bargain/find you've had?

When I told someone that the Altec 1567A's they had laying around might be valuable and that they should look into it, they said I could have one. I wish I had offered him some cash for all of them.

(8) Quad Eight CA-727 dual preamps (16 channels) in a rack for $100.
RCA BA-21A for $25.
(3) RCA BA-33B's with shelf and trays for $25.
Ecoplate for $300.
Plenty of other 'estate sale' type finds over the years.

Blue strip 1176 for $1000 a few years back, sold it and bought an engagement ring.

Working RCA BA-25 and RCA 86A for $425.

#1, I was just 16 years old, and played a weekend gig at The Gaslight, a cafe` in NY's Greenwich Village where many great stars once played, Dylan, Hendrix, and most of the greats of 60's folk scene. My very popular band (in Brooklyn, we were big fish in a small pond), played a Friday and Saturday. We packed the place like it was the second coming, folks drank like fish. We had a $5 a head for us $5 for the club arrangement, and they kept the bar. For a faded, jaded dump on its last legs, that could barely put ten people there on a Saturday night, they made a killing.

I came in the next day to collect our money, and they kept putting me off, next day, same thing, next day, etc. Finally I got really pissed and said, "you're never going today me are you". I was contemplating doing things I don't even want to mention. For some reason, the management there were connected to the Allman Brothers, and all their equipment was laying on the floor, withe the big white roadie lettering. This was the gear they'd used for their classic Live at the Fillmore shows.

I picked up a Marshall 100 head, and said "I'll take this instead", and from their office, they nodded OK, and waved me out. I split a fast as I could. So, I now had either Dickie Betts' or Duane Allman's Marshall 100. It was by far, the best sounding amp I've ever used, touch sensitivity like nothing else. So, I got it for nothing, or my band's share of the door, depending how you see it. I would still have it, but it was stolen from me a year later.

#2, At 14, I delivered pizza's as a summer job to save up to buy my first electric guitar. At the end of the summer, I'd saved all I could, and went to 48th St. in Manhattan, where the music stores were. I went to a shop where guitar maker Carlo Greco was, and bought one of his guitars. It was a 335 style cutaway that cost $440, an awful lot of cash if you do the inflation equation. I brought it home, leaned it against a wall, ran into the living room to tell my mother "come see what I've got", and heard a bone chilling KABONG, and there was my guitar on the floor, neck broken off. I tried to repair, but it wasn't tuning.

A few weeks later, my buddy sold me his guitar to buy another one. He sold it to me for $25. It was a blue, three white pickup Gibson Melody Maker. It was basically an SG with different pickups. That thing was a monster, sounded like a bad ass Tele, and I played it for years before upgrading to a Les Paul Jr. double cutaway 1961.

'72 Ampeg V4-B with a gutted V-2 4x12 cab for $50!

The head didn't have tubes, and there was a burned mark on the pcb. $400 latter I had a killer bass rig.

I got a free DX7 MK1 with a loose key and a pad power lead for fixing a friend's solid state Fender amp. I love that thing, really had an impact on me, musically. I'll never forget sitting down with a good friend, soldering in the new cord, and then just being blown away by this alien synthesis technology. Wait a minute the envelopes are full at 0 and off at 127? Carriers and modulators? Sine waves only? Archaic key commands, etc. Sounds so beautiful.

I got some free mics on gearslutz for being a heavy poster. I modded one, and gave them to a friend in exchange for a free vintage '60s Ludwig Pioneer 5x14 snare drum in silver sparkle, and a Pearl Eliminator kick pedal that merely needed a new wing bolt (a $5 part).

Gearslutz also gave me Fabfilter Pro-L for free for being a long term member. I use that plugin on every mix.

Those are the best deals to me, free or goodwill. I also got this really funky Viet Hong guitar from Goodwill for $20 and people are always trying to buy it from me when they see it on the wall. I say "no" and then pretend to be Robert Johnson. I've only recorded it once, I put a lipstick pickup in the sound hole, so it's got a cool tone through an amp.

I also got good deals on my Yamaha CP33 piano and Epiphone Hummingbird Pro which had suffered some bad shipping injuries which I was able to completely fix and save several hundred dollars.

I've gotten some pretty good pedal deals over the years too, like an Analogman modified TS9DX for $60, a $30 Turbo Rat, etc. You can really snipe those things sometimes.

I paid $150 for a Supro Lexington guitar, which is probably worth $500-700 now, probably because of 15 years of Jack White's influence.

Looking back, I really should have hung onto some more of those oddball guitars I used to collect. I had some weird and rare stuff in the early 2000s. Probably should have picked up even more vintage amps, before the vintage bubble got too big. I just want to pretend to be Josh Homme with these weird little combos and stuff. I guess my Champs and Silvertone get close enough.