Your best gear trades

[Tim Plains]

Which trades worked out best for you, be it financially or the new gear was more to your liking? Trades with or without cash only. Selling something to buy something else doesn't count.

1. Tone King Imperial traded for a Tungsten Crema Wheat, w/cover, plus $100. The CW is just more my style, more usable, and I ended up selling several other amps after acquiring the CW as it does it all for me. Playing home alone, or with a band, it's my amp of choice.

2. Swart MKII head/cab w/1-12" Celestion Gold plus $750 traded for this 2013 R8. I wasn't using the Swart much since getting the CW (great amp, though) and the R8 came up locally looking for boutique amp trades. We went back & forth a few times before agreeing on a price. A bit hefty at 9.2 lbs but I simply love this thing. Awesome neck, sounds great, and the body resonates near the input jack when you pluck the B string.

 

[Crotch]

I once traded my Robbie Krieger LA Woman aged custom for a Krieger SG VOS, new Clapton CS Strat, and aged Gilmour Strat. And it was a complete shot in the dark. I noticed the seller {it was on eBay} was the same on the guitars so just reached out and asked him. He only lived 1 state over and it worked out

 

[Tim Plains]

Wow, that's incredible.

 

[NotScott]

I don't trade much but the one that I did that made me very happy was trading my Suhr PT-100 head for a Carol-Ann Trip-r head and some NOS tubes. The PT had a great clean channel but the gain channels always sounded like a fuzzbox was on. It also had to be cranked to ungodly levels that I couldn't even gig with before it started to sound great.

The Trip-r sounded and felt more like what I wanted. The gain channels felt right and sounded natural at any level and the clean channel was one of the best I had ever heard. After talking to Alan Philips, the man behind Carol-Ann, about some additional features I wanted on the amp, I sent it to him for the upgrade to the Tucana 3r model. The Tucana is now one of my favorite all-time amps.

 

[cherrysunburst00]

I never do well with haggling, and I've never traded, but HOT DAMN, that's a beautiful R8!

 

[artis_xe]

not really a trade

but I fell upon a 1956 Fender Champ when I started playing ( about 5 years ago ) . I went to a sale at an old schoolhouse , that was clearing out everything __ from desks to doors

there was some equipment in the music room , including an old amplifier . when I asked a person in charge of the sale " how much ? " __ he responded , by telling me " you don't want that old thing . I'm not even sure that it works . how about $50 ? " . so I took a chance , hoping that it was something that could be repaired . but I found out , that it worked fine

a few months later , I took it over to a friend's house , that was teaching me how to play . I was actually very embarrassed to bring this old thing to his place . well . his jaw dropped when he saw it . I had no idea what it was , but he explained that he was looking for one in good condition for years . he offered me $1200 on the spot __ plus some free lessons . I took it , and bought another tube amp

I found out a few months later that I could have gotten a better price . but still . turning $50 in $1200 + some free lessons . one of the best deals I ever made . the more that I know now , sometimes I do regret it . oh well . . .

 

[Texsunburst59]

My 2 best trades/barter are my '70 Gibson ES-335, and my '75 Fender Strat and my '83 Mesa Boogie MkIIC loaded head.

About 5 yrs. ago I traded insulated glass and labor to install 3 the 3 pieces of glass for my '70 335.

The glass cost me $165 + 1 hr. of my own time to install the glass. (I'm a salesman for a Glass Company)

I traded a '11 Fender Blonde Telecaster for my '75 Fender Mocha Strat. I was an even trade.

I traded a repro Fender Vibroverb for the '83 Boogie head.

Here are my 3 best trades ever:

My '70 335 is in the middle:

My '75 Mocha Strat :

'83 Boogie MKIIC loaded head in the middle:

 

[redjunior]

My best was trading a bit of computer work for a first gen Peavey Classic Thirty....
American made, just took a bit of tweaking and it sounds great.

 

[Uncle Remus]

I bought an Ibanez Iceman for $75. Cleaned it up and set it up nice. Traded it for a 3 month old Gibson firebird. Best gear trade evah!

 

[James R]

I haven’t done a lot of trading, but the one I liked the best was me trading an Orange TT Combo for a ~1958 Supro tube amp.
I don’t even know the model, but it’s just got a great sound.

 

[Petergrifindor]

A common card with a hand drawing of the ilustrator in the back for a Beta Black Lotus.

 

[Mini Forklift Ⓥ]

I traded in my Ceriatone 100w ‘Steel String Singer’ for a 1990 Marshall JTM45 plus $2k cash.