The guitar, bass, drumset you've always wanted until you actually played it.

Any Schecter guitar, the mile-wide C shaped necks don't belong on a super-strat.

Also the Ibby RGA7. Even though I was aware that the pickups were shit before i bought it, they have a history of being nearly unplayable out of the factory, and I still can't get mine to play well fret buzz everywhere no matter how high the action is. Love the neck though.

Here's one on the reverse... picked up a Squier Classic Vibe tele expecting what the 350 dollar price tag would have suggested, but it plays better than any "Fender" I've played. Best guitar purchase for the money that I've made.
 
Here's one on the reverse... picked up a Squier Classic Vibe tele expecting what the price tag would have suggested, but it plays better than any "Fender" I've played. Best guitar purchase for the money that I've made.

I have a Classic Vibe Strat . It is fantastic.
 
Only impulse buy I ever regretted was a used Blackstar HT Dual. It sounded dreadful, horrible, like a fucking bee hive full of shit and dying hives. Never had a problem with a guitar or an amp. I find telecaster necks uncomfortable but I still want one. I had a Rocktron Chameleon that I paid a fortune when they just came out but was too stupid to dial a descent tone at the time.

Oh man I got a Blackstar HT DistX and it was fucking awful! I still want to give their amps a go but those HT pedals are not good.
 
I had a custom drum builder build me a 14" x 6.5" maple snare from the ground up, spent over $300 on it. I played it for years and years hoping that one day I would find the magic formula to make it sound good but it never really has. I've since retired it. It has lots of body, but no top end, and does not cut through well in a metal/rock setting. I get better results with my 14" x 5" tama rockstar steel snare, or my 13" x 6" pearl jordison snare.
 
I had a custom drum builder build me a 14" x 6.5" maple snare from the ground up, spent over $300 on it. I played it for years and years hoping that one day I would find the magic formula to make it sound good but it never really has. I've since retired it. It has lots of body, but no top end, and does not cut through well in a metal/rock setting. I get better results with my 14" x 5" tama rockstar steel snare, or my 13" x 6" pearl jordison snare.

This is why I've always been hesitant to buy a custom drum/set. No way to play it before hand, and you're pretty much stuck with it in the end, if you don't end up liking it. Can't justify spending $400+ on a custom snare and have no idea how it's going to sound in the end...

Still, I'd be intrigued to try it out, if you wanna sell it at a decent price :p
 
Always wanted a rickenbacker.
Got one (a 620) but sold it on.
The neck was very thick and round.
It sounded beautiful when it was right for a song but had a very particular sound.
Clients very rarely used it in the studio, usually preferring my American DLX Tele.
I would have liked to have kept it but it was an expensive guitar to have lying around for occasional use.
I bought my ESP M1 NTB with the money I got for it.
The M1 is used a lot so I'm happy.

Stingray.
Got a good deal on a used Stingray.
I then got an American P Bass thinking it would be great to have the 2 for options.
The P Bass murdered the Stingray in a mix so it is now gone.

Warwick Corvette $$ double pickup.
Same story as above.
Got a good deal on it so thought it would be a good option.
Had that horrible Warwick mid range with not much low end punch.
P bass murdered it too so thats gone too.

I got an American Jackson JJ bass for a steal second hand.
Very like a stingray but much better sounding IMO.
I will keep the Jackson.

Pearl Masters.
I used to own a musical instrument shop and could order things and just sell them in the shop if I didn't like them.
Got a Pearl Masters to use as a studio kit.
No matter what I did the toms would hum every time the kick or another tom was hit.
I have since found this is the case with every Masters I have recorded.
Got rid of that and got a Sonor S Class which I still have 12 years later.
Amazing kit.

H&K Triamp 2.
I got this trade price through my shop to use as the ultimate studio amp.
It still cost a lot of money, even at trade price.
It does lots of sounds reasonably well but there are better alternatives for each sound.
It does clean, crunch and lead in one amp better than anything else I have heard (except maybe my mesa MK4) and if I was gigging it would be the amp I would bring.
I could have got 2 to 3 really good second hand amps for the price I paid.
I regularly think about selling it but it looks so great and occasionally it is the perfect sound for a song.

Audix i5
Initially I liked it but have never picked it over my other mics for tracking guitars.
It often gets highly praised but I find it too scooped and fizzy.
It now permanently sits under the snare for snare bottom when tracking.

Universal Audio LA610
When it works, it really works but has so little headroom that I am afraid to track anything dynamic with it in case it clips on a good performance.
It is good on bass or drum room mic but not much else.
I use the compressor on mono vocals in a mix but the preamp part is a disappointment.
I would have preferred a distressor in retrospect.

I will probably think of a few more things and add them later.
 
Always wanted a rickenbacker.
Got one (a 620) but sold it on.
The neck was very thick and round.
It sounded beautiful when it was right for a song but had a very particular sound.
Clients very rarely used it in the studio, usually preferring my American DLX Tele.
I would have liked to have kept it but it was an expensive guitar to have lying around for occasional use.
I bought my ESP M1 NTB with the money I got for it.
The M1 is used a lot so I'm happy.

The Ric won hands down on the talkbass forum, where I got the idea for this thread. There's a sound about the Ric that every bass player knows. You are very right about this bass when it comes to feel. I was a Getty Lee fan and a Cliff Burton fan and they both played Rics. It sucks that I find them so hard to play but I still want one.
 
The Ric won hands down on the talkbass forum, where I got the idea for this thread. There's a sound about the Ric that every bass player knows. You are very right about this bass when it comes to feel. I was a Getty Lee fan and a Cliff Burton fan and they both played Rics. It sucks that I find them so hard to play but I still want one.

I believe the 620 is a guitar, not a bass.
 
When I was a teenager I always wanted a Marshall... So I bought the JCM 900 Dual Reverb Combo...
Sounds like dogshit. I still use it for renting though.
I bought an Aria Cliff burton bass... Wait, I did not regret that. It sounds awesome
 
Pearl Piccolo Snare hands down.

Not that it sounds bad, frankly I love the pop that it has. I NEED my snares to have weight to them. Next snare I bought was a Pearl Maple that's 6.5" deep. Awwww yeahhh. Eh, we're all young and stupid once...
 
Here's one on the reverse... picked up a Squier Classic Vibe tele expecting what the 350 dollar price tag would have suggested, but it plays better than any "Fender" I've played. Best guitar purchase for the money that I've made.

Is it the 50's Classic Vibe with the pine body? If so I have to agree in that it plays much better than the price tag would lead one to believe. While I play my American Standard a bit more, my Classic Vibe 50's gets quite a bit of play time.
 
This is why I've always been hesitant to buy a custom drum/set. No way to play it before hand, and you're pretty much stuck with it in the end, if you don't end up liking it. Can't justify spending $400+ on a custom snare and have no idea how it's going to sound in the end...

Still, I'd be intrigued to try it out, if you wanna sell it at a decent price :p

I don't know if I could part with it just yet. I think we have a special bond now. My band opened with The Haunted with that snare (I probably sounded like ass that night). Its actually the one in my profile pic.