Help Me Find My Guitar

Searching the world for a guitar I sold years ago

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Runnin’ Down A Dream

I’ve been on a break in my search for my old Fender Strat MIM Richie Sambora model in Lake Place blue. Partly because my wife and I went to celebrate Halloween at Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights and then we both got sick, and partly because I’ve exhausted all my leads other than blogging and posting on social media. Looking for this guitar and chasing that nostalgia that I’ve written about before got me thinking about another guitar that I used to have.

It was an ESP Ltd Kirk Hammett KH-25 (yes I know I have a thing for signature models, but more on that later). I had that guitar for a brief period between 2012 and 2014, but ended up selling it to fund something else. That particular model, which celebrates the 25th anniversary of Kirk Hammett of Metallica’s endorsement of ESP is basically the cheap version of the KH-2. Distressed and reliced to reflect the look of Hammett’s actual guitar it also sports the “caution hot” and “Kirks Guitar” decals. I’m usually not one of relic guitars, but as a big fan of Kirk Hammett I think it’s a really unique guitar. It also has a great KH25 inlay at the 12th fret. I started thinking about the possibility of getting that guitar back. Who knows. Maybe it could be an easy win and build some momentum for getting back the strat that I’m really looking for. Isn’t that how detectives operate? Catch the little fish and that will lead to the big fish? I’m not sure if I have this right.

Now the reason it would be easier to track down that guitar is simple. I sold it on eBay and I rarely delete emails. I remembered that the gentleman who bought my guitar was buying it for his son and this was over ten years ago. So I sent a short email that basically went like this: Hey, this might sound kind of crazy, but you bought a guitar from me in 2014 for your son. I was wondering if he still has it and if he has any interest in selling it. I received a brief reply pretty quickly that went something like this: Hey, he still has it and I’ll drop him a note asking if he’s interested in selling. I left it at that.

After all these years, I can assume that since he still has it he probably has more of a connection to it than me and that’s ok. I only had it for a couple of years. It would be cool to get this guitar back too, but that’s not really the mission I set out on. If this was my strat that I was after I would consider being more persistent, but in this case I’m not going to hound them about it. If they ever want to sell it they can reach out to me, but I’m happy that it’s still out there being enjoyed by someone.

However, I was still interested in owning this model again and one popped up on Reverb recently. I pulled the trigger on it, but unfortunately it was not meant to be. I received the guitar in a condition that I felt was not accurately described in the listing. It was a hassle and I learned some big lessons about buying used guitars online, but long story shot I no longer have the guitar. I’m moving on from the KH-25 and unless it’s my strat that I’m looking for I am probably moving on from Reverb. It’s too much of a gamble at this point to trust online sellers.

But Anyway, back to what I mentioned earlier. I LOVE signature gear. I am a sucker for it. No matter how much I absolutely know the gear is not going to make me play better or sound like the artist whose name is on it I don’t care. I’m an average bedroom guitar player and I’m not trying to cultivate my own unique sound, so let me have my fun and emulate my guitar heroes. There is so much cool signature gear. Guitars, amps, pedals, picks, slides, straps, cables, you name it. I could honestly have a whole collection based solely on signature gear. Here are some things I would love to have:

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