'fess up. Anyone here ever stolen a guitar?

[tiltsta]

Nope. I've never stolen anything.

[Scoogs]

Yes.

I mean.... No.

[k4df4l]

I've had an acquaintance offer to sell me a stolen gear for cheap...No interest.

 

I also have a cab that a buddy left at my house about a decade or so ago that I use all the time. In my mind it's still his so if he ever wants it back, no problem.

[Brewski]

No, but I got a 1961 National Studio 66 from a friend of mine in exchange for a pizza. I still feel kind of bad about that.

Best deal I ever Heard of!!

[Assumer]

nope

[csm]

Many years back, a very dear female friend had a messy bustup with her boyfriend, who walked out leaving all his stuff behind. After several months of trying to get his clothes and records out of her house (collected either by him or a duly designated representative of his), she served notice on him that everything would now be up for grabs.

 

Among the stuff he'd left behind was a bunch of leather jackets ... just my size, heh. I picked out the coolest one ... and I still have it, and wear it.

 

Because we moved in the same social circles, it was only a matter of time before we bumped into each other while I was wearing the jacket in question. He eyed it up ... but didn't say a word.

 

Now ... if he'd been a guitarist ...

 

Direct answer to the OP: nope, never have, never would. Not even a cable. I have, however, pocketed the odd pick found on the stage after gigs ... but you'll never take me alive, copper.

[Grantus]

All this talk makes me want to do a good inventory of my stuff and lock the list up someplace.

 

However, if someone breaks into my house, he'll have to deal with the 85-pound Otis:

 

[notjonahbutnoah]

Stealing from other people, meaning individuals, is terrible and wrong. I would never. BUT, stealing from either a corporation, or the clergy is like being given that three years you spent working at safeway back at the end of ur life somehow.

 

I used to play in youth group praise band, when I was young and impressionable, some yahoo gave the band a de-armond 7 string sg type thing. None of us wanted to use it, it had seriously scrapable layers of grime. I tookit home, completely dismantled, painted, and brought it back to life, then never really returned it and sold it to a buddy for sixty. I feel like I should have been given an all new top notch rig for what I did for that band, then they kick me out for some lack of focus on jesus, right they were.

 

Sry if jesus is ur cup of tea, but he {censored} in mine, anyway id never steal froma person, but from a place like guitar center, I totally would.

[Wolfboy1]

Had a beautiful Yamaha FG-200 my parents gave me stolen from a college dorm in 1979. I loved that guitar. I absolutely HATE people who steal instruments. I have prosecuted a couple of guitar thefts but even more tool thefts. Guys who steal tools from construction sites are taking a huge risk. If caught there is no mercy shown. We had a case where a tool thief was ducted tape and beaten badly about his body with pipes and boards, driven outside the city and left in misery in a corn field. Not a lot of sympathy in searching for the folks who did it either. Would liked to have that done to the asswipe who stole my guitar:mad: Still mad about that.

[Mac_C]

All this talk makes me want to do a good inventory of my stuff and lock the list up someplace. However, if someone breaks into my house, he'll have to deal with the 85-pound Otis:

Yeah, and if Otis is anything like a typical Boxer all a thief will have to do it pet him and play with him and he will become the thief's best friend in a matter of seconds. At least that's all someone would have to do with my Boxer, Clyde.

[csm]

I could NEVER steal a guitar ... because in my time I've lost two treasured instruments to theft. One was a lovely old Gibson B-25-12 acoustic and -- get ready to flinch'n wince -- the other was a salmon-pink (ie faded Fiesta Red refin) 1963 Strat. Neither were filched from a gig or nicked by a burglar -- both had been loaned to fellow musos I thought were trustworthy and weren't.

 

Knowing how much the loss of these instruments hurt me, I could never put anyone else through that kind of pain, and I know that I could never enjoy playing an instrument that I knew I'd ripped off from someone else.

 

Funnily enough, I don't even have fantasies of beating up the respective thieves -- only that, one day, there'll be a buzz at the door and someone hands me a guitar case and says, 'I believe this is yours.'

 

Never happen, tho' ...

[smorgdonkey]

I think I may have stolen a bag of potato chips and a package of gum when I was a kid...a few quarters from change jars. Kids do stupid things - I did.

 

I have never stolen anything more than that. Thieves disgust me. If they are kids then they just need to learn and grow but if they are not kids then they are slime or desperate.

[pekelnik]

In my life I never stole anything from anybody. I cheated on one little thing in high school- accidentally saw one answer to a question I wouldn't have known written on the answer sheets. To this day I hate myself for it.

That said, I'd do quite literally anything to protect my family.

[Les Paul Lover]

All this talk makes me want to do a good inventory of my stuff and lock the list up someplace. However, if someone breaks into my house, he'll have to deal with the 85-pound Otis:

I'm afraid your dogs looks like a big softie. Very cute!!!!
Perhaps will lick the burlgar to death?????

[Les Paul Lover]

I regularly go home with byros from work......

And I feel alright with it..... Oohhh, have I no conscience???!!!

[DaveAronow]

All this talk makes me want to do a good inventory of my stuff and lock the list up someplace. However, if someone breaks into my house, he'll have to deal with the 85-pound Otis:

 

Not ripping on your dog, boxers are my absolute favorite dog on the planet, and my favorite individual dog that ever lived is a boxer, but unless you fed your dog gunpowder as a pup, or beat or tortured him or something, and if he is a typical boxer, then he is the very defenition of all bark and no bite.

 

Otis is an Awesome looking dog.

[Funkwire]

I've been fortunate...never had a guitar stolen from me. I could not even consider doing that to someone.

A friend of mine had a Les Paul stolen from him when he was 17. A few years later, we ran into a young kid who had an old guitar he was willing to sell. He had inherited it from his dad, didn't really play, and thought it was just a piece of junk.

My friend said, "Well....I'll give you $25 for it." The kid was about to take him up on it when I looked at the guitar. It was an old Danelectro with the lipstick pickups. I told the kid he should have the guitar checked out, it might be worth a little bit.

My friend was pissed at me for screwing up his deal. I don't understand how you can have a guitar stolen from you and then try to rip somebody else off. Maybe that's just me...

[BG76]

I worked in a store in the mid 1990s.

 

One day a guy came in, took an American Strat off the wall and walked out.

 

I gave lessons at the store, so I didn't know exactly what was going on, but they caught the guy about 45 minutes later.

 

GC Boston sold me a mistagged 1955 Les Paul TV Junior for the price of a sunburt one. They had both and somehow the tags got switched. I asked the guy if he was sure the price was ok and he said it was. They called me at home to try to get me to bring it back, but I had the receipt with the right s/n so I told them to screw.

[Norcal_GIT_r]

Never and would never. I've had a guitar stolen by a supposed friend. It sucks. I hate thieves.

[Dougie.Douglas]

You're an asshole.

:lol: I think he was being funny.

[cephus]

meh

[DaveAronow]

Stealing from other people, meaning individuals, is terrible and wrong. I would never. BUT, stealing from either a corporation, or the clergy is like being given that three years you spent working at safeway back at the end of ur life somehow. I used to play in youth group praise band, when I was young and impressionable, some yahoo gave the band a de-armond 7 string sg type thing. None of us wanted to use it, it had seriously scrapable layers of grime. I tookit home, completely dismantled, painted, and brought it back to life, then never really returned it and sold it to a buddy for sixty. I feel like I should have been given an all new top notch rig for what I did for that band, then they kick me out for some lack of focus on jesus, right they were. Sry if jesus is ur cup of tea, but he {censored} in mine, anyway id never steal froma person, but from a place like guitar center, I totally would.

 

Bull{censored}. Steeling is steeling.

 

Justifying it is just adding more levels of scumbaggery onto the crime.

 

You dont DO things for a PRAISE band because you expect something in return. That is not the point.

 

It is painfully obvious after reading this post why they kicked you out. They may have told you it was for lack of focus, or any other reason. Read your own post and tell me if you would want a person like the author in YOUR organization.

[k4df4l]

So, the store owner actually was the one committing the crime, I guess.

orly?

[guitarcapo]

Here's the closest I ever came to stealing a guitar:

I was selling a Ludwig drum set with Zildjian cymbals that was used only about a month (I bought it for my son who changed his mind)
I bought the set new for $600 and was selling it for $400.
A friend of a friend of a friend says he wants to buy the drums but has no money. He wants to take the drums immediately and leaves a 1992 Les Paul Standard as "collateral" and says he will be by in a month or so to pay for the guitar. In the meantime the guitar needed setup and intonation (and I work on guitars) so I said I'd do it for him. The guitar was definitely worth well over $400 even though it had some nicks, dents, scratches...so I thought it was cool. In the meantime I had a cool Les Paul to play.

Anyway...about 6 months go by and the guy says he wants to return the drums he's been gigging with and just get his guitar back. I tell him that it wasn't a "rental deal" and that after his playing the drums for 6 months I don't want them back. He can have the guitar for the agreed $400
He's a bit upset but agrees to come up with the money.

This goes on for the next THREE YEARS. Every few months he calls me asking if I still have "his guitar" and making promises that he will pay me in the next few weeks. Then I don't hear from him again for several months. I finally came to the conclusion that he was a drug addict who never could scrape together the $400 without buying drugs.

Anyway after one of his phone calls I finally put my foot down and said that he had I month to pay me the $400. If he didn't pay me I was going to sell it on Ebay. I really didn't want the guitar. The guy agrees...and of course the month goes by without hearing from him.

I sell the LP on Ebay for $1,400.

The guy calls again a few months later freaking out.

"Dude...DO NOT tell me you sold my guitar!"

At which point I told him to {censored} off. If he wanted to deal with this any more he could see me in small claims court.

That was about 5 years ago and I never heard from him again. I had worried that possibly the guitar was stolen to begin with but the "friend of a friend" met up with me in a bar and told me that he had a rich old lady as a girlfriend who bought it for him as a present...which is hilarious because he told me it was a present from his "grandma"

Some people might say the honorable thing to do would be to take my $400 and give the guy the rest of the money. Some people say I should have taken a little extra for my trouble.....


But {censored} that. Like I said: I stole that guitar.

[Les Paul Lover]

^^^

As far as I see, you honoured your side of the deal. No stealing there.