THE ONES THAT GOT AWAY

HARTKE 4-10 BASS CABINET

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I'm really only writing about this because it's got a funny story. It's not an amazing item or anything and hardly worthy of the original thought behind this blog: "Man, I wish I had that one back!" I could care less about this one. But on to the story... One time when I went to Guitar Center to buy something and after I left I cruised back to the back of the store to look in the dumpster for a box to ship a guitar in. When I looked down into the dumpster I found a whole bunch of electronic drum parts, some booms for mic stands and a few guitar stands. At first I thought they must be all broken or something, but not so. I grabbed them all and eventually sold the drum parts on eBay for over $200. I'm still using the boom stands and gave the guitar stands to friends.

So, the next time I went to Guitar Center I couldn't help but cruise back to the dumpster for a look see. This time I found some new cables and an Ortofon backpack for a DJ. Kept the cables, gave away the backpack. Next time I go the Guitar Center I go straight to the dumpster and, sure enough, find two brand spankin' new padded drum gig bags, still in the box. Kept those. So, now I'm obsessed. Now I'm finding reasons to head down the freeway towards Guitar Center just to look in the dumpster. I have gone a couple of visits without any freebies and I'm kind of thinking my luck has run dry.

Then one day I actually needed to go to GC and I go inside and buy some stuff. I decide to give it another try and cruise around the back and about crapped the front seat. Sitting right next to the dumpster is a pretty decent condition, vintage Hartke 4-10 bass cabinet. I pull up and take a look around...am I on Candid Camera or something? Am I about to get punked? I opened up the front seat and put the cab in the car and headed down the road. I kind of figured it didn't work or something. Surely it's not a perfectly fine speaker cab. I head straight to my buddy's house and we plug 'er in. Works perfectly! Yet I have no need for a bass cabinet. I took this photo and put it on Craig's List and by the next day had it sold for about $225. Just for checking the dumpster. I'm going to go out on a limb and bet that the next time YOU go to Guitar Center you just happen to mozy on back and check the dumpster. Let me know what you find.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN 2009