Willie G. Moseley Posted July 21, 2008 Posted July 21, 2008 Aw, farboolah. There's probably gonna be a letter to the editor in the next issue of the magazine for which I write that proclaims I was wrong in noting in an article that the Gibson FZ-1 fuzztone was first marketed in 1962. Somebody who wrote in said he had an FZ-1A in '57 or '58, before he joined the service in 1960. There are three spelling errors in his brief missive.My response is simply that numerous internet sources and print sources said the FZ-1 was marketed in 1962.This isn't age discrimination (I'm a member of AARP myself), but it's not the first time that I've dealt with someone older who insists---sometimes in a hostile manner---that his/her recollection is accurate, and I'm wrong, even if I've got voluminous documentation to back up my p.o.v. I always keep my cool and stay polite; win the argument, lose the potential sale/potential purchase/future opportunity/whatever is the way I see it.The most glaring example for me would have been the senior who let me examine (in detail) his '52 Les Paul Goldtop, trapeze wrapover tailpiece and all. And he was adamant in his assertion that he had carried it with him during his service in World War II.I wonder if anyone else has had to deal with such awkward moments. Now, I'm not talking about any outrageous b.s. from somebody like a pawn shop employee; methinks we've discussed those type of misrepresentations before here...but if not, it should be a separate thread.What I'd like to know is if anyone else has had to deal with an individual who is simply uninformed about the history he/she/a family member owns, and how such situations were handled. There's another incident with a private party that I may have noted here a while back, but before chronicling that one I'll give someone else a chance to comment or reminisce.Thanks in advance.
JohnnyB Posted July 21, 2008 Posted July 21, 2008 As I age and revisit some music, films, and books of my past, and check chain letters and assertions against Snopes and other reality checks, it makes me want to do a study into the phenomena of false memory. If I were younger, I'd make it my Master's thesis.There are times I've been sure of a line in a movie, or how a scene played out, and then I watch the video again, and it's not like that at all. My wife and I were watching a film from 1972 a few months back, and she SWORE that the video had recut a couple scenes and changed the backdrops. Yet I researched everything I could and came across nothing in Wikipedia, IMDB, or anything else written about the film that any such thing had happened, and in fact, the cover of the soundtrack LP showed the characters lined up with the same setting/backdrop as depicted in the video we saw. So it's highly unlikely the original release had flipped these venues as she had remembered.I also remember having a coworker who SWORE she remembers sitting on her couch at home and that she watched Oprah the day Calvin Klein was a guest and said he had not intended for his designs to "go ghetto" or some such, and how indignant the co-worker was because her kids were of mixed race. And then I went to Snopes which affirmed this was nothing but another bullshit chain letter, and that not only had Calvin never been on Oprah, they had never even met!There are zillions of people across the nation who swear they saw the foul-mouthed kid tell Bozo to "Cram it, clown," but that incident aired only once live in the New York City market; it was not syndicated or broadcast nationally.Paul McCartney swears he remembers working on the lyrics of "In My Life" alone, but it is so obviously John's song. For one thing, each Beatle sang lead on whatever he wrote, and that song is SUCH a John song. And the melody's quirky and introspective, more like something John would write. Yet Paul insists he remembers writing it. Maybe he dreamed it or tried to write alternate lyrics that ultimately didn't make it into the song. The idea that the Fuzztone came out in 1957/58 is pretty ridiculous. No one but the black blues players were trying to get distortion at that time, and they did it by overdriving underpowered, cheap little amps, sometimes with broken speakers. Listen to any rock'n'roll guitar from '57-58 and it's all clean and undistorted. Sparkly, even. It wasn't until the '60s when people started seeking out new tones. Hendrix was a pioneer in the use of pedals and effects; he got ahold of anything he could get his hands on, which often meant getting a prototype from the designer, and even at that, he only had around 5-6 effects by 1966-7.
Jimbilly Posted July 21, 2008 Posted July 21, 2008 Just don't edit his letter for spelling errors, it will make for a nice comic moment!
Feynman Posted July 21, 2008 Posted July 21, 2008 I remember a lot of things differently than my wife does. She's pretty much always right. I've learned to shut up most of the time now.Man, when I was young, I was "sure" about tons of stuff. Now I'm not sure about anything.
JohnnyB Posted July 21, 2008 Posted July 21, 2008 I remember a lot of things differently than my wife does. She's pretty much always right. I've learned to shut up most of the time now.Man, when I was young, I was "sure" about tons of stuff. Now I'm not sure about anything.Or, as Mark Twain reputedly said, When I was sixteen, my father was the most ignorant man in the world. By the time I reached 21, I was surprised at how much the old man had learned in five years.
cmatthes Posted July 21, 2008 Posted July 21, 2008 Mark Twain didn't say that. Ben Franklin did. No wait, it was Charles H. Smith... Aw, hell, I don't remember.
Willie G. Moseley Posted July 21, 2008 Author Posted July 21, 2008 The other incident alluded to in the initial post was more testy and awkward than the '52 Goldtop examination (and again, I may have mentioned this one here before so 'scuse the redundancy if that's the case). I got a phone call from a guy who had been referred to me by a legendary writer in this area who was a mentor to me, and the writer knew I was into guitars.The caller had what he described as a family heirloom Gibson mandolin that dated from the early 20th century (not a Loar) and was interested in selling it. I wasn't interested in it, but dated it for him, and he then asked what it was worth. I don't do appraisals (I refer such inquiries to legit and reputable dealers that offer such services), but since the mentor had referred the guy to me, I figgered I'd do the mentor a favor. I checked the then-latest edition of the VINTAGE GUITAR PRICE GUIDE, and I told the caller "IF it's in excellent condition, unmodified, and has its original case, the price guide I consulted says it would retail for $_____, but keep in mind that you might not be able to sell it for full retail. What an instrument is 'worth' is what someone's willing to pay for and what someone's willing to sell if for, at the time of the sale."That's my credo, and I imparted it to him in a courteous voice.And the caller went ballistic. "I'M NOT INTERESTED IN SELLING IT FOR THAT!" he bellowed. "JESUS CHRIST, THIS INSTRUMENT'S BEEN IN MY FAMILY FOR GENERATIONS!"I sighed to myself, halfway expecting him to expectorate the phrase "sentimental value" (but he didn't). I excused myself soon afterwards. I've never done anything like that again, and won't, even if it's a referral from a writing mentor.
srvwannab Posted July 21, 2008 Posted July 21, 2008 I remember a lot of things differently than my wife does. She's pretty much always right. I've learned to shut up most of the time now.Man, when I was young, I was "sure" about tons of stuff. Now I'm not sure about anything. Ain't it the truth?!
Jimbilly Posted July 21, 2008 Posted July 21, 2008 "I'M NOT INTERESTED IN SELLING IT FOR THAT!" he bellowed. "JESUS CHRIST, THIS INSTRUMENT'S BEEN IN MY FAMILY FOR GENERATIONS!" A friend of mine is really good at messing with that sort of idiot, he really has a lot of fun with them, -I need to learn to be more like that instead of letting it bother me. My friend would probably say, "well, yes, of course if it's a family heirloom it would be worth SIGNIFICANTLY more, why didn't you tell me it had been in your family for so long!?!?" -something like that, but likely much more mischievious.
tomteriffic Posted July 21, 2008 Posted July 21, 2008 "I'M NOT INTERESTED IN SELLING IT FOR THAT!" he bellowed. "JESUS CHRIST, THIS INSTRUMENT'S BEEN IN MY FAMILY FOR GENERATIONS!" A friend of mine is really good at messing with that sort of idiot, he really has a lot of fun with them, -I need to learn to be more like that instead of letting it bother me. My friend would probably say, "well, yes, of course if it's a family heirloom it would be worth SIGNIFICANTLY more, why didn't you tell me it had been in your family for so long!?!?" -something like that, but likely much more mischievious. When I was appraising houses, I used to get what I called the "breathing the air" syndrome. It went something like "My house is worth twice what any other identical house on the block is worth because I've been breathing the air here longer than anyone else". Or something similar. Maroons. Sometimes I'd get phone calls from these folks and I wouldn't even argue with them. I'd ask then to show me some hard, verifiable data that was better than what I had and I'd reconsider. I only had one guy take me up on it, but it was just fluff. Usually I'd just let 'em rant for a while and if they broke into profanity I'd just tell them that the conversation was over. I used to like to screw with the folks whose house I was in mid-appraisal on. And which house I was just leaving, having done none of the analysis, etc. that I needed to do to come up with a value. This also leaves aside for a moment the fact that, if I was making the appraisal for a bank (which I usually was) by law I couldn't tell them Jack Schidt anyway. But some of these folks, for whatever reason, wanted to know the magic number RIGHT NOW. Nothing I could say seemed to placate some of these people. I finally developed a method that involved looking over my hastily scribbled notes, referring to a blank piece of paper in the back of my folio and then I'd look them straight in the eye and deadpan: Mr. Jones, your house is worth hundreds, possibly THOUSANDS of dollars. That got me out of a lot of houses tout de suite.
HSB0531 Posted July 21, 2008 Posted July 21, 2008 Just rewrite your appraisals to this:IF it's in excellent condition, unmodified, and has its original case, the price guide I consulted says it would retail for ONE MEEELION DOLLARS, but keep in mind that you might not be able to sell it for full retail. What an instrument is 'worth' is what someone's willing to pay for and what someone's willing to sell if for, at the time of the sale."
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