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OK, I get it. My bad.

#21
xgator4u said:
Plus
In 1986 the world was a MUCH more friendly place.
Click to expand...

In around '89, I bought a '72 Pontiac LeMans for $100.00 that had so much rust you could see all the way through the trunk, and exhaust leaked in through holes in the floor. The guy who sold it to me went on and on about the great tires on it, and they sure did have a lot of tread, for such a beater. I was planning to drive it from Minneapolis, MN to Lake Tahoe, CA.

Around about Des Moines, Iowa, the muffler came off, but it was still held on by a piece of rubber that I could not cut, so the muffler dragged on the ground, shooting up sparks. I soon found out why the car had such new tires on it. They were B.F. Goodrich radials that had been recalled. The reason they were recalled is because the wraps in them unraveled as you drove, forming big, golf ball sized bulges until they just ripped open. Self-destroying tires. What a neat idea!

So I had a blowout on the Nebraska interstate, I-80, not far from North Platte, I had my first blowout. I still had a spare, but I didn't have a jack. A Nebraska State Trooper pulled up, and he let me use his jack, in fact he helped jack up the car. The car didn't have a parking brake, and it rolled, bending the jack, and almost killing the Nebraska State Trooper. This wasn't just any cop, either. This was a young, military haircut, strapping buck with mirror shades. I thought he might shoot me, but he helped me change the tire, and didn't even write me a ticket when I started that ridiculously loud engine, or mention that there were no keys to this car, as I had lost them on the drunken night I beat up the guy in the Parakeet story elsewhere on this forum, (I think the guy threw them in a ditch,) and I had to start this Pontiac with a screwdriver.

That was EXTRA NICE GUY #1.

Then, around Cheyenne or so, I noticed another ominous bulge forming on another tire. It would be hard not to notice, because as I drove along the freeway getting dangerously high on exhaust fumes, I could feel that wheel going "whump, whump, whump," more and more. I had once spent time in Laramie, and when I was getting closer to that town, I found a phone book, and found a tire dealer that had used tires starting at $5.00. I got there, and there was a young guy working, and he looked around, but he didn't have any used tires that were the right size for my rims. He had commented on the guitar case in the back seat, and asked if I was a musician, and we talked about some music stuff, and he must have liked me, because when I explained that $5.00 was about all I could afford, or I wouldn't have enough gas to get to Lake Tahoe, he decided to give me a brand new tire for $5.00, and told me if I see his boss on the way out, just keep my head down and keep driving. (I'm not sure what he thought that would do, but that's what he said.)

So in summary, I am one of the luckiest people alive. I've had more down times than most people would ever care to, and somehow, some good samaritan, or stroke of extreme luck always happened to come along, and save my ass.
 
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#22
By the way, I wrote a song about that trip, and you may find it kind of slow and boring, and there's a lot of stolen footage in the video, but it's not a promotional video, or an attempt by me to make any money; it's just a personal video.



I'm aware there are some timing issues, but again, it's just a personal thing. Someday I'll record it right, and shoot a real video. It's got the exact Pontiac LeMans I was talking about, and some artistic embellishment to represent the sparks.

Sorry about the thread derail, but how much can we really say about the OP?
 
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#23
I tried the same thing at GC a couple days ago. I walked in 1/2 hour before I was supposed to meet up with someone there and asked the Manager if he was cool with it. I told him I would buy some strings and a pedal with some of the profits.

He wanted to let me do it, because I was respectful, offered to buy stuff and polite about it and straight up told him that I would totally understand if he wasn't cool with it. He ended up telling me no, but thanked me for asking and offered to work out a good deal with me on trading in the guitar if the seller backed out. That was until he asked what I payed for it new, and how much I was selling it for haha. (Payed under $800 new on a crazy sale, selling for $800+ a broken amp I got for $30 and sort of fixed)

Ended up meeting the buyer at my house the next day. He walked away with a really nice Les Paul and I got to play a really nice guitar for a year, for free. GC lost the sale of a pedal and a bunch of strings.
 
#24
I have done this exact thing several times - at a couple different shops. I had good relations with the sales staff and management, had bought plenty of gear in both spots in the past and called ahead to check with them. They were always happy to let me do it and I always made a point of picking something up..even a pack of strings or some other smaller item. Quite often the seller picked up something as well. Always used a second hand cab and both stores knew that if I had done any damage to anything I would have purchased it..iirc it was the owner of Mountain Music in Hamilton that suggested the idea of meeting folks at his (or another) store to test things...so I don't think the OP was as way out of line as folks are suggesting..imho/ime etc
 
#25
Salicete said:
You asked politely, you didn't assume. I don't think you did anything wrong.
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Well, that's how I felt at the time. Like I said, I thought I had a rapport with the owner. Based on previous encounters, he struck me as the kind of guy who wouldn't take offense to being asked. I didn't just walk in and start plugging stuff in. As it turned out, the store manager had another point of view -- I see his point and I respect his right to run his business any way he sees fit. In hind sight, sure, it was probably a little rude of me to ask. On the other hand, I just may have been impressed with how the head sounded though that SWR 410 he had in the corner, and I certainly could have used a couple new cables and a set of strings as a token of my appreciation.

For those who were wondering... I got a killer deal on a GK MB500 Fusion. The lesson in retail etiquette was totally worth it. :thumbsup:
 
#26
Savage_Dreams said:
also, you were just going to try out a head right? were you going to plug into one of his cabs? think of his side, someone he doesnt know, brings an unknown piece of equipment in, the head is bad, fries his cab.
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Actually, I brought my own cab, cables, and bass. All I needed was a wall socket. I never got that far in the conversation because the manager shut me down. I didn't have a lot of options for testing the head -- the seller did not want to meet at his house (fine with me, bad neighborhood), and he wasn't about to drive 30 miles to my place during rush hour on Friday. Seemed like a guitar shop was a logical place to meet.
 
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#28
Rock on people! \m/[/QUOTE]
zontar said:
Exactly--never make assumptions about customers either way.

When I was younger & had not money but was dreaming and saving up and checking out options for what to buy when I was able to, I went to places that had treated me well when I wasn't going to buy at that time.

Plus--some teens have a ton of cash and/or rich parents.
Some older guys have little cash.
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There's an old story (don't know if it's true or not) about Grace Slick walking into a Maserati or Ferrari dealership in full hippie attire. She's looking around at the display models, all of which cost 40-50,000 dollars. A salesman comes up and rudely tries to kick her out of the place. Whereupon she digs into her bag and pulls out 40 grand in cash.

The guy was very polite after that.
 
#29
At least you were honest in your intentions, but you have to look at it from the store's perspective. Brick and mortars deal with people using their store as a showroom for an online sale all the time. There isn't much they can do about it because someone comes in, tries out the gear and pretends to not like it, or he'll "think about it". They go home or even order the same item in the store on their phone from a place that has minimal overhead and usually no taxes or minimal taxes. In your case, it was just too far, IMHO. If you bought a lot of stuff there, they would probably be okay with it, but even then I don't think I would ask.
 
#31
Pilgrim said:
I think the OP had a lot of balls to ask. Not cool, not polite, not considerate. Rude.
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I completely disagree. Would have been rude to hide his intentions and pretend to shop around. To simply be straight forward and politely request to demo his gear in the shop is actually the opposite of rude. And I'm not buying the argument that the GM may have been worried the "unknown" head could damage one of the store's cabs. I don't think anyone would blink an eye if a bass player walked into the music store with a head under his arm and asked to try it through a few different cabs. So, the OP probably could have got away with testing the head in the store if he had just employed this ruse. But he didn't - and that's what makes the difference. He honestly told the owner his intention and asked permission before even bringing any gear into the store. So the apparent GM intervened and said "no." That's certainly within the GM's discretion and I can't fault him from doing so. But there is certainly no reason for the OP to feel like a DB. He acted honestly and courteously. No reason whatsoever to feel bad in this situation.
 
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#32
funkytoe said:
I completely disagree. Would have been rude to hide his intentions and pretend to shop around. To simply be straight forward and politely request to demo his gear in the shop is actually the opposite of rude. And I'm not buying the argument that the GM may have been worried the "unknown" head could damage one of the store's cabs. I don't think anyone would blink an eye if a bass player walked into the music store with a head under his arm and asked to try it through a few different cabs. So, the OP probably could have got away with testing the head in the store if he had just employed this ruse. But he didn't - and that's what makes the difference. He honestly told the owner his intention and asked permission before even bringing any gear into the store. So the apparent GM intervened and said "no." That's certainly within the GM's discretion and I can't fault him from doing so. But there is certainly no reason for the OP to feel like a DB. He acted honestly and courteously. No reason whatsoever to feel bad in this situation.
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Yeah thats would have been a nice ruse Haha. Sounds like he should have gone with that.
 
#33
interp said:
There's an old story (don't know if it's true or not) about Grace Slick walking into a Maserati or Ferrari dealership in full hippie attire. She's looking around at the display models, all of which cost 40-50,000 dollars. A salesman comes up and rudely tries to kick her out of the place. Whereupon she digs into her bag and pulls out 40 grand in cash.The guy was very polite after that.
Click to expand...

That was Janis Joplin in San Francisco. Got treated badly in the Mercedes dealership because of how she looked, walked across the street and bought a Porsche with cash. Then had it painted psychedelic. I've got a picture of that Porsche in a book I have.
 
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#36
The big issue I see here is the idea of plugging a suspect amp into a store's brand new speaker cabinet so you can find out if the amp is blown or not. (a blown amp could easily damage the speaker). The proper way to test a suspect amp is with a dummy speaker load and a scope - or a beater speaker that belongs to you and you don't mind risking. Did you happen to show up with your own speaker and speaker cable?

Now if you had asked to try out a bass in one of their amps - that is a whole 'nother thing as you couldn't do any damage with that.
 
#37
From the other side of the counter- in the 90's I used to run a music store, in a plaza with a few other store fronts around. The D-bag with the office supply store down the hall,was a drummer. He was taking off early and wanted me to keep an eye out for fed-ex as he had a delivery, and to sign for it and keep in my shop till he got back. The delivery shows up.....from Musicians friend!. The bum always needed credit, or a deal on whatever trivial little purchase he made from me (I always had to pay retail msrp for anything I bought from him). I refused the package- send it back. That ended me having to deal with his sorry arse anymore!
 
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