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Age and experience have afforded me the wisdom to avoid helping someone out unless I know and trust them. Even simple transactions can get ugly.
Back in the early 70's a co-worker had a dead Fisher 601 Quadraphonic receiver. His ace technical skills had led him to make it deader! His self confidence had prompted him to proclaim that it could not be fixed. He made this proclamation at a party in front of 20 or so co-workers. I said B.S. The party goers were mostly electronics technicians in a large electronics manufacturing plant. It was widely known that my previous job was the repair tech in a stereo shop that sold and serviced Fisher including the 601. I made an offer to buy the "unrepairable" unit for $50. This conversation took place late at a party where drugs and alcohol were used, so I assumed that was the end of it.
A few days later he stopped me in the parking lot during shift change asking for his $50. He had the Fisher in tow. A deal was made in front of several witnesses who were interested in the outcome.
It took me a couple of days and an ohmmeter to find all the blown parts, and about a week to get the replacements, and about an hour to make it work.
At our next party the 601 was cranking out every quadraphonic tape, R-R or 8 track, that I had. This didn't sit so well with mister loudmouth SOB. As the party wore on he started cranking about how I had stolen the unit from him. He tried unsuccesfully to get someone to agree with him. In fact he was asked to leave.
The SOB later called the cops and told them that I had stolen the unit from him. The cops showed up at my house, I explained the story above and could produce plenty of people that would verify it. The fact that he sent the cops to a house where some form of illegal activity was always happening made a then tries to pay another co-worker a substantial amount of monry to steal it from me.
To end the trouble I gave the unit to my brother who lived far enough away. It was eventually fotgotten. OH, Mr SOB was rich, trust fund kind of rich. Heir to a vast fortune kind of rich.
Nothing to apologize for. I didn't think you were rude at all. I appreciate your thoughts too. It takes a lot more to offend me then the moderators around here would let anybody get away with. If it seems like I am offended it probably wouldn't if we were face to face.
He called the cops on you tube.lab? Forget the fact that you didn't do anything wrong. Even if you had he shouldn't have called the cops. In the neighborhood where I grew up you just don't call the cops period on anybody. But besides that another reason not to call the cops is that they can't and won't do anything anyway. I wouldn't have bothered explaining anything to them if I were in your position. I would have told them "I don't know what you are talking about and I have nothing else to say to you."
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I doubt if anybody would ever act on anything because I said it but just in case I need to clarify something. I said return of personal property is not grounds for a lawsuit. That is wrong. It is grounds for a lawsuit. It is just not grounds for a lawsuit in small claims court. I was talking about a case in small claims court when I said it but I should have specified that it is only in small claims court.
What is the difference between giving it away and donating it? You mean a tax write off? I do that all the time. For those of you who don't know here is how you can get cash for your equipment that is beyond repair or that you just don't feel like repairing. As long as it is intact as far as how it looks from the outside take it to goodwill. They will give you a receipt for it. They do not check it out to see if it works. Then using the receipt you can write it off your taxes. Just don't say it is worth more than it would be worth if it worked in case you get audited.
What is the difference between giving it away and donating it? You mean a tax write off? I do that all the time. For those of you who don't know here is how you can get cash for your equipment that is beyond repair or that you just don't feel like repairing. As long as it is intact as far as how it looks from the outside take it to goodwill. They will give you a receipt for it. They do not check it out to see if it works. Then using the receipt you can write it off your taxes. Just don't say it is worth more than it would be worth if it worked in case you get audited.
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For a short period of time I lived in a rented house full of stoners. This person was a frequent freeloader. He was somewhat embarased by the fact that an uneducated self taught tech (me) could fix the amp when he couldn't. It also made him look rather stupid selling it to me for $50. Why he made up the theft story and sent the cops to the house where people were smoking dope, I don't know. I met the cop in the front yard and explained the story. THe cop had met the SOB before when his rich parents fixed one of juniors DUI's. The cop left and said he might talk to some of the people that I listed as witnesses, He never did.
Incidents like this sort of killed off the SOB's ability to make or keep friends. He was no longer welcome in our house.
Incidents like this sort of killed off the SOB's ability to make or keep friends. He was no longer welcome in our house.
My guess is that you answered your own question. He did it BECAUSE people were smoking dope there. That is the lowest thing a boy can do and I say boy because he is obviously not a man. He thought he could make you pee your pants and do whatever he wanted you to do (by getting the cops to do what he was not able to do). I would never advise anybody to do anything violent or illegal. But he seems like he could use a couple of big knots on his head to me. It would be a shame if somebody did some little things that would just annoy the crap out of him. Like a little superglue on his windshield on the drivers side. That would make his wipers not work right on the drivers side but take him a long time to figure out why. The wipers will move back and forth but on the drivers side they wouldn't wipe the water off. Passenger side would work fine. He might buy new wipers at first. Wouldn't do any good. Might be a long time before he figures out there is a little bit of clear superglue on it. That is only hypothetical though. I know you would never do anything like that.
Hey does that cherry sunburst Les Paul have a nice flame on it? How about a picture up close so we can see it?
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Yeah, and HE was one of the usual participants because even though his parents had just given him a brand new Jag he was too cheap to buy his own dope.
I could think of all sorts of really devious things to do, but that would just escalate the situation. Daddy's multi millions could become a serious foe if provoked. I have seen big money in action.
When one of the stoners yelled cops, I simply grabbed my keys and company badge and headed out the front door toward my car. I fed my story to the cop and he left. The company I worked for was by far the biggest employer in the area and responsible converting a large cow field into 3 small towns. Most of western Broward county Florida used to be a dairy. Now there is development from the ocean to the everglades (protected...for now).
One thing I learned in high school....super glue or even a small piece of solder inserted into the lock cylinder of a car (or classroom) door can really ruin someones day.
The Les Paul is an off the shelf Epiphone that my wife got me for a birthday present several years ago. Since it cost about 4 or 5 times what I usually pay for a guitar, it will remain unmodified.....at least for now. I don't have any access to my photos now since I am 1200 miles from home on a laptop. Since I don't play guitar seriously any more I can't justify expensive stuff. There was a short period when my daughter was in the high school band and played drums and keyboards that jam sessions were rather common at my house. I played guitar with them often enough to convince my wife to buy me the Les Paul. I spent a lot of time during those 3 years experimenting with direct to hard disk recording using Cakewalk Sonar.
Note:
Don't put an SM-57 inside the bass drum!
Did the experiments fail?
I have tried that experiment. It failed. I like the mic outside of the head in front of a small hole if the drummer is willing to cut one in the head or in the same place even if he is not or if he doesn't have an outside head. Close but far enough away it will never touch the kick drum.
They were learning experiences, so they can't really fail. You just learn things you can't do, like putting the mic inside the bass drum....with both heads on. The mic never sounded quite the same again.
We had a full double bass drum cage, a full size keyboard, 1 to 3 guitar players, a bass player, and various horns usually played in the HS marching band all stuffed into a 10 X 18 foot room (not all at the same time...usually). The neighbors really loved it! I used a "direct box" (alligator clips to the speaker) for the guitar amps. Various mics for horns and drums. No one could sing, so no one did. I got the best results on the bass drums with the SM 57 about 2 feet out centered between the drums. One drum had 2 heads, one only had 1 with a blanket inside.
I learned that when you play back you want the absolute phase such that the speaker cone moves outward when the bass drum is stomped. If SE tube amps are used the plate voltage on the output tube should be going down when the bass drum is stopmed. This just makes the drums sound more realistic.
As a rule I never try to get even with evil characters. Being a mofo is enough punishment; besides, vendettas (no superglue here -BTW, Texans aren't what they used to be) require planning and cunning thinking. This takes time and those SOBs don't deserve five minutes of my precious thinking. Granted, it's a job that sometimes needs to be done but...
While I'm not good at cold blood strategies I have attacked people in the daylight where no thinking was necessary. Mistreatment of animals was always the cause -cats and women. As a rule, I never go to court either. Kind of ridiculous trying to explain a judge that I can't stand cruelty. Mail brings me the results of my outbursts. I receive light punishments, I haven't killed noone yet.
While I'm not good at cold blood strategies I have attacked people in the daylight where no thinking was necessary. Mistreatment of animals was always the cause -cats and women. As a rule, I never go to court either. Kind of ridiculous trying to explain a judge that I can't stand cruelty. Mail brings me the results of my outbursts. I receive light punishments, I haven't killed noone yet.
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Ah, the good old days.
Only ~4 more years left before i'll be heading mediterranean south, we could tag team.
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