QUOTE:
I said: Alembic.
He said Olympic? Try a Fender when you get the money.
That is just TOO funny!!! Freakin' hilarious!!!
A few years ago, a friend who was a drummer and also my regular... let's say, pre-emptive stress relief facilitator introduced me to a bass player friend of his who he asserted was really awesome. So we met, and the guy began showing me some stuff, and he WAS pretty good. However, he immediately assumed a position of being a bass badass who was better than me and who was kicking down stuff to little ol' me. This is of course, quite silly. He had no idea where I was at musically, and the fact of the matter was that I had at least comparable skills; in fact, I was apparently more advanced than he in at least certain aspects of musicality. But, not being an ego freak as he appeared to be, I humbly watched/listened as he demonstrated some stuff and lectured me for a while. Finally, while there was a brief pause in his pontificating, my drummer friend squeezed in Mark is actually pretty good too, you should see his bass, it's the most amazing bass I've ever seen. Mark, go get your bass so he can see it. (We lived in the same apartment complex).
He immediately said he didn't have the time to wait, and I had no interest in persuading him, but my friend wanted him to see it, and told him it would only take a minute. Begrudgingly, he asked what kind of bass it was, and I told him it was a custom 8-string Alembic. He knew what Alembics were, so at this point, he became curious, but asked, with an air of skepticism, why I'd have an octave bass for a main bass; and I replied that it wasn't an octave bass, but had 8 strings tuned in 4ths. He responded that Alembic had never made such an instrument. This was pretty silly, as it (1) implied Alembic-omniscience, and (2) assuming I (and our friend) wasn't lying, the fact that it did exist and I owned it and had it 50 feet away sort of meant that it DID exist.
So I ran up and got it, whipped it out, and started playing some of my very best stuff at blazing speed just to blatently send the message YOU'RE not the only one out there who can play, bub! After ripping through an original counterpoint piece and a Paganni arrangement/transcription, it was funny how he instantly become befuddled and silent, totally snuffed.
After a brief pause, he regained his previous posture and said, with the slightest air of condescension and vindicated skepticism, I thought you said it was an 8-string.
So I then paused for a moment, made eye contact and raised both my eyebrows, and then pointed to the headstock and tuning pegs, and counted 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8! He stammered a few semi-gurgling sounds, and then, clearly embarrassed and in denial, again asserted he had to go, and ran off!
It was pretty funny, the whole air of superiority he had had, contrasting with my combination of humbleness coupled with reality being on my side. He basically knocked the wind out of his own sails (all on his own) and it was really funny. As he was walking away, I said I enjoyed meeting him and seeing his techniques (which was completely true), and then he tried to save face by making some reference to the Series 1 basses with the CVQs, and I told him that it was actually the series II basses that had the CVQs. He stopped (despite being in a hurry) and told me that he was an expert on basses and on Alembics and again said that the CVQs were on the Series 1 basses, and I told him that nonetheless he was wrong, I knew it for a fact, and that I'd be willing to bet my bass against his. After a few seconds of facing down, he relented, and then asserted something to the effect of whoops, that's what I meant to say all along. LOL
Anyway, some time after that, my drummer friend intimated to me that I had intimidated and humiliated him. Hah! I replied that I just did my thing as he had, and that his attitude and demeanor was the source of his humiliation, not anything I did or said. And my friend said I think you're right. He's just not used to anything like that.
I said, better late than never!
