ECG -Chapter 7 Kid, You’ll Have to Take Responsibility for Saying That

The two of them stood to the side, and Lin Hao listened carefully. The skill level of this guitar solo was rather ordinary.

This person used a lot of formulaic finger techniques, then casually pieced them together. It was nothing more than an improvised performance meant purely to show off his skills, yet his technique itself was not even that impressive.

After the piece ended, everyone started applauding.

The man’s long, blade-like face showed not the slightest trace of a smile. Acting cool, he said, “This American-made Fender has a very pure, sweet tone, and the craftsmanship is top-notch as well! I think this is the one.”

A man around forty years old, wearing a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, nodded with a smile. “Alright, Teacher Qian, I trust your judgment!”

After saying that, he turned to the female salesperson beside him. “Write up the bill. How much is it?”

The female salesperson had long, straight black hair, and her round face was full of smiles. “This is a genuine American-made model. The price is 19,800 yuan! Since it was recommended by Teacher Qian Yu, we’ll give you a 10% discount. That makes it 17,820 yuan. We’ll round it down and charge you 17,800 yuan. We’ll also give you a guitar bag and a set of strings for free!”

“Oh?!”

The man was clearly stunned. He hadn’t expected an electric guitar to be so expensive, and he hesitated.

A fifteen- or sixteen-year-old boy beside him became unhappy and dragged out his voice.

“Dad——, just get this one. I think it looks really nice!”

“Alright!” The man looked somewhat helpless. With so many people watching, he said to the salesperson, “Fine, write up the bill.”

“Wait!”

A voice suddenly rang out.

Everyone turned around to look. They saw a handsome young man with delicate features step forward.

It was Lin Hao!

The moment he entered the shop, he had already realized this was a very cheap electric guitar. But after walking closer, he noticed that the guitar head actually had the word Fender printed on it.

He was somewhat surprised. This world actually had Fender guitars too?

After searching through his memories, he was shocked to discover that all the major brands from his previous life existed in this world as well!

Fender.

Fender had made enormous contributions to the development of modern music. It was the first company to commercially produce solid-body electric guitars, and it also created the world’s first electric bass guitar.

Fender instruments had left an indelible mark on many musical styles, including pop, jazz, blues, country, rock, and many others.

Fender guitars were also a brand loved and used by countless musicians around the world.

…

The reason Lin Hao stepped forward was simple: this teacher’s actions were too despicable!

In his previous life, after settling down in Yanjing, his jobs performing in night venues were unstable, so he started teaching at music stores. He often helped students choose and buy pianos, and the stores would also give him commissions.

But at that time, he insisted that even if he earned a little less, the price he gave students had to be lower than the store’s retail price.

Only then could the advantage of having a teacher help choose an instrument truly be shown. The parents spent less money, bought an instrument suitable for their child, the teacher earned a small amount for their effort, and the music store, parents, and teacher were all satisfied.

But using a worthless fake product and selling it as genuine was fraud.

This kind of behavior was despised in the industry. Any upright teacher would never tolerate such a thing if they encountered it.

Even though he carried the soul of a middle-aged man, even though life had already made him smoother and more worldly, as long as a man still had his sense of justice and pride, he absolutely couldn’t allow one rotten fish to spoil an entire pot of soup!

Seventeen thousand eight hundred yuan—this was only the year 2002. That was not a small amount of money. Someone who deceived people like this did not deserve to be called a teacher!

…

He pointed at the electric guitar in Teacher Qian’s hand and said, “This guitar is fake!”

Wu Xiaozhou hadn’t expected Lin Hao to step forward, but he still quickly followed behind him.

The long-faced Qian Yu holding the guitar instantly became even more sour-looking.

The round-faced female salesperson became anxious.

“What are you doing? What nonsense are you talking about?”

The middle-aged man buying the guitar glanced at Lin Hao, then turned back to look at the guitar. Opening his mouth, he asked:

“Young man, are you saying this guitar is fake?”

Lin Hao nodded.

Qian Yu looked sideways at Lin Hao. Curling his lips in disdain, he said:

“Kid, you’ll have to take responsibility for saying that!”

There were several other young people nearby. At a glance, it was obvious they were Qian Yu’s friends, and they all became indignant.

“Exactly, what nonsense are you spouting? Do you even understand?”

“Teacher Qian is a top guitarist in Chunhe City. Could he not even tell whether it’s real or fake?”

“What are you pretending for?”

“Exactly! Do you even know what an electric guitar is?”

“……”

The middle-aged man had originally been reluctant to buy such an expensive instrument. After all, his son was only a beginner, and he felt that buying one costing around one or two thousand yuan would already be pretty good.

But just now, his son’s guitar teacher had said that this guitar was good, and with so many people watching, he felt a little embarrassed to back out.

Then he thought about it again—wasn’t the reason he worked so hard to earn money all for his child?

So he gritted his teeth and decided to buy it.

He never expected that things would take such a turn. Someone actually said the guitar was fake!

He hurriedly asked again, “Young man, then can you tell me how you can tell whether this guitar is real or fake?”

Lin Hao nodded at him, then looked at Qian Yu.

“Teacher, you said this guitar is genuine. Then what style is it? And what model is it?”

The corner of Qian Yu’s mouth lifted. Without hesitation, he answered, “This is from the Artist series. As for the style…”

He hesitated for a moment, his eyes flickering.

“It’s a pop music style!”

Lin Hao chuckled. He stretched out his hand and said, “Can I take a look?”

“Sure!”

This guy was quite straightforward. He stood up and handed the guitar over to him.

Lin Hao took the guitar and carefully examined it from top to bottom, front and back. A smile appeared on his face.

The people nearby became unhappy.

“Hey! What are you laughing at?”

“Dumbfounded, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, you can tell at a glance he’s never even touched such an expensive guitar before!”

“Idiot, who are you trying to show off to?”

“……”

Wu Xiaozhou was annoyed. His temper was already explosive by nature, and seeing so many people insulting his friend, how could he hold himself back?

He pointed at those guys and started cursing, “Your mother—what the hell are you saying?”

Lin Hao reached out and stopped him.

Then he looked at Qian Yu.

“If this guitar is real, and I mean if…”

Qian Yu crossed his arms and looked at him without saying anything.

“You said it’s from the Artist series. That part is correct!”

“Boom—”

The people present immediately started cheering and began mocking Lin Hao again, talking over each other.

Wu Xiaozhou clenched his fists in anger and was about to rush forward, but Lin Hao quickly grabbed his arm and shook his head.

“This guitar is called the Stevie Ray Vaughan Stratocaster. It has the authentic Texas blues—Stevie style!”

Everyone present was stunned.

They hadn’t expected this slightly thin young man to suddenly throw out so much English. But listening carefully, it actually sounded like he knew what he was talking about, so no one spoke anymore.

“Although the appearance of this guitar imitates the original quite well, including the special ‘oval’ neck shape, pau ferro fingerboard, three Fender Texas Special single-coil pickups, gold-plated metal parts, and so on…”

“But even so, it can’t be considered a high-quality imitation, because there are too many fake details that can be spotted at a glance!”

After saying that, he pointed at the fret markers on the 12th fret.

“First, the distance between these two fret markers is too wide!”

“There’s no steel stamp behind the tuning pegs, and the FENDER logo is completely missing!”

“The production number inside the neck doesn’t even need to be checked. Even if it matches the number on the back of the headstock, it’s still fake, because Fender never made this serial number!”

After saying that, he pointed at the three white pickups.

“There isn’t even a Fender marking on these. Real Fender pickups are very refined—the lettering is raised and gold-stamped!”

“I won’t even talk about the sound. The most basic requirement for testing an electric guitar is that you don’t turn on any effects! You need to listen to the natural tone after plugging it in without effects. A real guitar has that tube-like sound…”

“And then there’s the price.”

Lin Hao looked at the middle-aged man, lightly patted the guitar body, and smiled.

“If this guitar were real, at 17,800 yuan, you would have gotten an incredible bargain!”

The middle-aged man hurriedly asked, “Then how much is this guitar worth?”

“800!”