ECG -Chapter 8 Even Good Guitars Can Be Found by Luck

At this moment, no one dared to jeer anymore. The entire place fell silent.

Qian Yu’s face turned deathly pale. He pursed his lips, not knowing what to say.

“Teacher, as an instrument instructor, getting a little commission from a music store isn’t really a problem. After all, parents are outsiders. As long as they don’t waste money and still buy a good instrument, it’s a situation where everyone benefits!”

“But!” Lin Hao’s expression darkened. “If you work together with the music store to scam parents and sell fake products, then isn’t that a matter of terrible character and morals?”

“You!?”

Qian Yu’s hands began trembling, and his face grew paler and paler.

But everything Lin Hao said was completely reasonable. He had a guilty conscience, and at this moment, he couldn’t come up with a single word to refute him.

The round-faced female sales clerk looked embarrassed. She stood there hesitating, not knowing how to explain herself.

Lin Hao placed the guitar back onto the stand, then turned to Wu Xiaozhou and said, “Let’s go. Forget this music store. They don’t have the guitar we want.”

After saying that, he walked toward the entrance. The people who had been watching moved aside to clear a path.

Behind him, the middle-aged man called out, “Little brother, thank you!”

Lin Hao didn’t turn around. He simply waved his hand behind him.

Afterward, the middle-aged man’s face darkened.

Qian Yu looked extremely uncomfortable. He stepped forward, his waist bending slightly on its own.

“Brother Liu, listen to me… listen to me…”

“What else is there to say?!” The middle-aged man looked at him with disdain. After saying that, he didn’t even spare him another glance. He grabbed his son, flicked his sleeve, and turned to leave.

Qian Yu stood there blankly, his face alternating between green and white.

After a long while, he twisted his face and glanced at the few spectators nearby. Gritting his teeth, he said:

“Ma San, help me find out who that kid is. Damn it!”

A commission worth tens of thousands of yuan had been ruined just like that. The student had also left, and under these circumstances, there was no way he would continue studying with him.

He was so angry he felt like vomiting blood!

…

After Lin Hao and Wu Xiaozhou left the music store, Wu Xiaozhou immediately gave him a thumbs-up.

“Impressive. Did you get struck by lightning or something? Since when did you know so much?”

Lin Hao reached out and patted his sturdy shoulder, looking at him with a disappointed expression.

“Brother, you need to read more books!”

“Damn, you’re the guy who thinks even Story Club is too long to read. When have you ever read a book?”

“Uh?!”

Lin Hao was stunned. It seemed this body’s previous owner’s self-awareness was seriously flawed!

After riding for three blocks, the two of them finally found another small music store.

The shop was quiet. Near the two counters at the back, an old man with a bald head and white beard was half-lying on a rattan chair, lazily waving a palm fan while dozing off.

Lin Hao glanced at the few electric basses hanging on the wall and shook his head slightly. They were all cheap goods.

“Boss, do you have any second-hand electric basses here?” he asked.

The old man looked at him with sleepy eyes, raised the palm fan in his hand, pointed toward the corner, and then closed his eyes again.

In the corner, more than a dozen guitars and basses were piled up. They were just left there without cases, with a thick layer of dust covering them.

Lin Hao walked over, squatted down, and began searching through them.

The electric guitars were all cheap products. Among them were even two Fender and Gibson copies that couldn’t even be considered decent imitations.

He picked up an electric bass that was a copy of a Yamaha, looked at it twice, and put it down.

The craftsmanship was so crude that it was almost unbearable to look at.

“Huh?”

He picked up another electric bass and was so surprised that he almost cried out.

Lin Hao quickly covered his mouth and glanced back at the old man on the rattan chair.

Luckily, the old man’s eyes were still closed.

Wu Xiaozhou noticed something strange about him and opened his mouth to ask, but Lin Hao quickly gave him a look.

After that, he carefully examined the dusty bass guitar…

It was an old dark brown bass, and judging from its appearance, it was at least twenty years old. There wasn’t a single logo on the body or the headstock.

But the moment Lin Hao held it in his hands, he knew it was a good instrument. He wiped away some of the dust and carefully looked at the dark brown outer finish and the dark red tiger-stripe patterns underneath.

His heart instantly filled with excitement.

This was a Ken Smith!

That’s right! A Ken Smith!

Musicians usually just called it KS.

It was a handmade bass brand that many bass players loved. Its maker was an American named Smith.

Smith was a very typical stubborn old country craftsman, spending decades making guitars by hand without changing his ways.

The tone of KS was a little strange. People who liked it pushed it onto a pedestal, while those who disliked it cursed it, looked down on it, and even claimed it was completely worthless.

The distinctive crispness and woody character of KS’s mid and high frequencies were extremely prominent, while the low end was solid—though it lacked a little warmth and thickness.

In pop bands, the tone of KS stood out too much and didn’t really fit the needs of pop music, so not many bassists used it.

But when it came to high-position solos, the feel of a KS was irreplaceable! It was clear, not overly thick, and had the right string height; therefore, it was more suitable for jazz or blues.

Of course, there were also some rock musicians who especially loved KS. That depended entirely on personal preference.

…

Lin Hao casually put the KS back where it was and didn’t look at it again.

His earlier act of speaking up was just professional ethics. But this was completely different. Finding treasures among second-hand goods was one of life’s greatest pleasures—otherwise, the antique industry would have disappeared long ago!

If he didn’t take it now, there was no guarantee it would be sold cheaply to someone else later…

The fact that the guitar shop had thrown a good bass into a pile of junk meant they had no idea what it was worth when they acquired it. The person who sold it probably didn’t understand it either!

Since both the buying and selling prices were extremely cheap, the shop naturally didn’t treat it as something valuable.

He stood up and pretended to casually look around. After a while, he pointed at a pile of amplifiers stacked against the wall.

“Boss, how much is this multi-function amp?”

The old man raised his eyelids.

“1,800!”

Lin Hao shook his head. Too expensive. They couldn’t afford it.

“What about this one?”

“1,200!”

“This one?”

“1,500!”

“…”

Wu Xiaozhou didn’t understand what he was trying to do and could only obediently follow behind him, watching.

“What about this one?” he pointed at a small amplifier.

“600!” The old man finally became impatient.

Lin Hao squatted down and examined the square black amplifier. It was only 30W, but if it wasn’t for performances and was just used for practicing guitar at home, it would do.

He removed the front cover and checked inside. It had two speakers: one 8-inch full-range speaker and one 1.8-inch tweeter. Not bad.

“500 yuan, I’ll take it,” Lin Hao said.

“Fine, take it!” The old man waved the folding fan in his hand as if he were shooing away flies.

“Old man, I saw that pile of broken guitars you have. Give me one of them. If I can’t play it when I take it home, I’ll just hang it on the wall as decoration!”

“What?” The old man immediately got anxious and sat upright. “How could you not play them? They’re all good!”

Lin Hao curled his lips.

“They’re all broken like that. What’s there to play? They’re not even worth the repair costs!”

“200 each! Take it if you want it, otherwise forget it!”

After saying that, he angrily lay back down again.