Dumbest things ever overheard at a record store!

Just know that 'normal' people probably make fun of record nerds just as savagely.

 

Maybe it's the cold meds, but I've developed an eye twitch from all this back and forth over that innocent "What is mono?" question... Hell, I think it got brought up 7 pages or so ago and it still won't die.

Can we just get straight that there will always be that, "Oh, you sweet, summer child" response had by anyone who knows something about anything when posed with a question that represents what we'll call "beginner's knowledge" in their field?

Yes, I'm sure I and every other guitar player in this thread had our minds blown when someone introduced us to the notion of "alternate tunings." I'm also sure that Allan Holdsworth might roll his eyes (at least inwardly) if posed with some wide-eyed teen asking, "You mean there's more than one way to do that?!" How you handle those inquiries is what it's all about. If you act like a prat about it, your response moves from proportionate into "you're a creep" territory. The person who originally brought this up did not indicate that they handled it in this way (though, in fairness, they didn't indicate that they didn't either...). The people raking the guy over hot coals are beginning to look a little silly at this point. Point is, you can have a fully natural reaction to being asked a simple question simply because you're so far removed from the point at which you didn't know the answer yourself and not be a cretin about it.

This concludes my public service announcement.

Now, in an effort to bring some levity back to the thread, can we go back to talking about how overrated Sgt. Peppers is? (I kid because I love. )

 

Nothing to do with a music store, this happened at a friend's house. I guess it must have been around the mid eighties. They were playing music from a c.d. This was the first time I had seen one. Obviously I was aware of them but I was strictly a vinyl guy at that point. When it had finished playing, I innocently asked him " to put the other side on." Took me a long time to live that one down.

 

You made fun of someone for not knowing what mono is, but you don't really know what it is either. If I disconnect one of my stereo speakers, do I have mono?

 

Well, you can get two sided DVD's, not sure about cd's though.

 

I'm not sure who was the real dummy in this story (it was me) but I wanted help mounting a new cartridge because I wanted it done professionally with the protractor and digital scale out and all of that. I didn't want to potentially damage my records. I hear this one guy is the turntable guru so I go to him. He's cocky and arrogant the whole time (shocker), laments that the instructions tell us to mount it with the screws upside down, craps all over my straight tonearm telling me that no decent turntables whatsoever have this. Tells me I'm wasting money with the cart I bought since I won't be able to tell a difference, only "audiophile records" could possibly benefit from the stylus design I had chosen (Audio Technica AT440mlb). Non-stop condescension while I was being very respectful.

Then when I get home and try to play a record I can barely hear it. Of course the screws being mounted wrong meant the thing was only partly connected. I have to re-do the whole thing myself, properly. I use the tools I have to get comfortable that it's mounted properly and then realize I wasted $20 and a whole afternoon asking some random schmo to do something for me that I just easily did better by myself. I tried to respect my elders and the mysteries of vinyl and it was just a total clown show.

 

This is why I stopped taking my girlfriends to record stores in the '90s. I know it bored them stiff.

 

For collectors like me for which mono copies (in good condition) of the ones you mention in good condition are hard (or impossible) to find, due to the nearly 50 years since mono went away.

Also, in some cases mono mixes differ from stereo mixes which is a big deal to me.

 

I bet there were comments when I purchased these two albums together. I really did!

 

My experience has been that if you know a lot more than someone else about one topic (e.g., "what's mono") -- they probably know a lot more than you do about something else. So I'm not to quick to jump down their throat (like some of you seem to be).

 

It wasn't in a record store but when my niece was young she asked me McJagger's first name.

 

"I love the warm sound of the crackle on a record".
What a maroon!

 

That was pretty funny. At times like that the best you can do is take the ribbing and acknowledge that it sometimes sucks to be you.

As an aside, I was looking at some photos of "engineering" gone wrong and one of the fixes was of someone who had taped a cd onto their side veiw mirror and was using the cd as the mirror. THAT made me laugh. Hoo-boy!

 

Who's Sgt. Peppers?

 

Were they actually that embarrassed?

 

I must admit, that's pretty hot.

 

No, he was too uninformed to know better. Equating the warmth of music with the sound of groove damage is just uneducated.

 

Hehehe

 

Distant relative of Col. Mustard.

 

As in THE Col. Mustard? Father of Capt. Beefheart?

 

Mean Mr. Mustard!

 

I didn't make fun of someone for not knowing what mono is. I never said that. Stop coming up with ******** I never said. Mono is all audio in one speaker. If you unplug one speaker with a stereo mix, you just have one side of the stereo spectrum.

 

I was able to find all of the mono Beatles albums I own from eBay. Not to mention there are also many other artists who have different mono and stereo mixes. "Smile A Little Smile For Me" comes to mind because of the "dah-dahs" found in the instrumental section near the end of the song is only on the stereo version of the song. There is also an organ part in the beginning not foundo n the mono.

 

She should have pulled out a Wailin' Jennys album for you