So anyway a month or two ago I bought a very nice 1996 Gibson RB-4 from a neighbor and old family friend and life was good. Anyway I have several Banjos including a few Gibson's but this particular RB-4 I have known since it was bout new and even went with my friend to pick it up in 1997 from the local Gibson dealer. The day he brought it home I got to play it and right away fell in love with the tone of the Walnut Gibson and from that day forward every time I see him I try to buy it from him but he always turned me down. My friend is in his late 80s now and a couple of months ago he stopped by the house with the Banjo and sat it on the kitchen table and said "I've decided to sell it and since you have been bugging me for the last 15 or so years here it is" so in a moment of BAS induced weakness I bought it. The Banjo was in great shape except he had really played it and the frets were shot so I took it to John Hamlett, fellow BHO member and long time employee of Geoff Stelling. John did a wonderful job of plaining/sanding the fret board and suggested I use stainless steel frets so trusting his wisdom I went with the stainless. Mean while back at the ranch, I have been playing more and more Mandolin and less Banjo and as fate would have it I ran across a perfect Gibson F-5 Fern that I had to have but in order to keep the peace and still have a place to sleep I put the RB-4 in the classifieds and right away got a few bites one of which was from a fellow who made an offer and a deal was made so I edited the Ad to "on hold". Well after a few days of not being able to contact the potential buyer I started to do a little looking around for information about him. I found his BHO account and it had been opened the very day he made the offer which worried me even more since I hadn't been able to contact him. Since I had his phone number (cell) I asked a friend who has friends who can trace the origins of a phone, because in the days of cell phones you don't have to live in the USA to have a USA area code or number. Well the friend tells me the phone was traced back to some city I can't pronounce in India so I figured I was headed for some kind of scam and fired off an email to this fellow I still had not spoken to thinking now the reason must be because if we speak I will know he is not from around here or at least might think so and I tell him in the email forget it the deals off and could he please explain why his phone number originates from India. Still I got no response, so I have all of these crazy thoughts running through my head and I alert the BHO moderators that something fishy may be going on with this member and I repost my Ad and email the other folks that had responded that the Banjo was back on the market. Now the funny part, it seems that since AT&T has outsourced everything they possibly could the phone in question was from a batch of a thousand or so phones that were assembled in India so when it was traced it came back as being issued by a cell phone company in India complete with the address of the company and their phone number. What the information I received didn't say is that this phone was part of a shipment of cell phones sent to AT&T and sold in the USA. So after getting myself all worked up and a BHO moderator and re-posting my Ad this morning I get a call from a very confused fellow from down south swearing to God and Country he does not live in India nor has he even as much as visited there. Since all I had was his BHO handle how was I to know? Turns out he is a very reputable member of the justice system which after he gave me his name it was easy to verify by looking him up and sure enough he is not from India and has a very respected Law Practice in his home town so as I sit here eating crow fresh in from jumping to conclusions I have apologized to the Gentleman and wish to convey the same to the BHO Moderator (Robert) who jumped in to help me above and beyond the call of duty. The Banjo is after all sold and he is driving up to pay me in cash and bringing his young son who I understand is a budding Banjo prodigy (the Banjo is for his son) because like me he doesn't want UPS or Fedx to play soccer with it between here and there...Whew, today I learned several lessons and thought it was worth the risk of personal embarrassment to share this story, so be patient, and careful but above all else don't go jumping to conclusions.
PD