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Terrible Muddy Waters Forgery For Sale

Hello everyone,

While searching for some of my favorites i noticed a Muddy Waters signed LP for sale that i had to bring to the attention of others. The only problem is that Muddy Waters didnt sign this album. Its a fake......and a very bad fake at that. It seems i have seen and possibly even exposed this album before. It bears no resemblance to Muddy's autograph at all.

I wrote the seller on ebay to let him know but i received no reply. The bidding is up to about 80 dollars and a day left. I cant believe people are bidding on this. Its so far off from a legit Muddy its not even funny. They could at least do a little research.

I dont yet know if the seller just doesnt realize the item is bad or if its an intentional sell. I am not going to post the sellers name yet to see if he responds to my ebay message before the item ends. If he doesnt then i will know something is up and will post the name. The seller seems to be legit from looking at his other items, although i didnt check past history. It looks like he is an album collector and just sells what he gets. For instance he has a Luther Guitar Jr. Johnson LP that is authentic, and thats really the only other signed LP he has.

But in any event i cant sit back and let this item go unnoticed. Its a very bad forgery and doesnt need to be in the market place. I will post just a few authentic Muddy's below. The differences are obvious and Muddy was very consistent in his traits.

Link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/MUDDY-WATERS-HAND-SIGNED-AUTOGRAPH-FATHERS-...

Pic:

I mean this is a childish attempt at Muddy's signature. Probably the worst i have ever seen. Even the websites that sell nothing but forgeries do a better job at forging. I mean just wow.

Here are some real Muddy's from different time periods to compare too, the differences are obvious.

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Permalink Reply by Carl Ryan on August 11, 2013 at 1:24am

Hi William,

I know what you are saying and its true of the old blues guys. I solely collect these guys nowadays and Muddy is one of my specialties. Muddy actually could write fairly well compared to 95 percent of the other guys, and actually gave autographs much better than the graphs we see today from modern stars. His signature has been very very consistent through his career. Their are occassionally some odd balls but they all have the same traits, and the one above is a horrible Muddy forgery. Absolutely no way its real.

I have autographs from most of the older blues guitar guys. And some simply would give a mark or an X when asked for their autograph. Examples include Sleepy John Estes and Big Joe Williams (guitarist). Joe actually could write his first name although it is very crude, and i am lucky enough to have a signature where he signs his first name. Typically Joe would just sign a series of 3 X/s.

But alot of the guys the earlier you go back were largely illiterate and signature examples can be very hard to find. Ive been searching for legit examples from Junior Kimbrough for a good while and have only found one or two and he lived relatively late.

I also agree about PSA certed Muddy items, you just dont see them. I dont know why that is particularly, but i do know that it doesnt have to do with trouble authenticating his signature. And thats just talking about Muddy. I have studied him in depth and have some contract sigs from him. I will post below. His signatures are very consistent in my opinion 98 percent of the time or better. So PSA shouldnt have any problem certing legit items. But you dont see alot of them.

Here is a Muddy signed contract for comparison:

But then you take someone like T Model Ford who was illiterate and you get an auto like this:

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Permalink Reply by Richard Booth on August 11, 2013 at 2:42pm

Here is one of a few Muddy Waters autographs I have in my collection for comparison. Best wishes, Richard.

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Permalink Reply by Dave Jacobs on November 22, 2013 at 9:47pm

Hello. In 1977 I had the extreme good fortune to meet and photograph muddy waters. he was very gracious, and let me hang out backstage. I asked him if I could get an autograph and would he sign both his names. he remarked no one ever asked him that before, but he didn't mind.

So I wanted to share this special autograph in my first post on your website. Thanks!