On Friday, 19 January 2018 19:15:47 UTC-4, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 1/19/2018 2:02 PM, Tim wrote:
Mr. Luddite
- show quoted text -
I enjoyed having the guitar shop and learning about them ... how they
are built, their histories, which ones are valuable, which are not, etc..

It was the customers that drove me nuts.

....

Yep. But it was fun while it lasted... 😊👍



By far, most of the people that used to hang out at the shop were great
and we enjoyed them coming in, often engaging in impromptu jam sessions
or just talking about guitars, etc. But, a few really got under my
skin due to enormous egos. I gained a reputation that Rick and others
used to kid me about for kicking people out of the shop, permanently.

An example:

One Saturday the shop was full of people. We had a stage with a bunch
of tables and chairs in front for people to sit when we had events.
People were having a good time talking, having coffee, etc. when a guy I
had never seen before walked in with his wife or girlfriend. He
demonstrated an arrogant attitude right away and told me he wanted to
see a vintage amp that we had advertised on the shop's web site.

Showed him where the amp was and he wanted to try it out. No problem.
My son was there and he got the guy a guitar and a cord. Guy plugs in,
turns the amp on, turned the volume up full blast and started wailing
away. It was so loud (and distorted) that nobody in the fairly large
shop could hear each other talk anymore. Whatever he was trying to play
was horrible. This went on for a few minutes until I had enough and I
walked over to him, reached down and turned the volume down a bit,
politely telling the guy that it was a bit too loud.

He became indignant. Said, "I am a professional musician and I want to
check out this amp." That's all it took. I said, "I don't care if
you're Eric Clapton, there's the door ... get out!" His wife or
girlfriend couldn't believe it and asked me if I was serious. "Yup,
there's the door, get out".

That was one of several.

He probably wasn't going to buy anything anyway...or maybe he was on dope. Good move.