[Silly Moustache]

Back in '98 my wife had a guitar built for me.

I was keen to show it off and get the opinion of a singer-guitarist (who usually works as a part of a folk duo) and very much loved in the UK and Europe.
He made it known that he didn't want to be bothered with my guitar but took it played two or three chords and said - "yeah, it's OK" and walked away.
I've hated him ever since.
However, he's a working, travelling performer, and I had not thought about what was on his mind and what he needed to do in the short break.

Also, back in the day, before forums I was on a Yahoo group with a lot of American folks who shared our interests in Texas based singer-songwriters and one was a nightly gigging guy who was pretty poor and a bit wild . he accused (?) me of being a "weekend-warrior" which offended me at the time, but compared to him I was just tickling the outside edge of "show-biz". (I still had a full time job in a large corporate and played two/three gigs a month).
In retrospect I can see their points.
Then I remembered way back in te '60s when i was playing drums in a fairly successful R&B band and someone came up to me and said, "say, your are a great drummer!" I just said "I know" and walked away . How arrogant I was!
Maybe he was looking for a drummer for Queen or Led Zeppelin !

In the last few years, I have been fortunate to meet many fine musicians, and because of my musical preferences, mostly Americans in the singer-songwriter or bluegrass genre.
ALL (no exceptions) have been welcoming and sociable despite their potential weariness, and particularly in the bluegrass world almost everyone is a guitar/mando/banjo/fiddle nerd!

there is an old "saw" told in the British acoustic world : A well dressed folk musician ambles into a guitar shop and says, "What's the cheapest guitar you have?" Sales person shows him something in Borneo cardboard or some such, then a scruffy looking guy in torn jeans and frayed baseball hat wanders in - "I'm in a bluegrass band - what's the finest guitar you have?" and what's more he buys it!