Maybe he's an instrument hoarder? He got into the business because he loves them, but he actually really hates selling them and would rather keep them all to himself. Which might explain the business doing poorly.

Small business not able to offer expensive service big businesses offer shock horror.

(lending stuff out is a marketing expense and not a very cheap one)

Just lost a 'good customer'.

Has he let you try stuff before? I think I see it his way - there's nothing you'd do at home that you couldn't probably do in the store. If you need to turn the amp to deafening levels, maybe he'd let you come in before or after hours to do that. But when I think of the loss liability that lending out an expensive instrument represents, I can understand why he'd be unable to justify the risk to his insurer. The question is whether this is important enough to you to support a big mail-order house over a local brick-and-mortar. Could you simply ask him to match the mail-order firm's warrantee to return it after purchase for full purchase price as long as it's in the same condition? That way you'd get the exact same experience as you would with mail-order, who won't lend you anything at all.

I like taz's idea, mainly because I think there's a good Nick Park short in it.

I've met any number of antiques dealers like that!

miko: It would have been a full purchase up front, no problem there, but I wanted a warrantee, even three days. Import Fender guitars are notorious for hidden problems, plus I can't know how it will sound with my rig without hauling all that into the store nor can I put a meter across the pickups, etc. Warrantees are pretty much standard business in large city shops, so long as the instrument is returned in a salable as new condition. The online stores pretty much mandated that or the brick & mortat shops can't survive.

Maybe he was pissed because last week he only had 4 12AX7 tubes in stock and I bought the whole batch. Either that or he just isn't accustomed to customers who know what they are doing.

I've often wondered what might happen to music stores. A couple in the Boston area have gone out of business for the same reason--online stores are "killing" them. But while some things are great online like books or CDs, other things, like clothes and musical instruments, require you to BE there--I'm not going to travel across the country to try a violin only to find it's not what I'm looking for!

That sounds less like a small-town mindset to me than an incompetent store owner.

Also, what Atom Eyes said.

I read this as "Griping about small-town midgets" and boy, did I have a head of steam worked up for the thread, but now - nothing.