How I dealt with a slightly rude customer at guitar Center the other day.

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As you know, I spend my "down time" at Guitar Center in the back room, practicing and selling guitars. On Wednesday I encountered a couple of redneck-looking white dudes who looked like they might have stumbled out of a country music concert or a Trump rally. Actually, one looked like he could have been a Country musician, while the other looked like might be on parole. Country Musician approached approached me abruptly and asked if we had any J-200s in the store. I paused and said "J-200s?" He said "You work at Guitar Center and don't know what a J-200 is?" I paused, reflected, and said nothing. This is a "therapist's tool" that I learned both while studying clinical psychology at Sonoma State University and while working for Department of Corrections. Finally, I said, "I teach guitar here and am not a salesman. But if you mean a Gibson J-200 Jumbo, I don't think we have any." "You don't have any high-end Gibsons?" I paused again. "Several years ago, when I was a customer here, Guitar Center had several high-end Gibsons, Martins, and even Larrivees, one of my favorite brands. But now we sell more mid-priced guitars than high-end guitars. I don't think we have a (Martin) D-28 or HD-28 in the store." Parolee continued to look at me as if he was contemplating what it would take to steal my wallet or drugs (I don't carry drugs to Guitar Center, but I do carry my wallet). But Country Musician was softening. I said, "Are you looking for the guitar that you're going to keep for life? " He responded in the affirmative, and I asked him if he had visited the Guitar Center in Emeryville. "They have more high-end guitars there," I said, "and the people there are nice." Totally relaxed now, he started telling me about what he was looking for, how he was mostly a rhythm player, etc. I told him about Gryphon Strings in Palo Alto, and it turned out that was near where he is doing "a job" right now. I think he said he is in construction. I then told him how, if he wanted to buy a Gibson, it had to be from the right era, as Gibson has turned out some good and bad guitars over the past 30 years. In the end, I shook hands with both Country Musician and Parolee and said "good luck."