I've never much liked the atmosphere of big guitar shops. It seems like some big chop fest, where people aren't even testing their guitars, they're just playing everything they know, and hope somebody else notices them.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing to go and jam at a guitar store, I'd just rather seen it done at somewhere that is designed for a jam, not for a sale.

As for the whole people being better than other people, I've noticed that to. That's why I don't try to go everywhere and be like, "Hi, I'm a guitar player." I like friendly competition, but when people start to feel bad about their own playing it's no fun. If I see some dud who is 10x better than me, I just think back to myself, "Maybe that will be me in a couyple of years."