Here's my etiquette question. I went to a concert the other night of a regional Celtic band. During the break I struck up a conversation with the bouzouki player. I play the mandolin and I want to get a bouzouki but they are very hard to find in my neck of the woods { Texas }. I've only played four of them in the past few years so it's tough to get any first hand info.

During our conversation I told the bouzouki player that I wanted to buy one someday and we proceded to talk about woods, scale lengths, different builders, tunings ect. I let him know that I was a mandolin player with a fair amount of knowledge about his instrument. This was not a bar - it was held in a small auditorium and there was no one else around. I was hoping he would offer to let me try out his bouzouki but he didn't. I came very close to asking him if I could but I guess I had an attack of shyness { rare for me }.

Do you think I would have been out of line to ask him if I could play it? How do feel about strangers walking up to you and asking permission to play your instrument? In similar locations I've let children play my somewhat expensive mandolin { with supervision of course } - I feel it's a way of passing it on. What would you have done ?