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And of course there’s the classic, My Bologna. 
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I came here to start a thread on something very close to this exact topic, only my subject line was going to be “who else is afraid to play at the store”?
For me the anxiety isn’t about the staff so much. For one, I’m sure they’re more interested in getting my money and blowing sunshine up my ass than critiquing how bad I am. Second, I assume if they were very good themselves, they wouldn’t work at GC (I realize this is probably untrue and unfair, but it makes me feel better).
My concern is more what the other customers will think. For all I know some fantastic bass player is in there quietly wincing every time I pluck.
I want to try out some new basses, though, so I guess I’ll have to suck it up. Again!
I was really lucky the last time I bought a bass and amp, as that GC had the bass stuff in a separate room with a closed door. I was always the only one in there, so it felt more private, and felt like no one would hear me unless I cranked it, which I didn’t do.
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Like what was said up top, I play scales up and down the neck to get a feel for it. After that I just play whatever covers I’m working on in that moment. Usually at least twice, again to get a good feel for the bass. The other folks (employees and customers) could care less about what you’re doing. Imo, I’d try and find your amp and set it how you have it at home and if it really bugs you, take a set of headphones with you and play through those.
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If what you’re doing is trying to evaluate gear for yourself I would play whatever you typically play at home. How else would you know whether or not it works for you? To hell with the others who are there. You’re not conducting a concert for them. How you play is how you play now. It has nothing to do with how well you may play after more practice and experience. Why try playing what you don’t play well?
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Agree 
I generally tell the clerks I don’t need to be plugged in to an amp. I’m there evaluating the bass feel and quality, not whatever top tier amp they use for sales. I’m looking for evaluating things about the bass aside from tone, which can be very deceptive in stores.
I usually play riffs I love and concentrate on the feel.
If the setup is ok I do also do a spiderwalk to look for fret issues, this is useful.
At the end I will ask to plug in and check the electronics, just to verify they work.
I also sanity check the tone and listen for obvious issues (pickup phase, etc). But tone can be changed so much later I worry (much) less about it than look and feel.
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Not that I’ve done it all that often, still being a noob, but I will play the one pretty easy walking bass line I know. It plays from the top to the bottom of the neck and plays all the strings. I still find it quite testing so that in turn tests the feel of the bass how easy I find it to play. I’ll also play a few scales but that walking line is the most telling for me.
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I’ll just play a bunch of scales and arpeggios. Then if I try to play a song/riff, everyone will be so glad it’s not a scale they won’t care if it’s terrible. 
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I’ve done this as a total newb on both guitar and bass, and I’m still not confident I have the ultimate solution.
Basically, you are surrounded by intermediate/pro musicians and a sprinkle of beginners.
If your playing bass, it should be something you are totally comfortable playing in the pocket, so much that people bob their heads and want to play along with. Even if its just a chord vamp, the timing is everything if you want smiles and props!
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Yeah that’s a good point. I’ve noticed that on a lot of these bass YouTube channels where they demo basses, amps, etc. they will have some line they play that usually uses different positions on the neck, different plucking styles, etc. So finding or coming up with something like that would be cool to see what different parts of the instrument sound like and still play something musical people could groove to.
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Hahahah even he’s not brave enough to play the basslines he plays in the store. Just sitting there with a bass…
There was a music store I went too that is about an hour away that has little rooms you can play in. While I’m sure they block none of the sound you can pretend and that’s ok.
I guess play whatever. I mean if you can’t play in front of people TRYING to sell you something how can you ever play in front of drunk people in a bar?
My close to home music store is pretty small but I need to go in there soon and play around. Maybe if you think of it as a confidence game, just go in and play confidently even if it sucks. Then it’ll be easier.
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It’s weird, I’m really shy and ginning up the confidence to start posting covers took me a month or two and felt like I had to have the song down as well as the artist who recorded it (took another few months before I could put video to the audio). The flipside to that is I don’t give 2 craps about going into a music store and sounding like a 6th grader practicing clarinet.
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HAHAHA that’s amazing. I’m torn with covers too because I’d like to make them nice for you folks to enjoy but the other side of it is I also like doing quick ones even one takes. That way it’s an accurate journal for where my playing is now and I can go back later and see how far I come.
We should have some sort of language to use for if we want really open raw feedback. I catch myself in the trap of “great cover!” which we all want to hear but I’d like to hear what experienced folks REALLY think. 
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@ 0:24ish: Testing cables for tone… is that a thing? 
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Yep 
These here are supposedly “warmer” than standard (Fender) cables and are fairly popular among bass players:
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70 EUR for 3m, that would get me sweating.
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I should learn to play the lead lines from “Stairway to Heaven”, “Sweet Child of Mine” and the other songs they’re tired of guitarists playing. Just so to confuse people when they hear those melodies on bass.
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This video is pretty good
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