In your entire life have you ever lost a guitar or amp in a pawn shop ?
- Thread starter Samhain
- Start date
DanTravis62
Well-known member
I lost an american jazz bass once. I was doing drugs and it was like 2002.
mooncobra
Well-known member
One of my buddies let another friend of ours borrow a guitar. This guy is one of those dudes that means well, but is just dumb. He reminds me of a mentally slow dog. You just can’t seem to get angry at him because he is so damn stupid and genuinely doesn’t understand he has done wrong.
My friend went to get his guitar back, and the guy says, “oh, that’s at the pawn shop.” WHAT?!?!?!?! My friend went through the roof, and of course the mentally deficient friend says, “I get paid in a few days, no big deal, I will get it out.” My friend tells him to give him the paper to get it from the shop.
My friend calls me and asks for a ride. Turns out the pawn shop is in San Francisco. No pawn shops in our area. So, we cross the bridge and go to the pawn shop. We arrive, and go to this hole in the wall. He presents the paper work and says he wants to get his guitar. They look at it, and say, “we sold this loan to another pawn shop, here is their address.” (This sounds super shady to me) so, we drive across the city and go to the other pawn shop. He presents the paper work and they tell him, “yes, we have that, but it’s expired.” He looks at the paperwork and tells them it is not expired, it says he has another 3 weeks. They tell him, “our policy is 3 months.” My friend tells them it says 4 months in his paperwork. They tell him they have a different policy and that theirs is 3 months. He says they have to honor the original contract, and they say that they don’t honor other people’s contracts.
They won’t budge. It’s a 90s Les Paul, I think it was a precursor to the 59 reissues? Anyhow, it was worth a few grand according to my friend. Our friend pawned it for $40 because he wanted groceries and only asked for a small amount of cash.
This pawn shop would not budge no matter what. It was crazy. I think it’s a scam they do with the other pawn shop.
My friend was obviously pissed off beyond words. He vowed that he would burn the pawn shop to the ground, then decided to go to the rip off report on the local evening news, and eventually decided he was going to hunt down the owners of both pawn shops and mercilessly beat them to within inches of their worthless, shady lives.
Sadly, he ended up doing nothing and accepted the loss. I think the owner of the first pawn shop picked up on how slow and dim witted our friend who initially pawned the guitar was and decided he could basically steal the guitar via their “sold loan,” pawn scam.
My friend went to get his guitar back, and the guy says, “oh, that’s at the pawn shop.” WHAT?!?!?!?! My friend went through the roof, and of course the mentally deficient friend says, “I get paid in a few days, no big deal, I will get it out.” My friend tells him to give him the paper to get it from the shop.
My friend calls me and asks for a ride. Turns out the pawn shop is in San Francisco. No pawn shops in our area. So, we cross the bridge and go to the pawn shop. We arrive, and go to this hole in the wall. He presents the paper work and says he wants to get his guitar. They look at it, and say, “we sold this loan to another pawn shop, here is their address.” (This sounds super shady to me) so, we drive across the city and go to the other pawn shop. He presents the paper work and they tell him, “yes, we have that, but it’s expired.” He looks at the paperwork and tells them it is not expired, it says he has another 3 weeks. They tell him, “our policy is 3 months.” My friend tells them it says 4 months in his paperwork. They tell him they have a different policy and that theirs is 3 months. He says they have to honor the original contract, and they say that they don’t honor other people’s contracts.
They won’t budge. It’s a 90s Les Paul, I think it was a precursor to the 59 reissues? Anyhow, it was worth a few grand according to my friend. Our friend pawned it for $40 because he wanted groceries and only asked for a small amount of cash.
This pawn shop would not budge no matter what. It was crazy. I think it’s a scam they do with the other pawn shop.
My friend was obviously pissed off beyond words. He vowed that he would burn the pawn shop to the ground, then decided to go to the rip off report on the local evening news, and eventually decided he was going to hunt down the owners of both pawn shops and mercilessly beat them to within inches of their worthless, shady lives.
Sadly, he ended up doing nothing and accepted the loss. I think the owner of the first pawn shop picked up on how slow and dim witted our friend who initially pawned the guitar was and decided he could basically steal the guitar via their “sold loan,” pawn scam.
I remember them most with the death metal
guys around the Bay area.
One of those shops, we partied from closing to open several times jamming relentlessly until
the birds chirped..pawning everything we brought to the pawn shop and being flat broke leaving the pawn shop(s)..
What??
I'm serious man, I learned HERDS from those crazy evil dudes.
The one rule we always held?
Just don't stop.
guys around the Bay area.
One of those shops, we partied from closing to open several times jamming relentlessly until
the birds chirped..pawning everything we brought to the pawn shop and being flat broke leaving the pawn shop(s)..
What??
I'm serious man, I learned HERDS from those crazy evil dudes.
The one rule we always held?
Just don't stop.
rottingcorpse
Well-known member
Ok...but you asked for it.
I got one of the first import blackjack Washburn Dimes to come into DFW.(in '95 or '96)
Stock pickups sucked,so I put a white heavy metal live wire(they just came out)in the bridge and removed the neck pickup.
A year later my other guitarist broke the headstock on it.
My brother in law glued the head stock back on and I wore that bitch out over the next couple of years.
It wound up covered with glow in the dark cow print vinyl by the time I pawned it for $200 in 2001 or so.
It wasn't worth shit by that point. The Floyd posts were worn and the piece they screwed into had to be epoxied into the body.
Frets were woe da fuck out.
Most importantly, the low E saddle on the bridge would not go back far enough to intonate with a 54 gauge string.
Had to grind not only the back off the saddle to get it to go back enough,I had to also grind the 45 degree angle so I could still use the fine tuner.
There was very little thread left on the saddle block for the string block screw to grab.
Pretty sure whomever got that guitar was dumbfounded by it.
Yes,I know I shoulda taken it to a pro and had the posts holes filled and relocated back a bit instead.
But I wanted to play that bitch that night,and meth is a hell of a drug.
I got one of the first import blackjack Washburn Dimes to come into DFW.(in '95 or '96)
Stock pickups sucked,so I put a white heavy metal live wire(they just came out)in the bridge and removed the neck pickup.
A year later my other guitarist broke the headstock on it.
My brother in law glued the head stock back on and I wore that bitch out over the next couple of years.
It wound up covered with glow in the dark cow print vinyl by the time I pawned it for $200 in 2001 or so.
It wasn't worth shit by that point. The Floyd posts were worn and the piece they screwed into had to be epoxied into the body.
Frets were woe da fuck out.
Most importantly, the low E saddle on the bridge would not go back far enough to intonate with a 54 gauge string.
Had to grind not only the back off the saddle to get it to go back enough,I had to also grind the 45 degree angle so I could still use the fine tuner.
There was very little thread left on the saddle block for the string block screw to grab.
Pretty sure whomever got that guitar was dumbfounded by it.
Yes,I know I shoulda taken it to a pro and had the posts holes filled and relocated back a bit instead.
But I wanted to play that bitch that night,and meth is a hell of a drug.
DanTravis62
Well-known member
This is a very common scam among big city pawn shops. When they know they can get away with it, they will 100% fuck people over.
In 88' i pawned a Charvel in Fort Lauderdale to get to Tampa. Later in Tampa i pawned a Marshall head to get somewhere else.
The Marshall had a burnt out 8 ohm tap that the pawn shop didn't know.
I miss the Charvel more than anything.
Pablo Escobar had something to do with all this but im not at liberty to say.
I don't miss those years.
mooncobra
Well-known member
one day, just randomly browsing ebay gear auctions around my zip code. I found my friends USA washburn Dimebolt on ebay, being sold at a pawn shop a few miles from him. I called him up and let him know...same broken latch on the case and everything. He went and got it back. the person who pawned it was the friends crackhead uncle, who had just gotten out of prison a few months earlier. he was dealt with accordingly.
me personally? i'd never pawn...i just sell stuff. if i can't afford it now, its gone. pawn shops and the people involved are trash 100% of the time, around here anyway.
me personally? i'd never pawn...i just sell stuff. if i can't afford it now, its gone. pawn shops and the people involved are trash 100% of the time, around here anyway.
The guy that turned me on to electric guitar back in the late 1970's got on "the powder" during the mid 1980's and let his LPC "Black and Gold" go to one of these pawn shop crooks. Heartbreaking for me to see that happen, but to this day I have steered clear of the hard drugs. Not worth the HIGH.
frontline205
Active member
I guess Ill come clean. I lost a Peavey 5150 in pawn in about 2013. I pawned it to pay rent when I was in college, and just never made enough cash to get it back. I since then have owned like 4 of those amps.
trey85stang
Well-known member
87 esp m-Ii custom. In that gorgeous blue color. I was broke as shit and needed to pay the electric bill before it got cut off. I pawned it for a super low amount just to cover that bill and I could never afford to get it back out.
After a quick search I think it was an m-1
It was basically this one:
https://reverb.com/item/40757027-es...Ws6Pn-VSAjabzmmAzdByKpIdpiwcq8IQaAmWLEALw_wcB
After a quick search I think it was an m-1
It was basically this one:
https://reverb.com/item/40757027-es...Ws6Pn-VSAjabzmmAzdByKpIdpiwcq8IQaAmWLEALw_wcB
90s were a crazy time for gear sales. the early days of ebay,97-2003, however, were GLORIOUS for gear sales. that soloist would be like 2-3k right now, right? its best not to think about that stuff.