Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Anyone here watch the episode "Pay to Play"? 2 guys brought in a '54 strat(serial number 1042) that they said they got at a rummage sale. At first they wanted $40.000 but Les would only give them $12,200. They told him he could have it for $12,500 but he wouldn't budge.I don't know if the whole thing was fake but the strat looked like the real deal and it didn't come from someones collection because everybody was slinging it around like a sack of potatoes.Seth used a battery powered screwdriver to take it apart. That's a $50,000 guitar and look at how they have it dangling over a railing,lol.

Even in this day and age, it just goes to show, 'You can't educate Pork'

These shows are all scripted. There's another one, "Pawn Stars", big story went around a while back where it was revealed that most of the people who walked in were actors and that the guitars belonged to local dealers and collectors.

Haha,I saw that episode of Pawn Stars. And the one where Mary Ford's Nephew sold them her SG. Those shows are all scripted but the guitars are all real.At least on Pawn Stars they have an"expert" appraise the guitar.Apparently on Hardcore Pawn they just use Google(just like a real pawn shop,lol).

Anyway,the '54 strat looks like the real deal, check it out:

These shows can only be interesting for a couple of episodes then they start to script these shows so heavily and the subjects are now trying to "act" and it gets a bit silly.

I know these shows are fake but often the guitars used as props do have a back story. Like Pawn Stars when they did a show with a 1974 Les Paul Custom that came from Cowtown guitars in Las Vegas. That was a total setup because the guy who brought the Les Paul to the Pawn shop is the guitar tech at Cowtown and Jesse "the expert" is his boss.

Then there was Mary Ford's SG. Her nephew had inherited it and since he didn't play he brought it to Cowtown Guitars to sell.They put it on consignment for for him and the asking price was $60,000. when it didn't sell,Jesse at Cowtown contacted Pawn Stars to see if they were interested in using it for a show. Rick ended up buying the guitar and he resold it on Ebay.I think the new owner put it back on ebay now.

Anyway,I was just curious where this strat came from.There is a register for '59 Les Pauls and Blackguard Teles. I thought there might be one for '54 Stratocasters.

I think this is the same guitar at Guitar Center