The other day, a friend and I were walking downtown when I saw a guitar displayed in a pawn shop window. Since I have a weakness for unwanted guitars as if they were dogs in an animal shelter, I was instantly drawn to it, despite it not even being close to the kind of guitar I would normally like. Then again, I always thought that for some purchases - cars and guitars come to mind - the right one will find you, not the reverse. Besides, sometimes it's good to look at guitars that might not be your taste. You might find something you never thought you'd like.
In this case, what I wouldn't normally like was a black, hollow-body jazz-style guitar, complete with f-holes. It looked classy through the window, its gold-plated hardware shining in the mid-day sun. The headstock had the Kona Guitars logo on it, and I immediately recognized it as a decent low-end brand.
"Why don't you go in and look at it," my friend said, obviously sensing how I was drawn to it like a magnet to a slab of iron. And that's how I found myself in a pawn shop for the first time in my life.
Once inside the dusty, sparsely decorated shop, I told the lady behind the counter of my interest in the guitar in the window. She led my friend and me over to the display area and brought out the guitar. Right away I noticed that it still had tags on it, which made sense after she told me it was a brand new guitar. I then noticed the $499 price tag, which was less encouraging.
She handed me the guitar and I saw that it was covered with the same layer of dust that covered the rest of the shop. It was also missing the high E string. No big deal - stock strings usually suck anyway. I took it over to the guitar area (if you could really call it that) and sat down with it. It was horribly out of tune, and I tried to tune it by ear but failed miserably. My heart wasn't in it, since I knew that for $499, I'd have no chance of buying it anyway. I checked out the rest of the guitar, though, and it was decent. The frets were nicely done with no jagged edges and nice binding. It had a roller bridge, which surprised me. It also had a Made in China sticker, which didn't. I didn't plug it into anything so I couldn't check if the electronics worked. I also noticed a healthy ding on the side facing up. I gave it back to the lady, saying "I'll have to think about it."
Even if I were looking for a new guitar now, there would be little thought involved. There is no way this guitar is worth $499, even if it did come with a hardshell case. My suspicions were confirmed when I looked the guitar up online - it turns out that it's a Kona KEL5BK - and found it for sale online for as little as $299. With the missing string and the ding, I'd only pay $250 for the pawn shop guitar, and I doubt they'd take it. Just like that, any thoughts of potentially rescuing it from its "shelter" and giving it a home quickly vanished.
However, I noticed that they had a used black Squier P-Bass for sale for a reasonable $139. That one will be harder to get out of my head.
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