'Pawn Stars' boss Rick Harrison pays big money for guitar owned by one of America's greatest musicians
Rick Harrison is usually very shrewd when it comes to negotiating a lower price for an item on "Pawn Stars," but he goes into fanboy mode whenever he comes across a rare guitar that he considers a Holy Grail. These instruments are usually Les Paul guitars, and in a recent episode, Harrison paid $90,000 for one of those, which belonged to the legendary musician's wife, Mary Ford, herself. As soon as his expert Jesse Amoroso confirmed that the item was authentic, the pawn shop boss was determined to add the historical instrument to his collection.
In the episode of the History show, the owner walked into the pawn shop with a huge guitar case. He showed Harrison the guitar and revealed that it belonged to his aunt, Mary Ford. "I got some paperwork that documents a lot of things in the Les Paul history. I'm hoping to sell this today for at least a quarter million dollars for this collection today," he said.
The claim instantly amazed Harrison and his son Cory, who couldn't believe their eyes. "Les Paul's more or less a legend I mean he invented the log which was like the first real electric guitar," Harrison remarked. He added that in the 1950s, Les Paul and his wife had more than a dozen number-one hits, and they sold millions of records. Rick then showed the paperwork to Harrison, which included Paul's signature, a lot of correspondence between him and his manager, and contracts. "All this stuff I'm looking to sell," he said.
To confirm the collection's authenticity, Harrison then called in his expert authenticator of documents, Drew. As soon as the expert saw the collection, he was pleasantly surprised. "This is without a doubt one of the most amazing collections I have ever seen!" he exclaimed. However, after taking a closer look at the collection, Drew admitted that it was hard to tell if the contracts and the signatures were real. But he acknowledged that all signs point to the collection being authentic, and any musician or collector today would love to own it.
Harrison then called in Jesse Amoroso of Cowtown Guitars to take a look at the guitar as well. "I can't even believe I'm holding this in my hands. Mary Ford's Les Paul. This is absolutely crazy," the expert said as soon as he held the historical instrument. He shared that Ford was there with Les Paul during his entire career, and she was a singer who could go note-for-note with Paul. "Les Paul, unhappy with this guitar or something like that. He had a pretty tumultuous relationship with Gibson," he added.
Coming to the appraisal, Amoroso estimated that the guitar would be worth about $150,000, given all the documentation it had. "It's an amazing guitar. If Rick buys this guitar, I don't think he's gonna have a problem selling it big," he said in his interview. As soon as Amoroso left, Harrison got straight to negotiating. In typical fashion, he went extremely low and made an offer of $75,000.
"It's not gonna happen. This is a once-in-a-lifetime. I'll tell you what if you want it I'd take $100,000," Rick said in response. Harrison then went up to $85,000, saying, "That's more than I've ever paid for a guitar!" However, the seller wasn't willing to go that low. Finally, Harrison offered $90,000 after giving it more thought, and the guest accepted the deal.
"I just spent 90 grand on a guitar and a stack of papers that's a ton of money," Harrison said in the end.
