I needed a $300 loan (Id have taken $200, $250?) on a like-new 3 yr old U.S. Made (In Corona, CA!) Fender American Vintage '59 Stratocaster Electric Guitar with case and all the dozen or more original tags - totally mint! - the top of the American Made Fender Electric Guitar line aside from the Custom Shop who makes guitars for like Neil Young and Bob Dylan, MSRP $2,250. First thing the employee in Indio does is look at the Decal with his jeweler's loupe (they all wear one around their neck) and makes a "huff" sound. I asked him what he saw that was wrong with the decal. "Its a decal! And it doesn't say 'Made in U.S.A." Duh. Its an American Vintage '59 Srat-... HELLO! - its a replica? No 1950s and more than half of 1960s Fenders wouldnt have had country of origin labels on them. In fact practically nothing made in the US did until the Fair Price and Labeling Act (FPLA) was made into law requiring country of origin labeling in 1967! That costs money and...but that must have been one of the civics classes this guy cut before he dropped out of the 10th grade to start this brilliant career at Rocky's. Silly me! And every guitar and bass, uke and steel pedal Fender ever made in its entire 70 years has decals on the head-stocks with "Fender"and the model "Stratocaster" or "Precision Bass", whatever. Fender has a world class website with over 6 hover zoom detailed pics of my guitar, front and back and another for the case like they do for all the American Vintage Stratocaster models. I checked it out. Even side views. Every inch of every model as big as your monitor with no loss of picture quality. I saw much MUCH less expensive Fender "Squire" Strats, generic guitars and of course the obligatory Johnson or two. After hundreds of years some idiot came out with "Johnson" guitars, no doubt to fill the void that had been the pawn-shop-as-music-retailer niche. Im sure others had considered the name but came to their senses or otherwise sobered up before the first prototype was finished. "Hello little girl, and what is your name? Mary? Why,thats a pretty name! And is this your mommy? It is? And she's buying you a guitar? Oh my O my, yes! A pink one!!! Dear me! I said to myself the moment I saw you, "Wouldn't she just be the sweetest little thing with a pink one!?!" And Im sure I have just what you are looking for so lets you and mommy and me go in there and check out my Johnson!" or "...it was a great concert Mom! - he did a 20 minute solo on his Johnson! Why are you laughing? Why not his "own" Johnson???" Its only fitting that they're hanging in Rockys. All junk. Everything in the store. Made in Korea, or China, Mexico. Crap finishing. Gaps everywhere. Bowed necks. Every crap guitar I see hanging in there is worse than the last! Something worth considering if I decide to go as Jimi Hendrix this Halloween and need a guitar or two suitable for burning! The shop was empty aside from 4 or 5 employees and me. But no one would look past the end of the little chains round their necks and the jeweler's loupes or pick up the phone (I even offered my phone. I offered to pay for the call to Fender...in Corona - 50 miles away!) or spend the better part of 2 or 3 minutes online to verify that they werent going to get burned by loaning me a couple a hundred bucks on a guitar far nicer than anything Ive ever seen in any Rockys. They looked at me like I was trying to sell them the Brooklyn Bridge! The Palm Desert Rockys was also empty when I walked in. The employee behind the little pawn window said "I only need to see whats in front of me, not what's online" as he began opening the jeweler's loop he was wearing around his neck to examine what I guessed would be a decal. I asked if he knew much about guitars. OK so it was a rhetorical question. I told him what happened in Indio and he immediately defended them. Guitar Yoda folded up his jeweler's loupe and let it fall back around his neck and it gave a little jerk like a man hanged before coming back to rest against his "Hock it to Rock!" T-shirt/uniform. I guessed he must be the manager, "Yep. Decal" he declared. Didn't I tell you so? My jaw dropped, my eyes widened "Really?!? Oh my God is that bad?" I tried to sound really worried. "And no 'Made in U.S.A'" he sort of tsked. "Weve been burned before. Im not loaning you anything on it," He paused, I smiled and just blinked my anticipation, "...we're all the same, Rocky's Pawn Shops are all one company, yknow," Magic Loupe Boy finished, sounding impatient. "I gathered as much..." I started, heading out the door, "I just didn't want to assume that ignorance and stupidity were chain-wide, you know, without checking first. Thanks." Hock THAT to Rock!!! And, oh yeah, I almost forgot, "NICE JOHNSON!" read more