The jump seems big because Fender has held their pricing steady for so long.
I would say the price of a Strat really isn't significantly higher than what i payed 15 years ago(the last one I bought new.)

I don't know about you, but to me, $1500 for something I will own for decades, and use daily doesn't seem to be a bad deal. Guitars in the 50's took a much larger percentage of an average person's income than they do currently. I don't see a price jump of less than a day's pay being that bad, on a big ticket item.

Gibson also raised prices, there was bellyaching on their boards too. It's just that people are accustomed to Gibson raising prices.

There are many Fender options across many price ranges.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

+1

My first beginners Tenor Sax was $1000 and that was years ago. Now I have a $9700 dollar Selmer and my Clarinets are just as crazy. I started Trumpet on a $300 King in 1978 and a Severinsen model Getzen that was around 8 or 9 hundred then. It's worth quite a bit more now. I also have three others that are in the 3-4 thousand dollar range. So yeah, starting out in guitar can be a whole lot less expensive for a quality instrument.

I paid $250 used for my Telecaster, it was $434 new in the color I got it in at the time being. $400 for the other colors. $400 for a quality Fender is much less ridiculous than $600, and VERY reasonable. $600 is not.

$600 just a year ago (not even, considering the price hikes just hit only a few months ago) got you a mid-level to fairly high quality guitars.

Like I said, I feel bad for kids just getting into the music scene.

Come to think of it, my beginner flute was $1000, and I don't use it anymore. Of course, we made payments. But considering my beginner guitar was a $100 Squier that I still use on a daily basis, wow.

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Now hold on, I got a Squire for a good price around 170 (not includin' the amp) and this was a great guitar and I still use it.

Let me explain what I mean by entry-level, as no one seems to be getting me. I mean the entry-level of a big name brand like Fender, not guitars in general. I'm saying $600 is too much for someone looking to buy their first Fender. $400 is much more "budget friendly" than $600. Cuz again, just a few months ago, $600 got you mid-level to fairly high level guitars.

And who said you can't rock the piss out of a Squier? Behold! My blurry wrath!

In Phoenix we have a few GC’s. If this is the case where any of you folks live, the MIM strats and teles that were there before the price increase are still $399.00, point being shop around if you have that luxury. The guy in the store said the older stock will stay that way. He may have been blowing smoke bit they were $399.00 this weekend.

Also I cannot find a store in Phoenix that stocks the Classic Vibe series. I would like to buy one but I will not buy an instrument unless I can at least play it first. Does anyone live in the Phoenix area that could help me out on this? Any info would be appreciated.

In this opinion, guitar is still the best musical instrument-amp value on earth.

Perspective: For the price of smoking a pack of cigarettes per day, you can have a couple new MIMs and an amp, per year.

For the price of leasing a BMW, you can have and American Standard every second-and-a-half months.

For the cost of a month's property taxes in a decent burb in metro Chicago, you can have a Twin Reverb every other month.

George W. Bush became president, screwed up the economy with some help from bankers and Obama is president and he is screwing up the economy some more by giving money to bankers who helped screwing up the economy in the first place.
That is the reason why Fender gutiars are getting more expensive like everything else.

You Americans should be happy anyway (about guitarprices that is).
My entire life (16 years), fenders were about €500 minimum, and those are the cheap ones, not much better than a € 500 squier...

Dutch guitarbizz sux...

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You're in Iceland..

-1
Can't agree with that. I havent played to many Gibson's I would not like to own. Just because I like My fender's there not the only good ones out there.

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Yes I know but we got something over here called news and are very well informed on what is happening in the world . Plus we got somthing called internet.

I understand. However I wouldn’t begin to tell an Englishman or a Frenchman, or someone from Iceland why their economy was in the toilet. Mainly because I don’t live there, and I know that if I only go on news reports that I am not completely informed. I don’t mean to sound rude, but the opinion of someone on the outside looking in, is just that. We have had a run of some very mediocre Presidents, no doubt, but that is not the whole story.

Yeah the Liberals feel the need to bail out a bunch of companies that made bad decisions. That means to make up for the loss taxes are up and companies like fender need to keep their profit margin in the green so we get a price increase. I don’t blame them a bit… Just makes it hard for the consumer to want to buy products..

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(80’s Hair Metal) = A snapshot in time before Grunge ruined Rock & Roll forever!!!!