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Post subject: Original cost of Stratocaster?
Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 12:23 pm
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I read that the original cost of the Stratocaster ranged from about $250 to $300 in about 1954. That means it would be about $2000 today.


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Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 1:24 pm
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Interesting... Lets not give Fender any bright ideas! lol j/k

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Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 1:29 pm
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Makes me wonder what a Gibson cost in those days. It must have been a huge investment to buy an electric guitar.

I recall recently reading that Fender only sold a couple of thousand guitars per year during the mid 50's. At those prices, it makes a lot of sense that sales volumes would be so low.


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Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 2:37 pm
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$2000 is about what they cost in England(£1000). Fender the inflation buster eh

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Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 9:11 pm
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bss wrote:
Interesting... Lets not give Fender any bright ideas! lol j/k


+1

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Post subject: Re: Original cost of Stratocaster?
Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 9:21 pm
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RudyH wrote:
I read that the original cost of the Stratocaster ranged from about $250 to $300 in about 1954. That means it would be about $2000 today.



$249.00 for a '58 and the case was extra. So were colors, a lefty, and a hardtail. Somebody's gonna come in on exact figures for this, I'm sure. In fact, the last time we got into this chat one of us submitted a photo of the original purchase receipt for his Jazzmaster of that vintage and a photo of the guitar which he still owns.

I think my parents were paying $130 monthly for rent on a 2 bedroom apartment at that time, and a pack of non-filtered cigarettes was 25 cents.


Doc :wink:

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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 6:19 am
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In the mid-50's the case was $40 extra (over $200 in today's dollars).

I just read that by 1970 the cost of a Strat was about $350 (about $1400 in today's dollars.)

At this rate, they'll be giving Strats away for free in a couple of hundred years.


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Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 10:03 am
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'Have old Gibson and Fender price lists, somewhere, but if memory serves, in '68, an SG Standard with trapezoid inlays and full lyre vibrola cost $305.

(please be kind, memory is not perfect)

An ES-335 was $395, an ES-330 was $365

A Firebird V was $299

Hard cases were about $70

A Jaguar or Jazzmaster was about $369

A Stratocaster was $299

A Twin Reverb was $630 with JBLs

A Super Reverb was $425

Yes, guitars were very expensive, then. Be grateful for now; many excellent instruments and amps are available for what would be a small fraction of prices, then.


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Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 11:09 am
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JSJH wrote:
Yes, guitars were very expensive, then. Be grateful for now; many excellent instruments and amps are available for what would be a small fraction of prices, then.


As Jol Danzig at Hamer says, "there has never been a better time to build, buy and play electric guitars".

- C


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Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 2:14 pm
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The Les Paul Junior was introduced for $50, if I remember what I've read.

I also think I read that Paul McCartney paid approximately $400 for his 1962 Epiphone Casino, in 1964.


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Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:26 pm
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I always wonder if there is any gear out there now that'd be mind numbingly rare and valuable later.. I mean the stuff sold new etc.


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Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:33 pm
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I doubt any of the current guitars will ever exceed their current price. They're over-produced. Fender and Gibson might have sold one-hundred of a specific model in the fifites, whereas today the factory is producing thousands.

Factor in the imported guitars, like the Meixcan Fenders and the high-end Epiphones, and there are even more. What we call "vintage" now is a very select group of guitars that have survived over the past forty or fifty years. When they were purchased new, no one knew what they would be worth a few decades later, while people today who are aware of the prices are more inclined to keep their guitars in near-mint condition, hoping that in the future they'll be worth something.

I imagine conversations will go something like this...

"These new 2044 Post-American Standards don't have the same feel as the old 2001s... the original American factory did much better work than the Moon American factory."


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Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:37 pm
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pohatu771 wrote:
I doubt any of the current guitars will ever exceed their current price. They're over-produced. Fender and Gibson might have sold one-hundred of a specific model in the fifites, whereas today the factory is producing thousands.

Factor in the imported guitars, like the Meixcan Fenders and the high-end Epiphones, and there are even more. What we call "vintage" now is a very select group of guitars that have survived over the past forty or fifty years. When they were purchased new, no one knew what they would be worth a few decades later, while people today who are aware of the prices are more inclined to keep their guitars in near-mint condition, hoping that in the future they'll be worth something.

I imagine conversations will go something like this...

"These new 2044 Post-American Standards don't have the same feel as the old 2001s... the original American factory did much better work than the Moon American factory."


Well yeah, it's all down to mass producing (cheaper parts, more of them), but I wonder if like, a company like Keeley Electronics will eventually become taken over by a major corporation and the original Keeley mods will be worth more.. Who knows.


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Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 6:54 am
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Thank heaven for that! Maybe now they're just commodities, and that's good for the consumer! In any case, guitars in general are just commodities today.


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Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 6:57 am
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By all appearances, the parts and manufacture of today's Fenders is far, far better than the old guitars. They have to be, or the competition would bury them quickly.


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