Greetings to all you Fender maniacs,
I was at my local music store today getting some minor adjustments done to one of my Strats. Some of you may already be aware of the news my tech gave me today, but in March Fender is marking up the prices on their entire MIA & MIM instruments. I was looking forward to buying another American Standard in the summer, but instead settled on buying one today for the price of $948 compared to about $1200 which will be the price come March. Considering the tough economic times I felt it was logical to get it now or pay the price down the road. If you know of any friends, family or even yourselves that are in the market looking for a Strat or any Fender instruments now is the time to purchase one before they go up in price. I hope that for those who were not aware find this information helpful.

All the best,
Rayne

_________________
You would never sleep at night
if you knew what I've been through
and this thought is all I have
to trust upon when light is gone

the price hike is already here for a lot of us. you are probably going to a store that hasn't jacked the price on existing stock yet.

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

Sorry to hear about the price woes my friend. I recently got married bought an apartment and quite frankly just been busy settling into my new life. I've been out of the loop for a while, I am sorry I could not pass the news earlier. As far as the Strat I purchased today. I bought it from Sam Ash music and it was an MIA 08 Olympic Pearl brand new out of the box. A quick search on the most popular internet mail order sights revealed that the old prices are still holding, but I suppose the prices are subject to change depending on where one is located.

_________________
You would never sleep at night
if you knew what I've been through
and this thought is all I have
to trust upon when light is gone

Thanks man this is really helpful information

yeah where i go you can still get an '08 for the old price but the new models are significantly higher tags.

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

My friend please enlighten me, what is the story with the price hike? I keep hearing different stories. From what I know the 09's don’t have any significant upgrade from the 08.

_________________
You would never sleep at night
if you knew what I've been through
and this thought is all I have
to trust upon when light is gone

I have no idea why the hike is so big. I expected the usual yearly mild hike, but this is huge. I agree they don't seem very different, or better.

just the store I go to isn't upping the price on the old stock, so it is really glaring how big it is.

i almost feel like they are driving the price up on the normal line in order to make the price on the road worns palatable.

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

I agree that the price hike is HUGE a little over 25%. That hits us gear whores hard. This will be the only guitar I purchase this year. I was looking at the road worn Strats, but could not justify the cost. I believe the Olympic Pearl I purchase was the better decision. However you may be on to something when you state that the price hike might have been done to make the road worn series seem more palatable. Fender instruments (excluding custom shop and artist series) are starting to get up in the Gibson price range one of the main reasons I was never to fond of Gibson’s. However in spite of all the recent news I happy to say I obtain my collection of 8 strats at a time when they were friendly to the wallet.

_________________
You would never sleep at night
if you knew what I've been through
and this thought is all I have
to trust upon when light is gone

Thanks for the heads up dude.....i don't think i'll be buying any strats for the time being in this times of economic crisis......need all the cash i can save now as i have 2 small kids to feed plus there's a lot of company laying off the workers just to stay afloat.
Like all the others i dont understand why the hike is so huge but i guess it's to boost/save up the business that crumbling and encouraging more ppl to spend....

_________________
My Guitars :: My Rig

Variations on this topic have been floating around here for at least a few weeks now. I had posted something similar to this in another thread, but I'll go ahead and toss my $.02 worth in here as well.

Personally I don't think this price hike is really all that big a deal. It's the first time there's been a significant hike like this in a great many years in regards to Fender products. Maybe it's just that I'm getting older, but I have to say that for the quality of instruments that you get now a days vs the price...they're still a very fair deal. In my early years on the electric back in the mid 80's, the quality of an "entry level instrument" for example was simply crap. You could easily pay $150-$200 for a guitar with a plywood body that was virtually unplayable. To get something "decent" back then as new, you usually had to shell out between $400 and $800...the same price range as you'd pay for an MIM today and close to a Highway 1. Of course some of the entry level guitars (Fender, Squire and otherwise) are simply amazing instruments now for sub-$200 guitars.

Also you have to consider how the prices have changed on other things compared with guitars over that last 20-30 years. Back in the late 70's to early 80's one could easily get a brand new car for around $10,000 or less. Now you can easily pay up to $30,000 or $40,000 or more for something nice. Don't get me started on the prices of a new home or even remodeling your currant home! LOL!!! Comparatively speaking, the cost of guitars, even with this recent and perhaps long over-due price hike, isn't all -that- significant.

Beyond that...and forgive me here but I have to say this...we can all run around like chickens with our heads cut off screaming "the sky is falling, THE SKY IS FALLING!" and all the whining and complaining in the world isn't going to change -anything- here. Fender is a company just like any other. They are subject to the same economy that we all are...cost of materials, cost of labor, etc., etc.. They need to make a profit otherwise there's simply no point for them to continue. More over and again, they've been quite conservative over the past few decades and they do seem to try and provide people with quality instruments at -fair- prices (especially compared with Gibson)...certainly not something we should complain about.

I'm sorry for being so blunt here, but yikes...suck it up and get over it already people...it happens!

Again just my $.02 worth,
Jim

WATCH A MOVIE CALLED ZEITGEIST.... there are two, watch both.
I´ve payed here in portugal for my 2008 ADS hss 1290euros..

Hi I_Ronin: just a headsup in return. If you want to read A LOT more on this subject there's been a couple of extremely long threads about it over in the Lounge. Here's one:

http://www.fender.com/community/forums/ ... hp?t=18024

And here's the other:

http://www.fender.com/community/forums/ ... hp?t=16428

That's a wild amount of reading if you're up for it!!!

Anyway. Congratulations on your marriage. That's surely the most important news...

Cheers - C

Hi musiluna, I have watched this documentary it has a lot of information somehow hidden from the main media here in the US... really helpfull

My bad...ooops it´s actually a documentary.
But it´s not only happening in the states but worldwide the corporations control the goverments which controls the media and the media controls the public opinion...

I advise everyone to see them it´s like a "wake up call"

every fender guitar is going up.
in march all the price changes
will be done. the american standards
will be $1,100 the highway one strat will
will be $925.00 to $950.00. this is no
surprise we were warned months ago.

_________________
sombody get me a doctor!