highway one strat price increase $974.98

alwaysstrat · **Posted:** Tue Feb 24, 2009 1:02 pm

just got off the phone with musicians friend
i was told as of march 1st you will be paying
$974.98 for the highway one sss strat . far cry from
the $900 to $925 as predicted. i realy dont
understand why fender would raise any prices
on any thing concidering the money problems
the country is haveing.

oczad · **Joined:** Tue Feb 10, 2009 7:53 pm **Posts:** 972

Actually i'm quite amazed at how cheap fenders are even after the increase. think about it. i remember looking at new strats back in the mid 70's and they only had one or 2 models which were junk. The workmanship was sinful. i actually saw many with frets that has the file marks left ! You tried to bend a string and get this grinding feel. Today even the lowest line imports fender sells like the squire line are made far better. Price on one of those string cutters they called strats back then/ $575 as i recall at the particular discount music store i was at. Today you have a choice of what, a few hundred strats? And every one of them is better quality. Thats just one side tho, lets look at the economy and what a dollar bought back then and now. Gas was as i recall about 40 cents a gallon. Nuff said. Strats are better today than ever and cheaper than ever. But understand one thing...whether today or the 50's, they have always been relitively expensive items compared to many things. even in the 50's they were a lot of money for the time. But dollar for dollar they are cheaper today than ever. In fact, you can get a very nicely made squire classic series strat today for about what a strat cost in the 50's. Yet a loaf of bread back them was maybe a quarter compared to todays $3-4. If fender priced them accoringly with the times, a MIM RI should be several grand. Lets not even talk about a MIA RI !!!

alwaysstrat · **Posted:** Tue Feb 24, 2009 2:25 pm

oczad wrote:

Actually i'm quite amazed at how cheap fenders are even after the increase. think about it. i remember looking at new strats back in the mid 70's and they only had one or 2 models which were junk. The workmanship was sinful. i actually saw many with frets that has the file marks left ! You tried to bend a string and get this grinding feel. Today even the lowest line imports fender sells like the squire line are made far better. Price on one of those string cutters they called strats back then/ $575 as i recall at the particular discount music store i was at. Today you have a choice of what, a few hundred strats? And every one of them is better quality. Thats just one side tho, lets look at the economy and what a dollar bought back then and now. Gas was as i recall about 40 cents a gallon. Nuff said. Strats are better today than ever and cheaper than ever. But understand one thing...whether today or the 50's, they have always been relitively expensive items compared to many things. even in the 50's they were a lot of money for the time. But dollar for dollar they are cheaper today than ever. In fact, you can get a very nicely made squire classic series strat today for about what a strat cost in the 50's. Yet a loaf of bread back them was maybe a quarter compared to todays $3-4. If fender priced them accoringly with the times, a MIM RI should be several grand. Lets not even talk about a MIA RI !!!

beleve me the highway one strat is worth
every penny and even with the price increase
i still think its under priced. i just dont think
raising prices now is the right thing to do.

Synkronized · **Posted:** Tue Feb 24, 2009 5:41 pm

If they really do increase prices I am never going to buy another strat at all I think those new prices don't justify the guitars on production..... there are endless brands outthere that will benefit from the fender increases..........

Twelvebar · **Posted:** Tue Feb 24, 2009 6:30 pm

oczad wrote:

Actually i'm quite amazed at how cheap fenders are even after the increase. think about it. i remember looking at new strats back in the mid 70's and they only had one or 2 models which were junk. The workmanship was sinful. i actually saw many with frets that has the file marks left ! You tried to bend a string and get this grinding feel. Today even the lowest line imports fender sells like the squire line are made far better. Price on one of those string cutters they called strats back then/ $575 as i recall at the particular discount music store i was at. Today you have a choice of what, a few hundred strats? And every one of them is better quality. Thats just one side tho, lets look at the economy and what a dollar bought back then and now. Gas was as i recall about 40 cents a gallon. Nuff said. Strats are better today than ever and cheaper than ever. But understand one thing...whether today or the 50's, they have always been relitively expensive items compared to many things. even in the 50's they were a lot of money for the time. But dollar for dollar they are cheaper today than ever. In fact, you can get a very nicely made squire classic series strat today for about what a strat cost in the 50's. Yet a loaf of bread back them was maybe a quarter compared to todays $3-4. If fender priced them accoringly with the times, a MIM RI should be several grand. Lets not even talk about a MIA RI !!!

The fact of the matter is, what stuff cost in the 70's in real dollars doesn't matter on bit today.

Advances in mass production are what kept prices down. the issue here is how big of a percentage this price jump was. it is totally out of line with the last couple decades yearly increases. it represents a significant price movement, but offers absolutely no increase in quality or value. People would accept the usual price hike, or even one a touch higher, but there doesn't seem any justification for a leap of this magnitude. A movement like this will move Stratocasters out of some people's budgets.

Now don't get me wrong, this move doesn't really effect me, the new strat i want is in the higher price range already, this won't affect my purchase, but I think this move takes the production models out of some people's budget. And given the current climate, i would think this to be an unwise move.

Just think, there was a time only a small percentage of households could afford a TV. Do you then plan a price structure for TV's on the 50's model where it once again becomes a prestige luxury item, or do you try sell TV's to everyone.

alwaysstrat · **Posted:** Tue Feb 24, 2009 6:37 pm

Twelvebar wrote:

oczad wrote:

Actually i'm quite amazed at how cheap fenders are even after the increase. think about it. i remember looking at new strats back in the mid 70's and they only had one or 2 models which were junk. The workmanship was sinful. i actually saw many with frets that has the file marks left ! You tried to bend a string and get this grinding feel. Today even the lowest line imports fender sells like the squire line are made far better. Price on one of those string cutters they called strats back then/ $575 as i recall at the particular discount music store i was at. Today you have a choice of what, a few hundred strats? And every one of them is better quality. Thats just one side tho, lets look at the economy and what a dollar bought back then and now. Gas was as i recall about 40 cents a gallon. Nuff said. Strats are better today than ever and cheaper than ever. But understand one thing...whether today or the 50's, they have always been relitively expensive items compared to many things. even in the 50's they were a lot of money for the time. But dollar for dollar they are cheaper today than ever. In fact, you can get a very nicely made squire classic series strat today for about what a strat cost in the 50's. Yet a loaf of bread back them was maybe a quarter compared to todays $3-4. If fender priced them accoringly with the times, a MIM RI should be several grand. Lets not even talk about a MIA RI !!!

The fact of the matter is, what stuff cost in the 70's in real dollars doesn't matter on bit today.

Advances in mass production are what kept prices down. the issue here is how big of a percentage this price jump was. it is totally out of line with the last couple decades yearly increases. it represents a significant price movement, but offers absolutely no increase in quality or value. People would accept the usual price hike, or even one a touch higher, but there doesn't seem any justification for a leap of this magnitude. A movement like this will move Stratocasters out of some people's budgets. Now don't get me wrong, this move doesn't really effect me, the new strat i want is in the higher price range already, but I think this move takes the production models out of some people's budget. And given the current climate, i would think this to be an unwise move.

Just think, there was a time only a small percentage of households could afford a TV. Do you then plan a price structure for TV's on the 50's model where it once again becomes a prestige luxury item, or do you try sell TV's to everyone.

somthing to think about

cvilleira · **Posted:** Tue Feb 24, 2009 7:11 pm

Its nuts!!! 30% Thats like who's going to pay 260.00 for a Champion 600 its no where near worth that.

bill948 · **Posted:** Tue Feb 24, 2009 9:08 pm

So if the prices have gone up, dosen't that mean that the value of what we currently own goes up as well??? Just a thought

Bill

Syeklops · **Posted:** Tue Feb 24, 2009 9:10 pm

I bought an American Deluxe about a year ago. for about $1,200. Now it's gone up about $300 this year. Thank God, I bought it before the price rise.

alwaysstrat · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 6:29 am

i dont have a problem with the increase
it self. the highway one and some of these other strats
are worth every penny and more. $974.98 is what you
wil pay for thye highway one strat. i still find it to be
under priced. my concern is the timeing of this price
hike.thers no money in the usa so how does fender
expect the cusumer to come up with this cash when
the cash isnt there in the first place.

alwaysstrat · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 2:35 pm

BigJay wrote:

Well, if consumers feel the price increase is aggregious or that the instruments are simply unaffordable, demand will fall and Fenders sales will fall. Fenders next move would be to start heavy marketing, which is very expensive and generally not an efficient use of capital. Fender will have little choice but to lower prices back to a level where consumers start buying again.

Of course, commodity related inflation is transitory. In other words, what goes up generally comes back down. For example, you may have noticed that gasoline prices have fallen significantly since September. Same goes for copper, steel, wood, aluminum, etc. The point is that some portion of this price increase is likely related to their cost of raw materials. As those costs come back down, Fender will have the flexibility to lower its prices without sacraficing its profitability. Assuming demand for guitars is down, Fender will lower its prices.

But keep in mind that the prices of used or NOS Strat parts on the net, like Ebay, are quite high relative to finished Strats. This could be the primary reason behind Fenders price increase.

have to agree jay thanks for you feed back.

alwaysstrat · **Posted:** Thu Feb 26, 2009 9:38 am

bill948 wrote:

So if the prices have gone up, dosen't that mean that the value of what we currently own goes up as well??? Just a thought

Bill

if you own the upgrade version of the
highway one strat from july 2006 to present
yes that does apply your highway one has gone
up in value. if your highway one was made before
july 2006 no it does not apply to you.

the upgrade versions - your cost $974.98 (musicians friend)
march 1st 2009.

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