George Benson's own guitar for sale

[Woody Sound]

Leo Fender would probably laugh his ass off at this.

Just a moment...

[GuyBoden]

Leo Fender would probably laugh his ass off at this.

Reverb: 1962 Fender Jaguar $68,000

Yes, it's funny that Leo Fender's initial design was for the inexpensive mass production of solid body guitars. To be cheaper than the competition.

[jads57]

Well totally different styles of music and ideas of guitar building, have come about. Back in 1950 most serious guitarists laughed at the idea of solid body bolt on guitar.
And Leo Fender never though of Rock and Roll and it’s later incarnations as a target audience.

My father in law bought a new Telecaster in 1957 in Iowa at West Music. He played in local dance bands and used heavy flatwound strings,Lol!
I think a Gibson ES-175 was similar in price as well as Les Paul Special.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

Well totally different styles of music and ideas of guitar building, have come about. Back in 1950 most serious guitarists laughed at the idea of solid body bolt on guitar.
And Leo Fender never though of Rock and Roll and it’s later incarnations as a target audience.

My father in law bought a new Telecaster in 1957 in Iowa at West Music. He played in local dance bands and used heavy flatwound strings,Lol!
I think a Gibson ES-175 was similar in price as well as Les Paul Special.

I'd been playing about 18 months when the '57s came out, and I must have read every catalog for every brand at least a hundred times that year. I just verified these numbers with my copies of the original catalogs. A '57 sunburst 175 was $235 and a sunburst D was $290. A 2 PU LP Special was $179 and a standard LP was $247.50. Interestingly, Fender catalogs from that era do not have prices in them, and I don't have a mid '50s price list. I thought I remembered '57 Teles to cost about $230 and hardtail Strats to be about $250. But this pic I found in my Fender catalog folder says otherwise (assuming that's the original list price on the tag):

[GuyBoden]

I'd been playing about 18 months when the '57s came out, and I must have read every catalog for every brand at least a hundred times that year. I just verified these numbers with my copies of the original catalogs. A '57 sunburst 175 was $235 and a sunburst D was $290. A 2 PU LP Special was $179 and a standard LP was $247.50. Interestingly, Fender catalogs from that era do not have prices in them, and I don't have a mid '50s price list. I thought I remembered '57 Teles to cost about $230 and hardtail Strats to be about $250. But this pic I found in my Fender catalog folder says otherwise (assuming that's the original list price on the tag):

I'll have the 1957 Les Paul Special for $179. I didn't realise they were so inexpensive.