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Surprised to see Tele's and Strat's have become more affordable.
https://reverb.com/news/guitaronomic...5428c-57073409
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05-22-2016 10:12 AM
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I too, am surprised...and gratified!
Now if only those L5s could do the same - oh well!
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I remember as a kid with my St. George guitar one of the typical cheap Japanese guitars of the day with a 2x4 like neck, strings a mile above the fretboard and lots of chrome and switches but it was a guitar and it was ours so it was great. I just started high school and wanted to get my first good guitar and had the Fender and Gibson catalogs which then were only a few pages. Gibson was bigger catalog because of the archtops, but I wasn't interested in those then, I wanted a Telecaster. I think the list price then was $219 for a new Telecaster and that seemed like so much money. That still sticks with me I have major sticker shock when I see plank guitars in the thousands of dollars. But thanks to all the parts that are available now and Fender MIM guitars can still buy or create a good Tele for reasonable money.
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Not sure about the Gibson graph. In 2013 anyone could get a new Gibson Les Paul Traditional for less than $1500 and that is off the bottom of the chart. I bought one.
Last edited by icr; 05-22-2016 at 09:47 PM. Reason: spelling
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Inflation is not the only relevant factor, purchasing power matters a lot too... but it's harder to incorporate in such a study. Nice article!
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I'm actually not surprised. I started playing in the darkest of the dark CBS days (when copies were invariably better and cheaper), and had a CBS strat for a while that was a total disaster. So, for me anyway, it kind of defies expectations, but US-made Fenders ca. 86 onwards are pretty much the best value around when it comes to US-made Tele and Strat style guitars. I first encountered this when I bought my American Standard Strat in '89. I tried everything but Fenders -- this was back in the days when you could still get Fernandes and Tokai spot-on copies of pre-CBS Fenders in the US -- but wound up with a Fender. Better and cheaper than the competition at many price points and model variants, then and still IMO. Fenders are designed from the bottom up to be mass mass produced. With all the things that have made mass production continuously better and cheaper (e.g., CAD/CAM, Deming-based quality management, computer aided logistics, etc.) for all kinds of goods, it makes sense that Fenders would follow the same trajectory. The CBS-era failures in this light make perfect sense as well -- US manufacturers lagged significantly behind Japanese and German manufacturers in these domains and paid for it in loss of market share across many kinds of products. But starting in the late 80s, they began to catch up quickly.
Originally Posted by MaxTwang
John
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I'll use my imperfect recollection going back to when I started buying guitars in 1972. As I recall, a telecaster copy (we called them fake-o-casters), of poorer quality than today's low end copies, would set you back about $100; $572 2016 dollars. Everybody wanted a real Les Paul, but those went for about $400, or about $2300 in today's money. Minimum wage earnings in those days would be about 60 bucks a week before deductions.
Some sales/purchases (all clean and original) I remember, which sound great until you apply the inflation calculator: $600 for a 1936 L7 circa 1980, $5000 for a 1934 L5 in 1994, $2250 for 1952 ES-175 in 2000. Noncuts have not appreciated as much as cutaways, and still have high intrinsic vs. market value for the money.
Some sales/purchases that sound great no matter what the inflation has done: 1994 $4k for 1962 strat, 1997 $7k for 1952 esquire. All going rates at the time (and, unfortunately, sold for going rates before the prices went nuts). Low intrinsic vs. market value today, obviously.
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That's all the Les Paul anybody would ever need, really, ain't it? Classic and beautiful. Originally Posted by icr
Not sure about the Gibson graph. In 2013 anyone could get a new Gibson Les Paul Traditional for less than $1500 and that is off the bottom of the chart. I bought one.
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I agree. Really nice and classic. Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
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Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
More Traditional than Classic but, yes, very nice. Originally Posted by AlainJazz
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Teles and Strats were the original planks. They were meant to be cheap. The Fender Custom Shop took them to the level of car detailing, very much against Leo's whole intent for them.
With CNC and mainly alder, it is cheaper to knock off a Tele or Strat today. Shame on me as I play Japanese Bacchus Tele, Strat copies which are superbly made.
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But not really, though, if you compare what a tele sold for in 1950-something compared to say, a Gibson 175. Originally Posted by Jabberwocky
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I'm just trying to think what products made consistently through the years have NOT gone down in price (in relative terms) due to improvements in manufacturing (computers, sports equipment, power tools, etc.) or at least offered major improvements year after year (automobiles)?
It's really only luxury goods or collectibles or extreme artisinal products (high-end violins for instance) that keep going up in price while offering no more for the money.
Unless I'm missing something...
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I don't think that you are missing something. My father worked for a home appliance manufacturer for 35 years. He used to say that his company would not survive if they couldn't offer improved versions of washing machines for the same $300 that it cost for people to buy their very first washing machine. Imagine what a "price adjusted for inflation" washing machine would cost in today's dollars. There would have been a better reason why Neil Young would have gone down by the river to shoot his baby because washing machines would be fewer and far between.
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The world's "most expensive guitar" appeared Dubai inlay 400 karats of diamonds , $2,000,000
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Originally Posted by 999369
The world's "most expensive guitar" appeared Dubai inlay 400 karats of diamonds , $2,000,000
$2,000,000 and still needs a fret level and setup to make it play as well as a $200 Ibanez!
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To hedge against inflation in recent years, gold has done well
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That gold-leaf Stratocaster does look very nice. I am a sucker for the Japanese art of urushiol lacquer-gold-leaf-ware. I would like one. Fender Japan, pretty please?
In 1979, I spotted a gold-sparkle Fender Japan Stratocaster with goldplated hardware for about $700. I still dream about it today.Last edited by Jabberwocky; 05-25-2016 at 06:25 AM.
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How'd you get that picture of Trump's guitar?? Originally Posted by 999369
The world's "most expensive guitar" appeared Dubai inlay 400 karats of diamonds , $2,000,000
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Word is that it is strung up with a $3 pack of Ernie Ball Slinkies.
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