Price of a Gibson ES-175 in 1949

[Beanctr]

Lets not forget that back in Ye good old days most folks were paying list price. Not much shopping around and Al Gore hadn't yet invented the internet. R

[aboutIt]

Labor is people! It's peopaaaaaaaaal!

[Dennis D]

Thanks all, very interesting answers. I didn't want to polemize about cost vs. price, only was trying to figure how many gigs had to do a 1949 guy to get that guitar.

Around here gigging guitar players weren't buying anything new.....they'd seek out used L-4's - -a lot... ( wish I'd have learned about L-4's sooner - - for sure I'd have bought one ) .....

..if they had to put p/u 's in them they did......some guys would try for really good deals on non-cut L-7's and then have a local luthier make them cutaways.....and add CC p/u's.......and the numbers would still make sense when you were all finished.....

......but the saddest thing is, whatever benchmark you want to use for available work, back then there was never a lot , but there was some....now there's very little........

[Doctor Jeff]

I apologise for seemingly keep correcting perceptions concerning manufacturing. Yes, there are more robots and machines now, which have been used to reduce production costs by eliminating some labour, and replacing it with smaller capital costs. However, of that reduced cost I know that even in a highly automated industry, labour is still the major cost. I've been there and had to do the sums (manufacturing industry, not Memphis).

I don't disagree with you on that. You sound like you might have a degree in economics, or accounting, whereas I have never taken a course in either in my life.

But, I'm just curious, how much would you estimate the parts and labor of a 175 cost? Would it be 50% of retail price? 80%?

[gggomez]

The cost to manufacture most things is frighteningly small compared to the retail price. Transport, distribution, wholsalers, retailers etc pushes up the price.

Even a simple scenario:

Manufacturer cost plus transport plus margin = x = moderate amount

x + wholesaler transport + wholesaler margin = x+y

x + y + retailer margin = a truck load to consumer

Retailer margin alone most likely > cost

[ThatRhythmMan]

In 1980 I worked all summer as a hospital orderly making $3.25 per hour (minimum wage). I made about $2000, and spent almost half that on an ES-175.
...

Not that this proves anything, but I should never have sold that 175...

I worked full time most of the summer of 1990 at $3.35/hr making shopping cart parts. After taxes/FICA/etc. I had less than $1000. I spent $300 of that on a Peavey Bandit amp.

Not that this proves anything, but I should never have bought that Bandit.

[newsense]

I don't disagree with you on that. You sound like you might have a degree in economics, or accounting, whereas I have never taken a course in either in my life.

But, I'm just curious, how much would you estimate the parts and labor of a 175 cost? Would it be 50% of retail price? 80%?

Jeff - no, my degrees are in physics, but I used to work in manufacturing industry, before moving to the more cut-throat, competitive world of a university. And I'm also a director of a small manufacturing spin-out company from the uni.

Give me some time to think about the actual manufacturing cost of a 175. My first guess would be that it is somewhat less than 50% of the RRP. In addition to parts and labour, there are the additional costs of advertising, marketing, design, R&D, legal (fighting the feds, copyrights, patents) and plenty of other overheads, such as HR, estates management and executive pay. all of these "indirect costs" are dominated by staff salaries, so in a way, do contribute the labour content of the cost. Also, large manufacturers have to share the profit with distributors and retailers. So I'm thinking parts and direct labor may only be around 30% - with labour still being the main fraction of this 30% - this wouldn't be out of line with other manufacturing industries.

There are plenty of builders on this site who will have similar materials costs to Gibson, but I guess they may feel it would be counter productive to share that information.

Give me a couple of days and I'll try to come back with a more accurate estimate on parts and labour.

There are some good factory tour videos of guitar manufacturers on YT, which give a good idea of how many operations are still pretty much manual. Taylor have put out some particularly good ones.