Harmony Solid body Electric Guitars

“$1, 300 for a unique Strat?! i got myself my own for $150 at a pawn store in 1965. Wish i'd’ve held it.”

Ah, yes. The typical refrain of American middle-agers repeated in electric guitar shops and online forums everywhere. At face value, this common lament makes the reply to our concern appear obvious: Of course guitars became higher priced over time.

Yes, the natural numbers regarding price tags have gone up. But that does not account for rising prices in addition to moving buying energy of the U.S. buck. So let’s research an even more accurate concern: As home incomes plus the economy have shifted with time, have guitars be much more economically out-of-reach?

Like countless responses to really general questions, it's difficult. After much time of pricelist scouring and number crunching, here are some concrete takeaways.

Entry-Level Guitars Are More Affordable Today

Our recent article regarding true cost of making a T-style electric guitar pulled right back the curtain on the reason why guitar prices vary by country of make additionally the work and marketing included. Say what you want about creating guitars overseas, however it has actually notably brought down customer costs for solid, playable electric guitars. Performing teenagers and moms and dads searching for that very first two-pickup, solid-body electric guitar will get a fresh Squier Affinity Telecaster for under $200.

In 1960, probably one of the most well-known and inexpensive entry-level, two-pickup solid-body electric guitars was the Silvertone Stratotone, aka the Harmony H-46. At the time, it cost $54.95 newer without an incident. In 2016 purchasing energy, determined utilising the U.S. Bureau of work Statistics’ online rising prices calculator, that might be $442.07, more than increase just what some entry-level electric guitars price these days.

Approved, it absolutely was manufactured in america. During the time, Asia was in the midst of Mao’s so-called Great Leap Forward. It might be decades before contemporary Plek machines would assist Chinese employees crank out affordable guitar bodies and necks.

The straightforward mathematics is obvious, however. You can aquire a great entry-level guitar these days for half of just what it could run you in 1960."

The quick math is clear, however. You can buy a good entry-level guitar today for 50 % of just what it could run you in 1960. Swap in contemporary boutique pickups and U.S.-made wiring, therefore would still be cheaper than buying a Harmony H-46 in 1960.

High-volume, international manufacturing has decreased prices for budget and mid-level designs throughout the years. Just what exactly occurred towards rates of iconic US guitars?

The Gibson Les Paul and ES-335 Tend To Be More High Priced Today

The Gibson Les Paul might not be more than the Fender Telecaster, but its manufacturing record is certainly much more interesting. Whereas the Tele has been in near-continuous production for 65 years with the exact same fundamental design, the Les Paul has gone through several major design changes, a multi-year remain in production, and significant design creep.

In 1952, there was simply the Gibson Les Paul. No Custom, no Junior, no specialized, no Studio or typical. If we want to track the way the MSRP for the Gibson Les Paul changed eventually, we need to track an individual germ line in the Les Paul family members.

Here’s the lineage monitored in graph below: the Les Paul design from 1952 to 1963, including the body improvement in 1961, the reissues in 1968 and 1969, the Les Paul Deluxe from 1970 to 1975, the Les Paul Standard from 1976 to 2007, the Les Paul conventional, which maintained similar functions, from 2008 to 2013, and once again the Les Paul traditional from 2014 for this. Whether this really is certainly the “standard” lineage is a debate for the next article.

This really is a partial information set as a result of general scarcity of easy to get at cost listings from the 1980s and 1990s, nonetheless it’s enough to paint an obvious picture. Adjusted for inflation, the core Gibson Les Paul model has become substantially more costly with time.

Some visitors could see this and straight away shake their fists at Gibson for increasing prices. Should this be you, think about the dozens of fantastic Epiphone, Tribute and Studio designs created by Gibson which are much more affordable today than any such thing people could have dreamed to get from business inside ‘50s, ‘60s or ‘70s. Let’s not forget the main headline here: electric guitars generally are more accessible today. Gibson has already established a huge submit making that happen.

Other visitors may instead get mad at myself to make an unjust apples-to-oranges comparison. And would be appropriate. Manufacturing landscape changed. Demand changed. Through 1986, the core Les Paul design had been the essential inexpensive solution to get two humbuckers because beautiful, classic human body (from Gibson at the least). That’s not the case any longer.

After the Gibson Les Paul Studio and Epiphone Les Paul models joined the market, the Les Paul Standard occupied yet another strata in the organization’s lineup. When something or brand name begins to take on a perceived advanced status or unique credibility (i.e. “I’ll just purchase an actual Les Paul”), businesses start examining the durability of the need by increasing prices. Things got much more complicated using the introduction of Timeless, Tribute and conventional designs.

In the same way the Honda Civic crept from its scrappy 1973 first as an entry level subcompact, an area today occupied because of the Honda Fit, to something more comparable to what the Honda Accord was once, the original Gibson Les Paul features crept from being the only solid-body electric guitar Gibson meant to a prestige model sitting a number of thousand-dollar rungs above the spot it regularly take when you look at the lineup.

Pick any business with branded products. A model becomes successful and gains a following. It starts to drive the brand’s reputation. A budget design takes its place although it becomes more luxurious and pricey. Individuals continue steadily to pay it off since they enjoy it.

A similar thing took place with the Gibson ES-335. When the Epiphone Dot, Sheraton II, Gibson ES-335 Studio, the temporary Gibson ES-333 and later Faded designs joined the mix, the Memphis-made ES-335 began to reside an even more prestigious area inside lineup. Remember you may get a mint problem ES-335 from very early 2010s for about just what a new one expense in 1958. The scale of boost here'sn’t the maximum amount of because 335 family tree featuresn’t diversified just as much as that the Les Paul.

The Fender Telecaster Is (Somewhat) Less Expensive These Days

The Tele has been around even more than the initial Les Paul, so it would-be reasonable to anticipate similar “premium-izing” and cost rising prices. However, the buying price of an American-made Telecaster has come down over the decades.

The graph below tracks inflation-adjusted MSRP associated with the solid-body, made-in-U.S.A. Fender Telecaster with a standard finish and single coil pickups through 1985, such as the very early Broadcaster and Nocaster many years, and the United states traditional (or United states show) Telecaster from 1988 presenting.