Re: Vintage Gear, E-bait etc

["Art Simon" <simart@gmail.com>]

That's a really nice summary Kevin. The cost of guitars has really
declined. I teach math in high school, and one of the "word problems"
in our textbook lists the cost of a guitar as $750 and a bass as $900.
The book was published in the 80's, and usually the dollar figures are
_way_ too low by current standards, so this word problem really stands
out as an anomaly. I always attributed it to lower labor costs in the
far east, but how much labor does it take to make a solid body guitar?
Weren't they designed to be easy to mass produce?

Thanks to an earlier discussion, I got my current favorite guitar from
Rondomusic.net for $160. It's a chinese made telecaster copy with a
bigsby and a bridge humbucker. So what is that, like $30 in 1975
dollars?

On 12/20/06, johnsrude@peak.org <johnsrude@peak.org> wrote:
> Except for collectables, I contend that most instruments are much cheaper
> today than they were in the past.
>
> To prove this, I use "Five Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a U.S. 
>Dollar
> Amount, 1790 - 2005" at:
> http://www.mswth.com/uscompare/
>
> Depending on how you calculate the relative value,
> $100 from:
>  1965 is worth $500-1700
>  1975 is worth $300-760
>  1985 is worth $160-300
>  1995 is worth $130-170
> today.
>
> Due to market inefficiencies, some items were undervalued when they 
>first came
> out.  Some were overvalued.  I would also contend that the overall 
>quality and
> consistency of modern instruments is much higher that it was back in the 
>1960s
> due to improved manufacturing methods, particularly CNC.
>
> So that Fender Precision bass you picked up in 1965 for $300 should be 
>worth
> $1500-5100 today, if you don't take account of loss of value due to wear 
>or
> increase in value due to collectability.
>
> Cheers,
> Kevin
> http://www.TheNettles.com
>
>
>
>
>
>


-- 
Art Simon
simart@null.net
http://art.simon.tripod.com
http://www.myspace.com/artsimon