1960s Pricing

[101Volts]

:shock:

Now....if we only could go back for a few minutes and pick up those items at that price,

......and then come back......

Hey, I'd be glad just to play some guitars at Manny's or go to a few concerts.

Manny's is History ......

Yeah, I was referring to use that time machine you were talking about to go there and play some instruments in the 70s. And to go and see The B-52's in their early years.

[Dennisthe Menace]

Got ya' .....

[jfine]

What I'm remembering from the '60's (yes, I remember them, and yes, I was there!) is: Strats, sunburst, $289.50--Teles, blonde, $189.50--Mustangs, red, white, or blue $189.50--Jazzmasters, sunburst, $329.50--Jaguars, sunburst, $389.50. Cases were somewhere around $45, and solid colors were 5% extra. I bought a Gibson SG Standard new in '67 for $317.50, and got a chipboard case thrown in! According to my '66 Mosrite brochure, Mark I's were $398, Mark X basses were $310 (single-pickup), Mark V's were $298 and Mark XII 12-strings were $498--by comparison, Rickenbacker 360-12's were $479 as I recall. I don't know if the Ricky prices included the case or not. A few other items from that era: Concert tickets-- Blood Sweat & Tears, Jeremy & the Satyrs, the James Cotton Blues Band, and Cream at Winterland, San Francisco, March '68 (I was there!)--$6. A gallon of gas--35 cents. A new full-size Ford or Chevy--$3000. I feel like my grandfather, who told me in the mid-'60's that a new Model A Ford in his day was $500! And my dad bought the house we grew up in, in San Francisco, in 1950 (the year I was born) for $37,000. The same house now is probably worth a million dollars at least, and, no, it's not still in the family...

[JimPage]

Great pricing info, JFine!

Somewhere around here is the Beatles concert ticket I had for their WAPE-radio sponsored gig at the Gator Bowl. Dated September 11, 1964, it was $3.99.

I didn't go because Hurricane Dora took out our Fernandina beach house that day and I was bummed. The Beatles flew down to Key West, I believe, to get out of the weather and played a make-up concert on Sunday the 13th. That's the concert I missed.

Another of my hideously bad decisions in life.

--Jim

[Veenture]

That's the concert I missed. Another of my hideously bad decisions in life.

Jim, buddy, as long as they don't outweigh your good decisions!!!!

[vjf1968]

'Gotta bit of lit from the late 60s, like '67-69. Here are a few samples applicable to metro Chicago. Sorry for the incomplete info; no specifics for color, etc.

Stratocaster $295
Telecaster $270
Super Reverb $430
Twin Reverb with D-120s $605
Tennesesan $375
ES-335 $395
SG Standard with harp vibrola $305
Ventures Model Mk I $400
Dual Showman with D-130s $100
Firebird V $295
EDS-1275 $905
GSS-100 $599 (4-10")
Country Gentleman $575

Whopper 59 cents
New Beatles record, $5.00
3 year-old Tempest convertible with 326-Tri Power $1050
UAW wages for low-end-ish laborer were about $2.90 per hour
2 BR apartment $175

"THESE are the good old days!"

Here are the current prices in today's money using 1967 as the baseline.

Stratocaster $295 in 1967 / $1,882.22 in 2009
Ventures Model Mk I $400 / $2,552.17
UAW wages for low-end-ish laborer were about $2.90 per hour / $18.50 an hour in 2008
Whopper 59 cents / $3.76 in 2008

So you can see with the cost of living and the rate of inflation you can see the price of a new Mosrite or a Strat is pretty much the same as it was in 1967.

No...wait! Or is that the other way around?

Basically things were not any cheaper then as they are now.

Ok...I'm confused.

LUNCHTIME!!!!!

[JimPage]

Fascinating stuff.

--Jim

[jfine]

Haole Jim--it's interesting to see the difference between prices in different areas of the country. I grew up on the West Coast, so my recollection is of those prices. I know Gibson's prices were a little higher west of the Rockies, but I never knew the particulars. It doesn't look like it went the other way, though--I don't think Fender, Mosrite, Rickenbacker, and other West Coast companies charged extra to ship east of the Rockies--and actually, I think Gibson may have been the only eastern company to charge higher prices out here.