1960s Pricing

[JimPage]

Hey--

I'm trying to remember, from the long-gone days of my youth, what the pricing of the various electric guitars were back in the 1960s.

I lived in South Florida, and good music stores were confined to cities larger than the towns I lived in. Once I got my driving license, my buddies and I would play hookie and take day trips to Fort Myers, Miami and Tampa, checking out what we could find.

As I recall, from relatively cheap to most expensive, there were import guitars, which were considered student models, then the cheaper American-made ones (Kay, Harmony), then Fender, then Gibson, then Mosrite, then Rickenbacker.

Has someone made a study of this pricing?

Not being particularly well off, I usually bought and traded used guitars. I remember the guitars that I bought new being first a Silvertone (Teisco-made) from the Sears catalog, then an EKO 12-string Ranger, then a Univox Beatle bass, then an Epiphone Rivoli bass. All long gone now.

--Jim

[Veenture]

...always bought my guitars new but couldn't afford a Fender Strat in the very early sixties, like so many other young lads living in South Africa too. A Fender Stratocaster was your ultimate goal and when I had left school and on my way to earning my very first salary, bought a Strat clone, like so many others again. (A Fender guitar cost much more than an avarage working man's salary ).
The Hofner Strat look-a-like was a very popular substitute at the time and I bought my red copy on monthly payments! I foolishly traded it in for my first Fender Strat in 1973. Still have that one ..err...rather, my son has it now...

Can't remember ever seeing a Mosrite guitar over there...not even around 1965!

[101Volts]

I'm not sure about all of this but I think Stratocasters were about $250 and Mosrite guitars were $400 for the Mark I, About $250 for the Mark II (For the limited time that it was available) And $300 for the Mark V. I don't know about any of the other models' original prices.

[JimPage]

101Volts wrote: Stratocasters were about $250 and Mosrite guitars were $400 for the Mark I . . .

That is exactly what I remember. Funny thing is that I also remember Rickenbackers being very scarce in Florida, but Mosrites were rather common.

After college (early 1970s), I remember seeing Mosrites in the music stores, used, at very reasonable prices. At that time, though, I was playing only acoustic guitar and wasn't interested. AAAGGGHHHH!!!!

I also had a buddy who offered me a 1967-or-so (two years old at the time this happened) fireglo Rickenbacker six-string which I played for a week or two. Something about that varnished neck and the sharkfin fret markers put me off, plus I was playing bass more than guitar in those days, so another nice guitar escaped my grasp. Another AAAGGGHHH!!!

--Jim

[Sarah93003]

This is a very interesting thread. I never thought about how Mosrite guitars stacked up in the mix of things during their hey day. I didn't start playing guitar until the mid 70's and then I could only afford used. I remember buing an Epiphone acoustic for $50 and a 1963 Guild Polara for $75. I had to make payments on that one! I wish I had that Guild today. It had one of the best necks I've played. Sadly it was stolen.

In 1979 I bought my very first new guitar, a 1977 Gibson Mark 53. It's still at my mom's house for when I visit. It was the first bank loan I ever had. My cousin even had to co-sign for me. When I think back on it I think it's funny that the first thing I ever financed was a guitar, not a car. I bought that guitar for $600 which half off. It's been a great guitar all of these years.

[jtr654]

In 66 I remember Strats +case listing for $365 same for Es335, SG standard $305, Firebird 1 $199 and a 5 for about $300? but Mosrite were $400+ about the same as a ES355.

[Dennisthe Menace]

In 66 I remember Strats +case listing for $365 same for Es335, SG standard $305, Firebird 1 $199 and a 5 for about $300? but Mosrite were $400+ about the same as a ES355.

A Non Reverse I for $199??

[jtr654]

Yes they were that cheap and that was the list price.

[JimPage]

jtr654 wrote: Yes they were that cheap and that was the list price.

I remember my favorite Miami store, Ace Music, had those and we ask one of the old men who were the staffers why they were so cheap. He said they were Gibson's answer to Fender and they looked like crap and they didn't sell. Of course, we know how THAT ended up!

My best buddy and I discovered a wonderful thing about Ace Music: if you were the first customer through their doors on a Monday morning, they HAD to sell you SOMETHING. It was a superstition, I guess. Anyway, we used that to our advantage one time. We kept saying, "No, thanks," until we got out of there with two Epiphone solidbodies, cherry with the batwing headstocks, for $75. That was for BOTH! One had two pickups, and the other had one; no cases. This was about 1970.

I had the single pickup one for quite a while and really loved it. I let a friend have it as a gift; he loved it more. I think they were called Crestwoods or some such name. The two pickup one was a Windsor or an Olympic, I believe.

Nifty axes; sort of like a Les Paul, Jr. My buddy and I still talk about how we should have kept those guitars!

--Jim

[dubtrub]

This flyer listing pricing was before Mosrite went into full production with the Ventures model at the P Street factory in 1963. I think I paid something like $300 for my '62 Strat in see thru blonde in the summer of 1962 when the standard sunburst was $20 cheaper. I should add that was without a case. viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1631