ProToneThinline
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I know we all like to bash Gibson on their pricing being excessive. I ran across something very interesting this morning that I thought I'd share.
I was in my library (a/k/a bathroom) when I ran across a Musicians Friend catalog from 1999. For spits and giggles I was looking through it and was quite surprised at what I found.
In 1999, the street price on a Les Paul Studio was $849. Today, that very same guitar has a street price of $799..... A Standard was $1,699, which is just about the same today. Same story with the SG Standard. Epiphones were similar. $699 for a Joe Pass then, $599 today.
Fender, however, was an interesting contrast. A standard Tele was $319, as opposed to $499 today. A Deluxe Reverb was $719..... Today it's $999. That's an increase of almost 30%.
I'm not necessarily defending Gibson (or more accurately Henry). I still think he's an idiot. Nor am I bashing Fender. Yes, you can pay a lot more for a Les Paul Studio today if you choose to. There are a lot more choices now then there were then. But in retrospect, you can still get a "real" Gibson for about the same money as you could 13 years ago. You really can't say that about many other products.
I was in my library (a/k/a bathroom) when I ran across a Musicians Friend catalog from 1999. For spits and giggles I was looking through it and was quite surprised at what I found.
In 1999, the street price on a Les Paul Studio was $849. Today, that very same guitar has a street price of $799..... A Standard was $1,699, which is just about the same today. Same story with the SG Standard. Epiphones were similar. $699 for a Joe Pass then, $599 today.
Fender, however, was an interesting contrast. A standard Tele was $319, as opposed to $499 today. A Deluxe Reverb was $719..... Today it's $999. That's an increase of almost 30%.
I'm not necessarily defending Gibson (or more accurately Henry). I still think he's an idiot. Nor am I bashing Fender. Yes, you can pay a lot more for a Les Paul Studio today if you choose to. There are a lot more choices now then there were then. But in retrospect, you can still get a "real" Gibson for about the same money as you could 13 years ago. You really can't say that about many other products.