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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