I know this is an obscure question. I was just reading a book about guitar history and in one chapter the author states that [the UK] after ending an embargo of US guitars in 1959, Fender Stratocasters cost the equivalent of 6 months wages in the early '60s. This seems totally retarded. That would be like a Strat costing $30,000 today. Is this accurate? Can anyone comment?
Six months of whose wages? Maybe six months of the typical aspiring musician’s wages.
That’s all I got.
I found a site with historical US prices (demonstrating that the prices have not changed in real terms) but nothing for the UK.
So let’s say by the mid 1960’s they moved into the 500 - 1000 dollar range and let’s say one in the UK may have cost 1000 - 2000 allowing for import costs etc… According to historical conversion for 1965 1000 - 2000 = 357 - 714 1965 British pounds.
Another point to bear in mind is that (IIRC) the British economy in the 1960’s was not particularly dynamic, and lots of people were subsisting on what the US would consider (at the time) to be near poverty wages, so 6 months wages for 1000 - to 2000 guitar may not have been that much of stretch.
I don’t think you can do it like that, the assumptions made regarding import costs are really at the crux of the question. Just how much more did you pay for a strat in the UK compared to the US.
[url=http://www.xprt.net/~benboom/ampprices.htmThe site I found gives a catalogue price for a 1968 Stratocaster as $314.50 and a 1960 Strat was $289.50. Allowing for 100% extra in import costs as you’ve done still doesn’t result in a very expensive guitar.
The implication of the quote is that the arrival of highly sought after american guitars inflated their sale price or that the government placed a very high import tax on them. We really need to find some UK catalogue prices from the 1960s rather than trying to convert american prices.
Eric Clapton bought “Brownie” in London in 1967 for £150. Rory Gallagher bought his '61 Strat in 1963 in Ireland for £100. Dave Gilmour was given his first in 1967 as a 21st birthday present by his parents. None of which seems to accord with 6 months wages.
Actually, that doesn’t sound that far out.
My father was working as an architect in the late '60s and his annual salary around 1968 was roughly £2000. That’s for an architect at a very successful private practice. I could imagine a non-profession manual labourer or lowly clerical worker getting around £300.
If you allow for a 100% markup, and allow for an average exchange rate in 1968 of $2.40:£1, then you get a guitar that costs £241 5s.
Given that the average house price at the time, according to The Nationwide Building society, was around £4,000, then the guitar would have been the equivalent of about 6% of the value of a house.
To bring that up to modern terms, taking an average UK house price at the moment of around £200,000, that works out to a £12,000 guitar, which is pretty pricy in my book, and coincidentally, roughly 6 months’ wages compared to last year’s average salary.
Thanks for fixing the link!
House prices in my neck of the woods are going up much faster than wages are so I’m not entirely convinced. It would be helpfull to find some stats on average wages in the UK for the 60s.
That same link converts those prices to about $1500 USD for the year 2000, or about 700 pounds.