What things cost in "The Good Old Days"!

[Graylion]

I just dug out my JMI price list dated October 1961. Vox amps ranged from the AC 4 at £19.19s (£19.95), which equates to about £398 today, to the "SUPER TWIN/2 A.C.30/6.Normal" at £183.15s (£183.75) which is an eye-watering £3,669 in today's money! (I always use this site for inflation calculations - http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bill ... -1900.html then add 10% to get from 2008 to 2012 so it's probably an under-estimate). There were three models of the AC15: "Normal", "Twin" and "Twin Bass" and four AC30/6s: "Twin Normal", "Twin Bass", "SUPER TWIN/1 A.C.30/6.Normal" and "SUPER TWIN/2 A.C.30/6.Normal". (The one quoted above)
I requested the price list and it came by post direct from JMI as Gestetner Duplicated sheets. It was long before we had photo-copiers!

We've never had it so good eh? They are cheaper now then?

If anyone wants any other prices of musical kit from those days just ask and it shall be given.
Cheers, Lionel

[JimN]

If I recall correctly, many of those amps were still in the 1966 catalogue, and the most pricey 30-watt item was the "AC30 Twin 2 with Top Boost and reverb" for about £225. It was basically an AC30 rectangular head with two separate "pressurised" (ie, sealed-back) 2 x 12 cabinets. Imagine trying to get that lot into the boot of a Ford Anglia.

The reverb was always poor on Vox amps - nowhere near as good as on a Selmer or (especially) a Fender.

JN

[geoff1711]

Back in 1964 a man on £1000 PA had his own house, probably costing around £3500, he drove a Cortina and had just started having holidays in Majorca - all that on 18 quid a week.

So when you look at a Strat costing 175 Guineas - serious money!

Geoff

[Graylion]

Yes Geoff, it WAS a lot of money! My 1962 Selmer catalogue prices the Strat at 160Gns = £168, for the Pink one (Sorry - RED!). That equates to around £3,243 today! I was earning £25 per month as a Junior Clerk in 1962 - but I WAS only 16 (and never been kissed!! )

When I changed jobs in April 1963 my salary zoomed up to £768 p.a.! (£64 per month gross) I never knew anyone who had foreign holidays until around 1968/69! But we were poor and 16 of us lived in a shoe box! (A Monty Python joke!) Equating wages with present day isn't realistic as our pay has outstripped inflation, especially since the 'Minimum Wage' came in. In 1961/62 a bank manager in the provinces would earn about £1,000 p.a.
Cheers, Lionel

[Didier]

In the early sixties, I remember looking at Strats in the Paris music shop. They were priced at some 2,000 FF, which was around £150. Far too expensive for my student pocket money. And the echo units were no cheaper...

Didier

[Graylion]

Yep! Same for me Didier! We could only dream! Still, with the help of my parents, I did buy my lovely Burns Artiste in 1962 and still have it of course Cheers, Lionel

In the early sixties, I remember looking at Strats in the Paris music shop. They were priced at some 2,000 FF, which was around £150. Far too expensive for my student pocket money. And the echo units were no cheaper...

Didier

[shadowkarl]

to Graylion and Jim

I have the old Vox 64/65 catalogue, with all the price tags and came across a special animal which was the "AC30 extended Frequency 15" with two 15" speakers! Never saw one in the flesh and for that is also no price indicated. Anybody seen one of these extended AC 30`s?

Regards
Shadowkarl

[abstamaria]

Fenders and Gibsons were so completely out of reach for me in those days, I never even bothered to ask my parents for one. They were not available at stores, and one had to import them, a difficult process in those days. In the summer of 1962, one of our German Shepherds bit me badly. At the hospital as I was being stitched up, my father said he knew I wanted an electric guitar and that I could get one. I later went to the Manila street where all the music stores were and selected a locally-made electric guitar. I blew up several radios playing that guitar through them. I didn’t want to ask for an amp even.

[dave robinson]

to Graylion and Jim

I have the old Vox 64/65 catalogue, with all the price tags and came across a special animal which was the "AC30 extended Frequency 15" with two 15" speakers! Never saw one in the flesh and for that is also no price indicated. Anybody seen one of these extended AC 30`s?

Regards
Shadowkarl

I played with a band in 1965 (The Four Blades) and our bass guitarist Ken Timms played through one of these. slightly bigger cabinet as one would expect, but did the job OK as far as I can remember. Also at that time one of my favourite guitarists, Richard Harding of The Cresters from Leeds used an identical amp with his green Binson Echo and his Gretsch White Falcon, he specialised in Chet Atkins amid the bands great Beatles and current pop repertoire - what a sound and what a player, a terrific band !!
Richard is now with a Leeds based band called Derringer but no White Falcon, last I heard of him was that he was using a Telecaster. Drummer Johnnie Casson is a well established comedian, appearing from time to time on TV.

[GoldenStreet]

The earliest catalogues I have are the Selmer issues of 1963 and 64. The Strat, Jazzmaster, Jaguar, Precision and Jazz basses are all included, but no mention in either of the Telecaster (or Esquire). Maybe, JMI had the rights to those at the time. I also had one or two catalogues from Bells of Surbiton (the more lower end gear), but they now seem to be long lost!

Bill