The ShadowMusic Web Community

Early sixties get a fender if you can. Plug it into your vox and Watkins or Binson if you were lucky. Away we went happy apart from trying to stop rattles going out of tune finding someone to fix the amp or tapes breaking.
Fender made in Southern California mainly by Hispanics with few systems controls. We listened to the Shadows on our trannies or unsophisticated stereos ( probably mono ). No one was building this gear to last as long as it has.
Big business gets involved. Quality of Fender goes downhill so as to cut costs and increase profit. Lets make them in Japan as quality will improve. It did and CIJ perhaps the best made. Now we have the quality issues resolved lets make them over the border in Mexico. Now have the quality and cost reductions. Let's also make them in California and make more money. Hold on the vintage ones are the best as they have improved with age so they don't sound like they did when new ? We can make more money by making them look old and battered and put back the old electronics. The marketing has been a marvel
If all were suddenly available back in 50s / 60s would Hank play a CIJ Strat a Meazzi or Binson or ETap2 and a vox AC30 or a boutique amp. Would the Shadows have sounded like they did ? All these unknowns but decision making was easier and we loved it and appear to still. Am thinking they should give a mono record player away with every vintage new guitar

Back then a Fender Stratocaster was what it was and made in California with no variations of the same guitar at different price ranges. Completely unaffordable for a lot of people, you could buy a decent second hand car cheaper than a Strat.
I wouldn't say 'Life was easier then.'

I would suggest that life was more simple back then rather than easier.

dave robinson wrote:I would suggest that life was more simple back then rather than easier.

have to agree 100% with dave on this. peter

I agree life was simpler thanks. With life being simpler it made my decision making easier. Anyway the only choice I made was what colour Strat however on £7 a week instead I bought a Vibra Artiste on HP for 2 years and a Strat had to wait. Still kept gazing into the window at Lou Macaris in Charing X Rd.

If my research is correct then in the early 60's a Strat was £135 (or was it guineas?).

And a custom colour was about 10% extra.

That sounds ridiculously cheap now, but how long did it take the average person to save up that much in those days?

And does anyone remember how much an AC30 cost, and a Watkins Copicat?

UK, circa 1963:

Custom colour Stratocaster: 168 guineas (£176.40 or £176/8s/0d)

Vox Ac30 Twin Normal: £125.00 or £125/0s/0d

Watkins Copicat: 44 guineas (£46.20 or £46/4s/0d).

Average male industrial earnings - net - were around £14 a week.

and a couple of years later in 1965 The Who's Pete Townsend could afford to smash them!

Well, no..actually the Who COULDN'T afford all that guitar smashing- apparently they became heavily in debt because of the smashed guitars, and had to tour a lot to pay for it...

Anyway, the fact remains that gear was certainly dear back then, especially compared with today....even average quality stuff was expensive.

I've thought for years how great it would have been to have equivalent priced gear - but of current quality- back then in the '60's....say, a Squier Strat or Tele for about 15-20 quid in 1965!

JimN wrote:UK, circa 1963:

Custom colour Stratocaster: 168 guineas (£176.40 or £176/8s/0d)

Vox Ac30 Twin Normal: £125.00 or £125/0s/0d

Watkins Copicat: 44 guineas (£46.20 or £46/4s/0d).

Average male industrial earnings - net - were around £14 a week.

I remember drooling over a Daphne Blue Strat in the window of Kitchens music shop in Leeds around late 62/early 63 and the price tag of 155 guineas has always stuck in my mind, Were dealers at that time obliged to sell at Fender's (or the importer's) RRP or were they allowed to discount?

But whether it was 155 or 168 guineas, as a humble 16 yr old insurance clerk on £350 p.a. a Strat was way beyond reach for me.

Cheers.

Tony