Life was easier then

[JimN]

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?
Tony

There has never been a law to the effect that the supplier had a legal right to dictate the retail price, but before early 1964, distribution agreements, for everything from baked beans to new cars, taking in musical instruments along the way, invariably included a clause to the effect that the retailer must observe retail price maintenance (RPM) and must not attempt to undercut any other retailer supplied by the same distributor. Breach of that contract would lead to supplies being terminated and perhaps to penal clauses as well. It was "take it or leave it".

In early 1964, the UK government's Board of Trade (the relevant minister being Edward Heath) sponsored legislation outlawing such terms of wholesale supply and disabling them for existing contracts.

This had various effects, not all of which were observed immediately. The most obvious was that supermarkets (which had been around for a while in the High Street) were set free to set their own lower prices. Before 1964, the likes of Tesco had had to sell everything at the same price as the corner grocer. The change led to purpose-built supermarkets and to a complete shift in grocery retail, though this obviously took a few years.

Some wholesalers and suppliers tried to challenge the new law and to devise new sales contracts which they imagined would not be subject to it. EMI was one of them - and that is why their 45rpm singles from around 1964 often have the "Sold subject to Resale Price Maintenance..." imprint in block capitals on the push-out centre of the disc.

But it didn't work.

Guitars were discounted in the West End of London from some time in 1971 onward. Before that, you had to pay the catalogue price, unless the retailer was released from it by the manufacturer in order to dispose of end-of-line stock, etc. Eventually, the discounting spread around the rest of the country. It had its own effect on the musical instrument retail industry.

[Iain Purdon]

A great history lesson there Jim.

Hands up who thought RPM meant something else

[Paul Childs]

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...

Obviously all they had to do was charge a little extra on each ticket to cover the cost of smashed gear and wrecked hotel rooms.

[Tone]

A great history lesson there Jim.

Hands up who thought RPM meant something else

You beat me to it there, Iain. Yes, a great explanation from Jim and I'm now wondering if my memory of that Daphne Blue Strat is slightly at fault in that the price of 155 guineas actually was on the Sunburst Strat on the stand next to it (I don't ever recall seeing one there in FR).

I do remember RPM but, as a teenager, the detailed workings of it rather went over my head in the same way that Purchase Tax did. As far as I was concerned you didn't question a price and all you had to do was to decide whether you could afford it or not which, in my case, was usually not!

Cheers.

Tony

[Billyboygretsch]

I had a catalogue from Selmer and a Sunburst Strat was 132 gns add 5gns for solid colour .Watkins Copicat 38 gns. The first Strat I saw up close was in early 1962. A guy named Pino Marrioza who was 14 at the time was bought a fiesta red one for Xmas by his mum. For some reason it was referred to as Salmon Pink ? He later sold it and it was purchased by Chris Rea. I can still remember being at the bass players house and him opening the case. Think my mouth closed after a couple of minutes.When Strats went out of fashion around 65 I was offered two consecutive number Daphne blue Strats for £90 but didn't want them or could afford them. Just one of my regrets

[GoldenStreet]

I had a catalogue from Selmer and a Sunburst Strat was 132 gns add 5gns for solid colour .Watkins Copicat 38 gns.

This is from the Selmer catalogue dated August 1963. No mention of Fiesta Red (or any other finish apart from Sunburst) at that time, at least in the UK!

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Bill

[Billyboygretsch]

It says stratocaster red on the advert you show. But red seemed to mean the same colour be it red , salmon pink or flamingo pink. The catalogue I had showed a Jazzmaster and Stratocaster on the same page. Anyway they were expensive at the time

[geoff1711]

If Hank had started all over again say in the year 2000 he'd might have chosen either PRS or Parker, but on the other hand maybe still the Strat.

But regarding the durability issue every time I saw him play live in the last 20 years it looked like he was playing a new guitar, so he either looks after them very well indeed or he had new for each tour, either freebies from Fender or Arbiter or was able to offset the costs against tax. So durability probably has never been an issue.

As for the early ones going out of tune and rattling a good guitar tech should have sorted that, although I accept that back then most guitar techs were luthiers or shop assistants / owners and probably lived in a very different world to Fender and had very little hands on experience of how to fix them.

But don't look back with rose tinted specs, the whole world rattled, broke down, was dirty, and expectations were much lower back in the late 50's.

At 19 I was a much better guitarist on my Hofner Galaxy than I am today, I know more about music now, my guitars are much better, but back then I could find notes and play them as easily as you whistle a tune, I had complete connection with the fret board and new exactly how each string and fret position sounded, I lost that at some point in my mid twenties. I still play by ear but these days have to hunt around a while to pick out the main melody of a new tune, play bum notes, and forget tunes I used to know.

I wonder if Hank has that problem?

Geoff