Gibson price list 1959

roberty

One can but dream!

tony99

oooh I'll take a black treble pick up LP custom and a lovely SG in cream please !!

Adey

They seem to have held their value reasonably well... Which is surprising for something that is now second hand

roberty

The year might be wrong. Wasn't the SG introduced in the early 60s? Unless SG here means something else

guitargeek62

Don’t forget to add sales tax:

https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

rpr

https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ ;
https://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?Amount=1&From=USD&To=GBP

kentuckyklira

https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1959?amount=100

RaymondLin

After inflation it is bang on the money compare to current Standard.

Pete.R

What was the average monthly wage in 1959 ?

RaymondLin

Pete.R said:

What was the average monthly wage in 1959 ?

About $330.

roberty

The S400CES is still the most expensive by the looks of it

https://m.thomann.de/gb/gibson_super_400_ces_vsb_2.htm

Philly_Q

roberty said:

The year might be wrong. Wasn't the SG introduced in the early 60s? Unless SG here means something else

I think the very first SGs were actually in the doublecut LP Junior/Special shape.  Then they changed to the better known SG shape in 1961.

I was surprised to see both the "SG-TV" and "Les Paul Jr." on the same list.  Presumably the same guitar, in TV yellow and cherry respectively.

danishbacon

The faultless plush cases are comparatively speaking very expensive

guitars4you

love the terminology on many of the models 'built in pick-ups'

Surprised at the big differential in price between the LP Custom and the LP Model - around a 1/3 difference in price

arayadis

Electric Spanish Guitars: Play Authentic

Sync

Whilst they seem cheap on face value and align to inflation; people forget disposable income was pretty much zero then, you most likely couldn't finance one and most people lived a fairly austere lifestyle.

Inflation only projects back a small element of the era's affordability.

The reality is and to try and parallel with guitars still; looking at this price list back then would be like looking at the prs private stock one now and removing the credit options from the equation. This is against the backdrop of fewer successful medical interventions and outcomes available, shorter life expectancies along with every other socio environmental economic political challenge from the 50s

boogieman

No doubt Gibson’s are far more affordable now. I’ve got an early 70s Rose Morris catalogue where an LP custom is listed at well over £300, with the case as an extra. To put that in context, I paid £90 for my first car at that time and it was 8 years old. The closest modern equivalent, a 2012 Fiesta, would set you back around £4K now. Petrol was 25p a gallon or 5.5p a litre, a pint of beer was 10p in the student union bar. 

chris45

Interestingly I found a 1960 Fender price list and a Stratocaster sunburst with trem was 289 USD.  I am surprised that it is so close to the Les Paul price - perhaps a reflection of relative popularity?

equalsql

Given that my father was earning an average wage of about £10 a week in 1959 and the exchange rate was about $1.2 to the pound back then. It's easy to see why those guitars were completely beyond the reach of most people in the UK. Hence the rise of Watkins and Burns.

guitars4you

equalsql said:

Given that my father was earning an average wage of about £10 a week in 1959 and the exchange rate was about $1.2 to the pound back then. It's easy to see why those guitars were completely beyond the reach of most people in the UK. Hence the rise of Watkins and Burns.

Remember the embargo was still in place up to around 1962 on USA goods, that had been running since WW2, so we could not actually import goods from the USA, for sale in the shops - So a large part of early success for the European builders was based on availability 

AlbertC

1957 Fender Catalog