Why are guitars getting more expensive?

[GuitarAttack Forum]

Here is a good article from Guitar World on the rising cost of new guitars.

www.guitarworld.com/features/why-are-guitars-getting-more-expensive-2024

The takeaway: "One of the key effects of the shift in pricing has been a widening chasm in the price tags between firms’ more affordable offshore builds and their traditional US-made ranges."

I saw a new, $20,000 Gibson Murphy Lab Les Paul at Guitar Center on Saturday...and I am sure it will sell soon.

What do you think?

John

[antares]

As noted, a knock-on from Covid shortages. However, there's also the manipulation of perceptions after identifying gaps in the market shored up on brand kudos, in this case "the market" is those with sufficient disposable cash and a demand for dwindling numbers of vintage guitars, and all driven by published reviews and on line "influencers". I only ever fell for this once when I traded in my AC30 for my Session 15-30 valve combo. It's a first class amp and probably created the booteek amp market a good two decades before the rest jumped on the bandwagon, but the memory of that Vox going taught me a good lesson with respect to magazine (and now online) reviews. The thing that surprised me was reading that it has simultaneously depressed the used market which is counter intuitive to me. One thing's for sure- the market will have its way and ensure that eventually the prices will change with far more influence than cynical corporation marketeers can exert. Rolex excepted of course!

I would definitely like one of these distressed guitars- that heavily knocked about double cut for a start, but I would never spend those amounts on them, I'd rather wear my own in which would be unrealistic with my remaining years and level of use!

Edit: the "Murphy Lab" is just another example of creating a perception after first identifying a market opportunity, the Gibson spokesman pretty much stated as much when describing how that relationship came about. It was when Murphy said that he no longer had to sign every guitar because they all had his "stamp" on them that the penny dropped for me. Totally fascile. Happy days!

[dnic]

Good article John.

I'm sure at first the low priced off shore products were really shooting themselves in the foot. But with the import prices rising the home grown stuff may be more enticing.

As for MURPHY I absolutely agree with Steve about finding a niche and filling that void. Only, of course, Steve says it more eloquently. And letting that AC30 go, oh my, heart breaking. Even though I don't play amps anymore they will be prying them out of my cold dead hands.

I think Gibson owners are more brand loyal than maybe any others. Seems like with all the ownership changes and bad investments and QC issues and even near misses with bankruptcy that people would have lost the tenacious brand loyalty with Gibson. I mean pancake bodies and robot tuners. Obviously I don't get it. I don't see that with Fender owners as much. And sure Fender has their issues but a lot of my clients seem very happy with the import Fender where Gibson guys sneer at Epiphone.

Anyway Since we're talking about guitar sales I'll mention that I sold my Paisley Strat. The fabric top that I built. For what I consider a very good price. And it's sort of local so I don't even have to ship it.

[GuitarAttack Forum]

Good comments on this.

The new Epiphones are really nice guitars, particularly the semi-hollow bodies.

On another note, Tom Murphy used to relic all of the guitars himself. Any of the original pre-lab Murphy Les Pauls are becoming collector's items. They were incredibly labor intensive to finish and really unique.

John