Leo Fender Sells Fender Guitars - Jan 4th 1965

United States
January 4, 2008 7:55am CST
Yep, today is the 43rd anniversary of the sale of Fender Electric Instrument Company (and all the other Fender companies) by founder Leo Fender to CBS for a mere $13 million. I can work out exactly what that would be worth in today's dollars, but back in '65 McD's hamburgers cost about 20c, fries 10c. First class mail was 5c. A barrel of Persian Gulf oil was around a $1 a barrel. Anyone know what a Strat cost in 1965? I know a good condition 1965 Strat costs as much as $20,000 today!Both John Lennon and George Harrison got strats in 1965, yet, the Beatles are really known for using them.
1 response
dragon54u
@dragon54u (31633)
• United States
24 Jan 08
You got me curious so I began to look for original prices...couldn't find any but I did find a 1965-66 Fender catalog at the Classic Amplifiers dot com site. I'd give you the link but apparently I'm too new here. They have some great stuff in there.
1 person likes this
justabloke
@justabloke (526)
• United States
24 Jan 08
You can post links, but you have to type them in! I've looked at most of those links and then decided they are mostly, ok completely out of my price range. I remember back about 20 years ago. I would go into a guitar shop and their used section was full of fenders, gibsons, rickenbackers and the prices were very reasonable(about 1/2 to 1/3 of the price of a new guitar). I wish I had collected a few back then.
dragon54u
@dragon54u (31633)
• United States
24 Jan 08
This'll kill ya...I have a friend on a guitar board that has his own little guitar selling business and while he handles Italia and a couple of others (Italia is a great guitar, I have a Modulo model) he makes the rounds of pawn shops and picks up gorgeous guitars for a song. That's the luckiest man I've ever known when it comes to getting bargains! He finds all kinds of Fenders and Gibsons and other makes, fixes what needs fixing (very little, usually) and makes a tidy profit. Of course, guitars are his weakness so he keeps the real prizes. ;-)