'79 Fender Stratocaster - what price?

Treewig1

I bought my 79 Strat in 1981 and it was the first proper guitar I owned. Natural finish, black scratch plate, maple board. I kept it in perfect condition (although I played it every day and gigged it a lot) and held on to every tag, label, term arm and spring. Everything was totally stock. Then I stupidly sold it on ebay and regretted it the moment it left. I've started looking again but I really want a near perfect model like the one I sold. I've seen this on Gumtree; http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/fender-stratocaster-1979-bullet-vintage-from-fullerton-factory-with-original-case-near-mint/1064770047. Are those prices real? Has one really sold for £2200 on ebay? I think £1650 is over the top and I wondered what everyone's thoughts/experiences were? I've now got a 2012 Custom Shop Deluxe. Keep it or sell/swap for a 79. Am I mad? Thanks

 

Thanks so much for all your comments.  I think I am caught up in the nostalgia of my old one and I need to face facts (that I'll never get back the guitar I had).  The Deluxe SC is awesome and I'm going to keep it and move on.  PS  Brilliant  piece of research finding the ebay record of when the 79 was bought in the US.

That said, my Huber Dolphin II with trem is by a mile the best guitar I've ever owned.  And that one is going nowhere!!

richardhomer

I'd say £1500 tops. And that's too much.

Fender used S9 serial numbers into '81, so don't rely on this as confirmation of the year it was built.

By this point woods were often stupidly heavy, tolerances were lousy and most Strats from this period were barely more contoured than a Tele....

Fender's nadir....

p90fool

I wouldn't pay 1650 for a 79 Strat, but that one is in astonishingly good nick I have to say.

ICBM

You'll have to search long and hard for a good one, and they're now 'selling' (or at least advertised) for far more than they're worth as guitars.

Sometimes you just have to move on.

Get a reissue - they're actually much better guitars. I don't know if they do a Custom Shop one yet but they certainly made them in Japan and I think Mexico - you could buy one of those, upgrade all the hardware with top-quality modern stuff, and still come in at below half what a 70s original will cost you.

meltedbuzzbox

You have a CS strat man.

Looking at a 79 for a trade would be like trading a Ferrari for a VW Beetle

GuitarMonkey

The Strat in question was sold in March, by a seller in LA. 

Details and lots of photos here http://r.ebay.com/Lep8gW

octatonic

Do not do this.

It is madness.

GuitarMonkey

meltedbuzzbox said:

You have a CS strat man.

Looking at a 79 for a trade would be like trading a Ferrari for a VW Beetle

More like trading a modern VW Beetle for a concours standard 1970s VW Beetle.

impmann

Sorry but late 70s Fenders are the *REASON* folks started searching out old (now called vintage) guitars. Every once in a while I play one that is half-ways reasonable - but I have yet to play one that has me reaching for my credit card.

Nostalgia is an odd thing - there would be a reason you sold it in the first place. That reason was valid at the time and it probably still is. Move on - and don't get suckered into paying over the odds for something that is highly likely to be less of a quality instrument than the strat you now have.

octatonic

GuitarMonkey said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

You have a CS strat man.

Looking at a 79 for a trade would be like trading a Ferrari for a VW Beetle

More like trading a modern VW Beetle for a concours standard 1970s VW Beetle.

Or an subscription to Evil Angel for some Beta-max tapes of hairy bush porn.

Elx

Having recently read this book,

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Stratocaster-Guitar-Book-Complete/dp/0879309962/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1402991625&sr=8-1&keywords=tony+bacon+stratocaster

I wouldn't pay 1/5th of the price you mentioned. The guitar you sold was special to you, and I can understand that, but replacing it with a similar guitar today would not be a very good idea IMO...

NPP

this '79 recently sold for a little over a grand at a dealer: http://www.richtonemusic.co.uk/products/fender_1979_strat_hard_case_2nd_hand-yfender20672.asp

I have a late 70s Strat myself but probably wouldn't buy one now - when I bought it in the mid-80s, there was only very limited choice for a lefty player in provincial Germany ...

Richardj

I'm sorry, echoing what has been said above, 70's Fenders are on the whole average to poor.  Why have they become valuable?

I simply do not understand why anyone who knows anything about Fender guitars would pay a lot of money for one. Sorry. Again.

gubble

Richardj said:

  Why have they become valuable?

Because they are now classed as 'Vintage'.

I think the same when i cheap budget instruments from the 70's / 80's like a Hondo going for £150. Apparently they're vintage too.

Just because it's old does not make it vintage or valuble IMHO

Elx

Richardj said:

I'm sorry, echoing what has been said above, 70's Fenders are on the whole average to poor.  Why have they become valuable?

I simply do not understand why anyone who knows anything about Fender guitars would pay a lot of money for one. Sorry. Again.

True, we are witnessing the same trend over here in The Netherlands. This is what marketing does to people, they must have heard that old guitars are good, so they must be thinking, hey , I have this Stratocaster that I got when I was 10 back in 1979, it's old already, so it must be worth something. I see people asking 2500 EUR and more for Stratocasters from the 70ties. I am not sure they sell though. But that's nothing, a guy was asking for 900 EUR for a 2nd hand TC Electronic G Force the other day, while they cost 750 EUR new from Thomann...

Elx

For example,

http://link.marktplaats.nl/m818336546

If you know anything about Stratocasters, you know that Dan Smith models are not desirable, yet this guys thinks that just because it's rare that he can sell it for 1750 EUR...and it's rare because it was shite and they stopped making it as soon as they realized this...

Elx

Elx said:

For example,

http://link.marktplaats.nl/m818336546

If you know anything about Stratocasters, you know that Dan Smith models are not desirable, yet this guys thinks that just because it's rare that he can sell it for 1750 EUR...and it's rare because it was shite and they stopped making it as soon as they realized this...

Mind you, this is an early Dan Smith, so it is indeed more desirable than the latter Freeflite/ no tone-control models...

GuitarMonkey

Yes, I think that if you can cope with the skinny neck, the 82 Strats are very well put together.

boogieman

My 78 one was a pile of poo. I sold it for £375 and thought I was doing well. No way I'd pay over a grand for one.

ICBM

GuitarMonkey said:

Yes, I think that if you can cope with the skinny neck, the 82 Strats are very well put together.

Except for the crap-metal bridge and the wrong headstock shape… with fairly poor machineheads that often overhang on the corner by the low E because they made the head slightly too small.

They really aren't anything special and were only desirable for a while because what came before and after was arguably worse. But the current CS guitars are in a totally different league, so these should now be no more valuable than any other 80s Strat.

lustycourtier

Its my birth year so I bought one about 5 years ago for £900 I think, retail. Id never get another, when many great guitars can be found for that price.