Wait: Steel prices will come down

Don Benoit · From: Okanagan Falls, BC

In my opinion new and used steel guitar prices have gotten out of line. With the US economy at the beginning of a recession, prices are bound to come down.

Mike Archer · From: church hill tn

I agree the prices on new and used steels are

way to high if they keep going nobody

will be able to afford to buy one

I hope prices do fall down a bit

Mike Very Happy

Johnne Lee Ables · From: Minnesota, USA

Mike Archer · From: church hill tn

thats true Johnne

in my case I cant get a new or used one

even if the price did come down this ole emmons will have to last a long time

but im blessed to have a great steel many

right now cant get a nice steel and for that

im sad.......but the metal and all that goes into

making a steel or amp or vol pedal or whatever
just keeps going up and up GEE WHERE DOES IT END?

Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

There isn't a lot of money being made in building pedal steel guitars.

If you are waiting for the price to go down, I'm afraid you are going to be waiting for a loooooooong time. Rolling Eyes

Mike Archer · From: church hill tn

your right Erv

im blue in the face holding my breath now

hahahaheheh!!

Carl Vilar · From: New Jersey USA

Bottom line is they are worth whatever someone is willing to pay for them. There are plenty of inexpensive steels out there whether it's a stageone or an older MSA they are out there. High quality guitars are always going to be expensive specially if they are in mint condition. Me personally I rather pay top dollar for one that's mint because that is all I want mint condition and I'm willing to pay for it. If you can live with broken wood and scratched chrome your going to pay less.
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1971 Blond Twin Reverb 15" custom
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Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

Quick!
Does anybody know the Heimlick maneuver!!!??? Very Happy

Daniel J. Cormier · From: Lake Charles, LA, USA

With the price of the really good guitars running around $5000.00 buying a good used guitar for 1/2 that doesn't seem all that bad.
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Daniel J. Cormier
Rittenberry with Tone to the bone,profex or tubefex and what ever amp, hilton pedal, BJS bars. Email at kajunsteelman@yahoo.com.

Johnne Lee Ables · From: Minnesota, USA

John Roche · From: England

I don't think there are enought steel players buying PSG to bring the price down, it's not a mass market.

I'll ask Gordon Brown our PM and ex Chancellor if he thinks they will, after all he just saved the world with actions to buy shares in the banks , a action that has been taken up by the USA and the rest of Europe,, so we will see....

Jerry Overstreet · From: Louisville Ky

NOMB really but, I'm sure the guys that have guitars for sale on this board would rather you had posted this topic over on the Steel Players or one of the other Steel guitar sections. While I tend to agree somewhat, I don't think a discussion about it on the for sale board will help anyone's chances of selling their gear. JMO

Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

The market for guitars is somewhat soft at present but there will always be buyers for quality instruments.

Unless you are a professional musician and earning a lot of money with music, guitars are a "luxury" item and other budget items have priority. Sad

Michael Strauss · From: Delray Beach,Florida

Hi Jerry,
I disagree.
I don't think this thread will effect anyone buying a new (used) steel. I can't play my Carter, but it didn't stop me from buying the LDG Herby was selling. I saw it, fell in love and convinced the boss, by way of an early birthday present, I should get it.

I don't think most people buy an instrument, PSG or otherwise, because they need it. Most people buy instruments because they want them. My .02
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Terry Winter · From: Saskatchewan, Canada

I know that steels are expensive but only look back 20 years or so and compare what quaility steels were worth then to what they are now. Now compare all of the other items such as autos,food and most all other merchandise and you'll find that a quaility steel quitar hasn't inflated to what the other goods have. Terry

Daniel J. Cormier · From: Lake Charles, LA, USA

I agree with Terry. I never Thought we'd be paying 3.50 + dollars a gallon for Gasoline and 4.00 a gallon for Milk.Eggs have almost doubled also
I am so glad that it is now as cheap to drink Beer as it is milk Winking

Oh I forgot about the big midwest cattle strike and the northern Arkansas Chicken strike Laughing

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Daniel J. Cormier
Rittenberry with Tone to the bone,profex or tubefex and what ever amp, hilton pedal, BJS bars. Email at kajunsteelman@yahoo.com.

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

This thread belongs in "Pedal Steel", not "For Sale: Instrument" simply because it isn't a for-sale ad for an instrument, pure and simple. I expect b0b will probably move it there when he sees this.

On topic (I'm talking PSG here, but probably this would all go for nonpedal steel also) - I don't think the prices of new or used steels are out of line at all. I honestly don't see how the builders do it for the money - this is way more labor and machining intensive than slappin' together Strats or Telecasters, and a good, new, US-made Fender Strat/Tele starts at a grand and goes up from there.

Look at it another way - in inflation-adjusted constant dollars, the price for a first-class pedal steel is significantly down from 30-40 years ago. A pro-quality PSG was over a grand back then, and I expect that plenty of them ran well over that. $1000 in 1973 (35 years ago) is equivalent to about $5000 now, so I expect that a minimalist $1000 pro-level PSG (I'd guess an S-10) should be $5,000 now, a pretty standard $1500 pro PSG would be more like $7,500 now, and a really decked-out D-10 from that period would be more like $10,000 now - that is if you wanted to talk comparable cost.

I can't think of a single PSG that's $10,000 now - in fact, aside from maybe something like a Franklin, I can't think of any that are $7,500 now. 5 grand buys a whale of a lot of PSG these days, and a lot of nice ones are in the high-2000's to $4000 range - that's brand new.

Now let's talk about used guitars. There's a mid-70s Sho Bud rack and barrel D-10 Professional in For Sale: Instruments just languishing there (last I looked) for $1300. That's insane. I'll bet the guitar cost at least that much 35 years ago - if so, then now it's worth, in constant dollars, 5 times less.

Pedal steel guitars are a bargain now. If you want to see these builders survive, don't wish for prices to seriously tumble. Maybe that's OK for Wal-Mart importing junk for knick-knack paddywhacks, but if the US is going to survive as a country that makes anything, we're gonna have to accept the "No Free Lunch" premise - you don't get people to do this kind of work for orders of magnitude less money than they did it 30-40 years ago. IMHO.

Of course, with the serious credit crunch going on right now, there realistically may be a tumble in prices of used guitars for a while - but only because the money supply is insufficient. But that reasoning probably doesn't work for new guitars - at a certain point, if the demand-price-pull goes down too close to the cost to make one, then there's no reason to supply them, and that will push the price up for those who really want or need one one.

The other factor is that a bunch of other things are probably gonna ratchet inflation up - hey, somebody's got to pay for this bailout schtick - guess who?

Chris LeDrew · From: Canada

Don, if our Canadian dollar keeps getting weaker, steel prices will only soar for us. I just bought a new steel from a US builder and paid about $400 difference on the currency exchange. If I had bought it 6 months ago, I would have hardly paid $200. Drag, but that's life.

Having said all that, I don't think steel prices are all that bad. If you look at a company with a few employees, who all have families to feed, you can understand why they are $2,500-$5,000 a pop. It takes a bit of time to build one, and then you have all the machinery. I don't take that much issue with the builders' prices.
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Daniel J. Cormier · From: Lake Charles, LA, USA

I'm Cajun French /German Decent. Very Happy

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Daniel J. Cormier
Rittenberry with Tone to the bone,profex or tubefex and what ever amp, hilton pedal, BJS bars. Email at kajunsteelman@yahoo.com.

Stan Paxton · Posted 14 Oct 2008 2:00 pm

Johnne Lee, with all due respect, I can't agree that the market for good quality steels will go away, "shrink". Right now, take into consideration the looong wait to get a Zum, and some of the other top name quality brands also have 6 months or better waiting list. ...With that kind of wait, quality used guitars will hold their own price up. ...No, it don't look to me like we can expect to see a fall in prices: supply & demand have always driven the prices, taking into consideration that cost/profit have to be looked at by the makers. If no profit, no supply- no supply, higher demand- higher demand, no decrease in price for new or used. Smile

...just MHO, and I'm sticking to it.... Cool

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Mullen Lacquer SD 10, 3 & 5; Mullen Mica S 10 1/2 pad, 3 & 5; BJS Bars; LTD400, Nashville 112, DD-3, RV-3, Hilton VP . -- Gold Tone PBS sq neck; Wechter Scheerhorn sq neck. -- "Experience is the thing you have left when everything else is gone." -anon.-

Mike Schwartzman · From: Maryland, USA

Interesting topic...Even before all of this present economic downturn, I'm thinking that Custom Shop 6 string electric guitars and basses from the 2 largest USA guitar manufacturers were in the 2-3K plus range new. So, when I think that most PSG manufacturers are indeed custom shops... the prices of new PSGs don't seem out of line relative to custom shop 6 stringers, considering the parts and labor involved. I can't really comment much on the used instrument market...too inexperienced.
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Farris Currie · From: Ona, Florida, USA, R.I.P.

AS a custom machine shop owner

i know all the people that know how to do,wants more money for their work.

if you can go to C&C it helps,but those machines C&C ,machines
cost lots of money.

and still they can't do all the hand work.

You got to have lots of hand labor.

thats all i got to say

farris

Don Benoit · From: Okanagan Falls, BC

I don't see any comments about what age group are buying steel right now. In my opinion, it's the retiring baby boomers. I don't see very many young people buying steels. That's one reason for prices coming down but most importantly, the economy will be going downhill. People in general owe more more than they pay back.

Mike Benzschawel · From: madison wi

don, being new to this pedal steel thing, i too was surpised at how much a psg costs. however, once you take into account the materials, machining, and labor as the guys mentioned above, you get to see how they can get pricey. i was squemish about spending the money to buy my first pedal steel after i got the bug but remember this: a quality used instrument will, for the most part, hold its value. so if you can muster around a grand, you can get a great steel that you could always resell if you don't like it/lose interest. it's like buying a good used amp or guitar.
one thing i've noticed too, and was curious if anyone else has, is that even in the last six months it seems like steel prices have dropped. with the shaky economy i think a alot of folks are hesitant to buy and or are selling off some gear to generate some funds. dave mentioned the vintage d 10 sho bud (for 1300 bucks!), also some nice fender console steels for under a grand, etc etc
keep lookin, the forum is where it's at for steel deals Very Happy

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....lloyd green is a steel guitar hero...

Bent Romnes · From: London,Ontario, Canada

Nobody gets rich building and selling pedal steels at today's prices.
One builder told me he is making around $9 an hour building those things. Would anybody like to make that kinda wage? I didn't think so.
That is the case when the whole steel is built from scratch.

It might be different where the "builder" only orders all the parts mass produced and only assembles and sets up the steel.
Sure..some outfit in say China could be contracted to spit out endplates etc where the workers get paid $5 a day or less.

At least when we buy a new steel today, we know that it is made by a builder who put his soul into the project. We know we get quality built by a North-American.

I don't agree that steels are over-priced one bit.
Just my 2c

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