What about the cost of guitars versus beer?

In 1960 my first guitar, bought second hand from a junk shop, cost three quid and was absolute rubbish – strings way off the fingerboard and almost unplayable. In a proper music shop then, you would probably have paid between ten and twenty for a decent student-level acoustic (new, and with a case thrown in).

At that time, I was paying around eighteen pence for a pint of beer. That makes thirteen-and-a-third pints to the pound, so my three pounds would have bought me about forty pints. Fifteen pounds – the price of a playable axe then - would have got me two hundred.

Today, at around two pounds and seventy-five pence per pint, forty pints would set you back one hundred and ten smackers. For that, you can get a very decent guitar new, and a better one second-hand.   And the cost of two hundred pints in today's money is five hundred and fifty pounds – for which you can purchase an excellent guitar.

So friends, my conclusion is that these are better days for guitarists, if not for beer drinkers.

Wassail!