UPDATE: The world-record price for David Gilmour’s ‘Black Strat’ was recently eclipsed by Kurt Cobain’s ‘Unplugged’ Martin.
What makes a vintage Stratocaster valuable? Gear marketplace, online publisher and straight-up guitar connoisseurs Reverb have dug deep on their sales data to find out.
The Fender Stratocaster has been a mainstay of the guitar market since its launch in 1954. Along with Gibson’s Les Paul, it remains one of the most popular and most often emulated guitar bodies in the world.
Which is why it serves as such a great cornerstone for the market at large.
Price, finish and year: what determines the price of your Strat, or the one you want to buy? Reverb has the answer.
The first (and likely the most important) aspect of Stratocaster sales examined was the year they were built. As we all know, older usually equals more expensive, but a small, inverse price rise did occur pre-1965 before Fender was taken over by CBS.
For figures on finishes, average price by year of production and way, way more, check out the full article on Reverb. It’s a beast of a read.
And if you want to know the most expensive guitar of them all? Surprise, surprise: it’s a Strat! David Gilmour’s Black Strat to be precise. It recently went for an eye-watering $3.9 M USD.
