I bought a year-old USA LP Standard 2nd-hand in 1994 for $1050 with the case. 10 years later I sold it for that in open bidding, only slightly worse for wear than when I bought it. The new price on that guitar was $1200.
$1200 should get you a USA Les Paul Standard with 3-ply body binding, trapezoids, and rosewood, SG Standard with the bat-wing pickguard and either 70s blocks or trapezoids on rosewood, Explorer, or Flying V, with hard cases, and not of the Faded or other "cost effective" series (i.e. reduced feature set, etc). Dot inlays on a Les Paul and an SG with the "baby bib" pickguard and dots should reduce the price to $1000, because the labor cost is reduced. There's no valid reason this cannot happen, given top-level salaries which have plenty of room for cuts.
Reduced labor and material costs should be matched in the price tag, not just "reflected", but "matched". If it's an extra $200 in materials and labor for trapezoids instead of dots per guitar, it should be $200 less for the one with dots, not $50 less.
The Custom series of LP and SG (3 pickups, ebony boards, MOP blocks, 7-ply body and neck and head binding) should be no more than $2000 at most, with the deluxe hard case.
The Faded and other cost-effective/feature-reduced models should hit $900 maximum for a LP Custom Studio, and $800 max for a LP Custom Faded.
If someone wants a VOS or Custom Shop with premium-quality woods and fine attention to detail and masterful craftsmanship, then you hit them with the high tags, but a production-line, mass-produced, feature-reduced, cost-effective USA Gibson should be affordable in a realistic sense of the word.
mg:
