Electric Guitar Starter Packs Take Us Back to the Future

Dec. 3, 2012 - PRLog -- It seems that the march of changing consumer tastes sometimes takes us round in a circle, instead of constantly bringing us new ways of purchasing and consuming. According to leading music gear retailers, Soundsliveshop, the buying of that first electric guitar is a case in point.
If we take a quick time trip back to any point from the mid-1960s through to the mid-1990s, the very first experience that most teenagers had of playing an electric guitar of their own was when their long-suffering parents coughed-up for a guitar starter set as a Christmas or birthday present.
The provenance of many of these electric guitar packs was dubious and, certainly until the early 90s, they either bore a brand name that was only previously known to the buying team of a catalogue group, or the product inside the box had not seen the inside of a factory actually owned by the more famous name on the guitar.
Not surprisingly, these guitar starter packs went out of fashion as consumers became more knowledgeable and demanding and as the prices of reasonable quality guitars and amps started to fall rapidly in relative terms. To put this into perspective, the inflation-adjusted cost of an unbranded and poor quality guitar starter kit in 1980 is more than double the price today of a reasonable quality Fender Squier starter pack that includes an Affinity Strat guitar, Fender practice amp, DVD, guitar bag, etc.
However, despite the advent of these value-for-money offerings, the damage done by years of low quality product and the availability of separate guitars and amps at ever-lower prices saw the electric guitar starter pack become a fairly marginalised part of the market – until a couple of years ago.
Soundsliveshop Commercial Director, Darren Cleugh, picks up the story: “We’ve carried the better-quality guitar starter packs for a number of years, especially those from Fender, who’ve made great strides with quality in this part of the market. However, sales have really started to take off over the past couple of years, something that we think is a response to people tightening their belts. Even with the great value offered by electric guitars these days – they’re relatively cheaper than ever before – today’s starter pack offers an unbeatable combination of brand, quality and accessories”.
It’s hard to argue with this when you look at what’s available. We opened up one of the best-sellers, the rather cheesily-named Fender Squier Stop Dreaming, Start Playing HSS Affinity Pack. Once you’ve laid everything out on the floor, you find that the princely sum of just over £200 had bought you a Squier HSS strat, a surprisingly capable DEC 15 amp, a DVD-based playing guide,  gig bag, strap, cable and plectrums. Frankly, that seems like an extraordinary package for the price. You can find it at http://www.soundsliveshop.com/c/Guitar_Gear/Electric_Guit....
It’s hard to see, with further pressure on household budgets and increasing value from manufacturers and retailers, why electric guitar starter packs won’t continue their comeback, however much of a throwback they seem.