My very first guitar was a Sears Silvertone, F-hole, archtop that played like a fencepost and sounded identical. I later bought a blonde Kay acoustic-electric and a Lyle copy of a Gibson Hummingbird. A very sweet-sounding Japanese copy. About 1957, I bought a Fender Stratocaster with Vibrolux amp for about $700 brand new, complete with hard-shell, tweed case. Today, my Strat would fetch a King's Ransom.