If I could only have one guitar, it’d be a strat with a bridge humbucker. An HSS strat, if you will. I got it right this time – I think sometime in past I typed HSH or something and got an email implying I was a moron. Ah, the public.
Fortunately I’m not limited to one guitar.
Every guitar brand I can think of has pros and cons. But I think if I had to pick a fave company, it’d be Fender. They have made lots of bonehead moves and continue to do so, but they also do a hell of a lot right. At one point you could buy a Strat at literally every price point from $100 to ten grand. You probably still can now, if you find a Squier Bullet on sale. Because, yes, a Squier Stratocaster IS a Stratocaster. It says so on the headstock. Fender gets to say what a Strat is.
But from a business standpoint, it must kill Fender to see all of the high end Strat copies do so well. From Suhr to Ernie Ball to PRS to Schecter to Xotic to Friedman, and I could go on and on, the Fender Strat is no longer seen (in the eyes of many) as being the best Strat. People say “S style guitar” to mean Strat, but no one ever calls these high end guitars Strat copies. Which is what they are.
This doesn’t mean they’re not great instruments. Show me a big name guitar for over 2 grand and I’m willing to bet it’s a pretty darn good instrument. Better than a Fender American off the line? Yes. At twice the price, you can do twice the quality control. If anyone wants to give me a Friedman Vintage-S, I’m up for it.
My problem is that people see a guy like Pete Thorn playing what is essentially his signature Strat made by another company and they think “That’s better than a Fender Strat.” But is it really? The street price is around $3,500. You can get a hell of an American Strat for that kind of money. Don’t try to tell me that the quality control on a $3,500 Fender Strat won’t be great. I’ve played some high end new Fenders in that price range and they play fantastic.
But the reason that Pete plays a Suhr and John Mayer plays a PRS and Guthrie Govan plays a Charvel is that these smaller companies are willing to work very closely with the artist and give them exactly what they want, something that I’ve been told Fender refuses to do.
Losing John Mayer was one of the biggest blunders Fender could have accomplished. The strong rumor is that they told him he couldn’t have any amps from other companies displayed on his stage. It is also a fact that John asked Fender for some mods they were unwilling to make. Because, ya know, they’re Fender and they don’t have to listen to an artist or anything.
And that’s funny, because Leo Fender didn’t play guitar, so when he was building his guitars he relied very heavily on suggestions from players.
The fact is that you could cover your eyes and listen to the Strats and the Strat copies and not tell the difference. I’m not sure what Fender needs to do to combat this new reality of “the best Strat isn’t a Strat,” but they’d be wise to think of something. A whole lot of influencers on YouTube are playing Strat copies. Maybe Fender should look around and smell the coffee and start to be more flexible with their artists.
