Posted on 10/23/2022 8:47:33 AM PDT by Drew68
I'm in this 10% and I'm sure I've given fender at least $10,000 over the years (as well an equal amount to Gibson).
Another quote from a different article:
"Fender's CEO says company finding out half of new guitar players are female was a "complete shocker"
Anyhow, good for Fender. They're doing something right and one of the things they're doing is *giving* free guitars away to internet influencers to sing their praises.
Something Gibson is *not* doing.
Fenders are everywhere on stages these days. Gibsons, less so.
Metal is real music. Real skill, real vocalists. Tells a story. They all use electric heh.
Both companies make fine instruments. Have both.
I’m just pissed how Barry went after Gibson about neck wood but left Fender alone.
The chinese strats are playable. Just have to be enameled because the wood’s not pretty enough to be natural. I imagine that affects the sound too. Just sold one. Keeping a modded one (carbon neck and custom pickups). They’re flooding the market.
I am in that boat too. But I don’t like bolt on necks. So I only have one Strat. I have 3 Flying V 90s. 2 Jacksons.(•Kelly) and San Dimas) 1 Esp. 1 Dean from hell.
Rock on🤘
Electric guitars are hardly dead. In most churches, the electric guitar has chased out the organ and the choir.
I’m just pissed how Barry went after Gibson about neck wood but left Fender alone.
/\
Me too.
One of the biggest mistakes of my teen age years was letting my 67 mustang bass go.
( traded it in on a 4001 Rickenbacker )
Right, people have forgotten or never knew Obongo sent his goons to Gibson and they ransacked the place and impounded materials. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage and losses. Martin and others were left alone. The difference? Gibson donated some money to Republicans.
Yep. I remember that. Then Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz did something to piss off Obama and the end result was Gibson had to destroy warehouses full of wood for accusations of Lacey Act violations.
For a while, a $5000 Les Paul Custom came with "richlite" fretboards (plasticized, compressed cardboard) while Asian imports were still allowed to use ebony.
The chinese strats are playable.
A Chinese-made Squier Strat today is as good an instrument as anything Fender was making in America in the 1970s. CNC manufacturing processes (pioneered in guitar-making by Hartley Peavey) have ensured that quality, playable instruments can be obtained at almost any price point. Cheap guitars are better today than they've ever been.
While I shy away from Chicom guitars purely on principle, I have a couple of excellent Korean-made models and a couple of excellent Mexican-made Fenders (as well as USA-made). All are great guitars. Even the stuff coming out of Indonesia are superb instruments in fit and finish.
I love my Strat (It’s an Eric Clapton Blackie - type. Love the maple fretboard), but these days I mostly play my PRS (and I’m NOT a lawyer or dentist!)...
Personally, I play the stereo . . .
FWLIW, an old friend owns Eminence Speaker Corporation. Several years ago I asked him what are the odds your stuff is on-stage at the Tedeschi-Trucks Band show we were at.
“95 - no, 99%.”
I've got a Clapton "Brownie" --though it's not a Clapton sig, just an American reissue of a '54 Strat. I love it.
All of Clapton's early Strats were "Frankenstrats" meaning he'd take the neck off one guitar and swap it out with the body of a different one. He even put Strat necks on Teles.
If you or I did that, we'd kill the instrument's value but, then again, we're not Eric Clapton.
I have a usa strat and Mexican tele, acoustic dean, schecter blackjack V, gibson les paul standard, epiphone sg modern and a guild bass.
A lot of modern church music is a mixture of classic 70s/80s rock and progressive rock, both of which rely heavily on electric guitars
Fendor Stratocaster from the custom shop. Also a Fender Geddy Lee jazz bass. Great instruments. Also got a Gibson Les Paul classic, another great guitar.
I hope my 2018 PRS SE C24 - the top of which was only made in 2018 (Vintage Spalted Maple) - will be worth more than MSRP some day (if I live long enough!)...
"Can't you see you're not making Christianity better, you're just making rock and roll worse." - Hank Hill
The Fender/Gibson target market appears to be the well-to-do Boomer/Gen-Xer who is willing to overpay to imitate their childhood heroes. Today's innovative guitarists don't even consider playing those brands.
Much of the praise and worship music in church is heavily acoustic - very few worship leaders lead from electric. And very little solo work.
I’ve done MY part to help keep them afloat...
My collection (so far):
Gibson '58 Reissue Les Paul Standard
Gibson Les Paul Special
Gibson Les Paul Studio
Gibson Les Paul Junior
American Fender '54 Strat Reissue
American Fender Highway One Strat
American '62 Tele Custom Reissue
Mexican Fender 50s Series Classic Tele
American '70s Strat (project guitar I'm currently building myself)
Korean Dean Flying V
Korean Samick solid body something or another (set neck, Firebird pickups)
American Martin acoustic
Unbranded P-Bass
British-made Marshall YJM100 Plexi full 100-watt stack.
And over the years, I've bought, sold, traded, lost, and given away countless others.
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