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’m just pissed how Barry went after Gibson about neck wood but left Fender alone.
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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.
“Just have to be enameled because the wood’s not pretty enough to be natural. I imagine that affects the sound too.”
I’ve seen that idea debated for many years. The general consensus on guitar forums I frequent is that if there is an effect it’s more likely to be to the unamplified sound of a solid body guitar - but AFAIK no one’s shown the ability to consistently detect the difference between (for example) an amplified polyurethane-coated guitar and a nitrocellulose guitar in a blind listening test (assuming identical electronics, hardware, strings, etc). As always, YMMV.