Quote:
Originally Posted by RezZ
Also anyone who knocks Gibson or Fender as a company has the right to do so but fails miserably. Even if they go through bad periods (which all companies are bound to do) they each created the most popular and widely used guitars today.
Ibanez wouldnt be selling guitars if not for these companies.
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That reasoning is bull****. A company that trades a sub-par product is a company that trades a sub-par product, regardless of their heritage. Be it a guitar company, a bank, a cinema or anything else, the product you are selling to me this moment is the important thing.
I did not buy a guitar in order to own a piece of history. I bought a guitar to play it and make music. If the guitar in question is capable of doing that well, for a reasonable price, I will respect the company that made it. If it is not, as many recent gibsons or fenders are not, then I will not respect your company until the time at which you provide me with a product meeting the standards of quality your advertising (Or more importantly, pricing) purports those products to provide.
For less than £3k I can buy a guitar handmade by a luthier to my exact spcifications out of my choice of hardware, woods, and design features. It will be measured to fit my body and will be in every way the closest possible thing to what I want, built to a high standard even by the standards of boutique production, let alone mass production. The hardware will be customized, the pickups my choice, the neck profile copied from my favourite guitar, the fretwire my size and choice of material, and the body sized to fit me and balanced to fit me too. It will be built from start to finish by one man, with whom I will have direct contact throughout the build process in order to turn out an instrument that isn't just a collection of paper specifications, but also a piece of functional design, integrated in every sense posible to achieve a high quality end product.
Sadly, for upwards of £7k I cannot get any of that from Gibson, Fender, or PRS, to name but 3 particularly overpriced guitar companies. Thats more than twice as much, for LESS, and that is bull****.
As great as a good old strat is, or a good les paul, or SG or Explorer or M-II or Jaguar or Jazzmaster, they're great because they're good instruments, not because they're oft copied instruments.