It smacks of desperation if this is all that Gibson's product development people can think of.

To me, the only logical complement to a Fender, and the only one I want, is a 335, but I bet I'll have to try a dozen or more before finding a good one.

It smacks of desperation if this is all that Gibson's product development people can think of.

To me, the only logical complement to a Fender, and the only one I want, is a 335, but I bet I'll have to try a dozen or more before finding a good one.

I don't hate Gibson, I'd mess around and enjoying having a Les Paul if only it came with the 25.5 scale length. They're beautiful guitars to look at, very classy looking, but they always feel wrong and small in my hands.

Making a Strat though is a low blow, and having a picture of Jimi playing a Fender on the box is just insane.

Gibson has nothing to be desperate about. They make some fine instruments, and some are actually reasonably priced. I think moving manufacturing from an originally US company to Mexico and China is either desperation or corporate greed. I've played more bad Strats than 335's. Almost every 335 I've ever played was an incredibly crafted and great sounding instrument. YMMV

On that I have to agree with supro. 'Cept my 355 which is better than any 335! I struck lucky with my Strat, bought from a friend in 82, and I've played dozens of others since which have been really disappointing by comparison.

Well outside of me just not liking the feel of an SG I have never played or held a Gibson that was not a top notch guitar. As I stated in many a post I wanted a Les Paul as far back as I can remember but for some reason I just never got around to owning one. I used to borrow my friend Robs Silver Burst for months at a clip and it was just a killer ax. This thing there doing though is blowing my mind,and my friends that are Gibson diehards will be getting some major abuse from me.lol

'Dunno 'bout you folks, but after Fender pushed their '02 Guild all-but-identical Les Pauls and ES-335s, they seemed to be "not popular."

'Do not ever recall seeing one on a stage. Gibson's "revenge," 7 years later?

Immitation and flattery supposedly go hand in hand. The signature thing is the most disturbing part. Nothing authetic about a right handed body and a reversed headstock as Jimi played right handed guitars upside down with strings reversed.
The deserved backlash has made an impression. Gibson lounge topic WT****. has 5 venomous pages of dischord.
You need to search real hard to find anything about the sig line on the site. The picture with Jimi along with the plywood rainbow SG on the homepage seem to sum Gibson's latest miscues.

I don't think Gibson worry's much about what Fenders up to. People who like Gibson like Gibson, People who like Fender like Fender. Then there's people like me who like both. Gibson doesn't need to answer anything back to Fender and vise versa. It's usually either young players or people who can't afford or just don't want to spend that much money on a guitar who do the Gibson/Fender sucks comparison thing. I find it pretty funny. Most professional players own more than one brand/model of guitar.
Some guys who say Gibbys are overpriced never owned or even played one. I was like that when I was 13 years old. I thought Fender was the only guitar to have. The Competition Mustang was the guitar I lusted after back then. LOL

Time to grow up and take it for what it is. I love all kinds of guitars and narrow minded thinking really will limit the way you play.

For me I don't really play the guitar, it plays me. My style and how I play seems to be dictated by the guitar I play. Strats make me play differently than a LP, a Gretsch is different, a Tele is a little different still. You get the picture?

Fender, Gibson, Gretsch, PRS, Danelectro, Ibanez are all apples and oranges. They have a fan base and compete with themselves to come up with models and configurations to broaden their own spectrum of their product line, not their so called competition.

If Gibson was worried, they would have another line of guitars made overseas with the Gibson logo on it, not Epiphone. So far Gibson has avoided sinking to that level. And no, I'm not bashing Epi either. Their higher end stuff is really nice.
Think about it. Comparisons like that are just silly.

On a tangent:

Players love Strats, players love Les Pauls; some, both; some, neither. There is one misguided sub-theme I sense here: Those who swear by and defend Fender (or whomever) and those who don't. The way I see it, unless whichever manufacturer is heaping their guitars for free upon you and better yet, designing one model to your particular specs and freely forking them over to you, why then in general, does anyone feel they must be loyal to and/or defend one brand or model over the other? Me, it's no secret that I am a Strat affectionado but that's because for my purposes, I simply find it the best. I have no sense of kinship and certainly no sense of obligation to any of the Fender 'dynasties'. Like CV brought up in another post when talking about Hendrix, if Hendrix were still alive and found PRS, etc. did a better job for his requirements, who's to say he wouldn't switch? Frankly, I never thought Johnny Winter would switch from Firebirds as his #1 but now he's using Steinbergers for that. I don't get that at all but that's not my call.

The point: Play what you like, like what you play, without any reservations.

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