G&L I can understand. I won't mention any other names. Three-grand or so for a copy? There are plenty of vintage Fenders out there if that's your thing. The newer stuff is great(especially the CV Squiers).

It's overwhelming.

IMHO George and Leo had a right to make the guitars they designed.

But I digress.....

As to the hundred other Fake-o-casters out there, well it comes to this, there are basically three guitars in the world that consistently sell, Telecasters, Les Paul's and Stratocasters.

Everyone wants to make a guitar that will sell well, Gibson has owned then rights to the Paul from the day it was made, the fender designs have passed through many hands and the pattens have gotten out of there control.

That is why you see so many fender copies and no Les Paul copies (Well not any more you won't).

There are still things Fender can and does protect, like the backward "F" and the Name "Fender" and they have licenses some companies to make replacement parts.

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Marriage is like playing cards...

At first all you want are Hearts and Diamonds.

But in the end, all you really want is a Club and a Spade.

Les Paul copies are everywhere, companies that have an almost a Fender series almost always have an almost a Gibson series as well. It is that, Wright Bros then Boeing, thing or, Stradivarius then Yamaha. Those original designs have been deconstructed and reconstructed by the best engineers available, I met one of the best deconstruction engineers on the planet tonight at the pub on the corner he works with computer chip designs and smaller:
http://www.radiantmachines.com/about/
Travis is the Bro that I met, he is available for lectures on the subject
DantheBassist wrote:
"It's overwhelming."
People, bio-engineering, the tools are getting tiny Bro, Travis tried to explain to my dumb-assa about this new tool that is thinner than a ray of light, what mechanical function could be done in a space that small? didn't get to far off thread, I hope

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

Becuase they can't think of a design on their own! Everyone raves about Shur but all I see is another fender knockoff.

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Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!

They do it simply because it's what sells. Fender is pretty much what everybody (even non-musicians) knows about and most every band you see has at least one Fender, whether it's a bass or guitar.

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'08 Fender Am. Std. Jazz bass, maple fretboard, charcoal frost metallic finish
'10 Squier VM Jazz bass, maple fretboard, natural finish
Ampeg BA115
'09 MIM standard Strat, maple fretboard, sunburst finish
Fender Super Champ XD

The thing I notice most is none of the boutique companies are taking it any further overall.

It is easy...because Fender is the marquee guitar period! When you look at what rock and roll is about the majority of people identify with Fender. This is by no means a slam on Gibson, but Fender is a more easily identified brand. Those knock off companies see the formula for success and are trying to get some of the residual effect. IMO.
ABS

No fake LP's?!?!? There's tons. In fact they're so common Gibson even lost the trademark rights to the model name Les Paul in Finland. Now anyone offering that shape there can call it a Les Paul.

fact is fender and Gibby got it so right with the early designs.

No one else has to take a real design risk. Guitarists are very conservative, despite a reputation for reckless behavior. They know what they like, and when it comes to shapes there's really only 4 that consistently do well.

Stratocaster, Telecaster, Les Paul, and SG.

it's funny how guys like Suhr try make their bones by bad mouthing fender, but really are just copying their designs. if he's such a great builder where's an original idea?

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Hi Dan: we're talking about the expensive look-a-likes, rather than the cheapo fakes, right?

Try inventing a guitar that looks different - and that's any good. And that people want. See if you find it easy or even possible.

Like SBLS says, every violin on the planet looks pretty similar to a Strad. Sometimes people just get it right near the beginning.

Now. About this five wheeled car I've invented...

Cheers - C

PS Five-wheeled car? That suddenly reminds me: I actually did meet an "inventor" in India once who'd come up with square cups and saucers (that's really true). I tried them. There is a reason we're not all using them today...

I'm with ya Ceri. There have been very few original ideas for guitar/bass in comparison to Fender. The companies that completely copy are the ones I don't get...even if they sound/play great. H.S. Anderson(Japan) made a Precision Bass in the late 70's that was more true to Fender than anything today...without being way overpriced.

Twelvebar is so right. They had it from the start.

Personally, 'don't like the modern Ibanezes or BC Riches or Deans or Taylors, but you gotta give the companies some credit for at least making something which is not a soul-less clone-copy of a Fender, Gibson, Martin or Gretsch.

On the other hand, if you are a wanna-be builder, it's gotta be par'ful farking sucky-tough, knowing in your heart, the...

...LP, Strat, Tele, ES-335, SG, Jaguar, L-5, 6120, Precision, Jazz Bass, Thunderbird, D-28, Jazzmaster, J-45, Bass VI, ES-175, 000-18, Firebird, Rick 360-12...

...came about as near to immortal, timeless perfection as guitars can get.

I guess if you're going to copy a style of guitar or bass, you may as well copy the best, and most recognizable design. The Fender and G&L bodies.

Just thought I'd take this further by displaying my own failure to come up with something different than Fender. ( )

Long time ago I decided to design a 6-on-a-side headstock that would make the Parker Fly look tired and conservative by comparison. Here's the Fly:



Also, just to get us in the mindset, here's a guitar by a small maker in my country, the Blackmachine B2:



So I wanted to do something far more radical, but of course where the form was lead by the function. I spent ages drawing out different headstock designs, trying to find something that worked well and also looked beautiful as well as different. (Ages ago I mentioned these sheets of drawings to Twelvebar - and then couldn't find them to show. At last I discovered where I'd put them...):



That is an early sheet from many, many such.

What I found was that functionally Fender got it almost entirely right first time. They didn't actually invent the 6-on-a-side concept - I think that was Bigsby (was it?). But they set in stone pretty much everything we find on all modern headstocks.

My only functional contribution was to make my headstocks tilt back by 2.5 degrees so that stringtrees are not necessary. I'm hardly the first to do that, either. Ibanez have had tilted back six-on-a-side headstocks for decades - but mine is built on the slab method, like Fenders, which is much stronger than Ibanez's necks, which constructionally are done the same as 3x3 headstocks.

Here's the tilt back on a Ceri neck:



And after all that designing and drawing and tinkering with the exact directions of curves and such... here is what the finished Ceri headstock ended up looking like:



To my own personal taste, I like that a lot. I think I did a nice job with the shape. But in a million years I couldn't claim it is anything remotely superior or even much different to what Fender came up with 60 years ago.

It turns out that when you question each element in turn of Fender's design they all turn out to be pretty much the best decisions, straight out of the trap. All we can really do is fiddle with the cosmetics a bit - and even then, not much.

And what goes for headstocks goes for most other things about the iconic guitar designs too. They are what psychologists call "archetypes", after Jung.

And we don't want to argue with Jung on guitar design!

Cheers - C

Cool, Ceri. Thank you. You are good!

Gibson tilted necks and headstocks 6-on a side and basses in the Firebirds, Thunderbirds and Trini Lopez models in the 60s.

Ibanez copied from them when they did the (excellent) "lawsuit series" Thunderbird and Fierbirds, albeit both bolt-ons rather than through-body necks.

Here is a link to some highend Fender copies. My favorites are the Van Zandts.

http://www.guitarsjapan.com/Fender_Styl ... chive.html