Do you call it a Strat if it's not a Fender/Squier ?

valentinik_15

valentinik_15

New member
Hi all,

This is a very blunt and honest thread i decided to start just to get people talking.
Is it a Stratocaster if its not a Fender or Squier likewise, Do you call it a Les Paul if its not a Gibson or Epiphone?

I see a lot of advertisements saying Strats & Les Paul blah blah blah so misleading.

Stay true to the brands and respect should be given to Fender & Gibson, they created the designs and models.

What's your take.

PS: This thread is not to create a war or for ppl slamming. Respect should be given to the makers.
 
Don't call it a Stratocaster (its a trademark right?) if it isn't Fender/Squire. Strat-shaped would be more appropriate. I believe 'Stratocastor copy' is ok. As long as the person buying is not misled to believe that it is a fender product.

Usually its done because if you state the brand + model number of an less popular brand people aren't tempted to check it out because they don't know what it is. So these 'teasers' give the person browsing a rough idea of what the guitar is.
 
Stratocaster/ Telecaster/ Les Paul/ SG... etc. are now used as generic labels for the instrument shape. it's convenient association (& lazy refrencing, really).

same goes for 'Floyd Rose' bridge; many guitars which feature a locking, dual-action whammy bridges are referred to as Floyd Rose equipped guitars, even though the model in there is the manufacturer's own interpretation of the Floyd Rose (eg: Ibanez's Edge bridges)/ other brand name alternatives.
 
My custom made Strat's not a Fender/Squier but since it has parts which are licensed by Fender, then I guess its safe for me to call it a Strat :) A lot of companies have long been copying the Fender body shapes so much that it has become so common to the public.

But since Fender has recently unable to trademark their body shapes..well, that's another story :)
 
I believe that Stratocaster, Telecaster, Firebird, Les Paul, etc., are commonly used nowadays to indicate the body shape of the guitar. With so many different companies popping out and copying the shape in which Gibson and Fender did not patent, what carries weight to the guitar would be the manufacturer's branding, not so much on the shape anymore
 
When we have a fever, we take panadol. But hey, if you check carefully, you may realise that the pills which the doctor has given you are not usually named panadol, but called paracetamol. The doctor calls it panadol anyway, so do many other people.

Sometimes, I see parents prepare lunch boxes for their kids in little plastic containers, which they call tupperware. But hey, 'tupperware' is actually a brand name, and that particular plastic container may not be actually a product of tupperware. However, tupperware is so frequently associated with these plastic containers that we use the word interchangeably.

I remember at one point of time, there are many people who would say "xerox", when they mean photocopy. Again, xerox is the brand name of the photocopier, however, at one point of time, it was so widely used that the noun 'xerox' is synonym with the verb 'photocopy'.

I believe the same analogy can be used to describe guitars.

To quote Shakespeare,
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."

In modern guitar context,
"What's in a name? A strat by any other name
would sound as sweet".
 
'Panadol' is a brand name, just like Floyd Rose & Pampers... the lazy human referencing mechanism fails to refer to others of the same ilk by their own respective tags.

panadol_10298_5_(big)_.jpg
 
Take for an example a Timbre guitar at Standard Value that is basically based on a strat. So it looks exactly like a strat, and sounds more or less like one too. But it's a copy, since it's not made by Fender, neither is it licensed by Fender. In this case, I'd call it a Strat copy. If something is a copy of something, nothing can change that fact.
 
Yup, i totally agree. Its just like a generic name for a kinda shape for the guitars. So ppl wld like to quote it for quick reference. Like if he says its a strat, immediately u will have a certain pic of how the guitar looks like right. So basically its just for quick reference. :)
 
Well it used to be trademark... But as stated, recently the word used has become so widely used Fender and Gibson cannot hold name copyrights to it. Thus, nowadays it is mostly a generic labelling for the particular type of body shape. Well now there's superstrats, super teles...
 
Respect for the main brands should be taken into consideration but fender and gibson have produced some of the most common shapes in the world. whatever brand u have lets say u have a strat of any brand, when ppl ask you what type of guitar u have, u say, "electric guitar", and then he says, "yeah what type/shape" of course u say strat what. Or strat copy whatever. Now, too many brands copy such models, some are even well-known, i mean even Edwards and other brands don't necessarily call it a les paul model but with so much "disguising skill" they call it LP. So I think Les Paul and Strat / Stratocaster etc are names given to generalize those shapes. Even the supers, eg superstrats derive for stratocaster itself.
 
Jumpin'Jellybean said:
Well it used to be trademark... But as stated, recently the word used has become so widely used Fender and Gibson cannot hold name copyrights to it. Thus, nowadays it is mostly a generic labelling for the particular type of body shape. Well now there's superstrats, super teles...
Click to expand...

The names of shapes are still held in trademark by the respective companies but not the actual shapes themselves.

If that were false, on the Warmoth site the R within a circle that denotes a registered trademark next to the Stratocaster and Telecaster names (as well as their abbreviated forms). Also, companies like K Line do not explicitly mention that their Stratocaster, Telecaster and Precision and Jazz Bass bodied guitars as such, instead using only the first letters of each, S Type, T Type, etc.
 
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The lawsuit guitars of the 80s, even though they were copies, are one of the best to play... Greco, Burny, Fernandes... Anyway, sure, but we can always say, strat SHAPED guitar, or LP Shaped...
 
lets just put it like this, other guitar companies have run out of ideas for the guitar body shape. so they start copying. it's like, when you dont know wad else to write for your essay, you go on to the internet to get some ideas.
 
Haha. I don't know if I'm a rebel or what, but one of the reasons why I don't desire for a strat or LP is because they're everywhere. :) And a lot of them aren't by the makers that designed them originally.
 
Well, I guess like what everybody says, these names used to be trademarks, but now they just refer to the body shape. There are so many brands copying the lp and strat. But I guess when someones talks about a strat or lp, the person would still think of a fender or a gibson.
 
G&L strats and teles are based on Fender designs, but they're not copies as they're not exact look-alikes. They've got their own unique touches.

Another example is the brand Prestige, which makes Les Paul style guitars, but they are not copies of Les Pauls. They are based on Les Pauls but are very distinctively different in appearance.
 
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