6 Guitar Brands To Check Out If You're Avoiding Fender

If you're voting with your dollars, there are some fantastic alternatives!

There has been some recent controversy surrounding Fender. It turns out that, while their Stratocaster body shape was not originally protected explicitly by copyright, Fender recently won a lawsuit in Germany supporting the idea that the Stratocaster body is a unique work of expression, and that Fender’s pocketbook should be protected from forgeries and reproductions. Fender has leveraged this ruling to send cease and desist letters to builders both in the US and Europe, demanding that they not only stop marketing, building, and selling Stratocaster (“S-style”) bodied guitars, and also that they recall and destroy all previously-sold instruments.

This has quite a lot of folks up in arms, calling for a boycott of Fender products. It has also raised awareness among buyers that the American-as-apple-pie brand is actually owned by a huge conglomerate whose main business seems to be in the automotive space. The whole affair reads to consumers as “faceless corporate overlord divorced from the guitar community now looking to squeeze any and all profit from formerly beloved brand”, and this narrative being repeated over and over in community forums has only intensified the calls for the boycott.

Personally, I own several Fender-branded guitars. I might’ve bought more. However, the current situation has made me think for more than 10 seconds about it, and that’s all it has taken to realize that, if Fender didn’t exist, there are lots of guitars that are not Fenders that are both Fender-like, and as good, or better quality than the Fenders I’ve played and owned. I thought I’d share six brands with you that have models and quality at least as good as Fender:

1. Ibanez

Ibanez makes a very wide variety of guitars for all genres, and they’re all very well built, whether you’re looking at a less expensive AS93 for blues or jazz, a FLATV2 for playing country or blues rock, a Steve Vai signature model for playing modern instrumental insanity, or something in between, it’s hard to match the breadth of Ibanez’s offering while also matching their consistent quality.

2. Eastman

I have only gotten to play a few of the Eastman models, but I’ve always come away being extremely impressed, and this also seems to be the consensus among my guitarist friends. I will almost certainly own an Eastman at some point, and am disappointed I don’t own one already. Admittedly, the models I’ve played are easier to compare to Gibson models than to Fenders per se, but to my mind, Eastman has put both Gibson and Gibson-inspired Heritage Guitars on notice by selling extremely high quality, fantastic-looking guitars, that sound and play great, at a price that Gibson wouldn’t give to their own family.

A more one-to-one replacement for Fender (or Gretsch, in my opinion) models can be found in their Fullertone line, which has some really unique and creative design and construction decisions. I really admire what they’re doing at Eastman, and they’re definitely worth more than a passing glance!

3. Godin

A Canadian guitar maker that is doing really interesting things, and given the quality of the builds, it’s hard to understand how any other maker could compete on a pure value basis. The bang-for-the-buck here, for the couple of models I’ve played, is off the charts. Where I live, they’re very difficult to find (though for some reason their Acoustics under the Seagull brand are quite easy to find), but I play them whenever I see them, and am consistently surprised at how well a $500 electric guitar can play and feel.

4. Yamaha

Don’t sleep on Yamaha. I’m so glad Yamaha guitars seem to be poised for a moment in the sun. Way back when I was in my teens, a buddy had a Yamaha guitar, and I was young enough that I had no idea Yamaha even made guitars. I absolutely loved it. I never felt a neck quite the same as that Yamaha neck, and when I did, it was another Yamaha (at school, where it was owned by the music department). My biggest issue with Yamaha guitars is that, like Godin, they just seem to be really rare where I live. I rarely see one at all, and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a brand new one on the rack.

5. Guild

Ironically, Guild used to be owned by Fender, and is now owned by contender Yamaha. Guild has a somewhat long and sordid history and has been through more owners than most. Since being bought as part of Yamaha’s purchase of Cordoba, Guild’s offerings and brand seem to be on the upswing.

The models I’ve played in the last 5 years have all been under $1000, and have all been very nice. Better than the average Squier, but not at the fit & finish quality of a PRS SE model. While I have not gotten to play one of their Newark St. models, I’ve heard they’re quite good, and there is no Fender equivalent.

6. Paul Reed Smith (PRS)

Speaking of PRS, it’s not possible to walk into a PRS dealer and not appreciate their quality, broad range of models, and the amazing aesthetics of most of their instruments. I’ve played dozens of them over the years through friends, fellow jammers, and in music stores. Lots of my guitarist buddies love them. In fact, it’s one of only a few brands where I know people who play PRS exclusively, and only have PRS guitars in their collection. It is possible to get guitars similar to PRS at a cheaper price, but it’s very hard to beat the “out of the box” experience of a PRS. I recently played a buddy’s brand new SE Silver Sky and was really impressed, and I asked “who set it up?” and he said he had not so much as changed the strings on that guitar - it came that way out of the box. I was floored.

In Conclusion

So there you are - six brands, all of which anyone should be proud to own, and all of which produce models that are equal to or even better than similar Fender models in terms of fit & finish, aesthetics, and pricing. I encourage you to check them out if you’re looking for an alternative to Fender, either for reasons of principle, or because having a high quality instrument in your hands means more than having a specific name on your headstock!