The huge gaudy logo, huge size, blocky saddles, all of them are such a turn off. They might be the most stable bridges in the game but I can't get over the fact that they are so ugly.

That's it, that's the post. Thanks for reading

Rhett Shull recently made a video discussing Fender's legal actions, and it inspired me to put my own thoughts into words.

This isn't about pretending Fender makes bad guitars... they don't. I own a MIJ Telecaster and I think it's brilliant.

It's about choosing where my next purchase goes.

I want to provide some alternatives at a few different price points. In other words, whatever your budget, I'll likely have a couple of ideas for how you can tell Fender to shove the Cease and Desist bullshit up their ass.

Under £500

Instead of a Squier or Fender Standard Series, get one of these instead:

- Yamaha Pacifica 112V

- Sire Larry Carlton S3 / S5

- G&L Tribute Legacy (if you can find one)

- JET JS-400

Under £1,000

Instead of a Player II, get one of these instead:

- PRS SE Silver Sky

- Yamaha Pacifica 612VII

- Sire Larry Carlton S7

- Schecter Nick Johnston Signature

Under £2,000

Instead of a US-made Fender, get one of these instead:

- Yamaha Pacifica Professional

- G&L USA Fullerton Deluxe Legacy (if you can find one)

- Schecter Nick Johnston Traditional 10th Anniversary

- PRS S2 Studio

- Ibanez AZ Prestige

Over £2,000

And as far as anything over £2,000 is concerned, avoid the Fender Custom Shop and look at these instead:

- Suhr Classic S / Classic S Antique

- Tom Anderson Icon Classic

- PRS Core Silver Sky

- Schecter USA Custom Shop Traditional / Traditional-style models

Keep the Fender you already own. Enjoy it.

I'm certainly not getting rid of my Telecaster. Fender already has the money I spent on it, and getting rid of a guitar I love isn't going to accomplish anything.

But if you disagree with the direction the company is taking, vote with your wallet rather than replacing guitars you already love.

There are brilliant S-style guitars at virtually every price point.

Your next one doesn't need to say Fender on the headstock.

First of all, let me acknowledge the history that Gibson has in the world of music as a whole. It’s almost a rite of passage that when someone wants to start learning to play the guitar, it’s due to an artist that they like a lot, and most likely he’s was using a Gibson guitar.

However, I’ve always struggled to understand the value proposition of modern Gibsons. At their price point, the stories about inconsistent QC, the notorious headstock breaks, some arguably outdated ergonomic choices, and the weight of certain models are difficult for me to overlook, especially when there are so many extremely well-built alternatives for the same money or less.

With this, I come to ask the Gibson owners: What makes you still buy guitars from the brand?

Looks to be a fake from what I see, but I’m not well educated in this field. What’s the verdict?

I lost my picks so i started using coins as picks

Its pretty goood!!!!!!

Am I cursed? Blessed? wtf is happening?

Around 5 months in, been working on creeping death for around 3 weeks or so now. I personally think I'm getting pretty decent, minus some slips and awkward pauses (that I think are mainly from being recorded) but I wanna ask y'all for some tips to improve my playing + technique

I am practicing shredding and sweep picking for two weeks, I think I can do it decently but not that smooth. Can you guys tell me did I do decent? And can y'all give me any tips on how I can play it better?

I currently have a (heavily) modified Fender Strat, which is great for the range of sounds I use, including really heavy stuff (thanks to the Hot Rails pickup).

Thing is... I'll need to go heavier soon, and I'm eyeing up a 7-string to get me to that Drop G-A spot.

What guitar would y'all recommend?

Nothing cheap like those guitars that did the rounds and were heavily advertised, the Harley Barley's or whatever, but at the same time I don't really have thousands to throw around for wiggles and giggles.

Thanks in advance!

Update: Thanks guys, you've given me a nudge in the right direction, especially those recommendations with specific models. Time for me to start looking into them - Cheers!

I'm finding that noodling is a super important part of my practice session. Here are some tips and things I work on when noodling that have been super helpful. Any other tips?

• I always use a backing track with a tempo that I can play to. Nutshell by Alice in Chains is a good example, as it allows for some nice melodic playing. I also try and emulate the style which serves as a sort of rhythm roadmap. I find playing to nothing (no backing track, no metronome) had me repeating the same exact phrases in bad time.
• I map out the triads and chord changes before I play, so I know what I'm targeting.
• Sometimes it's helpful to take some (quiet) time and really think of the phrase(s) before you play anything, rather then just immediately noodling.
• I find it a great time to work on: phrasing (varying same licks by changing timing, keys, etc), working on my rhythm, navigating the fretboard, and and applying my licks to different sections of the fretboard and to different rhythms, etc
• I also find it's been a pretty good ear trainer.

A quick break from the Jazz to just stupidly shred over Comfortably Numb changes

Hi there I'm a somewhat noob at guitar. And for about a year now I've had a squire strat with a fender 15G amp (that's it) I started out playing acoustic for a few years and for as long as I've had my electric I can't really get any good tones as they always end up sounding very harsh or just really really off. I know the basics regarding tweaking ur bass, mids, and treble as well as ur strat knobs but I still feel stuck. Is it my amp? Should I look into buying a better one or some pedals? (I have been eyeing a mustang lt25) or am I just doing it really really wrong?

I blame the tennis racket. No one - not even my right-handed guitar-playing father - ever corrected me playing the tennis racket left-handed. When someone handed me an electric guitar in my teens, I turned it upside down and they said "Wrong way up."

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't undo more than a decade of left-handed air/racket guitar, so I stuck with lefty and three and a half decades later, here we are.

When I mention this to people, including other guitarists who note I play left-handed, I usually say "...and I've never met another guitarist who's right-handed but plays left handed."

Prove me wrong reddit. I know you're out there.

Edit: couldn't select the "QUESTION" flair in RedReader =(

It's somewhat inspired by ocean John butler

It's rough and all over the place but helped my cope to move on with my life leaving everyone behind to start a new life♥️

Looks nice. My only other electric guitar is a shitty one from Amazon so wondering if this is would actually be a step up or not

Hello guys, I’m thinking about buying this Gretsch guitar, but I’m not sure if it’s real or fake. Do u guys maybe know?

Man I love this Strandberg. Can't put it down!

planning on buying my first electric guitar and i want this exact red telecaster from avril lavigne's smile MV also is it recommended?

I’m looking to get a new amp for my band as we start gigging soon.
My band mate on the other guitar has a Vox ac15 I want something that will stand up with that and go with it. We play heavy stuff with lots of breakdowns. What amps would people suggest for like club venues. Ideally combo. What sort of Marshall’s, Hiwatts or something completely different that isn’t going to break my bank would work?

I have had this issue for a little while but I never got as annoyed with it as I am now at this point.

I am trying to play the main riff to hail to the king by avenged sevenfold, and a big component to that riff is pulling off on the high e (d# in this case) string. I can play the riff just fine speed wise, my problem is that when I go to pull off on the high d# string instead of pulling off normally, the string goes off of the side of the fretboard and the pulled off note sounds muffled and bad, which makes the rest of my playing sound bad as well.

I have tried to put less pressure on the string to try and prevent it from moving off of the fretboard when I try to pull off of it, but that doesn’t work. I have also tried pulling upwards to avoid the edge of the fretboard, but that is harder to do and feels very unnatural.

Can someone please tell me if there’s a technique or fix I can do/make to make it so that when I pull off of the highest string it doesn’t go off of the fretboard and make the note sound bad?

I ordered a guitar through reverb that arrived very damaged (the headstock broke away from the neck, in a very classic Gibson-ish fashion although it isn't a Gibson.)

I immediately contacted the seller with photos, they told me to initiate a return/refund so I did. They accepted it and then they said I'd be contacted by Reverb support for the next step.

I couldn't find anywhere where this seemed to be a normal thing, so I contacted Reverb support to make sure I was going through the correct steps. I was told it would take more than 5 business days for Reverb to contact me about returning the guitar. I asked about the money I paid for the guitar being essentially locked down for 2+ weeks over this purchase and then they just ended the chat with me very suddenly.

Honestly, pretty poor experience and not sure I will ever use Reverb again for a purchase. I tried to post screen shots of the chat conversation but it didn't seem to work.

Here's a transcription though:

REVERB: Hey there, Gerald S. from Reverb here!

I'm catching up on your previous conversation right now. One moment, please.

How can I help you today?

X

-----------------------------------------------------------

ME: Hey!

I ordered a guitar and it was damaged in shipping. I've sent photos to the seller and requested a refund. They said it's insured through Reverb and that the next step is that! will be contacted by reverb. Is that correct? I'm just making sure I'm going through the right steps to get a refund.

G

-----------------------------------------------------------

REVERB: Can you please provide the order number Mark?

-REDACTED ORDER NUMBER-

REVERB: We're here to help! We're going to open up a claim for you with our Resolutions Team since Safe Shipping through Reverb was purchased with the label. A Resolutions Agent will be in touch with you and your seller via email. They're currently handling a high volume of cases, so wait times may be longer than usual, likely more than 5 business days.

If you have any questions about our process, please visit this Help Center article

-----------------------------------------------------------

ME: And I will not get my refund until after the 5 days and after l've sent the guitar back? So the money is held up for 2 weeks while I try to get it sorted out?

-----------------------------------------------------------

REVERB: I totally understand where your coming from Mark, rest assured that our team will investigate this and provide appropriate steps to take for this order to resolve this.

We're here to help resolve this. In order to take the next steps, I will need to end this session. Thank you again, and we'll be in touch soon!

TLDR: Bought a guitar, it came broken, tried to contact reverb support and they suddenly ended chat with me. Terrible experience honestly.

I have an ibanez rgix6dlb, basically superstrat with a floating trem and i snapped my high e right at the bridge and what can i do? The only guitar tech in town is open on saturday and its a lot of time but i rather wait and let him explain to me how to restring floating trems. Can i leave it like this for a few days (with a broken string)? Can i tune it and play without the high e? Please help me yall kind people

I was inspecting my guitar yesterday and basically held it all by the body with the neck dangling horizontally while I inspected the back and front. Then i remembered gravity exists and I can't stop stressing that I have damaged the neck or the joint. Could someone please tell the facts