Fender's most popular guitar and most iconic Stratocaster starts with a £100 price tag but with a Squier logo on the head stock to Eric Claptons gold leaf guitar with sold for £293,392.16. Generally made with ash,alder or poplar and limited edition versions made out of mahogany,basswood or koa.
They all have maple tops and necks and pau ferro,maple,ebony or rosewood fingerboards .There is plenty variety to suit your taste. A down fall on the Stratocasters side is the horrible lacquering on the back of their necks,which make your hands sticky after 30 minutes of playing on the lower range guitars. The polyurethane lacquer ages horribly unlike the Les Paul and American Stratocasters nitrocellulose lacquer . Fender offers a pretty reasonable price range and more products than Gibson but unlike Gibson they're not consistent with their ranges. Their low range can be just as good as a Stagg or another low range guitar but as soon as you hit mid range and premium they are up there with Epiphone and Gibson. But a major plus on Fender's side is that they own Jackson, Orpheum, Tacoma guitars, Squier and Brand X amps , Kaman Music Corporation, which owns Ovation guitar, LP and Toca hand percussion products, Gibraltar Hardware, Genz Benz Amplification, Hamer Guitars and they distribute Takamine guitars and Gretsch drums.
Gibson owns the Les Paul design which is used by many great guitarists such as Slash,Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck. It's one of the most poplar guitars on the market but can be pretty pricey but still the low range(starting at £559) is the best low range you can get but the high being the best is questionable. Usually made with one , two or three piece mahogany bodies, rarely swamp ash and a maple top with aa,aaa or even aaaa flame top . There's nitrocellulose lacquering on all of their guitars, on the lower range guitars grain textured version (in my opinion it's better and provides warmer tone). There's either a mahogany or maple neck with a ebony , rosewood or granadillo fingerboard (granadillo only on the new Studio's). With a small choice of combinations its easier to get your favourite tone with a Stratocaster but unlike a Stratocaster every single Gibson is made in the USA so your all ways going to get high standards. There are always going to be flaws but that creates character.
At the end of the day its your choice but in my opinion Gibson offers higher quality and more character but part of the package is ridiculous prices . Fender guitars good for the money and offers good tones but you but a Gibson for the name on the headstock and the pearl inlays. A stratocaster whether made by fender or Stagg is always going to be a common to people that don't play the guitar or beginners . Having a Les Paul shaped guitar is always gonna be funky and relatively uncommon to any pop fan (rock and blues is better) which is what the majority of people are . So I guess you are looking for a straight answer well here its is: Gibson vs Fender ?
Gibson wins, but its up to you.
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