Guitar Company Owner Speaks Up About Fender

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]Power to the people. Well, I actually waited for this video because I have seen many videos on the case of Fender sending out cease and desist letters to a lot of boutique builders, but also dealers in Germany and the United States. There are hundreds of videos um on YouTube already. And um I have been called up uh a lot in the last few days because my friends that know me as a Fender player are really confused. They want to know what's going on. And of course, the whole thing has different sides. There's of obviously a legal side. So, Fender has a trademarked um headstock.

[00:00:54]This one is protected.

[00:00:56]And myself establishing my own probably blue guitar in 2014 was a little bit naive. So, I wanted to have um a guitar that looks just like my beautiful original 1961 Fender Stratocaster that I played my whole entire life.

[00:01:17]That I played um 2004 and got an award by Fender Europe for being the Strat player of the year 2004, which means this was the 50th anniversary. The Strat was um coming to the market in 1954.

[00:01:39]And 2004 was the 50th anniversary, and there was a Europe-wide contest. I was the winner.

[00:01:46]Um and actually we've done a CD with the Strat Kings, which were the six finalists of that competition. All good friends of mine, all beautiful players, and it's not about competition. It was about celebrating something that has a historical value.

[00:02:08]And thereby I think we as artists, me as little Thomas Blug, and my dear friends from the contest, but also the big names Blackmore, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and all the Strat players, they were kind of contributing value to that particular guitar. So, in that's a thing um I think that's cool if it works both ways. If we support Fender and Fender supports the artists, and that's a beautiful thing. But when I founded my company BluGuitar, I wanted to have something that says BluGuitar on the headstock, uh and I was a little bit naive. I didn't use a different headstock. So, my first contact with Fender was a letter and from their lawyers, which is pretty similar to what I can see being sent out uh these days. You can find these things on the internet. And guess what? These are like 50 pages, and it tells you exactly what to do, what they have seen, blah blah blah, blah blah, blah blah. And the numbers they bring up in my case were 500,000 euros plus the lawyer costs, which were 6,446 euros.

[00:03:40]And me just being you know, the young um startup entrepreneur um Um, making such a little mistake, receiving such a letter is not a nice thing, even though Fender should have known me because they handed me over such an award.

[00:04:02]Um, okay. Well, that's probably a different department and uh that's all okay and legally it's also okay. So, I changed my headstock and actually I prefer mine now. This headstock is even more in line with the overall um shape of the guitar. So, I think it's even an improvement and you know, in the end um my lawyer um could stop Fender um and there was nothing to be uh paid besides me paying my lawyer. And that's the point now. All these small boutique guitar builders, they have received a letter.

[00:04:50]And if they don't react, I don't know what the next move by Fender will will be.

[00:04:56]>> [snorts] >> I was scared, so I had to call a lawyer and this was involving my reaction to the Fender action, which cost me money and I just hope that these letters that have now been sent it out um to big guys like Thomann, that they have capable lawyers that really tell Fender what time it is. And there are so many aspects. I mean, um what has been won in Düsseldorf court is a local court in Germany. And so, there is many layers of legal stuff that has to be fought over and clarified if this Düsseldorf law can be applied on this thing. I'm not going into any of this because I'm not a lawyer. I just hope that some of the guys with money that have been offended uh with that letter um that actually states I It's been said many times, but just think about it. Every guitar with that body shape um that body shape was um never um copyrighted because 72 years um there was no copyright on that. And just that as a as a fact brings it to public domain, which is um stated by a US court in whatever the early 2000s. So, you know, that that's kind of a complex thing, um but let me move to another level.

[00:06:39]Um Small companies do exist because they do things that big companies are not doing.

[00:06:49]So, Fender being whatever the world market leader of electric guitars and probably amplifiers, I don't know, but uh you know, a corporate company, and they have those spreadsheets, Excel sheet uh rockers that are just keen on maximizing profit. And um we as guitar players we are interested in good instruments. And there's nothing wrong about a Stratocaster because it's a brilliant instrument. It's designed by Leo Fender, who worked at Fender for 18 years, then went on with G&L and other things. Um And now people that are just interested in maximizing profits taking legal actions against the small uh builders that try to improve um the instruments. So, there is not a huge business. There is no real rip-off.

[00:07:46]These small companies do exist because they contribute something to the market for their existence. People wouldn't buy a different brand Stratocaster just because it's [ __ ] No, there's a reason why these small companies do exist. And I totally get the point that there are copyrights and these should be protected. But, on the other hand, we also need progress and progress can only exist if there is a continuous development of things. And that always based on something. Even Leo Fender didn't invent that thing because it came from whatever classical instruments, I don't know, it was a cello or whatnot. And some inspiration is always a starting point for innovation. And that's all what I'm doing, tone innovation. I'm I do care about the sound. I do care about a new contribution um to the market to players.

[00:08:54]And if we have a big corporate company going after the small ones, this is the monopoly game that will kill the potential of innovation.

[00:09:07]There would be no room if Fender would have done everything better than those small guys.

[00:09:15]And I think we as players have some power over that again. And I think with this move it's now obvious what kind of mindset is behind Fender these days. And I have been um you know, thinking about how we Power to the People can react to that. I mean, just imagine everything would go totally bad and we would be offended offended, we could use something to cover the headstock, which I actually did at my first fret trip. Use the sock or have a a different logo.

[00:10:05]On the other hand, I will stop um, using things that come from that particular brand and support that because maybe now it's obvious that it's not for the good of us all of us players.

[00:10:26]We live in an industry, the musical um, industry and MI industry, which is based on the passion of people and passion comes first, money comes second. We all need money to survive, but the moment where the big fish eats the small fish, you know, there is no variety anymore and there is no future because then everything turns gray and um, all I'm saying is I still love my guitar and I will play my guitar, um, but I totally like all the videos that are online showing that the community being it YouTubers, um, which is kind of the modern press these days is not happy and um, it's not that YouTubers should be just angry about everything. No, I think there are some YouTubers like Tim Pierce that never do such videos and he mentioned that he feels really sad for people working at Fender and same here. I mean, I don't wish anybody bad things.

[00:11:55]But here's the point.

[00:11:59]If if if if it goes that dramatic hard and we have to we have to make sure that we have to stop that. And of course, on the different layers, there is the legal layer and there is the power of the people and the users layer. So, we should definitely think and prepare um that Fender can feel that what they have done is not right.

[00:12:31]Okay, I will watch the whole evolution of this case very closely um hoping that their bold move uh will have some reactions and of course, I wish some legal action will stop that so we don't have to get emotionally about it and our system, our legal system is still capable to keep the balance because legal system can be weapon and it should be in the power of the people for the good of the world and for the good of the instruments, for us artists who want a better world with better instruments, with better people. Cheers.