Fender Offender? A Lot of People Are Mad, Why?

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:01]Hey, this is Mark here at Gar's Guitars and I'm here to talk about uh the Fender controversy because everyone's been talking about it. I initially did one of those things where I'm like, "Okay, everyone's talking about this. It's been talked about. I'll go talk about something else and I did a video about Elixir Strings this week." But, um, it's I do have things to say about it. I do have things to add to it. you know, uh, people have asked for my perspective on it because I have a perspective on the guitar industry that's not necessarily the same as all the other, uh, channels out there. So, here it goes. What do I think about the Fender controversy? Is it a PR nightmare? Yes.

[00:00:44]Did Fender shoot themselves in their foot? Yes.

[00:00:49]Um, is Fender an evil private equity run corporation that is trying to stomp out all competition through latigious methods?

[00:01:00]Or is Fender a scrappy legacy company trying uh that's in danger of being swallowed up by a world of copycats and they're just trying to keep using their elbows to, you know, just to keep uh this all at bay and just to stay in the game?

[00:01:21]Yes. So, is it both? Yeah. Or is it somewhere in between? Most likely. But that's a lot to say.

[00:01:30]All these things can be true.

[00:01:32]So, you probably heard about this. I'll give the 30 second summary. Uh, Fender uh sued a Fender Forger, a company that made literal forgeries of Fender guitars, not Fender style guitars, not um but I believe this company was making guitars that that uh were literal for forgeries. um Fender sued them in a European court because their American court suits, you know, they they chose the, you know, the place for it. They won in a summary judgment, meaning uh the the um the defendant didn't show up and so the judge said, "Well, I guess we only have information from the plaintiff and therefore we'll go with the plaintiff." And the idea is this sparked this idea that Fender could um under copyright um defend the uh the instrument the Stratacastaster style guitar as being their sole um intellectual property.

[00:02:31]Um it's a stretch.

[00:02:35]I don't think it's going to change the way that uh now the big news is people like I heard I got a friend they got a seasoned assist notice you know because they're making Fenders style guitars in the garage.

[00:02:48]Well, I'd rather talk to my friends at All Parts first. Although All Parts is licensed Fender um products, so I don't think they have any uh problems. But um to see the extent of of of exactly how bad this is, is it but is it a PR mistake? Of course.

[00:03:05]Has Fender done things like this in the past? Yes. Do other guitar companies defend their copyrights and trademarks?

[00:03:11]Yes. So, is it business as usual? Yes.

[00:03:16]But how does it affect Fender and going forward? And um where, you know, and let's just talk about this idea. People like, I'm not buying Fender guitars.

[00:03:25]This is just a you know, too far. We're living in this age of grievance. We're all that people are just feeling. Fender is the target of the grievance of of uh well, let me say it this way.

[00:03:40]Sorry to to interrupt that, but I have this uh friend, his name was Tom Daly.

[00:03:45]Anyone from around this area would remember Tom. Big supporter of the music business around here. Owned a recording studio and a record label and stuff. And I was having lunch with him once and he he looked at me and he just said, "It's never about the dirty dishes."

[00:04:00]And then it just that was wisdom. It's now the argument isn't about the dirty dishes in the sink. It's about a larger problem.

[00:04:10]And so people are mad at Fender, but they're not really mad at Fender necessarily. Or, you know, they are mad at Fender. But the real problem is people have this feeling that these corporations everywhere they turn are just putting the screws to them and treating them badly and being aggressive and being too money-minded.

[00:04:35]And people are just tired of this idea of uh corporations through the litigation shaping the world that they live in.

[00:04:47]So it's not necessarily to do with Fender guitars. The Fender guitars are the you know what Fender's done with this controversy are the dirty dishes in the sink. And people are really mad because they just see a bigger picture where it's like, damn it, can't we just stop suing each other off the face of the earth? Can't we just admit that for the last 70 years, um, you know, Leo Fender made something 70 years ago and we've all been copying it ever since.

[00:05:19]I think that's the larger issue here that the the rage that people are feeling about this idea that Fender is um is being evil isn't necessarily to do with any evil, you know, anything out of the ordinary corporate behavior. This is what companies do. They defend their their copyrights and their trademarks.

[00:05:38]It just comes at a really bad time in our life when we're having, you know, we're being forced to use AI and we're being forced to acknowledge that yes, we have to, you know, you know, build all these data centers everywhere and this is, you know, this is not of your choosing. You don't get to choose if the data center is in your neighborhood. You don't get to choose if it gets built or not. Just we, the corporations, have decided that the world needs AI and you're coming along for the ride. And people feel helpless about that. So in instead, Fender steps in, shoots themselves in the foot, so to speak.

[00:06:15]They step in a big pile of poo poo when they I think they were just doing something that they, you know, that they thought would, you know, it wasn't a major strategy change and how they run the company. It was like, oh yeah, let's, you know, let's poke this bear, see if it wakes up. And it did. So, where does that leave us in? And Fender. Am I board counting Fender? No. Why? Cuz I have too many on the wall. No. Um, we need Stratacasters and Telecasters.

[00:06:46]Yeah. Yeah. I'm not willing to give them up. Do other companies make better versions of a Stratacaster? Fender makes a better version of a Stratacaster.

[00:06:55]So, they just make varying qualities of of the instrument depending on how much money you're willing to pay for it. Um, they've made variations on their own designs for the last 70 years.

[00:07:10]So, um, I'm not jumping on board, you know, um, stomping on Fender. I do not think what they did was wise. I do not think it's in the interest of their company. Um, but I'm not going to, uh, react the opposite way either. I'm not going to um to just assume that they had the worst intentions.

[00:07:34]U Duke um let's not forget this Fender uh wanted to go public. They wanted to be you know an IPO uh I don't know was it 15 years ago I think it was 2012 I think as I recall uh going public is great. There's this concept I call in business OPM.

[00:07:58]What's the OPM factor? Other people's money. OPM. Uh our economy is just run on the principle of making other people's money your money is the easiest way to earn money.

[00:08:10]And that's this idea of an IPO and that Fender wants to um uh the idea that they they could spin off this company into an IPO as Servco, the the uh the majority owner could uh and that it could uh bring them a lot of money and that's why they're in business. They're in business to make money.

[00:08:30]So, conclusions, what will this do?

[00:08:33]Um there will be uh a lot of smoke and and a lot of uh even more anger, but it'll come around. So, thanks for watching and we'll talk to you soon.