The Time Is Now For Fender Alternatives

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-22

[00:00:04]Hey, Jim here from 3 J Music and like everyone else over the last week I've been watching the whole uh Fender debacle unfold across guitar YouTube and while I'm not a lawyer or guitar builder or even enough of a presence on YouTube for my opinion to make a difference, I didn't feel that it was necessary for me to make a video on it.

[00:00:31]The more I watched, the more I started to see people talking about Fender alternatives and it felt like that was something that I could weigh in on.

[00:00:41]And then I watched a video this morning from John Simons and he did a great list of Fender alternatives.

[00:00:52]I feel like he missed a few.

[00:00:55]So, I thought I would weigh in on what I think he missed.

[00:00:59]And these are guitar brands that I currently own.

[00:01:02]Uh one of them that he didn't miss that I agree 100% on are Kiesel guitars.

[00:01:10]If you're looking for Fender alternatives between the Delos and the Solo and a few others, those are excellent guitars.

[00:01:24]So, anyway, with that being said, let me get to my five Fender alternatives.

[00:01:33]I probably should have paid closer attention in case one or two of these was in his video, but I don't recall uh hearing him mention these in his video. And the first one is is PRS.

[00:01:46]The Silver Sky, the NF3 and NF53 and I think there's a new model or a new model that they call studio that's like the NF 53.

[00:02:00]These are somewhat strat and tele style guitars with the uh more of the PRS twist.

[00:02:09]Now, for some people PRS is a love it or hate it kind of brand.

[00:02:14]Uh I personally think anything PRS is worth a look. I've had a ton of PRS guitars and uh never had a bad one.

[00:02:25]Number four on the list is uh Sterling Music Man.

[00:02:31]I know that Music Man are obviously way up there in price for a lot of us, but a lot of these uh Sterling models are are pretty great, too.

[00:02:40]And I recently did a video and I won uh from another channel, I won a Sterling Cutlass and that was a surprisingly good guitar for being a a guitar in the $300 price range.

[00:02:57]And uh I was pretty impressed by it and I've had a couple of other Sterlings uh bass, a StingRay.

[00:03:05]Uh but the uh Cutlass being, you know, really close to a strat style or S style guitar was uh was was quite a surprise.

[00:03:16]So, that's also a brand to look into as an alternative.

[00:03:22]The next two are more important on a personal level. They're smaller companies, I guess you could say.

[00:03:28]And uh number three would be Texas Toast Guitars.

[00:03:34]Now, they deal a lot more in uh tele style outside of their their original uh Challenger and some of their other offerings.

[00:03:49]Um but I have seen strat style S style guitars from them and um while there's nothing really happening on that front right now on their website, there are a few T style or as they call their daily driver options. So, uh you know, check out Texas Toast Guitars website, too.

[00:04:18]And I bought a couple of guitars from Texas Toast and they were nice enough to send out uh email promoting one of my videos. I thought that was really, really cool of them.

[00:04:36]Uh just a couple of great guys.

[00:04:38]So, and phenomenal instruments. So, definitely check out Texas Toast Guitars.

[00:04:44]And number two um the owner of this company actually is responsible for my one and only sponsored video. He was nice enough to send me a guitar to review and it was a great guitar. It was a T style guitar.

[00:05:00]But that wasn't before I bought uh S style guitar from him with my own money and did a video and I thought it was really great guitar especially for the price.

[00:05:12]And that is uh S Teese Guitars.

[00:05:16]And Torsten is working really hard to get affordable guitars out there with uh with with the best quality and the best setups and uh just just the best guitars that he can possibly get out there for uh a really affordable range.

[00:05:41]And you You I've I've talked a little bit at length with Horacio and about uh what he does and his vision. And I would I'd really like to see him succeed, so uh I guess just based on price point alone, I guess maybe call that a Squire alternative.

[00:06:11]Uh but these guitars, to use an overused phrase, really punch above their weight, so So, definitely uh check out Teisco guitars, also.

[00:06:27]And the number one alternative on my list, personally, is uh is a guitar that I did a video about a few years ago, and the the title of that video was the reason that I no longer own a Fender Strat.

[00:06:42]And it was one of those guitars I was really like in the middle of, you know, flipping guitars, just just trying to to try everything that I could.

[00:06:54]And they're kind of more known for their their acoustic-electric stuff, but uh Godin guitars and the Godin Session is an S-style guitar that um that I've often said is is probably the best Strat-style or the best Strat that I've ever had.

[00:07:17]I feel like I shouldn't say Strat. I feel like I should say S-style, but um But yeah, the uh the Godin Session is an S-style guitar, and it's I I would put that up against any Fender.

[00:07:34]And they do have T-style guitars, also.

[00:07:37]And as I said, they're more known for their acoustic-electrics, but um But yeah, that that's a guitar and and a brand that doesn't get nearly enough attention in my opinion.

[00:07:53]And so that's it. Just a few other alternatives to Fender to be a little outside of the box or um but if you're in that group right now looking for Fender alternatives because maybe what's going on right now is kind of left a bad taste in your mouth.

[00:08:18]Uh there's a list of a few options to to check out.

[00:08:24]So that's that's about all I have for you today. So uh you know, thanks for watching. If you found this useful, like and subscribe.

[00:08:33]All that good stuff and uh see you next time.