Is this actually true?

[guitarnut1980]

sorry to change the subject but how has the quality of the usa guitars been lately i would really like to consider purchasing one, but some feedback would help, i have a pro series dk2 which is really nice. but the quality of the japanese guitars in my experience has been fairly consistant, but any info on the us guitars would definately help thanks guys

[Jacksonite]

Submit a quote, thats how I find out about these policies.

Before anyone gets on me about submitting quotes and not ordering, I do order plenty or did from the CS so they have to deal with my custom quotes from time to time its just a part of life but I am not a tire kicker.

If you dont ask for a quote, how are you supposed to know if its something you think is worth spending your money on?

[neilli]

Good point Nick - but given that it seems to pretty much only be Kotzen who does the quotes, it would seem very sensible to 'head ideas off at the pass' by making the quote generator available, just so people have a ballpark before going through the formal quote process. Which is painful and takes ages.

[~K~]

Witness the 'oh no, it's not a Jake E Lee guitar honest' run that was put together recently....

Hey! I thought I made that incredibly clear that it wasn't a Jake E Lee run

Truth be told I got the idea from a Jakey Lou Williams guy...

[~K~]

Jake E lee did not invent the strat body but they still wont do that. Its kind of a really stupid rule.
I heard they will not do any KV1s as I really would like a silver sparkle with Kahler.

No but to narrow it down to that doesn't tell the whole story.

He had a bulleted trussrod, hardtailed strat with reversed singles and only a volume. Add up the sum of the parts and it becomes unique

[~K~]

FWIW the rule of thumb is 2 changes, it doesn't matter what they are as long as they are different and it isn't a copywritten item

[neilli]

Hey! I thought I made that incredibly clear that it wasn't a Jake E Lee run

Oh yeah, you did K. Absolutely. And that's what I meant that it honestly wasn't a Jake E Lee guitar. Obviously. I mean, how could it be? You'd have to change like erm, one part..... :ROTF:

[~K~]

Oh yeah, you did K. Absolutely. And that's what I meant that it honestly wasn't a Jake E Lee guitar. Obviously. I mean, how could it be? You'd have to change like erm, one part..... :ROTF:

um... 3 parts

[neilli]

3? I thought it was just the big black plastic thingy on the front....

[~K~]

nope...2 more left

[~K~]

Sorry 3 more ...

[neilli]

Hmmm - other than the guard, I'm stumped, unless it's the model of pickup or something! As a guess I'm gonna say tuner swap?...

[~K~]

Tuner, input jack and switch tip

[mattsmusiccenter]

You should be a lawyer!

With fender, it has less to do with onwership of rights as fender lawyers looking to avoid all possible problems (real or imagined). So if you want a blue burst strat, they will do that. Slant the singles in a certain why and now you are doing a Jake thing that they know is a Jake thing and they know it is a Jake thng because they were told that the concept was going to be a Jake run when the ordering process of started. They are dumb, but not that dumb. Same thing goes if you have a copyrighted graphic- like a Warner Bros character etc and try to get that without WB's written permission, then that is a dead issue. Now if you get the rights from the owner, or your get the original player involved, that changes the story. Gibson thing is more of a "we are not hypocrits - we are not going to steal yours, so dont steal ours" move as fender does not want to be seen as doing exactly what it is trying to get others to stop doing (thus the licening agreement on s-head charvels/jacksons, so if they sell the company, there will be no dispute that the s-head does not go with it).

The Lynch run was ordered and started before the policy hit, and because sub was really a charvel design that Lynch just happen to use once years ago for a little while (and a vid - just got lucky), they went ahead (its not like George is pulling an EVH and saying he owns the design). However, with the no artist policy, the green run that was planned was soon killed (at least in part - the fact that they cound not seem to build the first runto the approved build sheet did not help) .

Contrast the WD guitars. With Warren on board, fender is happy to build all the WD guitars that you want, all except the frenchie, because after the first one (or so) they determined that regardless of who used to play it, the art work on the frenchie was copyrighted and they apparently could not get the rights. I thought they had worked that out later but honestly stopped paying attention.

So, if you have a design in mind which artist related, but not super obvious or something they are aware of, it seems that if you just order it to spec without mentioning anything about where you got the idea, there is a reasonable chance they will built it (particularly if you change something).

See Amir guitar above. Original was a soloist, not a bolt on charvel, so the "re-make" when directly under the radar as they say.

[neilli]

I'm still interested to see what happens with Fender's "no Gibson body shapes" rule now they own Hamer....