Fender gain legal protection of the Stratocaster body design in the EU

[Uncle E]

Would removing the forearm contour cut be enough of a difference in body shape?

Dunno, but we'll all win if this motivates manufacturers to evolve the shape in meaningful ways.

[The Noodlist]

Would removing the forearm contour cut be enough of a difference in body shape?

Dunno, but we'll all win if this motivates manufacturers to evolve the shape in meaningful ways.

I'm getting a Star Trek vibe.
https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-B ... burst/6TIH

[Uncle E]

That top one looks cool! It'll sound different, too, due to the placement of the pickup. What would have been really cool is if they had moved the high strings pickup:

splitcoilsbass.jpg

[Cuauhtli]

Has anyone mocked up a strat style guitar with boobs seeing as how it's supposedly influenced by or referencing the female form?

I guess it could get x-rated if one decided the horns represented the legs

[mystran]

Has anyone mocked up a strat style guitar with boobs seeing as how it's supposedly influenced by or referencing the female form?

Does the LTD Devil Girl qualify as "strat style"?

https://www.guitar-list.com/ltd/electri ... devil-girl

[Uncle E]

They didn't get enough credit for how ergonomic that is. Look at where the sole of her right foot would sit.

[Cuauhtli]

Has anyone mocked up a strat style guitar with boobs seeing as how it's supposedly influenced by or referencing the female form?

Does the LTD Devil Girl qualify as "strat style"?

https://www.guitar-list.com/ltd/electri ... devil-girl

Ha! That's kind of cool. No need to copy the strat body shape.

[Sascha Franck]

I think the upshot is that Fender not has not only failed to get its ducks in a row but that it's unsure what constitutes a duck.

Unfortunately, this works in favour of Fender in case the body is deemed applied arts.
Because when it comes to copyright and arts, things are usually not decided by exact numbers but by experts, case by case.
Similar as things are like with music, it's very/most often not just the notes that are looked at but the way they're played and the context they appear in as well.

Possibly a half-decent idea to start with: "If a 5-year old would paint this guitar, would the result remind people of a Strat?"

Yes, that's pretty vague - but exactly the kinda card Fender will very likely be playing, now that they were greedy enough to start all of this.

Fwiw, I think I said so before, I actually *do* think the Strat body shape deserves a status as applied art just as much as other things do. Or rather: It'd deserve that status because it became what it is over decades (it very likely wasn't at the start, see below).
And fwiw #2, I also think the current Fender administration should rot in hell for their move.

My hope would be that there's some way to keep them away legally, but in case of copyrighted items it unfortunately doesn't matter when you actually care about things for the first time (unless it's later than 70 years after the creator's dead, at which point it becomes public domain anyway).

I do however think there's a chance to get them through "who is the creator anyway and why did they do it?" - because it wasn't Leo Fender alone and the reasons behind it weren't driven by "artistic forces". From all that is known, the basic shape came from Fender and some guys, namely Freddy Tavares, Bill Carson, Rex Gallion and George Fullerton and apparently they were discussing merely about ergonomics. None of what you can find about the process indicates there were much artistic thought processes.

There's a kinda wellknown case in german jurisprudence about sandals (yes, sandals) from a company named Birkenstock. That design got so popular that people sometimes where refering to a certain type of sandals as Birkenstocks, even if they were made by others and didn't look *that* similar.
The court back then ruled that there must be an artistic concept underlying the way the object is designed.

According to the Federal Court of Justice, purely artisanal work is not sufficient for this purpose. In other words, if Karl Birkenstock’s primary concern was to produce an orthopedic shoe that was healthy for the foot, it cannot be classified as art. The judges in Karlsruhe ruled that Birkenstock had not demonstrated that the design of the sandal was based on artistic considerations.

The German "Bundesgerichtshof" (Federal Court of Justice) is the highest instance you can take matters to.

IOW, Fender would have to prove that there's been at least significant artistic intentions behind the design going beyond "ok, let's make this ergonomically pleasant and not looking bad".
There's defenitely some things indicating some sort of artistic involvement, such as the shape of the pickguard (there's no logical/ergonomic reasons why it's following the contour of the lower body but not the upper or for it to be have rounded contours), but that might be pretty much just along the "let's not make it look bad" lines.

In a nutshell: "Fender created something and it only turned into a piece of applied art because it got so popular not because of their intentions" is what I'd be hoping for.

[stratology]

This is such bizarre corporate management BS.

The guy who invented the Stratocaster, Leo Fender, left the Fender company in 1965, and passed away in 1991.
The Strat was his intellectual property, and he never went after anyone who copied the design.

Judging from the enormous backlash that the cease and desists caused in the guitar community, it seems like Fender management is completely out of touch with both Fender customers, and Fender employees.


In terms of quality, compared to good boutique builders like Suhr and Tom Anderson, Strats from Fender simply cannot compete.

[Uncle E]

Suhr and Tom Anderson brought real innovations and artistic improvements to the design. What does Sire bring to the table other than a low price?

[stoopicus]

Suhr and Tom Anderson brought real innovations and artistic improvements to the design. What does Sire bring to the table other than a low price?

A better headstock and neck

For bass the Marcus Millers are very nice and have some nice quality of life features stock.

But yeah, the very high quality for the price is really what they bring to the table.

[Sascha Franck]

Suhr and Tom Anderson brought real innovations and artistic improvements to the design.

Hm, Tom Anderson perhaps. But Suhr? What's Suhr's real innovation? And I'm saying that as someone still lusting after a Suhr...

[tapper mike]

Suhr and Tom Anderson brought real innovations and artistic improvements to the design. What does Sire bring to the table other than a low price?

Quality and Low Price. Side by side Sire S5's beat MIM Fender Strats hands down.


In retrospect I wish I'd bought an S5 over my MIM Player II vintage modified strat. The problem was tarrifs were making it impossible for retailers to justify the price of import

I am a fender player. I've played and owned strats and tele's from the 70's 80's.90's and today.
S3 has a build quality of an american made ultra. Rolled fretboard great frets quality parts modern sculpting and highly acceptable pups. Of the four fender products I've oned in the last decade. The Sire S3 exceeds them all in features and build quality. My CIC tele needed tones of work done to make it playable by the previous owner and it still sounded like crap. I invested quite a lot of money in pups and wiring to bring some life back into it. Still that CIC had the best fender neck I've ever played (After all the extensive aftermarket work) The Pine body couldn't be fixed. Plays great with new bridge nut tuners leveled crowned and dressed frets but it shouldn't have needed all that work as a brand new guitar. My MIM's all have sharp frets. Somehow Sire figured out how to roll the fretboards and address the fret ends on guitars made in Indonesia which is just as much if not more humid than Escanaba.

[The Noodlist]

[jens]

Would removing the forearm contour cut be enough of a difference in body shape?

Dunno, but we'll all win if this motivates manufacturers to evolve the shape in meaningful ways.

I'm getting a Star Trek vibe.
https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-B ... burst/6TIH

I love the look of these!

Edit: they have even a video with Frank Itt demoing the Delta.