Which guitar brand is the best? (electric guitars)

i think the question is kinda dumb just because some companies are better at making different kinds of guitars than others. for instance i would probably say that gretsch, Gibson and ibanez make some pretty darn good hollow bodies. BUT, ibanez and schecter make some great metal guitars while still both gibson and fender make some good blues and rock guitars. and also the moment you say a certain guitar can't do something your basically daring someone.

fenders are crap unless you play clean only...

brody dalle's SH telecaster
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IJ3k7CaqGA&feature=related

that dude from incubus rocks some distortion on a jazzmaster at red rocks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_WJsbIEppE

my bad. i thought this was a strat. it's not. it's a tele.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUTGr5t3MoY

brad noll doens't mind the distorted noise from a stratocaster:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4ool73Vcc0

i don't know who i love more. karen O or nick zinner:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K57szVmdVac
... or nick zinner's badass strat...

sorry an evening of drinking alone and playing guitare led to this post. and i mean c'mon. if you say "x guitars are crap except for y" you are WRONG.

Just because some people are playing fenders distorted, doesn't mean I would consider fenders good for distorted music.

Of course this is MY opinion, but I just don't like the tone or feel of fender guitars. You might feel different.

like i said, the pickups are mostly what makes guitar good for distortion. and Fender normally doesnt put uber distortion pickups on their guitars, thats not how they roll. but slap some EMG's in a strat it will sound like an Ibanez, because most of the woods and construction are pretty much the same

It won't FEEL like an Ibanez :P

Anyway.. if you change the pickups of the guitar it won't be fender making a good guitar, it'll be you! Then the question is, is the guitar still a fender? Some people would say that it isn't.

Fender does make guitars with different pickups. Jim Root's guitar has EMG's, he's in one of the arguably heaviest bands around. Dave Murray's has Dimarzio Super Distortion (tell me those are only good for clean)

Well, those are signature models. Not "real" fenders.

Of course if I got one fender made exactly like I wanted it with the perfect neck, pickups and so on I'd think it was pretty good. I guess that's the reason for Jim Root and Dave Murray playing fender (plus it's vintage). Then again they don't play "real" fenders.

A "real" fender sounds good for blues. Almost exclusively blues. I like blues. But, I like other music as well.

well my argument is this is a totally silly question. It's a matter of preference.

But I voted fender b/c of their playability.

and at guitargoerge give this an ear
http://theaudioperv.com/2010/01/05/japandroids-wet-hair-fallon-14-video/
thats a fender tele.

In general, I wish people would stop saying 'x' guitar brand is almost exclusive to 'x' genre or something to that degree.

but that's the whole point, isn't it? okay i still cannot wrap my head around this --- fenders aren't good for distorted music. and even despite all of these bands who use fenders for distortion, they are still not good? that is the STUPIDEST thing i have ever heard!!! i'm sorry, but if you say "oh, fender is good for clean playing but they suck for distortion" you are 100% absolutely WRONG.

look here's the deal --- i side with fender because i am preferential to their guitars. but if i see a band playing a gibson OR ibanez OR gretsch OR whatever, well, cool. i'm not going to say that x guitar is wrong for y purpose. it's a freaking block of wood that holds steel wires in tension over magnetic coils. THAT'S ALL IT IS!

whatever. it's stupid! it's so stupid to say that one brand of guitar cannot do what another brand of guitar can do. give a squier affinity to matt bellamy i'm pretty sure he can rock the balls out of it.

also i am mad i forgot the best distillers/fender video so i'm hashing it here.... brody dalle rocking a stratocaster very un-clean like. i mean... c'MON!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6iKqOMPZTw

@gx1327
Like i said. Its OPINION!
What one person likes, another considers a piece of S* sell out.


Btw: of the THOUSANDS of Fenders ive PLAYED, 3 Stratocasters Sounded good to me. Billy Corgans, one custom built with EMGs, and Tom Morello's "Soul Power" Every stock Strat and Tele sounded like crap. Noone has EVER bought one at the Local GC. They stopped ordering and are shipping/giving them away!

Can we all agree to not say people's opinions are ridiculous or things are crap or ideas are stupid? The reason I continue to post here is to improve, but mostly it is because the sense of community I felt here and how kind people are was really refreshing. Let's not take away from that.

agreed.
that being said, i don't think that saying a Strat with EMGs isn't a "real fender" is really fair.

thank YOU!

okay .. this Fender thang is wayyyy outta hand. I have a an LP, Musicman, Godin Lgx, Mustang a few Tele's etc....

thing is they all have their "place" in my art, and in my teaching.

of course a Fender can sound great 'distorted'! (lol) I use them that way a lot ... of course i 'mod' fenders (depending) w/ either Dimarazzio (sp?) HOT-RAILS (Stacked Humbuckers) Seymour-Duncan's and/or EMGs(on occasion)
great sound!

I will grant that I , being a neck-position lover, will grab the Godin (or LP) for serious Bridge-position madness, but my (Hot-Rails) Fender Mustang also kills in that situation.(Mustangs Kill period IMNSHO, if they be mid-60's.

Funny, I dont think there really IS "the best guitar" only the best Guitar(s) for YOU

I mean hell i love my 1953 0-18 Martin BUT rarely Gig (session only lol) with it as its old , rare , and whatnot. That doesn't mean the Gibson Ac/Elec is a 'BETTER' Ac-Guitar (far far from it) BUT it IS a better 'guitar to take to the show at night'.

Just as I teach, mainly with the Martin, or the Fender Tele...
The LP is a nice plank but its heavy as hell.

so in the end its a case of :
what works for you works for you so work what works for you!

and REMEMBER To....
RAWK!
Cs

Global Disclaimer :
Carl Snow is an old, jaded & slightly bitter old man who cannot be held accountable for anything, much less his opinionatedly opinionated opinions or those of his imaginary friends. We sincerely apologize if this Carl Snow and/or its behavior have infected you or others with its ugly brain and its juices.

Carl is absolutely right

Yes Carl is right.
And the same (somewhat) goes for Line6 amps. My Epiphone, Squier, and my brothers BC Rich sound(ed) Like s* on it. But My Ibanez sounds just as good as on a Marshall, Crate or (I hate to say it) Fender amp.

even though i'm one of the ones arguing, i completely agree with you. i'm just saying it's ridiculous for someone to say that one guitar can't do something that another guitar can. all guitars can do all things. maybe some have strengths and some have weaknesses. i can totally get behind that. but to just blanket say "fenders CANNOT DO this style" is a very wrong thing to say. ESPECIALLY on a website where people like you and i come to learn and try to absorb knowledge. i'm a very open minded person and the one thing i hate is short sightedness

if you say "personally i do not like playing fenders distorted" i am completely fine with that. but for you to say, and continue to argue the fact, that "fenders are crap distorted, period." it just blows my mind how stupid that is. i respect your opinion, but i don't respect you making a blanket statement like that as if you are some sort of authority on the subject.

also i highly doubt that you have played "thousands" as in more than 1,999 fenders in your lifetime.

Theres a lot of music shops out here. Each with a couple hundred fenders. And i tried ALL of them (Lefty and Right handed). On Marshall amps, Line6 amps, Crate amps (sounded best), Fender amps, Peavy amps, and a couple with the name removed.

And from that experience, the stock single coils suck. The only ones that sounded good were Custom built or had Humbucking pickup installed. Its poor decicions that make me hate them.
Btw i didnt say ALL Fenders suck.

JUST DROP IT!

look man, my point is maybe you hate them. i'm fine with that. whatever. but i can list 50 popular recorded artists who play fenders distorted. so for you to say that fenders are crap distored is wrong. it's not an opinion thing, it's just incorrect.

i'm not saying that your opinion is wrong, but i'm saying that you stating your opinion is fact is wrong. the last thing we need here is someone saying "all fenders suck distorted" and then some kid buying his first electric guitar reads that and interprets it as fact. it's not a fact, it's your opinion. i like gibsons. i like ibanez. i like fender. but since playing guitar, i've noticed that a majority of the bands i listen to play fender guitars distorted....

And i can say 48+ of them DONT use stock Pickups and ALL of them edit the sound, etc, before release

Im saying I dont like the TONE of most Fenders. I dont like the tone of alot of The Gibsons ive played either I dont even really like the tone of My Neck Pickup. I like the tone of most Ibanez RGs, Gibon SGs, Gibson Flying Vs, Gibson and Epiphone DOT, and some ESP and ALMOST any Guitar thats good enough to have a Floyd Rose/Floyd Rose Liscense.