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As the fallout from Fender’s high-profile cease and desist strategy continues, two of YouTube’s biggest guitar players have begun burning bridges with the brand.
This week, Fender relaunched its legal campaign against the S-style electric guitar market, allegedly sending cease and desist letters to multiple builders instructing them to stop producing Stratocaster-inspired instruments.
The strategy is a continuation of Fender’s re-energized protection of the Strat, stemming from a court ruling that was made in the Regional Court of Dusseldorf, Germany, that established a legal precedent for Fender to “protect its designs in global commerce”.
“What are you guys doing?” Shull says in his video, addressing Fender directly. “I completely understand and can make a case for a company defending their intellectual property, but in my opinion, it's commonly understood that the Stratocaster… and other Fender body shapes at this point are basically public domain.
“So to go after this weird backdoor technicality way of trying to monopolize this sector of the guitar market is insane to me, and I think this is a PR disaster that will hurt you and haunt you, Fender, for years.”
He continues, “In my opinion, that’s what this reads as: they’re trying to eliminate any and all competition so that the only way to buy a Stratocaster… is to buy it from Fender. This is going to make the 'Play Authentic' debacle [Gibson’s controversial video that threatened rival guitar makers against using its body shapes] look like child’s play.
“You're going to spark a huge boycott of Fender,” he predicts. “I won't play Fenders if that's what's going to happen. If you start going after my friends who have companies who build guitars – not just Strats, but lots of other designs as well – so that you can monopolize the Strat shape, I'm not playing Fenders anymore.
“I think it's important that we, as a community, talk about this and push back against Fender on this.”
Shull’s sentiments were echoed by session legend and fellow YouTube favorite Tim Pierce. In his own video, Pierce says Fender has committed “brand suicide” and panned the company for its cease and desists.
“I have friends who work at Fender, and I’m concerned for them. I have friends who work at guitar companies that aren’t Fender, and I’m concerned for them,” Pierce begins.
“Fender, if you made better guitars, you wouldn’t have to do things like this,” he continues. “You won a case in Dusseldorf, where your opponent didn't show up because they were counterfeiting guitars. Cool, I'm glad you won.
“But to turn that into this letter that all my friends are getting... that is draconian and unfair and turned you into the biggest bully in the world.
“I'm really concerned for my friends at the company, because it's such a bad look, and I'm concerned for my friends who I'm talking to at the companies that are being threatened. It's very scary, it's very unfair.”
Though he doesn’t overtly boycott the brand, and says he may well end up making more videos about Fender gear, Pierce predicts that may be tricky for him in the future.
“If Fender makes something that I like and I think I should show to you, I'll simply buy it and talk about it,” he notes. “I've never made a video where I was quite sure that I would end my relationship with the company, in a sense – not with my friends at the company, but whoever these people are, these mythical people upstairs that make bad decisions.”
Fender’s stance has been widely criticized by commenters online, with Guitar World readers and guitar fans alike all weighing in on the discussion.
