Tyler Bryant has called out a guitar company that used a doctored photograph of him seemingly playing one of the brand’s own electric guitars to promote their products.
If, for some reason, you happened to be scrolling through the Fesley website recently, you may have happened upon the Fesley FLP350 Les Paul copy – the listing of which featured a picture of Bryant on stage wielding the guitar in question.
The catch is, of course, that Bryant himself has never played a Fesley, nor does he endorse any of the firm’s guitars.
Rather, the genuine picture, sourced from Shutterstock, sees Bryant playing his prized Pinky One Stratocaster. Here, Fesley has seemingly slapped a picture of its own guitar over the top of the Strat to market the model.
It’s a truly bizarre – and rather dystopian – piece of marketing, and one that Bryant himself was quick to call out on social media.
“Yo, @fesleymusic_official… Please take your doctored photo of me down,” Bryant wrote on Instagram. “I do not endorse your product or any company who uses artificial BS to bamboozle people. It’s SNAKE OIL!!!!!”
It seems the promotional Photoshopped pictures have since been removed by Fesley from its own online store, but some online retailers still have them up. In fact, across multiple outlets, Bryant can be seen playing a few different variations of the Fesley LP.
As brazen as the Photoshop seems, some commenters have pointed out that Bryant may not have much of a defence against Fesley editing the picture.
Indeed, it’s entirely possible the guitar maker simply purchased a stock photo from Shutterstock and, depending on the terms and conditions of Fesley’s license agreement with Shutterstock, made edits that were within its rights.
That’s not to say the process of the actual edit is justifiable, mind, with many of Bryant’s peers – including Jared James Nichols, RJ Ronquillo and Anderton’s Peter Honore – criticizing Fesley for the move.
The sight of Bryant holding a humbucker-loaded Les Paul copy alone was enough to raise the red flag, given Bryant's affection for the Fender Stratocaster.
He's particularly fond of his Pinky One model, which was stolen, played by Jeff Beck, inscribed by Steven Tyler, and miraculously returned to him after five years.
It's not the first time a famous face has been used to promote a product or service without their permission. In March, Rob Chapman shed light on AI deep fakes being used to push guitar competition scams.
