This page contains some information about various brands of solidbody electric guitars. The information presented contains personal bias and should be taken with a pinch of salt.

Fender

In 1950 Leo Fender created the world's first commercially mass-produced solidbody electric guitar, the Esquire (later Telecaster). It inspired other guitar makers to come up with solidbody electrics, and this led to the birth of the Les Paul by Gibson a few years later. By 1954 Fender had to come up with a new guitar as the Telecaster was not enough to rival other guitar makers' solidbodys. The stratocaster was born. And the history of Pop music was changed. The stratocaster is the most loved American guitar, and it's said to be able to fit for playing any kind of music, from country to metal, and has been used by many musical greats such as Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. Today Fender is the most reknown and famous brand for solidbody electric guitars, beating even its principal rival, Gibson. However, a warning for newbie vintage guitar collectors - Fenders made during the CBS years, 1965-1985 are of much lower value and quality and are generally not worth collecting. Shown above is a Red American stratocastor. A word about Fender's artisits signature models. They usually just involved customised colours and pick-ups and do not involved new designs or any changes to exisiting Strat or Tele designs, unlike Ibanez's signature models.

Gibson

Following Leo Fender's first solidbody electric guitar the Telecaster, Gibson also tried their hands on making their own solidbody electric. Aided by guitarist Les Paul, they created the Les Paul in 1952. Originally fitted with my single coil pick-ups, the Les Paul fitted with Gibson humbuckers caught on with many musicians and was generally the preferred solidbody electric during the 50s and 60s. Even though it has now lost out to the Stratocaster it's still being preferred by lots of musicians who loved the rich sound of the vintage Les Paul humbuckers. One piece of information - the Gibson today is not as focused on quality of its instruments as the Gibson of the past. Most musicians prefers vintage Les Pauls instead of the Les Pauls of today. Shown above is a Les Paul standard.

Ibanez

Originally well-known as a high quality Fender/Gibson design copying brand, Ibanez eventually started working on its own solidbody designs by collaborating with Steve Vai, and this led to the birth of the JEM series and the Universe 7-string guitars. The JEM and Universe (UV) series are Steve Vai's signature models, and Ibanez also started the RG series, which is modelled after the JEM series but fitted with Ibanez pick-ups (for some of the lower-end models). The RG and JEM series mainly take the form of superstrats, with Ibanez designed Floyd Rose licensed tremolos in every one of them. From there on Ibanez began on to work on other designs, such as the S series, which boasts of super-slim necks and lightweight bodies while not compromising on the sound, for lighting speed licks. Ibanez guitars are most well-known as rock and heavy metal guitars, due to their heavy distortion pick-ups (both Ibanez and DiMarzio pick-ups used boast of super distortion). Their signature models include some very big names, namely Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Paul Gilbert. Shown above is the JEM7V Sparkle Blue, a Steve Vai Signature Model.

ESP

Probably the best Japanese guitar-maker, ESP produces the following series of guitars for the Japanese markets; the high-end Edwards Series, the Navigator Series, and the Seymour Duncan guitar Series. It also produces the beginner series - the Grassroots Series for beginner guitarists. I'm not sure about the origins of the Grassroots Series, but the rest are definately high-quality Japanese-made guitars. However, these series are only available in Japan and not in the rest of the world, particularly USA and Europe, where ESP only offers the low-quality Korea-made Limited Series(limited in quality and sound perhaps?). What is really impressive about ESP is their signature models line-up. ESP currently has signature models for the following artists; CHAR, THE ALFEE, Sugizo, J and Inoran of former Luna Sea fame, Dragon Ash, KAZ, DIE and Kaoru from Dir en Grey, FANATIC CRISIS, Hirose Satoshi, SHAZNA, PIERROT, Tetsu from L`arc~en~ciel, Laputa, Mana and Kozi from former MALICE MIZER, PENICILLIN, Sex MachineGuns, etc. Shown above is the Mana Signature Model. Their artist models are of extremely high quality, as they are designed by the guitarists with the help of top japanese guitar makers from ESP. All of their artist models are made in Japan.

Fernandes

Another high-quality Japanese guitar-maker, Fernandes has an impressive line up of signature models which includes Hide, Heath, Pata, Ken from L`arc~en~ciel, Janne Da Arc, etc. Their Japanese artist models are designed by the guitarist themselves with the help of top Japanese guitar makers and boast of extremely high quality instruments. However, their standard and lower end models suck, as they are mostly made in shitty countries like Chi Na.