In this video I’m talking about the recent Fender lawsuit that honestly shocked a lot of the guitar world. Fender filed against a Chinese maker that was ripping off the Stratocaster body design, and Fender won. For years my understanding has been that Fender “owned” the headstock shape (which is why you see builders change the headstock), but the Strat body outline has been copied by everybody and their brother. So this case feels like a pretty big development, and it makes me wonder what happens next. I’m filming this while playing my Suhr Classic S—basically a Strat-style guitar—and it’s a perfect example of how muddy this all gets. The headstock is different, but the body is clearly Strat territory, with a few comfort tweaks. I’m not here to diss Suhr at all; I think John Suhr does a great job and these are some of my favorite modern “Fender-style” builds. But the market is insanely saturated with Strat and Tele builders, including relic guys charging $3–4K for bolt-together parts builds, and it’s wild when you remember Fender is the company that came up with these designs in the first place.