In my first post welcome-to-daion-guitars-down-under, I mentioned that I have a real fondness for the Fender® Stratocaster®, and how to me it's basically just THE electric guitar to own. That opinion does not infer in any way that it "IS" the best electric guitar ever made, as that would be both arrogant and ludicrous to suggest, as no one guitar can meet everyone's needs or likes.
However, I would go so far to say that the basic shape of the Stratocaster® is probably the most recognisable electric guitar shape there is. I would dare say people who aren't even into guitars if asked to draw an electric guitar would end up drawing something resembling a "Strat".
There's one very good reason why the "Strat" is so recognisable, it's been around a very long time! 1954 saw the introduction of Leo Fender's masterpiece, the Stratocaster®, and it has been in production by Fender® continuously ever since. As well as Fender® making the "Strat", it has been one of the most copied guitar's by other guitar makers all over the world since the 60's.
In the 1970's the copying was so prolific that Fender and Gibson (and possibly Martin) sort action against companies making the copies, and the term "Lawsuit Guitar" was born from that whole process. That's a very abbreviated wishy-washy explanation but feel free to Google Lawsuit Guitar if you want the full story.
So we now come to the Daion connection. I believe 1978 saw the beginning Daion guitar production, and whilst they had many of their own designs, at some point they produced their own "copies" of the Stratocaster® and Telecaster®, quite faithfully reproducing a lot of the small details found on the Fender® originals, and in some cases apart from not having Fender® on the headstock, are mostly indistinguishable by casual observation.
The question is "if you could by a genuine Fender® Stratocaster®, why would you buy a copy?". Quite simply price! Fender® were making guitars in the USA, and like a lot of other consumer products, Asian factories were able to produce similar items so much cheaper due to lower production costs, wages being a major factor. This trend is reflected in todays market with Chinese manufactured items able to be produced many times cheaper than in the USA/Australia/Japan etc.
One could argue that buying a genuine USA made Fender® guitar would get you are higher quality instrument? Maybe, maybe not. Unfortunately it is well documented that when CBS bought the Fender® corporation from Leo Fender, there were some quality issues, mainly related to slashing costs. The Japanese manufacturers in particular may have been able to produce the items at a cheaper price, but they were often still of high quality, some would argue that the higher end Japanese copies were actually better quality instruments than the genuine ones of the same era.
Having said all of that, I should get back on topic, that being is it ok to refer to a non genuine Fender® Stratocaster® product using the term "Strat Style", "Strat Like", Strat Shaped" etc etc etc?
One would think referring to something using any of the above terms would be pretty safe, not misleading, and a way to describe something in a way that clearly tell people what kind of instrument it is, especially if the greater descriptions clearly outlines that the instrument is NOT made by Fender®.
However, it would seem that the "copyright infringement police" do indeed keep an eye out for such things, and not just in relation to big businesses and corporations intent on making money from someone else's intellectual property.
There was a "Strat" style Daion Performer on Ebay a little while ago, quite clearly advertised as being a "Vintage DAION Strat' Copy". I don't think there is too much misleading about that?Anyway below is the original listing with clear description, and then below is a further copy of the re-listed item after the original listing was forced to be removed for "copyright infringement"!
Personally I don't think the seller could have been any clearer as to what the guitar was, clearly a Daion branded instrument made in Japan or Korea in the 70's or 80's, and what it clearly wasn't, that being a genuine Fender® Stratocaster®.
Funnily enough, one of the guitar related blogs I saw recently ( http://tightarseguitar.blogspot.com.au/ ) that featured a Daion Rockson MDL ( daion-copy-of-very-famous-guitar-that.html ) had a very funny title to the post, that being "Daion *copy of a very famous guitar that cannot be named in case Fender Australia send in the flying monkey lawyer squadron".
I laughed pretty hard when I read that title, but after seeing the Ebay listing that was pulled because of refering to the guitar as being Strat copy, the "flying monkey lawyer squadron" line took on far more seriousness in that there is some truth to it.
As I have semi-frequently used "Strat style" in my posts so far to describe what are to my eyes quite clearly "Strat" style guitars, so I wonder if I too will have the order "fly my pretties" given and have the said "flying monkey lawyer squadron" visiting my insignificant online blog!
In defense of any potential copyright issues I may be accused of perpetrating, I would like to categorically state that I do know the difference between a genuine Fender® Stratocaster® or Telecaster® and a guitar that merely resembles one, and my referring to any item as being "Strat style" or "Tele style" in no way infers that they are genuine Fender® produced instruments, and I would like to submit the following image of my two genuine Fender® guitars, my beautiful 50th Anniversary Stratocaster® and my very cool '72 Deluxe Reissue Telecaster®, as evidence that I not only know the difference, but own the genuine articles.
