Fender VS Gibson, Gibson VS Fender. If we have to decide between two brands that have marked the future of music, especially in the rock, surely Fender and Gibson come to mind without being too far-fetched. Both companies are world leaders in the manufacture of electric guitars, among other instruments, and since their appearance they have maintained a historical rivalry.
Fender VS Gibson. The confrontation of the century
The Gibson brand has a huge background as to design and development of string instruments while the Fender company began developing amplifiers and then chose to put its head into the world of electric guitars and distribute them on a large scale.
More or less the battle began when singer Les Paul was looking for a manufacturer to make him a solid body electric guitar. And it was Gibson who finally launched the legendary guitar Les Paulbut Fender did not wait and made the fabulous Stratoscaster.
So that, Leo Fenderfounder of the firm, came up with the brilliant idea of expanding his brand’s catalog with electric guitars and manufacture them on a large scale for marketing.
Fender VS Gibson. Who hits first
The gibson guitars have always been highly regarded for their illustrious models endowed with details and features that can only be seen in instruments of high end such as the quality of its woods, its recognizable tapas or its elegant black and gold colors.
On the other hand, Fender is betting on a more functional approach for your electric guitars. These were cheaper and were not as tedious to manufacture, so they could produce more quantities at the same time than their “rival” Gibson at a more affordable price for the company.
An example to put you in context is that when manufacturing the guitars, Gibson glued the neck to the body and Fender screwed it on. This saved a lot of time, and allowed parts of the electric guitar to be changed very easily and directly influenced the transmission of the instrument’s vibrations.
Gibson VS Fender. The characteristics of each fighter
Let’s look at a series of differences in important features that we find in both brands.
What wood are they made of?
The Fender electric guitars and the Gibsons use different woods for the composition of this string instrument. One of its main differences is that Fender manufactures with maple necks one-piece along with a rosewood fingerboard, while lGibson necks are made of mahogany with the same tuning fork. This causes the sound to vary greatly from one to the next.
Close combat
The body of the Gibson electric guitars are mahogany and those of the Fender alder which also causes a gap in low and mid frequencies.
The climb to the podium
The scale used by Fender is 25.5″ and 14.77 centimeters. While Gibson opts for a scale of 25.75″ and 62.8 cm, the latter being shorter. This is seen in the strain of the strings of each one.
Separated in the ring
If we refer to the string separation Currently the two companies are betting on about 52.5 millimeters compared to the 56 millimeters of Fender guitars. vintage which produces a sound more similar to that of an acoustic guitar.
Pills for shocks
Finally, we cannot forget to name one variable which has a lot to do with tone, pills. Fender and Gibson used the single coil but at the end of the 50s, the pills were launched PAF humbucker that captivated Gibson.
Fender VS Gibson. Two ways to face combat
As we mentioned these two brandssince their inception, they have had A totally different approach when developing your strategy in the market. While Gibson opted for distinction and style, Fender moved towards a more practical and affordable shot.
Proof of this can be seen in the Fender’s tone, which is much sharper, dynamic and clear, and the Gibson’s tone is more aggressive, with a higher mid-tone frequency and more sustain.
As usual on this blog we leave you a video from our colleague Adry Serrano where he will tell us very clearly other details to take into account between these two great brands of electric guitars.
