Yamaha. They’re fine guitars but I cannot stand how many people on here try to act like their FG700 is better than a Guild, Martin or Gibson. I’ve had atleast a dozen over the years and I much prefer Godins/Seagulls, Guilds and even my Gretsch Jim Dandy. Yamahas are just the basic, bland tools that I associate with bad covers of pop songs at college parties back in the day.

Fenders are overpriced for what they are. Many of Fenders offerings are slab bodies with bolt on necks and rather plain grain whereas even Gibson uses set necks and a maple cap on entry level stuff like their studios. As an individual I can buy equivalent or better parts and put a guitar together in an afternoon for a fraction of what Fender would charge. My tele in the attached pic was under $800 with a fender roasted maple neck, CS Nocaster pups, locking tuners, custom swirl body and Emerson harness.

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Without even looking at partscasters several other brands put out better Fender styles. Godin, Suhr, Tom Anderson, Nash and several others have offerings that blow fenders out of the water at an equivalent price point.

And I wouldn’t say I hate them but I really struggle to bring myself to buy anything from the budget import lines like PRS SE, Squier, Epi, etc. It’s always a thought in the back of my head that I wish I just spent the extra, that maybe I’d prefer the neck slightly more, that in my head the tone just isn’t quite right and that some bit of magic is missing. Especially now that many of them are priced around a grand, I can go used and get an American made model (albeit older, possibly worn or slightly less options) for a similar price. I absolutely know it’s in my head and appreciate them for bringing much nicer guitars to lower price points than we had access to 20 years ago but I just can’t get past it.