if i could afford a gibson i would have one but until then i'll settle for my fender

I have Dean and Ibanez, myself

personally i prefer fender

Fender has the ever-so-sporty, classic-looking Telecaster and Stratocaster, but then Gibson has traditional-looking SG and all of that Les Paul stuff. If I had a Fender, I would need a funky colour scheme, then I'd be happy. But I wouldn't mind having an SG in red, blue, white, or maybe a few other colors.

i'm gonna move this to the stringed instrument section since it really is quite specific to the instrument and not a style of music.

I have a Kramer Pacer Custom...which is a glorified Fender Strat...but I really want a Gibson...

I really want an Arch-Top hollow body Gibson. Those things just look so vintage and sound amazing. Plus, their great for playing Jazz.

So I prefer Gibson.

I play Dean (USA Hardtail, '79 series V), Ibanez (an IC300 that I gutted and rebuilt), G&L (Commanche) and Carvin (DC400C). Modern Gibsons and Fenders are pretty weak in my books. Both are overpriced and are easily destroyed by other brands. Some people don't like the feel of G&L's, but they are a cut above when it comes to overall quality. The Korean-made Tribute series is better than any American-made Fender I have ever played (and I once owned an American Fat Strat). Dean, in my opinion, builds the best factory guitars of any American builder out there right now (although the market is being flooded with the import models being bought up by the Dimebag fans, pushing up the prices of the American built models).

Sure, I bash on Gibson and Fender, but both companies are largely responsibe for the inception and evolution of the electric guitar. Everybody knows about their history, but many of their modern innovations are overlooked. The Samarium-Cobalt Noiseless (SCN) pickups that are now stock (I believe) on the Deluxe American guitars from Fender are amazing. They are at the top of the heap in the world of single-coil pickup engineering. The S1 pickup splitting/switching system they now use is also a great concept, though some of the tones produced are unusual. The New-Old Stock guitars are high-quality, but the price tag would make most people look for something else.

Overall, I'd say Fender is better; Gibson just doesn't interest me at this point.

I love my Les Paul. I debated between a Tele and a LP (I don't like the Strats because of the third pickup - it sometimes messes up my picking) and eventually settled on the LP. I think at some point I will buy a Tele because I like that twangy sound but it's hard to beat a LP going through a Marshall amp. It just has that "rock" sound to me.