Guitar lovers, what are your favorite European brands?

- After all this years I have to find out that it actually is an intrument.
  
  Mayones certainly makes my sandwich sing.

I love this community because I'm learning a lot about where stuff is from. Case in point, I was going to suggest Ibanez and found out it's Japanese lol
- I've played an Ibanez SR 300 bass on stage for years. I tried many others but nothing feels or sounds as good to me.
- Well, at least it's not from murica

This is exactly what we should do for now - post every single post both here on Lemmy and on Reddit and we should constantly remind people that they have to switch to Lemmy!
- The Reddit mods seems to not like Lemmy a lot: https://lemm.ee/post/57901024?scrollToComments=true
  
  They enjoy seeing their work get fucked over. That sounds like a cuck to me.
- What is reddit?
- They will ban you for it now.

Strandberg
- I've always wanted one of their 7 or 8 strings with the fanned frets but that price tag is steep
  
  I've played one once in a shop and it was amazing. If I can ever afford to drop that much money on an instrument I will be going right to them

An if we want to support our Canadian friends: Godin. Excellent guitars

Solar.
Yes, they also have "Made in Europe"

Hagström is great, especially the Super Swede is on my favourite list.
- Playing a ultra swede for years, no complaints :)
- Excellent guitars. Made in china, but still very good.
  Speaking of excellent chinese guitars; Eastman acoustics are incredibly good.
  
  Apparently they have brought back some of their production to sweden as of 2020 but don't ask me which models, because i don't know. I know production moved to china 2006 after not having any at all since the 80ies and they probably still make a lot of their new guitars there. Ive only played on a 70-80ies something superswede.

I love Hohner brand guitars. Made in German, simply great sound and experience overall.
- Höfner? Source: my violin bass
  
  Wow, I didn’t know there are two brands with so close names. Though, I checked: I meant Hohner: https://hohner.de/

Warwick and Sandberg have a few made in Germany bass guitar lines that are pretty sick. Also Duesenberg - sooo beautiful

What EU brand would I be looking for if I wanted to buy a decent beginner friendly hollowbody?
- Honestly I can warmly recommend the Thomann house brand, Harley Benton. The dirt cheap, entry level ones are on par with beginner models from known bands, and if you splurge a little more and get one of their nice ones, you'll have a really fine instrument for the price of the beginner model in the known brands.
  They're German and the reason it's so cheap is they have 0 layers in the pipeline, they "manufacture" and sell directly. Most of their own brands punch well above their weight, but you should still look at the reviews etc for your specific item of choice.
  
  EU brand, manufactured in Asia though.
  
  I can recommend this store/brand too. I've had a few instruments and other stuff shipped to england over the years and I've always had a great experience (and great prices).
- Hagström viking. Hagström alvar.
  But they are only an EU-brand, not actually made in EU.
- Thomann's house brand Harley Benton has some good guitars. Not sure about hollowbody guitars, but I have a semihollow guitar from HB that I play quite a lot and has good build quality.
  
  Oh wow I haven't thought about Thomann and Harley Bentons in years!

I love my PJD custom shop Woodford Elite. They are a small UK based shop.

https://seagullguitars.com/
They're Canadian, but reasonble quality...

Manson guitars are from the UK.
Also there are several Japanese guitar companies - sure they're not European, but at least they're not American. Examples would be Ibanez, ESP, Yamaha.

I use Yamaha bass. I think I won’t change it anytime soon.

Not EU but
https://maton.com.au/
from Australia have very nice steel string acoustics
- Australia is basically honorary Europe.
  Heck, all of CANZUK is honorary Europe.

those guitars are also much higher quality than Gibson or fender
- I haven't kept up with guitars in the past 20 years, but didn't fender and gipson fall off super hard quality wise?
  
  it's not a production or design issue (and there are many)
  it's just that for some reason the quality control has sunk to levels that have become unacceptable
  
  I think Gibson has legitimately sunk in quality and is a shell of its former self, I'm not convinced Fender has. It is my understanding that QC slipped a bit during the pandemic and some instruments in rough shape left the factory, but I've seen reports of them honoring their warranty and replacing them with perfect instruments. I personally don't need another Fender, my '96 fat strat is still fit for purpose.

Also consider your local luthiers and other manufacturers, they're often in dire need of support, yet get none because their guitars don't have "Fender" or "Gibson" written on them.

A bit pricy, bit there is Strandberg Guitars which AFAIK are made in Uppsala, Sweden.
- Most of the current production is made in Indonesia, some special editions in Japan. Still, great guitars.
  
  Ah, did not know this! Thanks. I tried to look through their website to find info on where the guitars are made nowadays but couldn't really find anything.

Japanese, but tokai make great guitars.
- Yamaha for beginners!

I wonder which one of these I can buy, locally, here in the US. I never looked specifically at non-US brands until now.

Question from an Ibanez RG series lover - how do the Mayones, M-Tone and Vigier compare? Love me some long neck action and looking to expand my collection.
Also, I'd say Ibanez, but they're Japanese...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n02tImce3AE
whichever one has the pickup and pickup positioning that gives the sound you want
- I never figured out why people think that wood type matters for the tone of an electric guitar.
  The vibrating string is not even touching the wood. Just spanned between a ridgid metal bridge and metal pegs. The electricity also does not run through the woods but through wires insulated by rubber. The pickups also don't pick up vibrations or sound from the wood since it contains no metal...
  How did anyone even come up with the idea that wood matters for the tone.
  
  probably started by big brands so they can sell their names for more. The same guy also tested amps and pretty much everything anyone has believed about them, tubes etc, for decades is also bull. He used a few effect pedals and switches to make an amp that can mimic the famous brands he used as reference to a degree where I doubt anyone could tell the difference.
  you can make an electric guitar and amp out of scraps and get whatever famous sound you want but a lot of people I have meet really don't want to believe this after lining their walls with guitars with price tags I could never afford.

Jerzy Drozd (Spain) for bassists who never get enough love.

Japan makes the best IMO

Lowden Guitars, high quality acoustics, made in Northern Ireland. https://lowdenguitars.com/
- Taran makes some really amazing acoustics too.

My last two guitars were Ormsby's, from Australia.

My electric guitar is a Swedish Hagström Ultra Swede, I always wanted to get a genuine Gibson Les Paul but never could afford one. So I ended up with the much cheaper Ultra Swede, have been playing with it for two years and I'm more than happy with it.
I also have two Finnish Landola acoustic guitars from the late 60's - early 70's, a 12-string "Colorado" model and a 6-string "Buffalo". Both sound excellent, especially after I made new bone nuts and saddles to replace the original plastic ones.

So mayones IS an instrument! Someone tell Squidward!

Furch anybody? Czech guitars, 1A quality!

Framus is awesome. Good thing that my favorite Canadian is also a framus endorsed artist!

Daemoness, Blackat, Mayones, RAN

Skervesen guitars are amazing build quality

I have a Lakewood acoustic, made in Germany, I'm incredibly impressed with. It's a custom shop with a AAAA European Spruce top and Cocobolo back and sides. Lakewood Guitars

Feels like this meme needs to use someone other than an american...

I looked for "m tone" and it seems to be a guy in Oregon

Nik Huber has a great reputation. Karl Longbottom also. Oswald is a great choice too. Taran acoustics, Lowden also of course. That's just off the top of my head.

Hapas https://hapasguitars.com/

Can't believe there is no love for Thomann in here, yet. Cheap and effective, can't go wrong.