Guitar Bodies: What you can copy and what you can't

[u6crash]

Curious about a legal thing and I think it has been discussed before, but A) I can't find it and B) maybe some new insight can be offered here now.

 

It seems like everyone and his brother can go ahead and manufacture guitars with the Stratocaster and Telecaster style body. Even Epiphone has done this. Now I know there are a lot of Stratocaster bodies that may have the same neck heel route and scale, but have very subtle differences in the body shape. The Carvin Bolt is a good example. At first glance it looks just like a Strat, but a second look will show that the horns are a little sharper, the waist slightly smaller, and the forearm contour not as drastic. However, I bet there are quite a few guitars (Suhr, Melancon, Anderson) in which the difference is negligible. So what's the deal here?

 

Then you have Gibson who has sued Ibanez in the past for their copies. Yet I've never heard anything about the ESPs that are clearly made to mimic the Les Paul Style:

 

The horn is definitely sharper and the controls are laid out differently, and I'm sure the perimeter of the body is a bit different, but how similar would be too similar? If the horn was softer and more like that of a Les Paul, but the controls were different, would that suddenly make it an issue for Gibson?

[Rock_and_roll]

I'm told its more about the headstock shape

[JorisBlack]

I don't know but that's a hot guitar!

[chrisebrooks06]

gibson sued esp over the explorer shapes so esp cant make them anymore, but the eclipes seem are slightly different in shape as you say and also the esp hetfield truckster which i own is based on an eclipse guitar and dam it sounds sweet :



i also on the relic and fender stopped esp calling the esp kh2 relic a relic as the fender guitars brand use the same name relic so esp have to call their guitars 'vintage', this is what makes my relic guitar a collectors model as they only made a run of 100 guitars, before fender stopped them calling it a relic.

also the KH-2 Ouija guitar was stopped as the graphic was given permission so they had to stop making that also and its interesting that the ouija was spelt wrong on the guitar and i think it was released with the same mistake, so i guess esp have made many errors and i doubt they took any chances on the eclipse and seeked the proper permissions etc, i maybe wrong as im doing this from memory and i love esp guitars but if your interested check out metallica world as they have a detailed info on the legal issues that stopped esp producing various models such as the explorer etc.

i hope this kinda helps but dont take it as gospel cos i maybe wrong.