“This threatens not only our business, but also the future of S-style guitars for builders and players across the European Union”: Is this the beginning of the end for the S-style? Fender issues cease and desist letter to US builder

Fender American Ultra II Stratocaster HSS.

Fender has ramped up its legal campaign to protect the Stratocaster design by sending a cease and desist letter to a US-based boutique guitar company, ordering that it stops making, selling and marketing its S-style guitars.

The Tone Nerds YouTube channel reports that LSL Instruments, based in California, received a letter from Fender’s lawyers. LSL subsequently launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for a legal defence, arguing that the case sets a precedent that could upend the industry, restricting competition and creating a monopoly over guitars with a Stratocaster-style double-cutaway body.