I think Fender has figured it out. People will often just buy it because itās a Fender 
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This does indeed seem to describe their business model. Gibson is even more blatant.
Iāve read of a Gibson worker claiming they are paid $18.xx an hour for sanding (I think it was sanding) and have a quota of 16/day.
Also Gibson: Buy this guitar for $3000! Gibson Kwal-i-tee! But I digress, sorry OP 
I had the exact same experience with my Streamer. Whatever I tried it just didnāt āclickā. Somehow my Warwick Corvette is completely fine, so I think it had something to do with the Streamer body.
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Ha! . . . Dontcha know? . . . people buy Fenders because of their tradition, and they buy Gibsons because of their excellent quality!
Cheers
Joe
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Tradition is just long dead people telling you what to do
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Well, I just exchanged Sire P5 for Fender Player Plus Precision (obviously spending more money). My plan was to buy cheap Sire and upgrade after a year or so.
The quality of the fret work on that Sireās neck was subpar and that made me to pull the trigger and buy the Fender much sooner.
I have also Player Plus Telecaster guitar which I like very much and that was my benchmark.
I love the modern C neck , 12" radius fretboard with rolled of edges.
I agree that the QC isnāt Fenderās strongest point either i.e. you need to cherry-pick the nice one from the stock. But you can find bad apples everywhere.
Didnāt buy Fender because of tradition. I just found that it appealed to me the most.
We are very lucky that we have plethora of instruments to choose from 
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Very well said
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Natsu no Yuu-utsu
å¬ć ć
To be honest Iāve never had a poorly built Gibson before, come to think of it Iāve never had any Gibson ever, lol
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I was just joking around, @Al1885 ! 
I have owned only one Gibson, myself . . . a Gibson SG Bass. Thereās a few pics of it on a thread somewhere here on the Forums. The Quality was fine. . . I just didnāt like it, is all.
Ah . . . . here you go:
Itās my understanding that lots of Gibby guitar owners are unhappy with poor quality, especially the way the headstock is angled back.
Anyway, I didnāt follow my own advice and try one one personally before buying it. Otherwise, Iām sure I wouldnāt have . . . 
Cheers
Joe
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Iāve never experienced a poor quality Gibson at all. A few les Paul I can across from my band mates were excellent. As for their basses, it;s not for me, lol.
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As for their budget brands, I have definitely run across poor quality Epiphones. Epiphone is not the same level as Squier in my experience. I tried one Epi Les Paul recently that was managing to have fret sprout felt through a binding.
I have never owned a real Gibson, and the ones I have seen in stores have been fine. But the stories are ubiquitous - a quick googling turns up plenty of Gibson QC stories.
Gibson had it rough. The QC was subpar (think the company had some internal issues). So it was better to look for a vintage Gibson or wait for a new production line and hope for the best. From what I read they solved the QC issues and I think the new studio line is great and affordable.
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everybody lately says they are fine now. but you wonder if it at this point is a damage is done thing, because the horror stories are now ubiquitous.
which, as you point out, may make them a bit of a bargain now.
Hard to tell, most guitar players I know still talk fondly about Gibson. Iām not that invested in them anyway, but I do have a friend working for Gibson. So just for him I wish them all the luck.
Some of the flack Iāve seen aimed at Gibson is also the price they charge for the guitars vs what they pay their workers. Iirc there was an anonymous factory worker that claimed under $19 an hour in a city with a very high cost of living. I believe he also said he had a quota of 16 guitars a day, maybe was a sander.
This may of course vary all across the board.
Iām almost predestined to love Gibsons due to my pickup and style preferences, and I actually would, except I have disliked every one I have tried to play 
Les Pauls look awesome, sound even better, and yet they do not ergonomically fit me at all.
Gibsonās big problem is they have a number of competitors that blow them away for price versus quality. I mean even more so than Fender - think about Paul Reed Smith here. I totally donāt get why anyone would even consider Gibson over PRS for a very similar style, but YMMV.
Gibson just went through a big price hike up here and the rumors of QC make it even harder to swallow. I have always seen them as pricey but when I see the price tags on the Murphyās line at over $10k I would demand every square inch to be perfect.
As far as forcing myself to play an instrument that I donāt exactly find that comfort, Iād have to say the award goes to my Fenders. It was always a bit tricky to compare it against the Warwicks but the price factor evens the āplayingā field. But when I picked up an Ibanez SR600E I was wondering why they were not all that comfortable to play in one way or another.
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