Looked at some Fender Strats today

[Robert****]

Tried a few strats in the music store. Was a bit disappointed that they didn't have more in stock. I tried:

1. MIM Strat with maple neck
2. VG Strat
3. Highway 1
4. American Standard

The only one I plugged in was the MIM strat. I played a Traynor YCS-100 3 channel head - a real 100w beast with lots of cool tones!

Conclusion regarding how they felt to play;
The MIM Strat sounded quite good. The action was very high though, which made it hard to play. Nice neck, well crafted instrument for that price.

The VG Strat felt like butter. Big jumbo fret and the neck was really easy to play.

The Am standard felt like nothing special. Not all that impressed. The frets were smaller and again the setup was bad.

The Highway 1 surprised me. I didn't expect much, but it felt very comfortable to play. Nice jumbo frets and good resonance from the guitar.

So, what did I learn? That either the Highway 1 or the MIM Strat is for me. The other ones cost too much for my budget. The VG strat would be fun to take for a spin and try all it can do.

My thoughts now are to save up some $$$ and go shopping for a Fender strat later this year.

[Tone2TheBone]

Rob I agree that the bigger frets sound and play better as you noted as being on the new MIMs and the Highway 1. The H1 has a very light coating of nitro which I think could have been sprayed on a little more enough to create a nice shine as it is very dull looking BUT it does feel very good and plays great. For the money I'll have to say that the MIM Standards are great as they feel good and with pup upgrades and Callaham upgrades you will have an outstanding work horse guitar that you make YOURS...at a decent price. Once you set up these guitars for your style of playing they will smoke. Since you are a really good player you would appreciate what you could do with one of these MIMs and you wouldn't be afraid of taking it out on gigs.

[SuperSwede]

The MIM standard strats of today are awesome guitars, and so is the HW1 strats. Another option is the classic series (MIM) strats, and especially the classic 50´s strat is worth to check out.

[F_BSurfer]

Year and a half back when i set out to buy a new strat i was wanting a am std in olympic white I played every strat within a 100 mi radius and what I finally bought was a Hwy 1 to me the neck just played whole lot better than the am std's and the pickups sounded just awesome
Think if I was looking now though I would go with the classic 50 the new pickups in the hwy 1 I just don't like the MIM std necks are alot better now but I think they will still need new nuts and tuners I just haven't played one that will stay in tune.

[sunvalleylaw]

The MIM standard strats of today are awesome guitars, and so is the HW1 strats. Another option is the classic series (MIM) strats, and especially the classic 50´s strat is worth to check out.

And I think if you add the 60th Ann. and the JV, you have rounded out the category. Based on some correspondence with Tone, I think the issue then is preference, and which particular unit feels right. If you run across one of those I would think you should check it out. I wish I could have you play my guitar and hear what you can do. I compared it with a Highway One, and a couple MIM standards, and picked it for my preferences. I am still pretty much a beginner, but even though I am a bit limited with what I can do, my guitar sounds really great. I would love to hear what you could do with it!

P.S. You know, I talk about this guitar so much, some times I think I should just shut up! LOL! But, it really is a nice guitar in the lower to middle end of the price range you are considering.

[Lev]

The MIM standard strats of today are awesome guitars, and so is the HW1 strats. Another option is the classic series (MIM) strats, and especially the classic 50´s strat is worth to check out.

Or the classic players series - Custom shop designs on a MIM for about the same price as a highway1. I'm getting my classic players 60's on Friday :-)

[SuperSwede]

Lev, I havent tried the Classic player series yet, but they seem to be really promising.

Steve, how could I forget the brilliant 60th anniversary strat !? Its a really good guitar!