Trying to decide between three Strats, buying in a month

[TS808]

Just my opinion, but I don't think you can go wrong with any of the options, whether the strat is made in Mexico or the USA. I've owned many strats over the years, and have settled with my 2002 and 2003 American Series strats. I've owned MIM standard strats and hot-rodded them with better pickups and bridge saddles, and they turned out to be awesome guitars both in terms of playability and tone. The quality of the MIM Fenders is as good (if not better) than some guitars sold at much higher prices.

I've been playing now for 38 years, and bought my first strat in 1983..I've never had a bad experience with a Fender product, whether it was a guitar or amp. It just depends on how much you want to spend. You can always upgrade them to better pickups and saddles.

[Danzego]

Update: I ended up getting the one I returned back. It's just become WAY too much of a hassle with the clowns at Guitar Center.

Basically, the dude offered to have the repair guy fix it, I said "nah, I didn't pay 900 just to put it in repair" and did the return. He said they were in stock at Fender and should be in relatively quickly. After three weeks, I called and asked what was up. Yet again (as happened with the Lonestar), the guy was all "I don't know. Now it says out of stock, blahblahblah. I can't even say when it will come in."

He said that he still had the one I returned and if I wanted it fixed, so I finally caved after making sure that they weren't going to just toss some crappy All Parts brand plastic nut on there. He agreed to have a graphite nut put on there and, long story short, I have it back.

HOWEVER, it was a big time hassle getting that done. The guitar wasn't done when I got there even though they said it would be done earlier in the week (had to ding around the area for several hours, wasting the whole day) and I had to start raising my voice in the store for them to sell the guitar back to me for what I originally paid for it. Seems Guitar Center recently went to fixed prices and they claimed they couldn't adjust the price down to 900. Problem is I was trapped there and couldn't get the money back since they had the credit on my account and it was paid largely by gifts cards in the first place. Finally, the sales manager came over and was able to push the sale through at the original price.

Now that I have my guitar, I think I'm about done with that place. :