Seeking advice on new electric

[bcdon***]

Welcome aboard, Sada Yairi. When you have a chance, introduce yourself at the Fret Player's section.

It seems to me that, given your budget and desire, I'd go for the Fender. Rest assured that whatever you pick, it won't be the last.

Fender Strat Highway One HSS – never liked Fenders before (just aesthetically) but a salesman suggested I try one and to be polite I did. I was blown away. Felt so nice just to hold, before I even played it. And then to hear the tones you can get out of the thing – amazing. This particular USA Strat is around $950 in Aus (apparently its been discontinued, so the low price is probably to clear remaining stock).

[Duffy]

I have an Ibanez AS73 in trans cherry that is a good looking 335'ish type semi hollow, but, to my ear, the AS73 that I bought sounded and felt better than the DOT, Epi Sheraton, and a couple other semi hollows I tried out. It sounded like the Ibanez pickups were just plain nicer sounding than the others and the neck was really nice feeling, with the chords just falling into my hand.

If you haven't checked out the Ibanez AS73, in my opinion, it would be an excellent guitar to check out. There are a couple other AS models available as well that may be equally nice.

I have no idea what the prices on Ibanez guitars are in Australia, but I would think that they are definitely trying to stay in business - and you might find a deal.

Also those Squier thinline telecaster semi hollow guitars are nice in my opinion, and there is now a Classic Vibe Thinline in the series that I would think could be awesome sounding. Light and as good or better than the Fender MIM counterparts, seems to be the word in the reviews. Natural mahogany body and maple neck and a good set of pickups. True to the classic vibe series they seem to be super well accepted by experienced players. At 379US it is definitely a value guitar.

Whether it meets your requirements or not, I don't know.