Never a fan of Fenders. Love the amps.. Hate the guitars except for my 54 Tele.

I've had old strats, new strats, re-issue strats, custom shop strats, they were all lacking in one way or another.

If you want a "strat" I suggest you look VERY closely at Grosh.

I have a Fender Nashville Tele and hope to pick up a Fender CIJ strat in a couple of weeks when I go to Denmark. When I started on electric I had no idea about the sound I wanted or what guitar would work the best for where I wanted to go. I went out and got an Epiphone Sheraton II because I liked the way it looked and played but I never could get it to sound like I wanted. I finally traded it to my brother for the Tele which gave me everything I wanted as far as sound and feel. Now I have an opportunity to pick up this Strat and my hope is that it will move me the same way as the Tele has. I also have an old Single Humbucker Ibanez that plays well but I think it is the single coils that do it for me.

Yeaah! Ther is something about them alright. I think its their compact form and a great neck (i AM talking about a guitar).
It just somehow really enjoyable to play a strat now and then. I think tabs like The Trooper by Iron Maiden are easyer on most Strats than my own Ibanez. Though things like Paranoid & Back in Black are easy on my own Ibanez.

It is well documented on this site that hate everything about Strats. They feel funny and play weird. When I strum one, it feels like the distance from the bridge to the fret board is 20 feet. And the sound is generic and ouchy. I can only think of two players in rock's history that have played Strats, but not had them sound like a Strat: the late, great Jimi Hendrix and David Gilmour. In college, I also knew a cat that played a Strat through an old Marshall half stack that sounded good. Back in the mid 90s I owned a CIJ Strat and sold it after six months because it never felt right.

Give me a Jazzmaster loaded with Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound pickups any day. Chords are rich, with just the right amount of clear brightness. The neck pick up will give you delicious, singing tone. For those of you that dig on his playing, check out the recent live stuff by Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks. SM now plays a Jazzmaster during 90% of the set. Very killer tone and much improved from his Strat days.

There was a Fender Strat special on some sattelite channel. Different strat players showing their stuff. The funny thing was Joe Walsh. These guys were playing with a generic band for this show and the drummer was reading his parts. Joe noticed this and started jerking with him intentionally. Holding things a little longer, changing up on breaks. It was kind of funny.

Similar to the concert they had for Les Paul where ALL the players played LP's. All EXCEPT for Gilmour. While he does own some killer LP's, he showed up with his red strat.

Oh, and I don't own one. I'm a 12 string player and that animal don't come in strat form.