I've been playing Stratocasters at the Guitar Centers near me, hoping to pick one before the price increase in April. My closest store has an American Standard in Olympic White with a Maple neck/fretboard. I love the color and for the most part it plays okay. GC just received an American
Deluxe in 3-tone Sunburst with a Rosewood neck that seems nice. Unplugged the strings really ring out; plus, it has locking tuners, SCN pickups, etc. I was really wanting a maple neck though.

So, I'm just about settled on the American Standard and figured I could upgrade some of the parts - locking tuners to start. However, the white strat has one problem - the low E string doesn't have much sustain or tone when played unplugged. I asked the shop guy about it and he said it was probably a bad string. The other strings sound okay. Is it likely a bad string or is there something else going on? Any advice would be appreciated...

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Custom Shop '59 Stratocaster
AV Hot Rod '52 Telecaster
AV '56 Stratocaster
'65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue

Cut to the chase: Granted, it may very be just the E string but I'd NEVER trust anything a shop guy at GC told me. Tell him you are seriously interested in the guitar but as part of your final decision, he must first change that E string for verification. If he gives you ANY kind of resistance, you have your true answer where it is surely more than that.

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You dig?

I say go one further, as these guitars aren't cheap. At a local store another guy(who i didn't know,) and I were both trying out one particular tele. it was poorly set up, and the strings sounded dead. I was talking to him, so we decided to talk to one of the salesmen, we got him to take the guitar in back to their tech, change all the strings and set it up. the other guy ended up buying it.

not sure if GC will do that, but I would never buy from a store that refused to properly set up a model on their floor. I understand that not every guitar will have a perfect set up in store, some get over played, and undercared for, and some just slip through, but really anything that costs over a grand should at the very least be in playing shape in the store.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.