Well the obvious and most drastic is swapping out your pups which can turn your ax into whatever you want it to be. There are a lot of great pups out there and it probably is not as expensive as you would think. If you want you could just throw a humbucker in the bridge if you dont want to swap all three.

Mike
Go for the smaller one of the two if you cant find the danelectro one. Honestly until you start putting them in effects loops and racks, theres not much difference at all. Its not worth throwing a load of money at something you may not like.

The possibilities for tone shaping with a eq between guitar and amp are near endless. They also make great boost pedals for overdriving your amp a bit more for solo's.

_________________
No no and no

To me, if you are looking for the guitar sound to change, there is no mod you can do to the guitar that will exceed what a pup change will do. With cost being a consideration for you, consider Fender Tex Mex pups at around $65 for a set. There are no better pups for their price in my opinion ...

_________________
Laughing out loud with fear and hope, I have a desperate plan ...

There are a couple of tone changing mods you can add to your guitar in the $100 range:The Stratocaster Booster $112 that is interchangeable with standard Strat jacks and has a toggle switch that changes the mids with a 6 db boost-www.villex.com, tovillex@aol.com or you could try: the ToneStyler that replaces one of your pots and has 16 different tone cutters built in to it $129 www.stellartone.com 541-708-0366.I don't know a lot about these products but they may be what you're looking for,worth checking out anyway.

_________________
'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.