Hi guys,
I'm new to this forum and just lookin for a bit of advice.

I've been playin for around 9 years now and have owned plenty of guitars but have finally decided I need to buy myself my first Fender strat!

My budget is around £500 and after doing some research I've narrowed it down to the Roadhouse and the Deluxe Players strat.

I was hoping anyone who has owned or played one of these guitars could give me a bit of help as I really don't know which one to go with. I love the look of the Deluxe Players strat with the gold hardware but I've seen a lot of negative reviews regarding the vintage noiseless pickups saying that they lack that classic strat tone.

The Roadhouse looks pretty nice in white and the reviews I've read seem to rate the Texas Special pickups. However whilst I'm aware strats are not made for playing heavy rock and I'll be mainly using it for blues style tones, I was hoping to use it for a few mid gain, classic rock kind of tones and also a bit of lead work. I'm worried that the Texas Specials will give me a lot of unwanted feedback when playing with overdrive which I presume I wouldn't get with noiseless pickups on the deluxe. That being said I also don't want to end up with a guitar that lacks tone.

The obvious thing to do would be try both in a local music store but since the nearest closed, there isn't really anywere that stocks either guitar without going on a roadtrip.

Any comments or advice would be great.

Thanks a lot

Luke

I have a white roadhouse and I think the pickups sound great (tex spec) I was concerned about the hum because in my apartment, it hummed quite a bit, but I took the amp and guitar to my friends house, and I can't really notice the hum even when it's played low. It feels pretty much like a standard strat but the tone is much better. you won't get a really heavy distortion out of them(I haven't tried a pedal, just direct to the amp and overdrive channel) you will get great classic rock and blues tones, and the bridge pickup is quite thin sounding. I mostly use neck and middle.I don't have any feedback problems that are out of the ordinary, not like a hollowbody or anything. I really like it because this is the first guitar I've ever owned that I can go from clean to dirty with just the volume knob on the guitar. This is my first Strat, and I love it. theres a lot of tonal possibilites with it. the tex specials really sing or bark and responds to the dynamics of how I'm hitting the strings. The Roadhouse is a great guitar for the price

Thanks for that man, think I'm pretty much swaying towards the Roadhouse at the moment, although I really do love the look of the Deluxe in sunburst but I've struggled finding any positive reviews of those vintage noiseless pickups.

I guess the only other option would be to buy the Deluxe and change out the pickups for the Texas Specials altho thats just going to bump up the cost.

The Roadhouse seems a pretty safe bet, plus it's about £100 cheaper than the Deluxe with a sunburst finish.