All I can say is there are good and bad Fender guitars out there. You have to go out and play as many as you can before you buy one. You will know the right guitar for you when you play it, regardless of the name, brand, or country of origin.

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

Did you see the White Blonde, like new, $483? Wow!!

I'm in Canada and, although MF delivers here, I'll be dealing with a local chain (our version of MF) as they will take my Epi G-400 SG back as a trade in. I previously traded in an entry-level Ibanez and got my full purchase price back int he trade so I am hoping for roughly the same deal from them this time.

all i've done to my MIM was put a seymor duncan hotrail in it and change the pickgaurd.
i play the hell out of it. great guitar.

It looks like I might just be getting a Roadhouse Strat after all.

I went into the store I deal with today and was told they would only give me $250 of the price back on my Epi SG and they would refund the full $80 purchase price of my case. They also said that the Roadhouse Strat would cost $650 (I might have been able to talk them down on that but didn't bother trying at the time). That deal would have given me about $330 and would have left me about $320 shy of the Roadhouse so I figured I would just go with the Standard Strat.

While out doing other shopping later on I popped into a different location of the same chain to see what guitars they had in stock. I got to talking to one of the sales guys and he said they would give me $300 plus my tax back on my SG and they would also simply refund me the full cost of my case. Since that comes out to $380 plus the tax let's call it an even $400. I figured I would still get a Standard Strat but it would be cheaper than at the original store.

Just to see what he would say, I asked him how much a Roadhouse Strat would cost me and, after looking it up, he said $499! Since that was so much lower than what they normally sell for I figured he had screwed up so I got him to put the price he quoted me in writing. He checked, and they have a few of them in the chain so he can bring me one in from another store in less than a week. Since he checked other store's inventory and didn't catch on to the price discrepancy I figure I am good to go. I might be able to talk them down to $475 taxes in but, even if I can't and I get it for $499 taxes in, that means that I will be going from an Epi SG to a Roadhouse Strat for $100 out of pocket ($75 if I can talk them down that little bit more). I was grinning ear to ear as I walked out of the store. Providing nothing gets screwed up (ie. they figure out how low a price he quoted me) I'm going to jump on this deal this week.

As a grad student I was hoping to save some money but this might actually turn into a great deal for me.

So as it turns out, I couldn't make the deal for the Deluxe Roadhouse work in my favour and, as a grad student, I just could not justify the extra money for that model. But I did get a decent return on my Epi SG and a reasonably good deal on a 2010 MIM Fender Standard with one of the nicest burst finishes I have seen in a long while. If I ever decide to upgrade it I can throw some Texas Specials in at a later date but, for now, I'm rather happy with what I got for the price I paid and am now thoroughly enjoying my NGD!

I'll post pictures in another thread once I've recharged the batteries for my camera.