my favorite tele is my guitar center exclusive that sells for $499.00
plays as good as any tele ive played.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

i agree with both statements.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Just to add more headscratching
In this economy, I would look for a used model of what you want in good to great shape, so many people have bought guitars in the last few years only to get caught up in the downturn and in need of fast cash.
It is a Buyers Market, so if I were you I would maximize that window of opportunity.

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

Actually the American Special haves a steel block instead of zinc that comes on mexican ones. Just for correction on Mr. swestmoreland.
I got them both, Highway One (same as American Special, except paint and pickups) and the American Standard. The Special urges vintage in feeling and sound of that texas specials, plus a 6point vintage trem with STEEL block. Very nice guitar indeed.
But the American Standard feels different, like you can play on a neck made of butter! Yes it is soft and nicer to play on the standard, maybe the neck shape, maybe the hand rolled frets, just feels nicer. As for sound dont bother, you can always get your favorite pickup and upgrade it.
Now I mostly use my Highway for praticing and studying, and the Standard for fooling around with backing tracks.
My recommendation to you is, if you got the cash for the American Standard, go for it! It worth the extra between the Special series. And if you can for about a hundred more, get a FSR with nicer pickups and extra bells, so you wont get to sleep thinking what you should upgrade on your new Standard.

When I finally took up the guitar I wanted the best I could afford. I wanted an American made Strat (MIA) but could only afford a Mexican Strat (MIM), which I bought. The sound wasn't brilliant so I then did what many have done before me and I ripped the guts out and started again!

I put in a new pick guard with an aluminium plate underneath to help reduce hum. I changed the original, rather poor, single coil pups for a set of scatter-wound, fully wax potted pups, made by BKP, with Alnico 3 magnets. I then changed the zinc bridge block (zinc is cheap and not too good) for an American Callaham cold rolled steel block – this gives longer sustain and better clarity at the top end.
The original 250K pots were then changed for 300K's and the wiring re-routed so I now have full tonal control on all three pups – originally Fender only provide tone control for neck and middle.
I kept 3 springs in the back and adjusted the bridge to give greater upswing on the whammy bar and I swapped out the original Fender strings for a set of Gibson Brite Wires. Some time later I also replaced the original nut with a Fender LSR Roller Nut.
The end result is a guitar which, when put through my Vox VT30 sounds like a pukka American Strat costing, at least, 30% – 50% more (here in the UK)!!
The sound I now get out of it is unrecognisable - full tonal spectrum with a far greater range of control than before. It's well worth doing if you have one of the MIM Strats that's a bit iffy; some are very good and some not so, the quality can be variable – mine was iffy – now it's definitely!!!

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"There are only two things that are infinite - The Universe and human stupidity - but I'm not too sure about the former!"

Thanks for the correction! Sorry to have mislead the poster. However, we're in agreement that he should consider a standard.

Indeed mate. In terms of "feeling" on the NECK, there´s no comparsion in between. Standard FTW.

Http://s1134.photobucket.com/albums/m620/Oskar582

My 2 MIM Standard Strats
2001 Agave blue
2004 Black with pearl pick guard
Both with maple necks and rosewood boards
Wouldn't trade either of them in.

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He who dies with the most Strats wins.

Remember that to run a retail business, the basic law is that you must be able to sell your product for twice what you pay for it. If you can't, you'll soon be out of business.

Indeed, the trade is not in your favor financially. The service they provide is instant value towards the guitar you want.

You will get more from craigslist, but you have to do the work of selling it yourself.....which is part of the service that a guitar store helps you to avoid.

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2002 mim Telecaster
Jimmie Vaughan Stratocaster
Mexican HSS Stratocaster
6 non-fender guitars
2 kids (not for sale)
1 wife (uh....no comment)

Only if you want and can afford to. I have two of each and love to open up the cases and stare at them, all four are beautiful. I'm 65 and just recently got back into guitars. My hands, eyes, and ears can't notice any striking difference between them, which I bet is the case of 98% of us.
And,don't forget your amp is big part of the deal.

Oh...that's right...the MIA's are much nicer to me in every way, because I paid more for them!

I have two MIM Strats.
One from 2001 and the other from 2004 I live them both and I truly feel they sound every bit as good as a MIA Strat.

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He who dies with the most Strats wins.

Both of my MIM Strats and my MIM Tele are superb guitars and sound every bit as good as their MIA counterparts.I doubt very much in a blindfold test that anybody-except for someone with Eric Johnson syndrome-could tell the difference.The fit and finish may not not be quite as high a standard as the MIAs but it is still far ahead of other brands in that price range.Today I was playing Spanish Castle Magic with my MIM Jimmie Vaughn Strat and nailed the Jimi tone through my Marshall.

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'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.

And regarding guitar shops, that applies to both used and new gear.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY