hey, I am thinking of buying a versatile strat for a variety of playing types (mainly blues and jazz although it will have a bit of everything).

I have anything under £1000 to spend although it would be nice to keep it lower than £800.
considering looks, what is the best fender strat I can get for my money?

bear in mind, I know little about guitars, just how to play them well

(I like the looks of the deluxe fender roadhouse)

Although my budget is a little lower than yours, I have been looking at the Deluxe Roadhouse, like you said, the American Special, the Highway one, the Mexican Standard(is apparently a very good value guitar, never tried one though) and the Classic Player 50s, 60s,(is there a 70s?). With your budget, you should also consider the American Standard, and the Road Worn Player Stratocaster HSS. For something very good, but a little different, see the Blacktop Stratocaster-check out the Guitarist magazine shining reviews of the blacktops in the latest mag edition, or when they publish it to the web(musicradar). I am not considering that one though, as unfortunately I cannot make a case for that with having my 72 tele deluxe...

Welcome to the forums...
teledeluxe has some good ideas, So the best thing you should do is, go down to the music store and test drive as many as possible. One will find you...

Bill

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Hey, Boy Blue is back!

thanks guys, when buying a guitar is there anything I should look out for? anything essential?

I paid about $900 Cdn for my Jimmie Vaughn Strat and play a lot of blues on it but can conjure up some pretty mellow jazzy tones from it.The soft V neck also has a very comfortable feel.I picked the Jimmie Vaughn over Strats that were $2,500 so it's a bargain at $900.

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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.