Which guitar should I get? I already have a min strat but the Alvarez look pretty cool.http://cgi.ebay.com/Alvarez-Dana-Scoop- ... 4aaa9a673a or this strat? http://cgi.ebay.com/1989-Fender-HM-Stra ... 2eb4c31f2e.

Personally I would go with the HM Strat; I always thought those Alverez Scoops were kind of thin sounding due to that cut-out compared to say the typcial Ibanez or Jackson/Charvel from that era. That being said I do remember the Alverez guitars as being really well made for the low cost back in the day. Of course these were meant to be played through a high gain amp which will tend to homoginize the "natural sound" of the guitar.

One thing to think about with the Fender - those 24-fret HMs were slightly shorter scale than a standard Fender (HMs were either 25.1" scale or 25.25" scale; a regular Fender is 25.5" scale).

Also, even though the seller is calling it a "USA" guitar no one really knows where these things were made - the bodies, necks and Gotoh tuners are definitely MIJ; the pickups and the Kahler trem are USA. Some of them have "Made in Japan" on the neck heel with the serial number; others (like this one) do not have the "Made in Japan" but they have the MIJ style serial number and it is in the MIJ serial number position. No one really knows if the final assembly was here in the USA or if it was in Japan. The "Fender USA" neck plate can be considered similar to Jackson/Charvel putting "Fort Worth, TX" on the neck plates of the import Charvel and Jackson guitars or Kramer puting "Neptune NJ" on all their neck plates regardless of where the guitar was built.