Hey there! calling from cloudy north London here, and as of a year now I have owned my first strat which was a used squier affinity i only bought becasue it was dirt cheap and its a stratocaster obviously! And its not doing me any favours, so I am buying a real Fender for the first time in july, its gotta be fast, great all round tone for Clean, Dirty crunch and Lead and i figured that the 50's classic stratocaster was the one for me, mainly cos it comes in some great colours, but also cos the neck felt great and the tremolo was so smooth (might just be cos my strats so shockingly bad).

So please anyone out there help me find somthing i can use for the rest of my life in peace and tranquility without getting sore fingers even on super slinkies (I've been playing since 2005 how can they still hurt!!??). Oh and two more things its gotta be able to take a few dozen gigs and its gotta be cheap! (the reason theres no price limit is cos anything at all is acceptable but anything over lest say $1000 is toooooooo much for me!)

Thanks
- Connor - Lead guitarist for Basement Nation

The Classic Strat is a pretty decent guitar.
You obviously like the one you've tried, so get it.
You could always upgrade the pickups in the future, but I have never felt the need to alter my Classic 60s in any way.
If the guitar is properly set up, you shouldn't get sore fingers after having played for so long.

You mention having sore fingers. You might need to get your Squier strat set up properly. You could keep that one as a back up guitar or for alternate tunings or something.

I think the Classic '50's Strat is a good choice. I love the V shaped neck. Only thing is, the fretboard radius on a Classic '50's Strat is 7.25. It's a little different than most modern Strats which have a 9.5 radius, meaning the vintage radius is more rounded. It may make bending strings a bit more difficult. I don't mind the 7.25 radius but some players don't like it and it usually takes a bit of getting used to if you've never played one.

There's also the Classic Player '50's Strat that's about $50 more expensive, which has better pickups (American Vintage, the same ones that come in the $1500 American Vintage '57 and '62 Strats) and a modern 9.5 radius but still has the V shaped neck profile of '50's Strats. It only comes in 2 colors though.

I like both guitars very much but if it were me, and I decided to go with the Classic '50's Strat, I'd probably change the pickups out.

Fender '60s Reverse Headstock Strat

If you get a chance to pick one of these up, I would make it your 2nd fender. I love mine and the reverse neck.

Thanks guys for the advice, turns out in the end that I didn't have enough money for even the 50s classic strat. i went in the shop to try one out shortly after july with a sum of £300, wanting to try another 50's classic, but an old project guitar from the 60s was going cheap in the corner and decided to buy that instead cos im an impulsive buyer and i though a project would be fun (it didnt have a bridge or electronics, but i can guarantee that the next one will be a fender strat, maybe even the American standard if i save for long enough!!

the new guitar is treating me well and my fingers don't hurt any more and if any of you want to see the Squier stratocaster in question from before i recently used it for a festival gig that was filmed and here is one of our songs (I'm the one holding it): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCxL9aiM ... re=related

please excuse the singer and his guitar skills what hes doing he sounds like $@!& without anyone else over the top - he just tries to make it look cool. ($@!&* got to use a twin reverb!!!!)

It sounds alright but it went out of tune during some songs (probally only cos i dive the whammy like a flloyd rose somtimes (EVH period trick - we all had one!)

and that townshend style mic slide at the end didnt help either! lol