Yes, the Super Strat is awesome, I had one briefly a couple of years ago, great quality and sound. All that I did to it was to change the pup covers to black. As Retroverbial said, the "Super Fat, Super Strat" pups are beefy and sound great, and the push-button, to add the bridge pup, is very cool. The SFSS pups may well sound better than the VNs that are in the later version, the Deluxe Players. Mine was '99, another good year for MIM.

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---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.

Probably the best bargain you can find in a MIM are the Deluxe Powerhouse models. They were made starting in 99 thru 07 or so. They often pop up on eBay for $300 - $350, but sometimes sell for less because no one understands how versatile they are. They are a Deluxe model which gets you a nice decal on the neck <grin> and a perloid pickguard, but you also get a wider vintage spaced bridge. ( I see you play acoustic? You'll appreciate the wider string spacing.)

The PHouse has a powered mid-boost circuit board that gets you all the Clapton and Eagles sounds you could want. Not so close on Knopflers 2 and 4 position out of phase sound, but Knopfler has played overdriven single coils and humbuckers on many of his songs.

The necks on the PHouse are unique in that they are the only MIM's I know of that have the wider 1 11/16" width necks that come on USA Strats and are a big step up in quality from the Standard MIM Strats.

I personally hate the ceramic pickups on most MIM Std Strats, but the PHouse has alnico vintage pickups with a dummy pickup that quiets the signal considerably.

A second choice would be the 60's Classic Series ( or Player ) Strat, which will have a nice rosewood neck ( 1 5/8") and the better alnico vintage pickups. They usually sell used on eBay for $300 - $400.

Good luck!

+1

I have a rosewood edition in Caramel Metallic from 2006. They're great Strats and many players refer to them as a "poor man's Clapton".

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

I have several American strats and I bought this MIM a couple weeks ago new for $425.00 & I honestly can't tell that big of a difference. It came with HSS pick ups and sounds great!
Good luck looking.

I just bought two 2006 MIM strats today at a pawn shop. Both are in pristine condition, one midnight blue, the other midnight wine. They wanted $350 apiece for them and I couldn't decide which one to buy, so I offered them $400 for the two of them and they went for it! They look great next to my 2004 50th aniv. American Standard.