I'm thinking of buying a Stratocaster some day, but not soon, but I don't know much about them, so starting gathering the information. There are so many models that I don't really know how to choose between them. It would be best to just try everything myself, but that's difficult in reality, so I need some theoretical information first.
When reading descriptions I get lost in those details about pickups and volume pots that I miss a bigger picture. I don't really care whether it's a US 57 or a Texas style pickups - I don't have any particular sound in my mind, and I am too young to have been around there in the sixties to want to pursue that vintage vibe (I mean, I don't know that vintage sound, so it does not bother me if the guitar sounds more modern). I just want a GOOD guitar. The most important things for me are:
*the build quality, good fretwork and good woods used. I wouldn't want to be replacing the body, neck or frets (or even recrowning them soon). I assume it goes with no fret buzz;
*good hardware (tuners, bridge) is also important for me - I mean, well-made hardware that I would not have to replace;

Pickups, on the other hand, don't matter much to me. They just have to be good, but I am not after a particular sound. I don't need them to be noiseless or anything, and I prefer single coils, but humbuckers may be okay too (would make it splittable then).
Also, I'm not familiar with woods, so I don't know which would I like more.

I want a basic, simple Stratocaster that's built well, feels comfortable (that's subjective, to some degree) and does not need any more investments, but may have basic pickups that some may want to replace (that is very much a matter of personal taste).
Maybe I could sum up what I want with these words: good value for money - nothing more. I don't need it decorated with diamons, the hardware to be made of gold or the finish to look like the guitar has been manufactured fifty years ago . I don't need it to replicate Jimi Hendrix's sound either .

Also, if, for example, a Mexican Stratocaster is as good as American build quality and wood-wise, just with a worse hardware, I may consider buying Mexican then and replacing the hardware, if the result is the same, but still much cheaper.

Since it would be a learner guitar and you are looking for value 2 guitars jump into my mind...Fender Standard Series that are made in Mexico, a great deal at a good price. The second guitar, and what I would highly suggest would be a Squier Classic vibe series. I prefer these to the Standard Fenders at a lower price. If you read some reviews on these you will discover they also have great reviews.

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I know a player that recently started and he really likes the:
Deluxe Stratocaster®, Maple Fretboard, Daphne Blue
Model : 0300500504

I played it a bit too and it's great value for the money, IMO.

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Hi andrius, If you're talking value for money, I agree w/nicolsoni. I've had a Mexican Strat for 4+ years now. Some guys swap the pickups out, but mine's still stock. I have no complaints at all. Good build quality all around. Also heard good things about the Squire Classic vibe. cheers

I had an `03 Mexican Strat that I sold and I currently have a `10 MIM and they came a long way since `03. I left mine stock also and have no complaints with it. For the money their a good choice.

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Hello.

To be brief...I love my guitars. Check my posts & profile for more info (if you're curious).

But if I could do it all over-again these are the Stratocasters I'd consider and why:

1) American Standard- great quality for not too much more money...I could have bought if I had the patience to wait 6 months (yeah married and on a budget). (Personally, I can't stand the 60 cycle hum...my condo must have some interference which makes it not just a little annoying but unbearable! So, I'd mod my American w/ noiseless pickups within a year.) But at the same time there are "good ones" and terrible ones. My 2009 Standard Stratocaster was as good as 1-2 Americans at Guitar Center but destroyed about 4 in quality, feel and sound...but keep in mind, I played like 8 Mexican and like 6 Americans that day.

2) Deluxe Players Stratocaster- great quality as well if you can get a "good one", already has noiseless pickups, nice 12" radius. I'd get one with a maple fretboard. The color and even the fretboard material don't really matter in the end. Its ALL about how it feels and how its sounds (but can be modified via effects, amp etc) to a degree and how much it inspires you to play. But looks like a great deal for the money and I don't think any modification are needed.

3) Guitar Center's Fender FSR Standard Stratocaster- black body & pickguard, tinted polished maple neck, nice American-like Fender decal. I played one recently and I swore it was American! The neck and frets were incredibly smooth and felt great like my 2009 Standard...and it was quiet (very little humat all on high gain)...at first I wondered if the pickups were noiseless (I heard the 60 cycle hum but figured it was interference but it wasn't. However, it was a bearable hum for single coils and sounded SWEET. I wouldn't mod this baby at all.)!

4) Standard Stratocaster- with modifications its still a great value. You can make it your own as far as pickups, pickguard, electronics. You can ding and scratch it up and not care etc since its meant to be played. It has a nice poly finish which I like because I don't have to worry about sweat etc getting on it. I don't care about it except I do wipe my strings, bridge and frets quickly after playing. It can be your work-horse/ #1 like it is for me and so many other players. Like I said, there are "good ones" which rival Americans, and there are terrible ones. Find a good one patiently and even mod it and you'll be extremely happy.

5) Schecter PT- tele body, humbuckers, great build-quality...no need for any modifications. I bought a 2005 PT used at Guitar Center in vintage red w/rosewood fretboard. IF YOU CAN FIND A USED ONE, strongly consider it if you find one with a rosewood fretboard, they're VERY nice! I came ready to buy a Fender Blacktop Tele but this PT beat out the MIM and American Telecasters. My PT felt and sounded much better. It also has a large I think 15" radius neck. (As for the newest PTs, they are built well but use different HBs than mine and have maple necks. I like mine better but I'd also give them a try just to see what I thought.) Surprisingly I really thought about getting a Squire. I played it without looking at the headstock. There are some great Squires out there too!

6) Used American Standards- You MAY be able to find a gem already modded to your liking with some slight cosmetic damage/wear. You may be able to lower the price etc too! But sales are final and are usually in cash. And beware, there may be fakes out there so do your research and know what you're looking for to authenticate a true Fender.

Good luck! But you can't go wrong with Fender. Love 'em!!

Try an American Deluxe . I couldn't put mine down the day I found it. Between the Texas Special pups and the Modern C shaped neck there was more guitar than imagined.

My .02 cents worth,
John.E

Why is it that some guitars of the same model are good and some are bad? What does it depend on? Does that mean that the builders just build some of them poorly?

Sounds like an American Standard would work well for you. The guitar is quality built / made. From the wood, fret work, finishing, hardware, and pickups. Probably the best bang for your buck. They have some modern features yet retain a vintage strat sound. I have what I would consider to be a MIM top of the line guitar, a Lonestar Strat, and it doesn't compare to the quality of it's American counterpart. The guitar is heavier, parts cheaper w/ the exception of the pickups, fretwork is rougher, but still a great guitar. The American Standard plays like butter though and is a real joy to play.

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"If it ain't one thing, it's another."

I'd say that the majority of Ameican Standards are INCREDIBLE right off the wall...except they may need new strings and a professional set-up by a guitar tech/luthier. I found so many times that this is the case. Its due to different conditions such as weather and humidity in the air etc. A guitar tech/luthier can change the action of your guitar to low or high but I believe most Fenders are set with action that is about in the middle...too high for me. I like it low (without buz when amplified but with a tiny bit when played unplugged).

As for Mexican-made Fender Stratocasters, most that you'll encounter 2011-2012 will be very good. But I'm guessing that 75% will be very good and close to or as good as the American Standards off the wall (before a set-up...but after a set-up you may find the guitar to be even better than you thought!).

No, rarely are Fenders built poorly. That's a thing of the past...but since the mid to late 1990's Fender has re-claimed its status of being a premier guitar manufacturer. In fact, THIS, NOW is Fender's "golden age" for building exceptional guitars! Build (due to technology) and consitancy (due to quality control) is at an all-time high. But if you're in doubt and can wait a little while longer for funds (if its an issue), I'd go with an American Standard any day of the week! You can modify a Standard, but should look for a guitar that just needs a good set-up and new strings.

Some Squire models are also really really good. I almost bought one but couldn't get over the roughness of the neck's finish. It was about the feel not the tone.

Remember, its all so subjective. Its what YOU like. And if you like it, you'll play more, and if you play more you'll sound better no matter what guitar you play...Squire or Fender Custom Shop. Just make sure it feels good to you. Try out every guitar in the store, or stores! I tried out tons of guitars of all makes. I was at the damn store for 4.5 hours one day! lol But it was worth it. Some brands like ESP and Dean are heavily advertised with big endorsements but when I felt and played them, they were not for me at all. They were horrible! Even the "worst" Fender MIM Strat feels better to me than most other brands.


This is what I look for in a "good one":

I'll take it off the wall and before I even plug it in, I'll see if its in tune and tune it by ear or even ask for a tuner at the store to tune it up.

Then I'll start to gently play it and then with medium force start to play it unpluged and just listen. Listen and try to feel the vibrations coming through the neck into your fretting hand and try to feel the vibrations coming from the guitar's body on your rib-cage and leg. If you feel a lot of vibration even when lightly playing, you have what they call a "live one" or a resonant one. You CAN find nice live ones with a poly finish.

Then I'll hold the guitar up and play the A, D and G strings individually slowly and repeatedly with light to medium force then feel the body of of the guitar at the bottom by by cupping/holding the guitar (like cupping water I guess) at the bottomby the strap button or on the bottom left at the contour. Listen and feel for good resonance and how long the note rings (sustains). I've read that this is how David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) and Eric Clapton evaluate guitars off the wall. John Mayer also attests to the sound of the guitar unplugged...how it resonates and how loud it is. ***Also, once you buy the guitar, if you "block" the tremlo cavity with wood like Clapton or just tighten the "claw" and add 2 more springs (5 total) making the bridge lie flush to the body, you'll get increased resonance and sustain. In effect, you're making your strat as close to a hard-tail (through body strings like a telecaster) as you'll get. This is what I do, no need for the vibrato (tremlo system).***

I also on the wall (if I can reach) will hold the guitar neck and jently run my hand down feeling for sharp frets...a "good one" should have smooth endges and not have any frets sticking out. But depending on climate and time of year etc, some frets may stick out but in ideal humidity they may return to where they were placed due to the expanding and contracting of the wood. But generally, look for a smoothness down the neck.

When you plug in the guitar, if its single coil, go to position 2 & 4 (the hum canceling settings) and see how quiet it is. See if the guitar is properly grounded. If you hear a hum and it stops when you touch the strings, you have a problem (which can be corrected by a tech IF you like everything else about the guitar).

Pickups can be changed-out...you can get Texas Specials, SCN's, Noiseless, Lace Censors, DiMarzio, Seymour Duncan etc. I personally LOVE the tone of single-coils (but the hum gets to me). IF you buy an American Standard, I'd think twice before changing pickups for resale value. But if you do, keep all the originals. I changed out ALL my electronics, keeping the pickguard in-tact so if I ever sell, I can put it back or include it with my SCNs etc.

Check the input jack, see if it wabbles, it can be tightened though.

Don't worry about the Stratocaster's color...in the end its not important at all. You may have wanted a sunburst or black bodied guitar, or one with a rosewood board, but you may end-up with a lake placid blue Stratocaster with a maple fretboard.

Check the guitar's string allignment. Like are the strings, are they all on the fretboard? Do they line-up with the pickups? Most do, but sometimes necks need to be tightened. I'd look at this in used guitars though.

That's about it.

But if you buy a new guitar (recommended), I'd take off the plastic pickguard covering and stickers right away. Meaning, when you chnage strings (recommended), take it completely off (you'll probably have to loosen the pickguard screws slightly to get it all off. If you leave it on, it can get nasty and be sticky when you finally take it off.

Rock on! Make the guitar your own and don't worry about dinging and nicking it a little bit. American Strats keep a good deal of their value but they're meant to be played and played hard!

Enjoy and keep researching Strats, asking questions and reading this Forum. You'll learn a ton. I'm here learning several times a week.

What type of budget are we talking about? Value is subjective.

Thank you, marcaltus, for an extended explanation. But I read on one forum where people were arguing about the relation between loudness of guitar's resonanse and the sound that you get when it's plugged in. There were some claims that the solid body electric guitar does not have to necessary resonate loudly to produce a good result when plugged in. What are your thoughts?




Value is subjective, but in some respects, I think it is objective.
I mean, people may value that finish that ages fast and makes the guitar look as if it was actually manufacutred in the seventies (so that others could be tricked into thining you have that vintage guitar and think you are cool because of that), but that does not give anything to the sound. I understand some may value that finish and think it's a good value for the price, but others wouldn't care for that - that's why it's subjective. But if you have two guitars, one with a good fretwork, the other with crappy fretwork, most probably both those who care and those who don't care about the finish will agree that good increases its value and bad fretwork decreases it. In that case the value is relatively objective. I know there would be people who would not care for the fretwork, but those would be mostly newbies, who don't have credibility. I hope you understand what I am talking about. I don't think that a cooler finish adds to the objective value of the guitar, although there are lots of people who would pay more for a cooler finish. Even I would pay for the color I want more, and I would pay more for a guitar with a smaller headstock (I just don't like how the large ones look), but I understand that it's a subjective things. So I want to leave all those subjective value factors aside and concentrate on the more or less objective ones. By the way, a resale value for me is a subjective value - I personally wouldn't be buying a guitar having in my I will resell it - I would want to buy the one that I wouldn't want to resell (and I understand that having not much experience and buying it now I may want to change the guitar later, when I gain more experience, but on the other hand, where I live, the used guitar market is very small and slow, so I would be having troubles selling AND I don't have much money to be buying and reselling, so I would HAVE to settle down with a guitar for a long time. Hence resale value is not really important to me).

As for the budget, I can't really decide now. Like I said, I am going to be buying some time later. The American Standard in my country costs about 1420-1700 USD (I had to use a currency converter, so that's approximately), while the US site lists them as $1,399.99-$1,569.99. That is a really big money for me. I don't know, IF it's worth it, maybe I could spend that much, but it would be perfect for me not go over 1150 USD. That brings me to this question: I've got American Standard mentioned on several occasions as the model to buy, but things like Highway 1, American Special (some others) are all US made and cost considerably less than Standard. What makes them cheaper?
I would consider Standard (American Standard, to be precise, because I'm talking about the US made guitar) to be the basic model upon which other models are designed, meaning that in theory it should be the most modest, the simpliest and hence the cheapest of them all, but there are other are other cheaper US made models, so I wonder what it is that makes them cheaper than American Standard?

I've been told that Fender does not level the frets of their guitars at the factory so I will need to have them leveled when I get the guitar. That is the problem I really want to avoid. I don't know if it's easy to find a good guitar technician in my small country whom I could trust, so it makes things with Fender much harder for me. Probably that could be the reason for me to forget about Fenders...

Kinda like choosing a wife, you know. The foregoing advice is generally excellent. You have to decide what fits your style and budget. You also seem to be waffling about issues which shouldn't totally concern you considering a starter guitar, unless your skills really warrant same. It might help to know where you live. Perhaps there are other Forum members there who might be of further assistance.

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As I said in my earlier post, I've had my MIM for 4+ years. The frets were fine, perfect in fact. I just had them leveled recently due to wear. Fender would be a really lousy company if you had to start fixing the guitar right after you bought it.