I have both- and I love them both to death.

I got the Special about 7 months ago, and I'm not gonna lie, I had to sink about $300 in it to sound exactly the way I wanted. The Atomic humbucker is a piece of junk- so I replaced it with a Seymour Duncan JB. It was worth the extra amoung of cash into it because it's such a beautiful guitar- and there is no discernable differences to me between this one and the Standard quality wise, even though it's multiple pieces of alder. I'm a big fan of the big headstock look as well as the Greasebucket tone circuits on it- they really work as advertised. I got one from GC during a Black Friday deal at $699 and overall, I spent about $900 to get it exactly where I wanted it, which is still a little bit less than a Standard.

With the Standard, you know exactly what you're getting. You know you're getting the quality and the classic tones. I've got em both, and I love em both equally. I just use them differently for different styles of music.