I'd agree with this also - if I were going to insist on getting a Fender to play metal, this'd be the one I'd go for.

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The Dave Murray signature Strat
In reality any Strat with either humbuckers or high output single coils will do fine for metal music as long as you have the right amp and pedals.
So you may have to change your stock pickups but that's not a hard task.

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"Life is like eating jalapenos. What you do today may burn your arse tomorrow"

+1

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Im afraid that the Dave Murray Strat, while being awesome, is way out of my price range!

Anything to a 1000$ is more then welcome. That does include MIM Tele's with _____ pickups, ect.

1. FSR HSS TBX Boost Strat with Dual Coil Ceramic single coils and DH-1 humbucker (zebra bobbins).

2. Sambora Strat w/ Dimarzio PAF/Texas Special, Mid Boost/TBX and Floyd Rose Original locking tremolo

3. American Deluxe HSS with Deluxe (Mini Floyd Rose) locking tremolo, N3/DH-1 and blower switch

4. Blacktop HSH with Floyd Rose Special locking tremolo

Just to name a few.

In my experience the pickups and pedals you use influence your sound much more significantly than the type of guitar you play. For example a Strat with vintage 50's single coil pickups run straight into an amp will sound very different from a Strat with DiMarzio super distortion pickups running through a phazer and distortion pedal into the same amp. Any humbucker equipped guitar will do fine for metal. On your Tele specific question, Jim Root and John 5 do great heavy metal rock on humbucker equipped Teles.

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"Life is like eating jalapenos. What you do today may burn your arse tomorrow"

+1

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2012 Fender American Standard Stratocaster
2013 Fender Pure Vintage 65 Stratocaster
2003 Gibson ES-355
2015 Gibson Les Paul Traditional
2002 Gretsch Duo Jet
1980 Rickenbacker 360/12 Fireglo
2014 Martin 000X1AE
2014 Fender Blues Junior III

Dave's guitar is slightly different than the regular production Artist Signature.

Has the original Floyd Rose tremolo and a 5-way switch on it, features you can find only on the MIJ HST7DM tribute series.

If you really want having an exact replica of Dave's Strat with the Floyd Rose, fill your pockets with enough bucks and order yourself one from the CS. Otherwise find a used HST57DM tribute Strat in a mint condition on eBay.

Another alternative is to buy a sunburst rosewood neck MIM Standard HSS with Locking Trem and drop an aged white pearloid pickguard loaded with three Seymour Duncan HotRails.

Let's see, I have an:

1) HHH Sunburst Strat with Hot/Cool/Cool Hot Rails = close to your prescription

2) 2008 HSS MIM Fat Strat changed to:
Bridge: Seymour Duncan JB Humbucker (original was Tex-Mex Fat Strat Humbucker)
Middle: Seymour Duncan Classic Stack Plus (original was Tex-Mex Flat Pole Single Coil)
Neck: Seymour Duncan Vintage Hot Stack (original was Tex-Mex Flat Pole Single Coil)
= even closer, but no dice.

I will keep trying

Toppscore

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Absolutely, I just picked one up on Wednesday.

@Toppscore

In order to replicate Dave's sunburst Strat you should rout the body for and put an original Floyd Rose trem.

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How about one of the Japanese 80s Strats. Contemporary/HM etc.
They were well made. Something like mine maybe. Just add a Humbucker or three.

After all this time, how could we forget the HM Strat. There was a Highway One Showmaster that had several features in common with the old HM and for those who could care less about the name on the headstock - the Squier Stagemasters should be considered as well.