Thanks for all the advice guys. When it came down to it I went with what felt right, which wasn't what i thought I was going to get. I tried just about every guitar in my price range including les pauls, SGs, Teles, Jags, PRSs, a variax, Yamahas etc.. I tried hard to convince myself that i liked the les pauls cause they had a good deal on but it just didn't grab me. Some of the finishing was more sloppy than i'd accept from a guitar half the price. Made me wonder whether the poor workmanship was cosmetic or if it went right through.

But anyway, I got a (drum roll please) deluxe stat (with the new S1 switching system) and a fender DeVille amp. I had not intended on getting a strat but the deluxe version got round so many of my reservations about strats and it just felt and sounded great, esp through a fender amp. Just one hicup though. The fuse blew on the amp once i got it home (before i got to so much as play a chord) so my weekend of reckless riffing has gone out the window. You'd have thought that for the price of the thing they could stretch to throwing in a couple of spare fuses incase this happens. I tried in vain to find somewhere that stocked a 1.6A fuse before closing time yesterday but i didnt and its going to have to wait till monday now. oh well.