Originally Posted by: PonyOneThe last Highway 1 I played was so painfully devoid of tone... it had no natural articularion or sound, it was just... flat, and when plugged in, sounded as such. Just plain uninteresting. I've played Korean $100 guitars that ran circles around it. But then I played another that had a great, full sound that was just beautiful.

I love my Mexican Strat... it is tonally awesome, I knew it from the first chord I hit on it.

As with anything, play the individual piece of gear that you will be buying and taking home, blind faith leads to lots of frustration and angst when you get let down.

I just bought one of the "new and improved" Mexican Strats and I love it. According to Fender, the PU's and the trem block and the tuners have been upgraded and the guitar is now shielded. No complaints here, I won't need to do anything to this guitar except play it and take care of it. It sounds right and it was well set up right off the wall at the music store.

My Mexican Tele is a different story. This one is gonna need new PU's and tuners. It sounds pretty good unplugged, but the electronics just don't make it. I also dislike the 6 saddle bridge so that's going too. A friend suggests the Wilkinson Tele bridge as a replacement. Fortunately, I got this guitar free, so I don't mind putting a little money into upgrading it.