Well.. in my opinion strats have their place just like any other guitar. When I first started electric guitar my first was a strat. Then I had that stolen and bought an Epi SG next.. I used that for many years but then about 6 months ago I bought a cheap strat and I was so pleased with it I installed a decent pickup set. There's something about the silky tones my strat can give, that my SG with dual humbuckers just can't do. For my next purchase, which is just around the corner also, I will be getting either an ESP LTD or some kind of Ibanez. Then I'll have my SG for finger-style as well as crisp distortion, my acoustic for.. well.. acoustic, my strat for blues/jazz, and my Ibanez/ESP for metal stuff. Ideally I would like to buy a Fender Telecaster at some point as well... and a dual neck guitar with standard 6-string on main neck, and 12 string on upper neck would also be nice.. lol :D