I have 3 American standard teles, and another one that Forrest lee built for me with one of his b benders in it. I also have 2 strats, but I play the teles more. They're such versatile guitars, and you never know what you'll need to play at a gig. If I were doing a blues gig, I would want the strat there too. The cut aways let you go a little further than a tele, you can even get a screaming lead down in the 22nd fret. I can also do this on a tele, but it is harder to reach it.

No matter which one you get, play it first. I've known some guys that buy a guitar because of how it looks, get it home, and two days later they hate it. Play it first, check out the action, the feel of the neck, and of course the intonation at the 12th fret. If you go with anything other than a USA, you may also want to check all the strings one fret at a time, especially past the 12th fret. You may not find any problems at all, hopefully all the notes will be clean. Listen for the notes to buzz, and listen for the pitch to go up.

If the notes don't buzz, and the pitch is going up with each note, you may have found the guitar for you. If you really want a guitar that has some of these problems, talk to a salesperson about throwing in a setup if you buy it. Make sure you tell them of anything you found that was wrong with it, that way they can check to make sure it's fixed. Make sure you're satisfied, before you take it out of the store. Let us know which one you get, and if we can do anything to help you.

JD