The best Fender I've ever played was my 1986 ''62 Re-Issue Jap-Strat. I took out the whammy bar and machined a brass block to fill the cavity under the bridge. That baby would sustain for days! The rosewood & maple neck gave it a really sweet tone. The metalic blue body with a white pick guard looked cool too.

If you really want a Fender, that's the sort to look for. I bought that particular axe new, but unless you get a very good price, you really are better off to buy used. And with a Strat, you must always 'try before you buy'! Some of them will quack like a duck in true vintage style, but sound harsh or muddy. Some have one or two settings that sound really good, but don't have anything else to offer.

In the early '90s I was unemployed and short of money for my rent. I sold my Strat, and kept my Yamaha SBG1000. I still have it, plus another SBG1000 that I bought last year. Go try out some Strats. You may decide that you've been spending entirely too much of your time and money on Les Pauls. Or not. I ultimately decided that I wasn't exactly in love with the single-coil sound, and I see enough humbucker-loaded Strats to assure me that I'm not the only one. I wasn't really comfortable with the longer scale length, either. But then again, I now have an old Washburn A20-CS, with the same scale length, which sounds so good that I love to play it.

As I've said before, try out as many as you can get your hands on. Close your eyes. Open your ears and your mind. [u]Nobody[/u] can hear what's written on the headstock.