Ive been a hugh fender strat fan for years and worked at a guitar store that was a fender dealer. After play lots a strats the best advice i can give is leave room in your budget for a set of customshop texas specials(SRV pickups). They are THE strat tone people love...every time people hear of play my strat they said " what are those pick ups? ". Providing you want your strat to sound like a classic strat that is.
The guitars them selves are like cars in the respects its a case of how much you can afford ?
The mexicians are very good value for mone anf you can always upgrade the hard wear..please note machine head tunners and bridges are different quaity...and usa strats have two pivit bridges and mex have six screws so you cant inter-change them.
Jap strats have a great vintage feel and a great look but pick ups are rubbish.
Another thought is to buy the neck and body separate to get the colour of choice and the neck profile and fret board you want..the down side is you cant try it first.
If youd prefure not working a your own guiar go to a shop and work out a deal for them to put in the pickups and give you a good price..
You can often find Custom Shop strats second hand for the price of new USA strat...custom shop strats are like a wet dream for the strat player.
Regardless of your choice there are a heap of very good upgrade part for all the strat models as your budge grows. But if you can afford it strat with a USA strat.
Hope this helps a little.
Very recently looked for a budget guitar (squier) for my cousin, we were looking for a nice all-around sound.
One with duncan hotrails sounded really good, even better than the more expensive ones. Feeling sure wasn't amazing but I realised (again) how pickups make a difference.
Also for blues I loved a yamaha pacifica 611 hfm but it had more to do with the p90 on the neck rather than guitar
Squier Classic Vibe seem to get really good reviews from everyone. If you want to save some coin they are a good option.
Best thing to do really is to go to a guitar shop tha stocks Fender and play a whole bunch. Which ever one sounds the best and feels great (within you budget) is the one to go with.
Go take a look at the American Special Strat, I like the neck on these more than the American Standard. They come with jumbo frets, instead of the medium jumbo and it has the 70's style head stock. The pickup on the American Standard 2012 now comes with Custom Shop 50's. The trem on the Am. Standard is better than the Am. Special which is vintage style trem.
As far as the MiM Standard goes, there is only 21 frets instead of 22 of the American counterpart.
Not sure if you are looking at new or use but the new Japan made are really just the Pawn Shop series and some Mustang.
Also, the electronics on the American series are quite different. The Am. Special has Greasebucket tone circuit vs. No-Load Tone Control on the American Standard.
New for the American Special Strat is at $899 while the 2012 Am. Standard is starting at $1099. You can find Am. Standard as low as $500 used granted they don't comes with the custom shop 50 pickup.
Also, there are the Fender Highway 1 Strat. These were American made and similar to Am. Special Strat except for the pickup. I've seen these for around $400 used. These were discontinued in 2011.
I have a highway 1 I purchased over the american standard because I like the neck better...I added Joe Barden pickups and have it buffed to remove the satin finish....I love it..bro loves it, sounds really good and plays great..here it is hanging above my Corgan Strat...oh I changed the pickguard too...so in short I fell in love with a strat look, and that ended up being the John Mayer, which I wasn't going to buy, and I preferred this headstock and maple board...
I like the old ones. The lat 60s and early 70s with mable fretboards had narrower necks that will be more like an Ibanez. Have to live with 21 frets though. You should be able to find a re-issue. Here is my '72:
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