Recommend me a Strat for <£500

[MattK]

That's great news if it's really the case. I've heard mixed reviews about the Indonesian ones, but maybe it's a matter of QC letting some lemons through, which can easily be avoided by buying in person.

I have two Indonesian CVs, the 50s Precision and the 50s Tele, and they are stunningly good. Necks are essentially perfect, pickups are excellent, even the vintage tint on the maple is exactly the same shade as my genuinely old ones. Can’t recommend them more highly.

[JSett]

That's great news if it's really the case. I've heard mixed reviews about the Indonesian ones, but maybe it's a matter of QC letting some lemons through, which can easily be avoided by buying in person.

I have two Indonesian CVs, the 50s Precision and the 50s Tele, and they are stunningly good. Necks are essentially perfect, pickups are excellent, even the vintage tint on the maple is exactly the same shade as my genuinely old ones. Can’t recommend them more highly.

This is good to know as I was thinking about getting a backup Tele for gigs and didn't want to spend much.

[GilmourD]

I would rock a Squier Classic Vibe all day every day. The 40th Anniversary stuff is awesome, too.

[Surfysonic]

Not to derail this thread, but knowing your taste I guitar tone, there's a simple wiring solution that would have you loving those lipsticks.

Switch the strat to series wiring instead of parallel. 2-pickup Danelectros were wired in series for a reason. Lipsticks are, indeed, ultra low output and quite shrill. Strat-sized ones are even more so, because they're smaller and can fit less wire in there.

But wire them in series and they gain the output and thickness they're missing, while still very much sounding like surfy single coils. Think of lipsticks as "split humbuckers" rather than true single coils. The magic is in the series combinations, and a strat can have three pairs of them.

That, or try a lipstick humbucker, which just skips a step and puts the series mode into a single position. They sound great, and very much not "like a humbucker."

Cool, good to know, thanks!

[1452L]

I would rock a Squier Classic Vibe all day every day. The 40th Anniversary stuff is awesome, too.

Thomann doing a hell of a deal on them right now, cool colours too!

https://www.thomann.de/gb/fender_squier ... iv_sfg.htm

[GilmourD]

I would rock a Squier Classic Vibe all day every day. The 40th Anniversary stuff is awesome, too.

Thomann doing a hell of a deal on them right now, cool colours too!

https://www.thomann.de/gb/fender_squier ... iv_sfg.htm

That works for JSett, the OP.

Unfortunately Fender doesn't allow Thomann to ship to the US.

[Maggieo]

My Classic Vibe is fantastic. And when I modded it, it became incredible.


Oliver On Display, November 12, 2015 by Maggie Osterberg, on Flickr

[øøøøøøø]

Hard to go wrong with an older MIM

Great, great value

[JSett]

So I've found a few for sale. I think MIM or CV are going to be the one.

I need to find out from his partner what kind of colours he likes/dislikes first. I know he doesn't care about maple Vs rosewood Vs Pau and I know it needs to be a traditionally equipped model. Not down to every detail, I don't think he cares about radius and fret size all that much.

I've got exactly 1 year til the wedding so I'll just keep an eye out and pick up the right thing when it appears locally.

Thanks everyone!

[MechaBulletBill]

MiMexico classic 50s/60s/70s
80s tokai