advise on strat choices..

If you can find one I'd try a G&L Strat. I have a George Fullerton Signature strat which outplays every Fender I have ever picked up.

Tom Andersons are fantastic too but maybe out of your budget.

HTH

As far as I know there is a new Mark Knopfler start just released, and this might suit you according to the styles you mention. John Kelly

Get a Jap strat and the gilmour set of EMG's , much better guitar and you will get the sound you are after , esp Gilmour.. A good rule of thumb with strats I find is just pick it up , if its heavy , dont even bother going any further. Heavy Ash bodied strats just sound bloody awful , no bite or tone. The other option is to get a Tokai 57 re issue strat and put the EMG's on that. Just dont buy a US Strat , my opinion , I am prepared to be flamed but they offer very poor value for money compared to jap strats and Tokais

I couldn't disagree more! I love my ash bodied mongrel strat. Plently of bite despite the Lace Sensors; which a lots of people say lack the high end of traditional pickups (not imho however).

Wood varies quite a bit from piece to piece anyway. Two ash bodies strats may sound quite different to each other and there's a thousand and one other variables to consider too.

Daniel C.

Why? You're not in Alt.Guitar now, my man....

This may be (slightly) out of left field but howabout the Thinline Tele? Same blade switch as a Strat and sounds easily as good.

binary.blueyonder.co.uk:

Ditto !!! I've had a couple of nice Strats in the past (a '62 and a '78) but my current natural ash, hardtail Strat-a-like with Lace Sensors sounds as sweet as either of my previous real Strats. I've also added a Cornell active mid-boost circuit and that has transformed to tonal range available from it. It now very easily covers glassy Shadows tones all the way throught to a seriously bluesy wail. It's kinda hard to descrieb, but whatever Strat you choose, I'd reccomend fitting the Cornell mid-boost kit. I think it's about £70 (or slightly more if you go for the TBX version). It's a such a great mod, because it takes nothgin away fom the original tones and gives you a new tone palette to work with.

cheers

Andrew_S

Flaming could be arranged... (Just because you're not paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not out to get you).

Rip out the roller nut and put in a bone one.

Lol after over 20 yrs of mainly owning strats and similar , also repairing and setting up the lil buggers I do feel a little qualified to offer an opinion , going from a rather nice 57 ish ,,, strat , serial nunbers didnt match and it was a wreck ,through the bloody awful Elites and Strat Pluses with that abortion for a roller nut grrrrrrrrrr that went in the bin .. I think that for the money , for what is basically an Airfix guitar , the US strats are a joke ,as Tokai proved in the 80's they are doing again , although Gibson and PRS seem the targets now Well it will keep the lawyers busy . after all my Fenders I settled on an ESP 57 Strat and to be honest no re issue or US Standard holds a candle , just an honest super light Body and a comfy neck ,plus it has that 'boing' which the new starts dont have . Strat players will know what I mean