What kind of stratocaster?

I don t know how much money you want to spend cause I haven t read all the above. But I recently played with a friend s strat which he said it was Ritchie Blackmore s model, anyway I spared some time on it and I made a sound which was preety close to Meddle. I am not sure if you wanna give the money my friend gave but you might find a simillar model, this one had two gold Fender- Lace Sensor pickups.

Wow. Speak for yourself!

I think you got those prices wrong. Those are the LIST prices. I paid $829 for my American standard at Sam Ash in Nashville, TN.

And, *ahem*

"For true vintage Fender Strat tone, the pressed saddles are essential - nothing else sounds quite the same."

A good friend of mine has one of those original Japanese strats. He paid $100 for it at a pawn shop. The guitar itself played far better than any Mexican I've ever played, but it still had all the other shortcomings of every mexican I've played. It had about half the density of American strats (entirely different wood). Everytime I picked a note on it, it would just fade and die. It never stayed in tune, and the bridge was an absolute joke. It's the same bridge and saddles as on the Squier strat packs. It's the same bridge and saddles as on every Mexican strat ever made. I upgraded it for him with a 60's solid brass bridge--which made a HUGE difference in attack, tone, sustain, and overall "hotness" of the tone.

And, personally. I may be biased here, but hear me out, please
I own an American standard, and I have played countless American standards, deluxes, HSS's, with a few American teles. I've also played far more Mexican strats than I have American. Maybe it's chance, but I have never played a Mexi strat that even compared to 90% of the American strats I've played. And those remaining 10% American strats biggest problem was high string action, but everything else was tight and soulful as can be.

But yes, the out-the-box tone of the Mexican strats is nothing short of pathetic. It's amazing how many people out there think they've experienced true Fender Stratocaster by simply playing some mexican standard strat in a music store that was probably out of tune.

But there's always that one thing all players say to a n00b who wants to buy a new guitar: Just go play them and find the one that feels best to you. But if you haven't already played electric guitar for some time, testing them all still doesn't help.

Here are some pointers I've figured out over the years.

Each strat comes hand-perfected and finished for a particular playing style. Some are set up for heavy strings, some for lighter strings. The heavier strings don't rattle as much when using the top E, A, and D strings, but heavy strings also need higher action. Lighter strings have really low, fast action, but WILL slightly rattle if you're going to pick hard and play power chords. Just think about what you're going for, and look for guitars with thicker/higher strings, or thinner/lower strings.

Personally, I was going Gilmour all the way when I chose my guitar. I picked the one with the best, lowest, fastest action and lightest strings (.009-.042) I could find. Gilmour has a light touch and never power chords, and thus I am the same.

Besides, if you go by looks alone, you can always take that guitar to a tech and have the action/strings set just for your tastes, for about $15-20.

And I've never played a Strat that felt as good as mine... Naturally!