Fender vs Charvel hardtail

[herbychimp]

Having owned a Fender hard-tail strat for a couple of years I have always enjoyed the simplicity and versatility of the design (especially since Jonathan @ Feline put a HD in the bridge!) Anyhow, my one bug bear has been the neck, which, as a smaller-handed fellow, I find a bit on the chunky side. Having just seen a Charvel Wildcard#6 on Ebay (Hardtail H/s) I wonder how different the neck would be? I am sure that it would feel different (gunoil vs satin finish) but I wonder about the dimensions compared to my BC strat. It goes without saying that the pickups in the Charvel would need to be changed but I also wonder whether the Charvel Japanese build quality would be the equivalent of my strat? Any thoughts?

[Stevepage]

The Charvels are great quality. The necks on them are very comfortable and the fretwork is great. Very smooth in the hand and string bending is nice and smooth too. I'd say they're on par with the American Deluxe strats in terms of quality.

[Telerocker]

I think the Charvels are great value for the money. I played a new one (a white San Dimas)  in the guitarshop my friend owns and that one was a nice guitar with good playability. The pickups did'nt do it quite for me, but they can be replaced.

[Copperhead]

I played a Wild Card#6 with every intention of buying it, but it was terrible.
It is a drop top, (shallow neck pocket) raises the neck significantly off the top, much higher than a Strat. Instead of doing something like a "reverse Floyd pocket" which would angle the neck slightly, they jack up the saddles a mile and a half. The SD pups are terrible. The SoCal DiMarzios sound much better.
So I passed on it because it needs too much work out of the box to justify the cost.
I liked the SoCal, but the one I played had a twisted neck. Another San Dimas there had a good neck but the awful SD pups. I wanted them to swap necks but the store would not. My overall impression is that they are all hype and name. You can get a much better quality guitar for the money from Peavey for instance.