Who makes the best strat?

[Elliot]

Fender.  No-one else makes strats, they just make copies.

Les Pauls or PRS type guitars or other top end guitars are the work of craftsmen - Strats are the design of a radio repair man with Henry Ford ideas about thrifty mechanised production and a staff of Mexican labourers.  If you take away that from a strat you don't have a strat anymore, you have a posh top end guitar that looks like a strat. 

So my vote is a strat from the Fender Mexican factory - the truest incarnation of the strat that exists.   :D

[kevinr]

I agree with Elliot! and would not spend a fortune on some custom shop job, find something that plays nice and fit your favourite BKPs, or make something from the many parts suppliers and have fun doing it.

[PPPMAT]

I agree with Elliot! and would not spend a fortune on some custom shop job, find something that plays nice and fit your favourite BKPs, or make something from the many parts suppliers and have fun doing it.

I'm in the process of doing exactly that having come to the same conclusion but fantastic though my current MIM strat is it doesn't play as fluidly as any of the PRS's I own. I 'get' the mojo of a fender though and particularly the custom shop stuff but as I have said I've never been blown away by one. Probably just not played the right one..

[tomjackson]

Best value is a partscaster. 

[Twinfan]

I'm in the process of doing exactly that having come to the same conclusion but fantastic though my current MIM strat is it doesn't play as fluidly as any of the PRS's I own.

Surely your MIM Strat just needs a really good setup then????

[PPPMAT]

I'm in the process of doing exactly that having come to the same conclusion but fantastic though my current MIM strat is it doesn't play as fluidly as any of the PRS's I own.

Surely your MIM Strat just needs a really good setup then????

It has a really good setup but there is only so much you can do with a vintage radius and nut width. I really like the neck but maybe a flatter radius might be in order........

[Twinfan]

Taller frets is a cheaper and easier option - it'll transform it for £100 or so...

[gwEm]

i think the highway 1s are the best price/quality/philosophy price point.

but for the best of the best, bravewood or fender custom shop relic IMHO

[horsehead]

I love Fender custom shop strats, beautifully put together & & look good enough to eat, however the next strat I get is going to be the Hot Rod Vintage 62. It has everything I want in a strat, 9.5" radius, medium/jumbo frets Thin Skin Nitro finish etc. etc. & it deosn't cost half as much as some of the Custom Shop jobs....damn, my gas is strating up again

[gordiji]

Fender strats, usa are absolutely fine in terms of sound, build quality and price, they will do anything a strat's mean't to do.i've not tried a mim, but it seems they're pretty much the same quality wise. the only custom shop
i've tried was jerry donahue tele and whilst lovely it wouldn't have extracted 2k from me and even jerry donahue
used to say the jap ones where as good! my common sense tells me the same is true for strats,obviously it will
be made from higher spec materiels but that extra few percent in 'quality' doubles or more the price.go figure.
the best made strat i've had was one of the original law suit 'levinson' blade.perfect.
But the best sounding one, my current 1989 strat plus with irish tours..... about 800 quid inc pups!
Immaculate cond. second hand usa strats are one of the best value objects available in the whole world, easily found for about 500quid then customised with bkp's of your choice gives you a guitar as good as anything ever needed.(for well less than a grand!)

[Copperhead]

Well, for me, it's me.  :)

WINNER!!!!

Aftermarket parts are sooooo much better than Fender stuff these days really!!
I'm talking about 3 areas that Fender production is terrible at:

1) Wood quality. Almost anyone can pick out a better piece of tone wood than Fender can, speaking of recent and current production guitars. I really think Fender hired Helen Keller for this position.
2) CNC machining. Fender takes all kinds of toolpath shortcuts that result in poor neck pockets (large tool overcut in corners) misaligned bridges, etc.
3) Assembly and set-up. If you can't take apart a Fender production Strat and re-assemble it and set it up MUCH better than the condition you found it in hanging in the music store, somebody ought to take away all your screwdrivers!

Speaking from experience, USA Custom Guitars vs Fender production is virtually no contest.
Tommy will pick out whatever you want weight and grain on a body, and his neck pockets fit perfect every time, no overcut BS like new Fenders.
I also think that USACG builds the best neck, but then again most places can build a better neck than current Fender production necks.

YOU can build a better Strat than Fender, no need to pay boutique prices to a custom builder.

[Prawnik]

Copperhead speaks truth. It really is not difficult to build a superb Strat and then tinker with it until you have it exactly the way you want it.

Don't believe the hype.

[Pete24v]

I just got back from Brighton where i visited GAK and tried loads of strats..  gilmour, custom shop relics, am standards etc For me none of them were as nice playing or good sounding as my Kotzen. I wasn't a ran of the relics, even on the £2799 gilmour strat, it just looked fake.

The new am standard felt better than my 2005 guitar, mainly because of the thicker neck

[bucketbot]

Looks like Guitar Village have had some new stock in from the Custom Shop recently. And I can't afford any of it  :(

Thye have some more of the white over sunburst, my current favourite relic  :(

Never really been a Fender kinda guy but just recently bought an American Deluxe from there & can't put the damn thing down!  :D

[Ian Price]

Wow - I like that. As said on Martin's thread I don't normally like natural strats - I'm getting to like them now!