i couldn't see the point in strats for years.. now i love the things! for me the big secrets were a coily cable and a treble booster.
i totally get the treble booster, i found the same thing, the guitar came to life in my hands! apart from the look, what does the coily cable bring to the party? i seem to recall they had higher capacitance which rounded out the high end, but i thought that was only in old cables?
yeah, I'm lucky enough to have got one or two of those old cables and they roll the top end off massively, but in a really nice sounding way.
I also have a modern Vox cable, which is a really good cable by the way, but it doesn't do the same thing - maybe a touch, but it sounds mostly the same as a good straight cable.
Honestly though I think its the components they used in those old cables, rather than just the fact they are old, that make the difference. The parts in the cables I have are really low end - thin cable, and the jacks look budget - the right angled one looks like a joke, and the straight one is just ok. I think you could easily buy a really cheap modern curly cable and get the same effect. Honestly, despite the low quality they sound amazing with a strat or tele. I just put at the front of my effect chain - between the tuner and the next pedal.
