An Aftermath was recommended to me as it's closest in design, power and voice to a super distortion. Thank you Ben :) This might be something for me to really consider as I've always been interested in an Aftermath but that's for my 7 string.
I'm banging on about pick up's but the guitar is really good. I like the 50's headstock and I like humbuckers so this guitar or the American Standard caught my eye. The American was just over double the price and I thought that if I was going to change the humbucker I'd have less of a problem doing it on the cheaper one. I really like the neck feel. The satin on the back feels smooth and feels right to me. It's also nice to see the wood grain flowing from the headstock down the neck. No scarf joints here. The edge of the fret board may not be rolled but it's not a hard sharp edge. Also no sharp edges in the frets. The gloss on the fret board and the fret gleam and no issues with string bends. The body is well weighted so it's got a nice solid feel to it. The pick up's are good in it, even though I've banged on about changing them. It quacks like a Strat and the out of phase positions sound really nice. My only real complaint about the humbucker is I want it a little more balls to the wall and something better suited for hard rock to heavy metal. Being a Strat I did expect this but the humbucker works well if you want to keep it sounding like a Strat with a humbucker. It's a really good cheap guitar and right out of the box it's lovely but it's also a good base to mod I think. I wouldn't have any issues upgrading it's parts to American Standard if you couldn't afford a American version.
I've been getting up each morning and going in to look at it and I can't believe I have a Fender Stratocaster. Yeah it's Mexican but it's branded as Fender. My Les Paul is an Epiphone Tribute Plus and it's really, really, really good and made the same way with a carved maple cap. I could never afford the Gibson version and I don't think I'd want to pay that much not unless I won the money or something, but to see the Fender, it's a feeling only guitar players understand. I love this thing and I'm going to play the bejesus out of it! :D
