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Okay. I'm in the market for a strat and looking for some input! Going to be buying used too.

Regular American Standar Strat. I would upgrade the pick ups (duncans of course!), tuners, and probably lots of other stuff.

American Deluxe. Has the S1 switching system, samarian cobalt pups, locking tuners, so probably wouldn't upgrade that stuff. But just wondering if anyone has any experience with these or the pups?

American 50th anniversary. Is the quality that much better than the deluxe or regular?

Any have experience with any of these models? What about in terms of build quality, woods, etc? Any input would help. I'm a strat noobie! Thanks!

Anyone? Bueller?......

I've also heard really good things about the Jimmie Vaughan signature strat. Not really into signature models, but if its good its good! Any thoughts on that one?

If you don't necessarily need 22 frets, the JV or a Japanese RI would be the way to go. I have a MIJ 62 RI with a thick rosewood board that I absolutely adore.

The JV is a good choice also because it comes with the American Vintage hardware, Tex-Mex pickups (which aren't bad, IMHO), and has medium jumbo frets and a flatter fretboard radius (two things I sometimes wish my MIJ had).

Play a bunch of them and get the best one.

BTW, if you want a hardtail, I've heard good things about the Robert Cray strat as well.

Take a look at the Gamp;L's, too. Good deals on ebay and for info.

I've heard the buddy guy strats are excellent for the money

only $600 new

I tried about 10 different Strats (MIM amp; MIA) the other day, and decided I'm sticking with the Mexican ones.

I have a 2004 AM DLX and the samarium cobalt pickups and S-1 are great. A wide variety of sounds and all of them I find usable. Some more than others but still all good. The pickups are noiseless yet they retain a nice Stratty sound. And they really take overdrive and distortion very well. But if you're looking to buy used you may not end up with these pickups since they were new for 2004. Prior to that they used the Vintage Noiseless which weren't as good IMO.

I really don't think you can go wrong with a standard Strat either if you're already planning on customizing it. Just find one that feels good to you.

As for the 50th, a friend of mine has the 50th DLX which also has the samarium cobalt noiseless pups. Fit, finish, sound, everything on that guitar is great. And price-wise the cost was inline with a regular AM DLX model. I have not played a regular 50th but from what I hear the biggest difference is the standard, noisy pickups. But in all the 50th models I think you'll find that quality is on par with any instrument from that line (standard, deluxe, whatever.) The 50th models were mostly about special badges and pickups, not any real quality improvements.

Jeff5,
my experience with Fender strats is that they are very incosistent... some sound great and some don't and it seems to be true at all of the levels that I've played (I don't have enough experience with custom shop models to know about them). Some MIM's are amazing and others are dogs. Some MIA's are amazing and others are dogs... you get my drift. So play a bunch of them and poick the one that sounds the best, plays the best, makes you smile. And do look at some other strat type guitars - the gamp;l's, the Carvin bolt, and any clones you run across. Many of the other companies are more consistent and may or may not have features/vibe that works for you.
When I was looking for a strat about 3 years ago, I couldn't find anything in my price range from Fender that sounded good. I played some clones that were wonderful but out of my range. I ended up buying a Carvin bolt kit, figuring it couldn't be worse than the fenders I had played and it turned out to be a very nice guitar for a very low price. I go back and forth about the electronics but the woods and the fit of the parts is great and putting it together was both easy and fun.

Cool thanks guys. You can actually find the 2004 American Deluxe on Ebay, quite a few. I missed a couple of them at some decent prices. I'm not sure if I want to lay down that much cash on a strat though, so I may just go with the JV model. Seems like a sweet guitar. But we'll see!

I have 2 guitars that are similar to what you are thinking of, but slightly different.

2001 MIA Strat - Upgraded to duncan pickups and upgraded to locking tuners. All in all it is very nice. Sounds good. I have very low action and teh bridge is set flat. Stays in tune well with the slight tremolo use that I do.

2003 American Deluxe strat. NO upgrades. Came with Humbucker in brige and locking tuners. Not Solarium Cobalt pickups and Not S-1 Switching. I like this guitar for the rounded heel which lets me play higher frets easier. The Abalone dot inlays look much nicer than the MIA strat black dots. Overall this is a better guitar than the MIA strat. But only by a little bit.

Both guitars have nice quality. No real flaws except for chips in teh MIA strat that I made. Deluxe looks nicer as I can't maek out the seam in the like I can with the MIA Strat.Based on price my deluxe wins hands down. I bought it used for $580. The MIA Strat , after all upgrades was about $1000 ( hey I bought it new)Of these 2 I would go for a used Deluxe.

I played an America 50th Anniersary in a store a while back and was impressed. I can't recall enought about it now to list an details except it was pretty nice.