Budget strat
Great subject.
My latest, greatest, budget strat was given to me free by a kid in my son's band that I used to lend my most expensive guitars to for him to gig with. The only person I have trusted to lend my guitars to. He recently had a PRS import given to him for a majorly discounted price by someone he taught how to play that got a real PRS or something super expensive, so he gave the import PRS to this kid I know for a little over a hundred.
Now that he had his new PRS import, he gave me an old, multi passed down, 40th Aniv. affinity strat, black, dinged a couple places, beautiful super flammed maple neck, rosewood board, cracked an faded white pickguard, pup's kicking in and out, improperly wired electronics, non functioning tone pots, etc.
Here is where the budget part stops. I hot rodded it with some Seymour Duncan pup's in a black pearl pickguard and spring cover; SD black hot rail in the neck, SD 'lil 59 in the middle also black, and a SD black JB Jr in the bridge. These added up to about 200 alone, pickguard 20, electronics 15, then I put most recently a beautiful set of Fender shaller type locking tuners I had on another guitar on it. The tuners were about 80.
So it's not a budget guitar but it is awesome with tone you wouldn't believe and it's lighter than a regular strat. I really like the rebuilt and naturally relic'ed look. I need to post some pictures and sound clips of this. I was a fun project and those noise cancelling SD pups are super great sounding.
The Deluxe has not been modded and plays and sounds great. No need to mod it. I have other projects in mind for other guitars that should benefit greatly from some mods.
A truly budget strat that I got used at a local shop for 130 I think is absolutely awesome just as it is: a trans satin crimson Squire standard strat with duncan designed chrome humbuckers and a solid mahogany body. Still had plastic on the back of the tuners and not a scratch on it. I think it was new and unused and traded or something unusual. I have not modded anything on this guitar and it is one of my best sounding guitars. Those duncan designed humbuckers sound fabulous and it has a two pivot point tremolo, which I prefer, like the Deluxe has; they are very touch sensitive in my opinion, much more sensitive than the six screw type strat bridge. I would say this guitar is higher quality than my two SX strats, although I may modify one of my SX'es with some GFS pups.
I would definitey consider buying used if you know what you are getting or can test it out completely and check it for cracks, etc.
Rondomusic just had, but sold out fast, a solid mahogany natural finish SX SST57 with white P90s on it and a maple board for 109. I wanted one of those. With the really nice SX guitars you have to move fast or they get bought really fast by people that know what they are doing and might have been waiting for a certain item. This just happened. I got a LP Jr type SX with solid mahogany body and mahogany set neck and P90s in antique burst for 139 and they were gone in a few days. I knew I would have to act fast and I was right. On the other hand I've seen SX guitars I thought would go fast linger for a long time. This SX LP Jr. is awesome and is not modified, has tone and sustain that is outstanding. I can see where the set necks sustain better, in general.
I also agree with many that Squire is really moving up in quality and is more like Epiphone is to Gibson. The old stigma that was associated by some with Squire is history. I have a Squire Tele Custom with the two P90s that is without doubt one of my best guitars, period. This thing bites and sings and sustains and produces super great singing tones and smooth overdriven sounds. Really, really touch sensitive and dynamic. Vol and tone controls like a LP. I think it is called a Squire Telecaster Custom II. Just says Squire Telecaster Custom on the headstock. It is black with a black pickguard and black pups, rosewood board and is totally unmodified and is hum cancelling in the middle pup switch position.
That hot rail Squire strat looks great, as do some of the other vintage modified ones. I think the hot rail strat is a vintage modified one. The Crimson red with tortiseshell pickguard with sss duncan designed pups vintage modified is made out of Indian red cedar and is a really great sounding and feeling guitar.
I find the hot rail SD I have on the affinity to be a great sounding pickup and it is probably unsusal to put a pup like that in the neck position, but it sounds really great there.
I can't speak for the Xaviers or the Predator, but they look great. SX has some ash body strat copies that are possibly great. I believe ash is a very dense, very hard wood, and it is supposed to be a great tone wood. It probably promotes a bright tone and might be compensated for by putting in some nice humbucking single coils like rails or other similar pups.
I was watching some of Roberts youtube's tonight of him playing a yellowish SX SST57 with some Fender Custom Shop '54 I think, pups in it and it sounded super great and chimey. He played some SRV tune, or a tune SRV covered really well plus some other very impressive playing. That SX sounds really great and those pups would probably sound great in any strat; but then again, you are departing from the budget strat road at that point.
I bet a kid would really like that hot rail Squire strat that I think is in the vintage modified line. It comes in white or pearl white and maybe one other color, possibly; but definitely in white. I'm sure that guitar would be a pleasure to try out. I didn't play it but have had a hot rail pup in another strat before this affinity and they sound great.
It might make sense to try to buy a budget strat that is already set up as close to what you are looking for as possible; instead of having to dramatically mod it. There are some great options out there.
On the other hand some people like to buy budget strats and do like I did with the affinity I got free; some even do a lot more, as we know, and they really enjoy doing it. I really enjoyed fixing up that strat but did wonder if I was wasting money. But when you do something like that you don't look at it as wasting money. It is more of a quest. A quest to produce something outstanding and my affinity is really outstanding, but it had some really outstanding things going for it to begin with like a great neck and somebody that wanted to fix it up.
The kid that gave it to me was at the house the other day and I asked him if he wanted to play his old guitar and he played it thru my Delta Blues and his eyes lit up and he asked me where I got this guitar. My son laughed and said, "That's your old guitar". He couldn't believe his eyes.
What I want to do is fix up one of my other guitars and give it to someone that needs a decent guitar but can't afford one. Maybe an amp too.
Duffy
Second may go to the Vintage White one, or one of the burst ones.
