If you want to get an American Fender Strat without breaking the bank, this is it.
It's got everything you'd expect, plus a push/pull to get the neck + bridge combination and all pickups together. Just for that it's worth looking into.
The pups offer a more vintage-esque sound -- a little softer and understated than the professionals. They offer a wide array of tonal options, though, and you can get some nicely cutting tones if you raise the pickups.
I loved the build quality on this guitar. It's light, but sturdy. Details were taken care of.
The neck plays smoothly (not as smooth as all rosewood, but what is?). Licks, runs and string bending are comfortable to do. Barre chords are a breeze. Coming from Les Pauls I did suffer sore fingers for a day — that longer scale length!
The tremelo doesn't affect the tuning, though occasionally it takes a few strums to let it fall back into resting position. The springs also tend to ring out when you're playing chords, or playing with some gusto. It's not loud, but you can hear it if you're playing acoustically and stop strumming for a second. Not a dealbreaker though.
I'm not a big fan of the tone pot wiring. 1 tone pot controls the neck pup, 1 controls both the middle and bridge. I'd prefer 1 tone pot to tame the bridge, and 1 for the other 2 — like it is on the professional range. You could mod this, if you want. Otherwise the wiring and electronics are properly installed on this guitar. If you want to install humbuckers, you can so as well — this guitar's neck and bridge pickup cavitaties are big enough for them.
The headstock is the old style + old style tuners (the split ones where you put the string end vertically down the shaft). The tuners feel strong and turn with smoothness.
Overall I'd recommend this strat if you have 1200 EUR to spare and you're looking for a great deal.
