After owning a Tokai Les Paul and realizing Les Paul is not my thing and thinking of getting a stratocaster for two years, I recently bought an Edwards Snapper superstrat which has a thin, I believe U-shaped, neck (at least judging by the info on ESP E-II ST-1, with its neck thickness being 20mm @ 1st fret, 22mm @ 12th Fret and with 305mm fingerboard radius), and I like it very much. However, I still find myself wanting to own a Stratocaster as a second guitar. I never played an original strat from the 50s or 60s, so I don't have a particular sound in my mind and therefore I am not hunting a 100 percent vintage-accurate sound, but I am after those classic Stratocaster looks.
After having filtered various options out, this is what I might be choosing from:
* Tokai AST series
* Edwards E-SE series
* ESP Vintage Plus
* Fender Japan STR-ALLVC
I don't have a good access to used guitars and I am afraid of buying used from overseas online, so this is current production models we are talking about.
Two most important factors, to me, are:
1) thin neck. With Stratocasters, to me, the thinner, the better, because I know none of them is going to be Ibanez Wizard-thin (which might be too thin for me) and I doubt any is going to be as thin as on Edwards Snapper. I guess I'm interested in C, modern-C, thin U types of shapes, not V.
2) good and well prepared wood. I know I'm not aiming at custom shop level here, but I want what's best out of these. That is, this is more important than the quality of the pickups and electronics, because these can be replaced.
3) Fretwork has to be good out of the box, because I don't think I will be able to find someone who'll be able to do a good fretwork where I live.
Having actually tried a current American Strandard Fender, I approximately have an idea about its neck thickness. How are the necks of those other options compared to current American Standards? Does any of them offer thinner necks or at least those that are not thicker than current AmStds?
After having filtered various options out, this is what I might be choosing from:
* Tokai AST series
* Edwards E-SE series
* ESP Vintage Plus
* Fender Japan STR-ALLVC
I don't have a good access to used guitars and I am afraid of buying used from overseas online, so this is current production models we are talking about.
Two most important factors, to me, are:
1) thin neck. With Stratocasters, to me, the thinner, the better, because I know none of them is going to be Ibanez Wizard-thin (which might be too thin for me) and I doubt any is going to be as thin as on Edwards Snapper. I guess I'm interested in C, modern-C, thin U types of shapes, not V.
2) good and well prepared wood. I know I'm not aiming at custom shop level here, but I want what's best out of these. That is, this is more important than the quality of the pickups and electronics, because these can be replaced.
3) Fretwork has to be good out of the box, because I don't think I will be able to find someone who'll be able to do a good fretwork where I live.
Having actually tried a current American Strandard Fender, I approximately have an idea about its neck thickness. How are the necks of those other options compared to current American Standards? Does any of them offer thinner necks or at least those that are not thicker than current AmStds?