I was gonna buy a fender strat 50 year anniversary, but I realised (thanks to the scary moustashio man at bruce millers), that with fender you pay a hell of a lot for the name on it. I tried the Stratocaster out, then tried out an Ernie Ball Music Man for the same price, and the difference was amazing. The Music Man was absolutely wonderful, and the strat was obviously a mid-range guitar at a top-range price. The quality of them, i reckon, cant be faulted (Id prefer a stratocaster to my pacifica any day), but for the same price, you can get a much better guitar.