Benefits of a good guitar?

[muskrat]

Well in my last post "how long to wait before you upgrade your guitar" I asked if 6 months was too soon to upgrade from a beginner. From the posts you guys/girls have gave back (and my own desire of course) it looks like I'm all set to upgrade. Now I touched based on gettinga Fender Strat, now the question is which one? I looked on the Fender site and there are ALOT of different types? Being very new to guitars I have alot to learn about the gear, difference in pick-ups, fat strats, ones made in Mexico? any help there would be really great!! Second what are the benefits? clearer sound? easier time with hammer on and pull off (since my hammer-ons barely even make noise on my current guitar no matter how hard i hit it, better frets? being new will I noticed and be able to appreciate it? So once again I turn to you the experts.......

Thanks for the replies in my last post.....

[ESP_Viper]

Well, a good quality guitar is like having a good quality car. It does the same things, just in a different fashion. Your car may have really comfortable seats, just like your guitar may have a really nice neck. Good pickups are like a nice engine... it works, but it's so much nicer to have the good ones. Good pickups have less noise (meaning less hum and less feedback), they have a clearer sound, and better tone. Which in turn makes your guitar have a great sound. A well built, well adjusted guitar will be easy to play. The strings will not buzz against the frets too bad, and hammer ons and the like will be easy to do. It will also stay in tune better. I can do bends as hard as i possibly can, it stays perfectly in tune and I have no fear of breaking a string.

[Levinson Blade]

I own a MIM Strat and can highly recomend them, your correct there are a lot of different strats Powerhouse, Texas, and lots of signature models there a matter of taste and the hardware is different on them all set yourself a budget and see what Strat is in your price range also what music do you want to play does your faveplayer play a Strat if so what Strat is it then try it out you will know if it's the one for you

[ESP_Viper]

Well, I can't recommend dual humbuckers w/ a coil tap enough. My ESP has dual humbuckers and a coil tap. I can get such a wide variety of tones just with the pull of the tone knob and a flip of the pickup selector. I can get anything from bursting blues tones to extremely heavy metal tones. It's all in the quality of your pickups, and how well they are adjusted. So 140 bucks for a pair of duncans and 20 bucks or so for a coil tap to be installed and you will have a tone rich, versital guitar!

For choosing a guitar I'd say get a guitar that feels better than it sounds for a price that you are comfortable with. Then you can always change the pickups and have a well playing guitar and a great sounding one too. A guitar may come sounding great, but it may not feel exactly the way you like.

[Schecter_dude]

I agree with ESP... buying new pickups adds so much to your playing. When I got my C-1, I upgraded from the stock "Duncan Design" humbuckers (essentially the same as Seymour Duncan '59's) and bought a pair of Seymour Duncan SH-6 "Duncan Distortion" humbuckers. They sound real raw, wound very hot... they rock.

Seymour Duncan are just about the best pickup manufacturer around (in my humble opinion) and you can't really go wrong with them... they have over 130-or-so models, so you'll find one to suit your tastes.

[PRS One]

in regards to the different fenders, the american standard are usually poplar wood, and either maple or rosewood necks. Some people like the rosewood necks because of the sound and they say it's "easier" on their fingers.

the double coil pickups are called humbuckers and give a warmer sound, the fat strats usually come w/ a humbucker atleast in the bridge position.

most strats are single coil and have a brighter tone to it. I personally prefer humbuckers especially because fender's single coils can get a really "tinny" sound towards the bridge pickup.

the mexican strats are constructed in mexico, but i believe all the parts are still made in the US, the mexicans just put the thing together. I owned one for awhile, i didn't have a problem with it, even though it was a mexican strat, I thought it was constructed pretty well.