Wiseman88 said: anybody try out the fender deluxe hot rails squier strat? I'm testing one out tomorrow, and hope it looks as good as it sounds!
I think you mean that you hope it 'sounds as good as it looks'...
Anyway, I have played one of these before, it was actually on the same day that I played a Mustang for the first time.
The strat impressed me mostly with what I DIDN'T notice about it. I didn't notice the neck profile and finish, weight, fret size, and those are things that I don't want to notice. I only notice something like a neck profile and finish if it feels wrong.
I played the guitar through a Vox AC30 and I was very impressed with the responsiveness (the word doesn't look right) of the pickups, especially the neck pickup. My personal style relies mostly on my right hand picking and strumming techniques, and I found the neck pickup to be very responsive to changes in picking approaches. The sound would be clean and sweet when picked lightly, and when picked aggressively, it would drive the amp and result in a beautiful dirty sound. For whatever reason, the middle and bridge pickups were not as responsive, but still sounded good.
In all, I was very impressed with the guitar, and it's the thing that inspired me to put a rail pickup in my own strat (see above).
