Re: check out this ebay score (Schecter)
I got it today, really nice guitar. These still feel better in my hands than an american strat does. I'm going to set it up today and when I have a little extra cash in I'm putting in two cool rails and a distortion.
American strats or fender strats in general don't agree with me. I don't like the small fret wire they use, and I don't like that vintage tremelo garbage. I also like my guitars to have a warmer, darker sound, which is why I usually go for mahogany or basswood. This one seemed to fulfill those requirements, and at a nice price too.
oh, and it has one volume and one tone, and the knob is out of the way of your hand, that's another thing that bothers me about fenders.