I purchased my first strat from zZounds last year, an American special which I absolutely love. I use that one primarily for blues/rock and I loved it so much, that I wanted to get another one to use in the metal band that I play in. We use alternate tunings such as dropped C and that is the tuning I have this guitar set up in. I love the HSH pickup configuration and the coil tapping feature is great also. This is a Mexican strat which is not quite as nice as the American made but it is still a well made and great sounding instrument. I had a bit of trouble in that low tuning with tinking on the G string but a string tree added for the D and G strings as well as hybrid (bottom heavy top skinny) strings fixed that problem. I play this through a 120 watt, Bugera 6262 head and a Genz Benz 300 watt cabinet and it absolutely screams! Some naysayers tried to tell me that you can't use a strat for heavy metal but they are simply wrong! This guitar is great in that capacity! I recently finished recording a full length album with my band and the rhythm guitarist uses a Gibson Les Paul, which is a great guitar too. The strat and the Les Paul absolutely compliment one another. I personally prefer the chime and glassy tone of the strat, especially for lead playing. Overall, this is a beautiful guitar; it plays and sounds great and the craftsmanship is solid. For the price, I doubt you can do much better. I've owned guitars manufactured in Indonesia and Korea but in my opinion, American and… read more Mexican made guitars are far superior. 5 stars!

Musical Background:
30 years playing experience

Musical Style:
Metal, Rock, Blues read less