cheapish strat copies

I'm looking for a cheap start copy of a very good quality for playing around with and modding etc. For something to do and because I just want a strat to fuck with. I may try getting a cheap fender of ebay or a used squier strat, one of those classic vibe ones

If you just want to fuck with it then go partscaster. I would get a fender classic series neck (for the lgo and because they are NICE) and maybe an MJT body and customize 1 piece at a time from there.... I was gathering parts for my frankentele off and on for a year

I've moded one before and I could just never get it to feel or sound right. The body is thinner than a actual strat and usually made from plywood or very poor quality basswood. The necks on them aren't made great quality, nowhere near what I'm wanting really. They're okay after being modded but feel cheap still, to me anyway

That is something that I have been wanting to do for a year or two now, so that's probably the best option for me, I want to do both a strat and a Tele eventually. If I do that I'll get a gotoh trem I think and gotoh tuners

other, cheaper thoughts:

the Mexican-made Fender standard strat is cheap and a great mod platform tat typical has very good bones (though the necks tend to be on the slender side for my liking), but one of those mods should be the trem block as the stock one is utter crap... stay away from late 90s mexi standards as they tend to be poplar and I don't think poplar sounds so hot as a strat... Fender went back to Alder on the Mexi standards around 2001 I think.

70s and early 80s Ibanez roadstars are really very good guitars in the strat tradition though the electronics and hardware are sketchy at best. But as a mod platform they are worth considering.

Certain 70s and 80s Tokai and Greco strat copies can still be had at reasonable prices on ebay. They are universaly good bones though typically all the parts are in metric and kinda suck on the affordable models. You may also encounter a nut width that is 1mm slimmer than recent fender on older models, this will kinda fuck with a bridge change and may feel weird to you.... truth is vintage fender was not consistent with nut width, nor was Gibson. But these days 42 to 43mm is pretty standard I think so people goon out about 41mm

EDIT:

fernandez strats, badassed, still cheap. 70s, 80s or 90s all good as long as they are MIJ

I had a marshall rocket strat when I started, and it was a pretty good guitar considering it would have been very cheap. It's HSS, which could be fun for modding, it should be on my EB.

I am selling some stuff on Ebay (Gibson 57 classic, plus and the whole harness, G-force tuner system, My Gibson case as I don't use it, my gibson goes on a guitar rack in out bedroom when not in use and my line 6 and the pedal thingy) so hoping to be able to get a Hss Fender strat or a good copy, preferably Japanese

do NOT sell a Gibson harshell case!!!!!!!!!!!! if you join a band you will NEED a hardshell case and even a knockoff will cost you more than you can sell the one you have for. Seriously, NEVER gigbag a set-neck at a multiband bar (pub) gig!!!!!!!!! more than my tendencyto throw it, a gigbag in bars fulla drunks is what beat my beloved white, jv strat to pulp... pummeled to shit by assholes, the gig bag did nothing to protect her (one local new years eve gig in 2007 in particular, I ahd fun but poor old strat did not). Picked upa fender hardhsell in a trade and checked the the damage before it became detrimental. If she were a set neck she woulda had an irreversible neck damage with the abuse she tolerated...

KEEP YOUR CASE unless you want a Les Paul with a headstock repair. SERIOUSLY

don't be a boob over raising funds to mod a jap strat...

I swear to god, sometimes it seems like everyone with a lick of financial sense came to colonize America.

I have a Epiphone Les Paul case still, maybe sell the Epi case and keep the Gibson one then? I do have a case spare either way, I'm not that stupid to get rid of all my cases

dump the epi case, the difference in profit between an epi and the vastly better gibby case in used sales will be a few pounds sterling...

at least I the USA we are talking about a $10 difference in used case sales.... keeping the Gibson case will help you resell the Gibby if you decide to get a nicer LP... not having the original case for a cheapie USA LP typically drags the value down and attracts bottom-feeders to the sale

if you are goig to keep 1 case for gigs, keep the one legit one, please

Okay, I'll do it that way then

phew, disaster averted

for cheap but nice strats to modify why don't you go on ebay and look up "into-sound"

hes a Japanese guy who consigns a lot of 70s and 80s lawsuit guitars in player condition so they are a bit cheaper than old MIJ has been lately. Shipping is costly, but its reflected in his pricing.

I'll take a look now. Sounds good to me. Always wanted to get a lawsuit era guitar from japan

I am partial to the fernandes revival and function guitars from the 80s, generally very nice for not a lot of dough compared to similar tokais:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fernandes-The-Revival-Right-Handed-6-String-Solid-Body-Electric-Guitar-Black-/371600852436?hash=item56852305d4:g:LLkAAOSwhDdXD7LU

here's into-sound, good deals to be had from this dude, but he isn't terribly knowledgeable and his English is sketchy:

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/into-music?_trksid=p2047675.l2563