It wasn't because it was cheaper. It was because it had the nicest feel. The neck was superb and a joy to play. But the pickups weren't that great so I installed a set of Fender Custom Shop 54s. Then it was perfect (for a few years).
I recorded it and gigged with it a lot and was mostly happy with it. However, I got this crazy idea that I could get more sustain if I changed the floating bridge for a fixed, hard-tail bridge.
So I did this to it...
BIG MISTAKE..!
A Les Paul Bridge on a Strat is blasphemy! I know that now. The action and that wonderful playability disappeared. There were a lot of dead notes on the fretboard, and those that weren't dead didn't sustain any longer than before. I hated it. I felt sick to my stomach.
Also, around this time the middle pickup died, and as I didn't have much cash, I bought a cheap replacement. It was an okay pickup, but nowhere near the quality of the 54s.
This was around 5 years ago.
Then, in January, I decided to fix it up.
After some research I settled on a Gotoh hard-tail bridge and decided to replace the cheap middle pickup with something better. I have a good friend here who runs a guitar store and his tech guy helped me out. The pickup I chose was a Seymour Duncan JB Strat model which went into the bridge position, and the original 54 bridge PU replaced the cheap middle PU.
It was wired with a push/pull tone knob for the JB to give me a coil tap so I can still have 3 single coils when needed.
But the body had been abused so badly that I decided to go for a complete make-over.
BLACK is the new black!
Black paint-job, black scratchplate, knobs and pickup covers was the order of the day. The total make-over took 6 weeks and I just got her back a few days ago.
Take a look...
The Seymour Duncan is a wonderful pickup and the range of tones I can get from this guitar now has more than doubled. The Gotoh bridge is fantastic too - very smooth - and the guitar definitely has more sustain now. The tech did a great job on the setup and overall playability is fantastic.
Total cost of this make-over; around $500 at current exchange rates.
Was it worth it?
YES..!
I love this guitar. We go way back, and to me it's not just a Strat; it's a friend, a companion, a confidant. It's part of me.
So what's the point of this post then?
None.
I just wanted to share the story of my Strat.
Now, where's my amp plugin..?
...this should be in diy 
