I used to play strats, and nothing but strat styled guitars. After a while, I got bored, and moved on to Les Pauls. I have grown to love fat necks, and thick sounds, and find my strats too thin and brittle sounding. (even though I'm using CS Fat 50's pickups). They seemed to lack those meaty tones that I could coax from a sweet Les Paul. I also found the necks a bit too thin for my liking, though my Vintage Hotrod is still much thicker than my EBMM JP6.
Then recently I acquired a nice strat. It's got a big, fat chunky neck. So thick that I had problems initially playing above the 12th fret on the lower strings. I've gotten used to it, and I'm happy to say that it feels fantastic now.
And the pickups? Oh wow. Thick, chimey, and no icepick. Even the bridge pup, on some gain, fills up very nicely, and still retains the clarity that single coils are known for, without the icepick.
Even the frets feel like the tall Gibson Les Paul Standard frets that some people don't like. I love them.
What strat was this?
This is it:
To be honest, the neck really feels like my Les Pauls do, and the tones are a lot sweeter than most single coils. I still like the neck tones of the fat 50s, but these present a different sound. So now I have a set of Les Pauls and a Strat that feels so similar and comfortable. I wish I had a nice maple strat that felt like this too. (maybe I should send my 57VHR strat for a refret?)
And I just LOVE that colour... And the cool Incase it came in.