mcourter


JMO: don't get a Fender. There are LOTS of good three single coil guitars out there. Just like with Gibson, you pay for the name more than for the quality.
 

Not left handed there isn't, and even if there was a lot of options for three single coil guitars for us lefties, I would still suggest the strat. I work in a big music store, I try every lefty that comes through there and I still think that a strat is a good purchase and great guitar. It's gone up about $300 in the last year, which is a bit unfortunate, but is still a better guitar than most Fender "clones" (and I'm not referring to the Carvin which I have never tried so cannot speak of).
I also don't think that the strat is a lot of paying for the Fender name. If you want to get ripped-off, buy a PRS (luckily unavailable for us lefties).
 
As for the pickups, it's really going to come down to what you're looking for, what style of music you play, and how much of a purist you are. Personally I think the noiseless pickups are great. They sound like a strat to me, and any difference in tone between them and a true "vintage" style pickup is made up by the fact that they don't freakin' hum like crazy! That's just my opinion of course and like I said it's depends on how much of a purist you are about tone. For myself who's primarily a recording guitarist, I love the versatility and low noise of the noiseless.

Well, I'm a Fender fan from way back... But I play Jazz.  I love my old Pre-CBS Duo Sonic. specifically for the sound from the single coil pickups but they are vintage. My guitar teacher was a Strat enthusiast, and I bought a brand new Strat in 1974 - very Steve Miller sounding with the stock pickups but noisy. I replaced the bridge pickup with a Seymore Duncan wired to hum-bucking and I think it does about the best job matching to the others without the buzz. I have added a MIJ Jazzmaster to my collection which are still single coil pickups but made of alnico. Much different sound but still distinctively fender.