Sire Larry Carlton S7V Antique White Electric Guitar

I sold a Player Plus strat after two pickup changes and still not getting the tone I wanted (expected). With the money I bought the Sire S7v. The build quality I would say is on a part with the much more expensive Fender, but the pickups are just miles better, strat-like but not thin and weak and twangy, with a rich rounded bass, and the tremolo unit is ten times better than the Fender with its stupid wobbly screw-in arm. All five switch positions are really usable including the single coil bridge, which has its own dedicated tone control, and I just think it sounds immense clean and overdriven. When you play the Sire unplugged you can tell straight away that it is going to be good - the strings just ring out and you can kind of hear the 'clean' tone it will have when plugged in, so I think for a start they have got the basics - the woods and build - just right. It is everything I hoped the Fender would be, at exactly half the price (at the prices I paid anyway). The only thing I don't like is that it shipped with 10 gauge strings (actually they feel a bit thicker to me, almost like rope!) but if the only thing there is to complain about is the strings then I think Sire have a real winner here. My takeaway from this is: buy the guitar, not the brand.