flyingturtle

To get an idea about a particular guitar, I'll often look it up on musicansfriend.com as they often have a lot of customer comments on the popular items. Here's the one for that Squire Deluxe Strat you mentioned: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/squier-deluxe-strat-electric-guitar Has 70 reviews, and while there are some negative reviews, the general consensus is positive. A lot of the negative reviews are from people who were sent guitars with some issues, so if you have a local guitar store that has these, you can fair much better as you can handpick the guitar. From my experience, no guitar is the same, even if it's the same model, brand, etc. They all can feel differently, so as the other poster mentioned, try them out in person, if you can. You mentioned you have an itch to buy another guitar. I know the feeling well. :) Are you just looking for a Strat-style guitar? If so, then you can look at other brands, like G&L, Ibanez, ESP, etc. G&L is Leo Fender's 3rd guitar company after he sold Fender, and after he left Music Man. They make Strat and Telecaster type guitars, and their budget line (I think it's called "Tribute") is pretty good. I own a USA-made Fender Stratocaster (and also a Made-In-Japan Strat), and I still often play my G&L Strat a lot. I also still love my first guitar, an 80's era Squire Bullet, which is a weird hybrid of a Strat and a Telecaster, but with a slim and shorter neck. The neck feels great! (The necks from the Bullets are also really popular on eBay, people get them and put them on their telecasters.) I haven't tried that Squire Deluxe Strat though. I'm sure if you can find a good one, it'll be worth while.

If you're mainly doing rock and blues, the PRS SE tremolo is fine. It's better than the regular Fender Strat tremolo. On my Strat that has the regular old-school Fender tremolo, I don't even bother to use it. Gets out of tune so much, that I just bolted it down. I got a Floyd Rose on my other Fender Strat, and while it's great for dive bombs and what not, I often don't play that guitar too much. Floyd Rose can be pain to restring, and especially if you want to change tunings. I got a budget G&L guitar (Leo Fender's second guitar company after he sold to Fender), and it's got a Strat sound but with a much better tremolo. I use that all the time for blues, Jimi Hendrix stuff, SRV and Rockabilly, that needs some whammy bar action. Jeff Beck stuff is good, too. I imagine that PRS SE tremolo would be fine for all of that stuff, too. There are some YouTube vids trying out the PRS SE tremolo, and they abuse it, and it held up pretty good when they compared it to the regular higher-end PRS with a more advanced tremolo. I was pretty impressed. I admit, Floyd Rose guitars can be fun, though, and I've got two guitars with them (the second one on my Ibanez), but that's just when I want to play metal, or some Van halen, etc. Most of the time my non-Floyd Rose tremolo guitars are fine, or my Gibson Les Paul (which of course has no tremolo). So much easier to change tunings, and restring. One other note: My two Strats, one with the Floyd Rose and the one with the regular tremolo, have a different tone. The Floyd Rose seems to lessen the sustain and doesn't quit sound as deep or full, as my non-Floyd Rose Strat. They are both Fender Strats, with the only difference being the tremolo (and the fact the Floyd Rose has a locking nut on it).

Really depends on your budget. I own a Gibson Les Paul, the faded series with the 60s neck. I like the thinner neck, plus I like the chambered sound of the Faded Les Paul -- a bit more woody, but still got that thick, full-bodied Les Paul sound. Love love love this guitar. I've been a Fender Stratocaster (and Ibanez S Series) guitar player, but never could get that Les Paul sound (and I've tried), until I got my Les Paul. I've also been wanting to get a backup Les Paul and I've looked at Epiphone Les Pauls over the years. And they are all over, quality and sound-wise. I've played lots of stinkers, but there are some really nice ones It's usually been the more expensive models above the Epiphone Standard, like the tribute ones, the artist branded ones, like the Slash or Zakk Wylde ones. They are still Epiphones but often play (and sound) better than the standard model. The dilemma then becomes that at that price range, around 900 to 1000 dollars US for the Epiphones above the standard model, you can start looking at used Gibson Les Paul Studios. But that depends if you find any listings for used Les Paul Studios. Bottom line, though, try as many Epiphones as you can till you find one that feels good. You really can't tell until you hold it in your hands and play it. Even the same model, even color, will play different from each other. I think the quality control on the Epiphone line is lower so there is a lot of variance, but you can find a good one.