First, I disagree about single coil pickups producing a richer tone, but everyone's ears are different, so that's just a matter of personal perception.

I understand the advantage of a cut-away body style, but there are lots of guitars that provide equal or greater fret access. I was really thinking of Strat design aspects other than the body style. The thing that annoys me most about Strats, and most guitars designed to be similar to them, is that you have to unscrew a plate on the back of the body every time you change a string. This means that changing strings is time-consuming and must be avoided when playing live, so the player can never get too heavy-handed. This degree of consistent restraint is not in keeping with my personal taste. I like the tone control features of a Strat-type guitar. But their necks are too narrow for my taste, the body isn't heavy enough to contribute to a rich tone . . . they generally have a plasticky feel to them and the tone always sounds boring to me unless one uses a well-constructed analog distortion pedal. My other Strat-type-guitar criticism is that they don't exactly lend themselves to modification in comparison to guitars in general.

I love my Peavey Predator (Strat copy). It was my first guitar. And the fact that it's really light makes it a fun guitar to bounce around with while playing at home. But I don't use it for recording. I once borrowed a Strat from the 60's or 70's, and it was a very nice guitar to play. Obviously better than the Predator. But I prefer the SG and Les Paul that I acquired later on. If I wanted something vaguely Strat-like, I'd go for a vintage Mosrite, and if I really wanted that single-coil pick-up / light body sound, I'd probably consider a Danelectro first.

But I'm old-fashioned, and, stylistically, prefer Jimmy Page to Jimi Hendrix.

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