Thanks everyone for the great input.
You are all awesome.

I will give this some more thought.
Hypothetically speaking, if I decide to tune-up the Ibanez, which pickups should I consider?

Again - I'm looking for a smoother / fat lead sound. The Dimarzios I've got on there was good for that edgy rock riffs back in the day. But I am not crazy about the sound now.

Playing through a PA at the moment (with the GT-10), but I will consider a valve amp in the future to compliment the kit.

Thanks again.

The thing is... If you have fallen out of love with a piece of gear, especially your guitar, then its unlikely that you will enjoy playing on it. It will just feel and sound wrong. What I would recommend is sell the ibby or put it in the closet and go out to a few stores...
Take your GT10 and have them hook you up with a few strats they have. Try every model from the squiers, classic vibes, MIM's and MIA's. Thats going to give you an idea of whether you like a strat. Buy the guitar and go home and have a good time.

Playing guitar should be fun and doing it on your dream guitar will likely be a hell of a good time!

redant wrote:
Again - I'm looking for a smoother / fat lead sound. The Dimarzios I've got on there was good for that edgy rock riffs back in the day. But I am not crazy about the sound now.

Could you name an artist as an example of the tone you want?

redant wrote:
Again - I'm looking for a smoother / fat lead sound. The Dimarzios I've got on there was good for that edgy rock riffs back in the day. But I am not crazy about the sound now.

Smoother, fat lead sound? Sound like a Les Paul to me! ?

Johnny B wrote:

redant wrote:
Again - I'm looking for a smoother / fat lead sound. The Dimarzios I've got on there was good for that edgy rock riffs back in the day. But I am not crazy about the sound now.

Smoother, fat lead sound? Sound like a Les Paul to me! ?

Yeah I'm thinking the same thing. Fatter usually goes hand in hand with humbuckers (the tone not the players! ? ) perhaps you're looking for a HSS strat? Otherwise a simple pickup swap in your Ibby may get you there too.

GuitarDoge wrote:

IceCreamMan wrote: Price check in the Fender isle ..... American standards now retail for 28 k plus minus, 18k with a nice discount is around the out e door price... Is it worth it, no not really as others have mentioned buy second hand.

I reckon with a RG470 and GT10 you should be getting decent tone...give the strings a change, make sure the lectrics are alright ,set it up and tweek....the rg470 is no slouch built in Japan Fuji plant if I remember correctly...maybe change the pups and experiment. But that's my 2 cents

I saw one tagged yesterday at 18000, sorry I didn't know the actual retail price.

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but does anyone know why Fender stuff in South Africa is so much more expensive than other brands?

Maybe a highway strat, or second hand American standard. Unfortunately they are now retailing around 25 to 28 for 2012 and up American standards.

As to yr second point this has been discussed previously without a satisfactory answer being proposed thus far. But fender do make sweet products hey

People have proposed a tokai, I third that idea.

IceCreamMan wrote:

GuitarDoge wrote:

IceCreamMan wrote: Price check in the Fender isle ..... American standards now retail for 28 k plus minus, 18k with a nice discount is around the out e door price... Is it worth it, no not really as others have mentioned buy second hand.

I reckon with a RG470 and GT10 you should be getting decent tone...give the strings a change, make sure the lectrics are alright ,set it up and tweek....the rg470 is no slouch built in Japan Fuji plant if I remember correctly...maybe change the pups and experiment. But that's my 2 cents

I saw one tagged yesterday at 18000, sorry I didn't know the actual retail price.

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but does anyone know why Fender stuff in South Africa is so much more expensive than other brands?

Maybe a highway strat, or second hand American standard. Unfortunately they are now retailing around 25 to 28 for 2012 and up American standards.

As to yr second point this has been discussed previously without a satisfactory answer being proposed thus far. But fender do make sweet products hey

People have proposed a tokai, I third that idea.

I definitely saw an HSS american standard tagged at that price. It had no major signs of wear and didn't say seconhand. I just glanced at it quickly so it may have been secondhand or older stock.

I don't understand why gibson's are available for 10-20% higher than the american street price, but fender guitars and amps cost than 50% more in SA.

As for tokais, they are all great value for money.

GuitarDoge wrote:

IceCreamMan wrote:

GuitarDoge wrote:

IceCreamMan wrote: Price check in the Fender isle ..... American standards now retail for 28 k plus minus, 18k with a nice discount is around the out e door price... Is it worth it, no not really as others have mentioned buy second hand.

I reckon with a RG470 and GT10 you should be getting decent tone...give the strings a change, make sure the lectrics are alright ,set it up and tweek....the rg470 is no slouch built in Japan Fuji plant if I remember correctly...maybe change the pups and experiment. But that's my 2 cents

I saw one tagged yesterday at 18000, sorry I didn't know the actual retail price.

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but does anyone know why Fender stuff in South Africa is so much more expensive than other brands?

Maybe a highway strat, or second hand American standard. Unfortunately they are now retailing around 25 to 28 for 2012 and up American standards.

As to yr second point this has been discussed previously without a satisfactory answer being proposed thus far. But fender do make sweet products hey

People have proposed a tokai, I third that idea.

I definitely saw an HSS american standard tagged at that price. It had no major signs of wear and didn't say seconhand. I just glanced at it quickly so it may have been secondhand or older stock.

I don't understand why gibson's are available for 10-20% higher than the american street price, but fender guitars and amps cost than 50% more in SA.

As for tokais, they are all great value for money.

Lots of Tokai supporters on the forum, for good reason!
There really are a million options, but actually you should maybe consider a super strat of some sort?
That way you get the feel of a strat and with some humbuckers you get the thick lead tone you're looking for

What Alan and others have said (re: Mex Strats etc).

If you're really gassing for a US-built Strat, take a look at used Highway One models or - new - the American Specials. I tried one in the LGS t'other day. Not my favourite headstock shape (the big CBS-type one), nor favourite colour combination for a Strat (trans. butterscotch blonde with 3 ply black scratch plate, white p'ups & knobs, maple neck).

One of the most responsive, sweet Strats I've played in a while. Nice enough that I seriously considered trading in mine on it. Luckily for my bank manager, it lasted 3 days on the shelf before a lucky/smart guy snapped it up.

Moral: worry less about colour and model range (Mexican, Japanese or American) than how it sounds, plays and feels in your hands.

Banditman wrote:
Moral: worry less about colour and model range (Mexican, Japanese or American) than how it sounds, plays and feels in your hands.

While I agree that the model range isn't important, colour and looks certainly is. If a person thinks a guitar doesn't look good, then they might lack confidence in playing it. Same thing if a guitar looks really awesome you're bound to have more confidence while playing it IMO.

redant wrote:Playing through a PA at the moment (with the GT-10)

Well, there's your problem.

Arno West wrote:
Well, there's your problem.

Didn't you play through a Zoom or Line6 Pod into a PA for quite a while, getting some great tones?

i'm not going to add much in this post, as you probably have more than enough to go on by now.

the short answer to your question, 'should i buy a fender?', is no. well, not until you've gone out there and had a really, really good time trying out at least a million different guitars, from a thousand different manufacturers and found the one that sings hardest to you. if it's a fender, brilliant. if not, well...

enjoy
dh|

ShreddySmurf wrote:

Arno West wrote: Well, there's your problem.

Didn't you play through a Zoom or Line6 Pod into a PA for quite a while, getting some great tones?

The Zoom always went through an amp. used it with various Marshalls, Twins, Boogies and the Albion TCT50. These days, yes, I use a rack mounted POD, but it has all the modelling in the world and has been tweaked endlessly.
Long, long ago I had a GT-10 and you would never get a fat, warm tone straight through a PA with it. however, it sounded great through a Mesa Boogie .50 mini-stack.........

Arno West wrote:
The Zoom always went through an amp. used it with various Marshalls, Twins, Boogies and the Albion TCT50. These days, yes, I use a rack mounted POD, but it has all the modelling in the world and has been tweaked endlessly.
Long, long ago I had a GT-10 and you would never get a fat, warm tone straight through a PA with it. however, it sounded great through a Mesa Boogie .50 mini-stack.........

Fair enough, I didn't recall seeing an amp when I saw you guys in Kelvin about 100 years ago. ?

ShreddySmurf wrote:

Arno West wrote: The Zoom always went through an amp. used it with various Marshalls, Twins, Boogies and the Albion TCT50. These days, yes, I use a rack mounted POD, but it has all the modelling in the world and has been tweaked endlessly. Long, long ago I had a GT-10 and you would never get a fat, warm tone straight through a PA with it. however, it sounded great through a Mesa Boogie .50 mini-stack.........

Fair enough, I didn't recall seeing an amp when I saw you guys in Kelvin about 100 years ago. ?

Kelvin? Cesco's? Great Espetadas. Yes, we used to do our sitdown/cocktail-set there and I used a Pocket POD back then.......really easy to carry around that gadget.