Hey, my first NGD at the new site.
I bought the Tribute version of the S-500 a couple months ago and rapidly fell in love with the sound, since I'm playing a lot of clean tone these days. The only problems are that the frets need a slight leveling, and the thin neck shifts constantly--the relief hasn't been the same on two consecutive days.
Anyway, I started casually shopping for a USA S-500 and couldn't pass up this Deluxe for a great price. Note, the pictures are the seller's because I'm too fucking lazy at the moment.
Maple neck, ebony board, Schaller locking tuners, swamp ash body, 3/16" maple top, MFD pickups, pull-control on volume engages both neck and bridge whenever one of them is selected (this is a toggle switch on the regular S-500 with the front-loaded electronics).
I always have static noise problems with front-loaded Strats in this house, so a rear-loaded Strat works perfectly for me. Plus, the MFDs don't sound much like a classic Strat, so the finer points of that don't matter shit to me. The S-500 sounds like a Strat in Technicolor. Everything is bigger, bolder and more fun. Since it has treble and bass controls rather than regular tone controls, you can dial down the bass and the volume and get pretty close to classic Strat tones. But this sounds phenomenally better full-up for the type of thing I like to do with a Strat.
Used G&Ls aren't quite the ridiculous used deals they were in the past (more people have figured out how good they are), but you can still find a great price on one if you're patient. This is like getting a Suhr or Anderson at a fraction of the price.
I bought the Tribute version of the S-500 a couple months ago and rapidly fell in love with the sound, since I'm playing a lot of clean tone these days. The only problems are that the frets need a slight leveling, and the thin neck shifts constantly--the relief hasn't been the same on two consecutive days.
Anyway, I started casually shopping for a USA S-500 and couldn't pass up this Deluxe for a great price. Note, the pictures are the seller's because I'm too fucking lazy at the moment.
Maple neck, ebony board, Schaller locking tuners, swamp ash body, 3/16" maple top, MFD pickups, pull-control on volume engages both neck and bridge whenever one of them is selected (this is a toggle switch on the regular S-500 with the front-loaded electronics).
I always have static noise problems with front-loaded Strats in this house, so a rear-loaded Strat works perfectly for me. Plus, the MFDs don't sound much like a classic Strat, so the finer points of that don't matter shit to me. The S-500 sounds like a Strat in Technicolor. Everything is bigger, bolder and more fun. Since it has treble and bass controls rather than regular tone controls, you can dial down the bass and the volume and get pretty close to classic Strat tones. But this sounds phenomenally better full-up for the type of thing I like to do with a Strat.
Used G&Ls aren't quite the ridiculous used deals they were in the past (more people have figured out how good they are), but you can still find a great price on one if you're patient. This is like getting a Suhr or Anderson at a fraction of the price.
Nice! There was a blue burst S500 for sale here that I sort d regret not buying.
Or were just like "Meh, it's a headstock, nobody cares about those..." 
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