And the winner is..., The 2004 American Deluxe Stratocaster, 50th Anniversary Edition. Nobody, I mean nobody, stocked the Gibson Smartwood Les Paul. However I did get to play a solid mahogany Les Paul Studio Limited Edition. It was really a nice looking guitar. It didn't have any stain on it, just the dark tone of the mahogany. I haven't seen anything like it online either. The closest I can find is Les Paul Vintage Mahogany. Anyway, I didn't like the feel of the neck. Aside from it being too fat for an electric, it was "sticky" from the wood not being finished. The fretboard kind of dragged too. I know that can be remedied, but I didn't want to fuss with the axe. And since I didn't like the feel of the fat neck, I passed on it.
Then I did some more research on the Smartwood. I even found 2 on ebay and actually bid on one of them. The winning bid was $785 for a brand new Smartwood Les Paul. In the last second I could have bid $795, but I decided to pass on it.
The next week on February 2, 2005, a friend of mine and I decided to take a ride to Motorcity Guitar in Waterford, MI. They have a great selection of guitars. I was looking for the 50th Anniversary American Deluxe Stratocaster. 
They had one! Sweet! In fact they had 7; and I could have tried them all if I wanted. The first thing I noticed was that the hardware was not the highest quality of metal. We used to call this "pot metal" when I was learning to fix cars and weld. But I'm starting to think it's not pot metal but something a little better. It just has the same dull porous look to it as pot metal. It's such a beautiful guitar that I overlooked the ominous porosity of some of the hardware. I played the one they had hanging and it played like a classic strat. I love the feel of a strat. A quote from Eric Johnson from the 2004 Fender catalog: "Once you start playing one, It's hard to play anything else." Another quote from John Mayer: "The thing that blows me away about the Stratocaster is how right they got it in 1954. There have only been three or four truly progressive changes. But as an invention, an idea, it's almost perfect..."
This baby played sweet right from the get go. And it's nowhere near as expensive as the Custom Shop Limited Edition 1954 Stratocaster. It has the look and feel of a 1954 strat with some modern features. Needless to say, I checked out 5 of the 7 guitars Motorcity Guitar had in stock. They all were great, and it was hard to choose which one to take. Any one of them would have been fine. After I got it home I did some fine adjustments on the action and intonation. It didn't need much, I could have left it at factory, but I like low action. I am very pleased that I decided to get this one. It plays beautifully, sounds great, and looks really good.
I would not have ordered one online though. I decided on that after playing footsy with zZounds and American Musical Supply. I also read the comments about them and Musicians Friend at ResellerRatings.com. So ordering was out of the question. I didn't want to take a chance I would get a less than pristine guitar. My patience payed off. This guitar feels like it was made for my hands. If you're thinking of buying one, they probably still have a few in stock at Motorcity. Fender quit producing them in November, 2004. I can't see this guitar doing anything but increasing in value. But I really don't care too much about that. I bought it to play, and it plays like a Strat!
