A couple of friends of mine documented a really thorough strat shootout years ago on a guitar forum. The guitars included an early prototype '54, '55, '56, '60, '64, a couple of modern reissues, a '50s ash/maple replica, and a cheap Made in Mexico guitar w/'50s pickups. Same strings, same amp, same cabinet, same settings on the amp, etc.. I loaned the newer guitars for the recordings and my friends used the '50s and '60s guitars from their collections. This is serious guitar nerd stuff, but if anyone has any interest in listening to how different the guitars can sound the .wav files from the shootout are posted here:
Index of /strats