ST-62CC MN Dakota Red : I love this guitar

I'm too broke and too much of a beginner to justify buying a genuine fender strat and I really wanted one with a lacquered maple fretboard. While it's not as shiny of a finish on the neck as a fender, it's there and it's good. The sound of the pick ups is very good too, I'm no expert and don't have a fender to compare it to but it's satisfactory for me, gives me a close enough tone to what I'd expect a strat to sound like. Only complaint would be the cheaper vol and tone knobs and the pickguard, it seems like the slot for the 5 way switch wasn't cut smoothly but that's all very minor. Doesn't affect anything important and is easily replaced. But it's not even bad enough that I will. Overall this was a great guitar and I'm very glad I bought it.