Love them!My top choice would of course be the Stratocaster,That was made for lead guitar.It is the universal do-everything guitar,very reliable and low maintenance.Yet for many years I was strictly a Gibson man.Because Gibson is a pure blues guitar that lends itself perfectly to rock.The fender,as wonderful as it is does not have the depth of tone as a Gibson does.Nor does it have that big sweathog melted butter fingerboard.Humbucking pick-ups that blow your sound out all the way to the back wall of the auditorium.But if you drop a Gibson or it gets knocked over probably it will kill the guitar.I observed a crew member from another band accidentally knock my strat off the stage it did a full two and a half off the stage twelve feet onto the dancefloor,I picked it up and it was still in tune.And is was an accident,not ill-intent,the other group was very concerned and their guitarist said he would give me one of his if it was broken.But it all worked out just fine.