Well, I just started reading in this group, and some of these posts caught my eye...to whoever was talking about the Fender Telecaster Thinline (I'm too lazy to scan back up and read over it), Fender has actually brought the Thinline back (though I never knew there was an earlier model). I saw it in a self-described "music warehouse" in Birmingham, and it's in Fender's catalog (or was last year at least). If you want a Strat-style neck that's probably the way to go, IMO. I would advise (for what my opinion is worth) that if you see the Stratacoustic or Telecoustic (which Fender just introduced recently), stay away. I've played these and they sound just horrible (unplugged at least; I heard one played plugged in and it sounded okay). As far as getting the acoustic sound goes, I'm probably not much help there as I'm a relatively unexperienced performer. However, Guitar Player ran a spread a while ago with advice from a ton of different guitar players, and one guy (forget his name) said the only way to get true acoustic sound in a performance setting was with a microphone held up to the soundhole. He said something like, "When you're listening to someone play guitar, you don't listen to it by putting your head inside the body or by holding your ear to the soundboard; you listen to what comes out the front." Sounds like good advice to me. Good luck and thanks for indulging me, Holden