Walt said: When the hour is nigh & the lights are low & I got a toothpick of a shwag joint in my teeth & my friends want to hear me play Into the Void or TNT or Cemetery Gates I plug my $600 guitar into my $150 amp and I am a Rawk gawd
I've played several of the Nick Johnston models and I like them. I hope you like gigantic frets, they will be pretty big. Thats the thing I remember most, big frets with easy bends.
On the downside, a few of them had switching or volume/tone pot issues
The Schecter ist a generally great guitar. I think Schecter, resp. Nick Johnston fixed everything that is suboptimal on a regular Strat: Input jack, volume knob, trussrod access, PU cavity, tuners …
On the downside, when I got mine I expected a bit less weight, it is slightly heavier than my American Standard and I did not bond very well with the Diamond 78 Humbucker, Either I have to take the cover off or I will put in an Angel Dust.
For $1000, you can get a mij fujigen ibanez rg550. It will be perfect. It has one of the best double locking trems available. Same one vai and satch used for three decades.
If you insist in a strat style trem, i would get the charvel.
That said, I’m never buying another mexican fender without playing first. My vintera jaguar had issues out the ass. Fret problems. Tuner issues. Pickup installation issues. Bridge issues. Etc.