What is your budget ?

What do you want from the other guitar ?

Whatever you buy, it's worth having it properly set up (either by the shop or if you know how to do it yourself)

Denmark Street is expensive, but it has some very nice guitars.

The Mexican-built strats are generally good

If you can find an old Tokai Strat (which is what I have) you'll have a great guitar. The new Tokais aren't as good, although they're not bad.
Equally, older Squiers or Fernandes Strats are good.

If you want something new the Classic Vibe series of Fenders are very good and not too expensive. That's what I'd go for were I to be buying a current Strat.

As mentioned above, the Mexican-made guitars tend to be good...and Denmark Street's very expensive! The prices there are over the top; you could haggle a much better deal, if you really want to shop there, although I'd be inclined to shop elsewhere, really.

The first two questions are, what style / sound are you looking for, and what budget. Everything hinges off that. There are loads of great guitars at all prices but we need to narrow it down a bit. Denmark St Sadly a shadow of its former self, but if you walk down the Charing Cross Rd there is Macaris which is still pretty good, and Ivor Mairants a bit further away but again, worth a look.

I can stretch to £1500. I don't know anything about set up so I guess I should ask the shop to do that - is asking for it to be set up to make it as easy to play as possible at all instructive? Other than asking for the strings to be as low as possible (a low action?) I don't know what else is possible.

I'm looking for something that will be lighter and easier to play than my Explorer (which I bought because of how it looked, not how it played ....). It's just for me to noodle away to CD's with. I like playing rock and blues and would love to own a Les Paul, but I'm thinking that as I already own an Explorer buying as Les Paul seems a bit pointless.

So I started looking at Strat's as as I thought they would be a good alternative to my Explorer. I also quite the the idea of a guitar whith a tremelo arm, but other than that I've an open mind. Sounds the the Mexican Strats are worth a look, and are well within what I am willing to spend.

.. go to a biggish shop and try as many as you can, though in my experience the fender mexico output is pretty reliable. I bought a tele a few years ago and tried 4 different ones and they were pretty much the same apart from colour. I do think its worth swapping out the pickups for something a bit better tho', some vintage Seymour Duncans for example, they do make a difference, and its a dead simple job with a soldering iron and about an hour of your time. The Mexico stuff is pretty well set up too.

Oh = and go armed with internet prices from rival stores and haggle!

With that dosh I'd go for an American Deluxe Strat. The Mexican ones are fine but the American ones have much better hardware, pickups, woods etc. And the Deluxe has the S1 pickup switching which basically gives you some extra humbuckery type sounds with a cunning little switch on the volume control:

http://www.fender.co.uk/products//search.php?partno=0101202700

The Roadhouse Strats are great too - SRV pickups - I've got one and love it. You see then second hand for about 500 squid.

Alternatively, a Nashville Tele has some Strat characteristics as well as Tele...

http://www.fender.co.uk/products/search.php?partno=0135000303

Personally I'd go for a '52 reissue Telecaster in butterscotch...pure class...

http://www.fender.co.uk/products//search.php?partno=0100202850

But the others are right, you need to play a load.

With the change you can get a nice Orange Tiny Terror mini valve amp which will sound fantastic with your new guitar!

You can get a lot of guitar for that. But you don't necessarily need to splash it all out. Try the G&L guitars : the company Leo Fender founded in the 70s. Wiki here :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G&L_Musical_Instruments

There are good ones in their range from £600 (new).

Although guitars are mass-produced, they are variable. A good friend of mine spent about £1,000 on a Fender Strat that he thinks is great but I find clunky.

Take your time choosing one.

I've owned a couple of Fernandes strats - I've still got one, and I bought that on ebay for £120, it was kind of battered. I put Jimmie Vaughan Tex-Mex pickups in it, and it sounds great.

Jimmie Vaughan strat looks good to me, too.

http://www.fender.com/products/search.php?partno=0139202305

A nice Tele.
Being on a smaller budget than you, I treated myself today to a Japanese reissue 62 custom Fender Tele. I'm a bassist generally, but I couldn't leave the shop without it and need a good guitar for recording*. The American Teles are of course an even lovelier bit of wood and go up to the top of your budget, and light ones are to be had.
I should add that not all shops in Denmark Street are unfriendly and overpriced - in my recent experience Music Ground (a newer outfit) and Wunjo's (where I went today) are both great places to browse - especially if you take a half day off and go mid-afternoon, though Christmas madness will alter that right now. Rose-Morris are awful, mind you.
Good luck, and happy shopping!

* What I tell the GLW.

Then strapping the pickup for one of THESE to it?

http://www.roland.co.uk/products/productdetails.aspx?p=849

Hey presto - all the guitars you could ever want.

Here in Portsmouth we've got the wonderful PJ's Guitars and the jolly good Nevada Music where I had a play with one of those Roland gizmos. Most impressive.

First,
Yes, the extended line-up of Fender guitars is ludicrous. They have so many aimed at slightly different price points that it becomes very confusing very quickly. In many ways this has been done to sneak the Mexican Fenders in as the 'standard' Fenders and bump the US product up as a premium product.

Second,
I have a G&L ASAT Bluesboy, hollow body with f-hole and with a neck humbucker. This is easily the best sounding and playing guitar I've ever had in my hands and the finishing on the guitar is immaculate.The difference in tone between this and the various strats and teles I own is remarkable, even unplugged.

I must admit that I hadn't payed much attention to G&Ls until recently: my mistake. All the G&Ls I've since played have been fantastic and they have broken my 25-year Fender obsession.

brw, I picked this guitar up 2nd hand here in Australia for about the price of a new low-end strat (AU$1100).

An American one. I completely adore Jazzmasters, and I've owned almost every guitar you can think of at some point in my playing career.

People will tell you that the bridges are crap, which is nonsense. You just need to know what you're doing. Either that, or shell out £100 for the unbelievably good Mastery Bridge, which I have on my JM.

So here's why Jazzmasters are great instruments: they're incredibly well-designed, for a start. Very ergonomic, they work equally well seated or standing, they sound utterly gorgeous, and have a vast range of sounds. Plus they look ace.

Example: my JM has the top "rhythm" circuit dialled down in volume, and the tone rolled off a little. That gives me a round, woody, slightly plunky sound. On the main "bottom" circuit, I have the choice of both pickups, so can range between quite spiky, bright, toppy tones and something really full and rich.

The other advantage here is that, because I'm running a tube amp with low headroom, I can use the top circuit for cleans and the bottom for overdrive, without needing to touch a pedal. Sweet.

for all your advice. Much appreciated. Have still got several bits of "Stairway" to learn before I can go and demo anything at the weekend...