It is quite a heavy axe but not noticeably different to my Ash Strat. Sustain is pretty good and now with the MIM loaded guard it sounds heaps better, and the slimmer Kmise neck makes playing it so much more enjoyable. Actually the only original part of the old axe left is the plywood body, everything else has been replaced... Yet to see how it compares with an Alder strat. Might have to borrow the wife's bathroom scales and get some definitive numbers for comparison...

The old neck is slightly thicker than a slim neck and due to memory in my fingers from those days in the '70's playing it felt quite natural, but the bugger had buzz on a few frets near the nut and the truss rod won't adjust them out, plus the tuners are now in a quite sad state and replacing them will leave an ugly mess. And there is quite a bit of fret wear near the nut, so to minimise effort I opted to replace it.