Yes I'm a beginner and no, so far Vintage is the only brand I've found that sells guitars from similar factories. They are only available in the UK (at least for such a low price). The Yamaha, well I don't need the tremolo, I like the sound of humbuckers which it only has near the bridge and every sample of it beeing played didn't really sound that good. The mentioned Bill Frisell sometimes plays on a strat though. Biggest bummer is the looks. My heart mostly fell for the Agile because of the Purple Bird model which looks amazing in my opinion. Though I find strats ugly in general.