Fender or Gibson?

I must ask the question that has plagued guitarists since the beginning of time..

Fender Stratocaster...

Or Gibson Les Paul?

I, personally like both of these guitars, although they both serve different purposes.

I normally play metal stuff, wether it be a lot of chugging, chording, or melodic soloing, I prefer humbucking pickups. (Such as the ones on the Les Paul, or my Ibanez.) They seem to have a stronger sound to them when playing with a lot of distortion, and just seem 'Bigger' in the mids and lows, and give an overall darker, slightly muddy (In a good way!) sound. (If that makes any sense.) Many metal guitarists tend to prefer these too, and it's just sort of become the standard for the genre.

However...

The Stratocaster uses single-coil pickups, which give a bright, sparkling tone to them, usually preferred by jazz and rock musicians who do a lot of soloing on the higher strings. They're usually very balanced in their EQ of mids, highs and lows, and give a more pronounced, clear tone (Which is why people who solo a lot like them, for example– Eric Johnson They're not exactly as, 'Loud' as humbuckers, but they sound good for their respective genre. Single coils don't sound exactly, bad for metal, they're just not as good. (although the difference isn't noticeable until you've heard both of them played right after another in a proper comparison, there is still a difference.)

That's just my opinion on their tone, however. Major differences of the guitar are the whammy bar/tremolo system on the Stratocaster, which the Gibson is lacking, and the way the headstock is made. The Gibson headstock has a slight tilt to it

Which puts more tension on the nut, originally intending to hold the strings better, but ends up just making it harder for the guitar to stay in tune.

The Fender headstock, however, doesn't. It is (mostly) perfectly straight, and keeps the guitar in tune better than a Les Paul neck would.

I could go more in-depth about this, but this post is already WAAAY too long.

As I mentioned before, I loved the sound of both of these guitars, although if I had to choose one, I'd have to go with the Fender Stratocaster. More specifically, a HSS set up (Replacing the bridge single-coil pickup with a humbucker, giving you an extremely versatile guitar.)

These are mostly just my ramblings (It's 2:40 AM!), though, so tell me what you think about each guitar.