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 | Fender American Deluxe Ash Stratocaster - my sons wanted to buy me a present, and this is what they got me - wonderful lads that they are. This guitar is stunning - beautifully made, finished and designed. Some will question the authenticity of the sound and playing experience compared to early Strats - but this is a great guitar in it's own right - pretty much the acme of Strat design and build - without paying custom prices. |
COLOUR - Aged Cherry Burst - (Polyurethane Finish) FEATURES
|  |  the centre of the volume control is a push-on/push of switch that controls the S1 switchng | ||||||||||||||
 one of the nicest features of this guitar is the inlaid silver headstock logo |
PICKUP SWITCHING - 5-Position Blade and 2-Position Push/Push S-1 switching - | |
| S-1 Switch Up - conventional Strat tones | S-1 Switch Down - thicker humbucking sounds |
| Position 1. Bridge Pickup Position 2. Bridge and Middle Pickup in Parallel Position 3. Middle Pickup Position 4. Middle and Neck Pickup in Parallel Position 5. Neck Pickup | Position 1. Bridge Pickup in Series with Middle Pickup Position 2. Bridge Pickup in Parallel with Special Capacitor, and in Series with Middle Pickup Position 3. Middle Pickup in Series with Special Capacitor (No Tone Control) Position 4. Neck Pickup in Parallel with Special Capacitor, and in Series with Middle Pickup Position 5. Neck Pickup in Series with Middle Pickup |
 | | This view of the the back of the scratch-plate shows the new Samarium-Cobalt Noiseless (SCN) pickups. Samarium-Cobalt is an alloy of the metals samarium and cobalt (the clue is in the name) that can be magnetised to very high levels. However, Sm-Co is expensive and difficult to work (it is very brittle) - which perhaps explains why it has not been used for the magnets of guitar pickups up 'til now. SCN pickups are produced in different versions according to their position on the guitar (note the ST-NK, ST-MD & ST-BR markings) - presumably the differing versions have differing frequency response and/or output levels. The pickups are also wired/switched in 'new' ways that produce sounds very like those produced by humbuckers (so called S1 switching). This guitar is extremely quiet even in circumstances that produce high levels of noise in more conventional guitars - eg around dimmers, near large transformers - this is at least in part down to good control cavity screening, and star wiring of the earths/grounds, but presumably the signal to noise ratio of the pickups is significantly better than for conventional pickups. |
 | Abalone dots, a beautiful piece of rosewood, and finely finished jumbo frets. This is a great neck - a nicely profiled C of maple that is comfortable and fast - a real pleasure to play - and very snuggly seated in the body pocket. The tuning stability of this guitar is excellent, even with vigorous use of the tremolo - this is down to highy effective locking tuners, a perfectly cut nut and nicely engineered bridge/tremolo. |
