player opinions

Fender American Deluxe Fat Strat

Fender American Deluxe Fat Strat

  1. Name: Sethifer

  2. Band: Mad Puppet

  3. Model Year: 2000

  4. Price Paid: $1100

  5. Performance

  6. I definitely overpaid for this guitar. It does have wonderful features when considering that it’s a Strat. It doesn’t do everything but then again I wouldn’t play a real Strat for screaming metal dive bomb solos.

  7. Performance Rating: 7

  8. Sound Quality

  9. The tone of this guitar was superb. It comes stock with two single coil “noiseless” pickups and one Seymour Dumcan humbucker in the bridge position. The tone was bright and silky when played with distortion, and also had a little bit of bite on the attack. The guitar body is also made out of heavy woods which adds to the tone. Despite the quality of the sounds, I find the applications for this guitar limited. I felt I had two usable choices for types of tone. The lead humbucker sound and the softer sound single coils.

  10. Sound Quality Rating: 8

  11. Construction

  12. I do not like the bi-flex truss rod, and as a matter of fact I have let Fender know about this. Some players like myself like very little relief, and I could not completely straighten this neck. The neck pocket for the bolt on neck was a snug fit, and the neck did not shift much under my normal playing. I liked the idea of the locking tuners, but I had slight tuning problems with the guitar. The guitar has an LSR roller nut so I ruled out friction at the nut. I later found that the tuners could be shifted if force was applied even if I tightened them as much as possible. I’m not sure if this was a byproduct of the guitar being in Ohio, (as Ohio’s winters aren’t kind to many guitars) but the wood seems as if it shrunk a little, and that caused the tuners to shift. Applying some glue to hold the tuner to the guitar fixed this problem easy.

    The Floyd Rose licenced non locking vibrato/tremolo on the other hand is a wonderful invention, and I like it better than any other non-fine tuning vibrato/tremolo that has ever been made by fender. I ended up replacing the neck on this guitar with one from a beat up 1986 Fender Strat that had a better truss rod. I also kept the roller nut on the guitar after switching the necks, but I also felt the Buzz Feiten tuning system was nessessary to improve its tuning integrity. This required a little surgery but it was worth it. Overall the guitar had some nice features but in my opinion the truss rod ruins it.

  13. Construction Rating: 4

  1. Name: Doug H.

  2. Price Paid: $1100

  3. Performance

  4. Finished well in sunburst alder, rosewood fretboard, locking tuners, humbucker bridge and single coil “‘noiseless” pickups in middle and neck, roller nut. Build quality is very good; nice fretboard and the frets are finished off well. Plays nice and is cosmetically “tip top.” But I have played guitars built by a good custom builder, so I am spoiled.

  5. Performance Rating: 8

  6. Sound Quality

  7. Pickups are the weak part of the guitar. To me “deluxe” means the best and these pickups eat dirt next to Rio Grandes (I sold the Fender stock ones and installed Rio’s “calibrated set” and a neck pup blender pot.) Fender has much better pickups and should put them in their top line regular American guitars (versus the artist line).

  8. Sound Quality Rating: 6

  9. Construction

  10. TA well built and beautifully finished guitar. Why would anyone stand still for non-locking tuners ? They should be like seatbelts! The bridge and tremolo are fine and everything is chromed. One of the pots was a bit gritty, but they were replaced with better ones with the new pickups. Having played and owned a really good custom guitar (Rodriguezguitars.com), I know the difference between good and excellent playability. The Fat Strat is good.

  11. Construction Rating: 9

  1. Name: Myles Long

  2. Band: Perineum

  3. Price Paid: $1100

  4. Performance

  5. Bottom line: one of the nicest Strats I’ve ever played. All the sounds you could want, with the exception of humbucker in neck position. The neck is very comfortable to play. Great fret work. The tremolo stays in tune fairly well for a non-locking system (locking tuners and LSR nut.) I’m very pleased.

  6. Performance Rating: 8

  7. Sound Quality

  8. The sound quality is superb. Dh-1 bridge pick-up is hot, but not too hot. Nice fat round sound. The Hot Noiseless Single coils sound good also. They live up to their name for sure. I would say you could play almost anything from country to metal on this baby. Very versatile.

  9. Sound Quality Rating: 8

  10. Construction

  11. Everything about this guitar is top notch, from construction to finish to hardware. Alder body, maple neck with rosewood fingerboard, deluxe hardware, what else can I say? I’m in love with this guitar.

  12. Construction Rating: 4

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  1. Average Ratings
  2. Performance: 8
  3. Sound Quality: 8
  4. Construction: 8
  5. Ratings Key
  6. 10: Excellent
  7. 0: Useless
  8. Company
  9. Fender

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