ordered a deluxe ash strat

funkyuser

I've just ordered a deluxe strat from thomann

http://www.thomann.de/ie/fender_american_deluxe_ash_strat_rwts.htm

It's not in stock

that is all

The_g-man

http://www.musicstore.com/en_EN/IEP/Fender-NEW-Am.-Deluxe-Ash-Strat-RW-Tobacco-Sunburst/art-GIT0019069-000

I would always make sure an item is in stock before committing to a high-end purchase. They may get your guitar back in stock within a week or two, it would be worth checking the thomann sticky for other peoples experience of waiting times for out of stock purchases.

Alanstrainor

Yup, so would i. I'd cancel and order from musicstore

Squidgy Black

you might be waiting a LONG while to get it, thomann have to order them in from fender as they're only on request, I'd cancel it and order off musicstore rather than waiting months possibly.

Johnny Storm

Beautiful!

(IMHO Fenders should have maple fretboards)

eagle10

Lovely looking guitar, all the sest with it, hope it arrives soon

funkyuser

Thanks for the info, I should have posted here a long time ago. I'll take it that you guys reckon musicstore.com is as least as trustworthy as thomann?

This will be my second time cancelling my order as I've changed from my original choice of the maple neck and now I want to cancel again as I can get it quicker elsewhere.

After seeing the few photos available I've decided that this tobacco sunburst looks better with a rosewood board. Now after Johhny Storm's comment above I'm looking yet again I'm doubting my decision once more. I like the thought that the rosewood board could be replaced while keeping the original neck (would have to really play hard for that to happen) I'm guessing the maple version is a one peice maple neck. The maple neck would age for sure but i think it doesn't colour coordinate with teh sunburst. I've never played a deluxe of either neck type so i don't know. Is the finish on the maple board different somehow ..lacquered or something?

The first photo in the thread linked below made me decide that rosewood is better.
http://www.strat-talk.com/forum/stratocaster-discussion-forum/50058-finally-ngd-after-6-months-45-days.html


Those N3 pickups worry me too ...all I want is the best strat I can afford my first and last strat ...not sure if these N3 pickups are just a passing gimic. FYI I like the SRV/John Mayer tone ...and I expect I'll be using the neck pickup most of the time. There is a small possibility of me doing some live performance so maybe I'll be glad to have those N3 pickups then...

Squidgy Black

Musicstore and Thomann are practically the same to me, ordered off both and never had any hassle. Musicstore were actually really fast to reply about delivery times etc when I ordered a cab off them a while ago, no problems at all.

Noiseless pickups are a godsend live, they tend to take a little bit away from that traditional strat tone, but they're close enough.

Johnny Storm

funkyuser wrote: »

...
After seeing the few photos available I've decided that this tobacco sunburst looks better with a rosewood board. Now after Johhny Storm's comment above I'm looking yet again I'm doubting my decision once more. I like the thought that the rosewood board could be replaced while keeping the original neck (would have to really play hard for that to happen) I'm guessing the maple version is a one peice maple neck. The maple neck would age for sure but i think it doesn't colour coordinate with teh sunburst. I've never played a deluxe of either neck type so i don't know. Is the finish on the maple board different somehow ..lacquered or something?
...

:eek: Well, first of all you should never pay any attention to anything I say..... no one else does....

Rosewood V maple is entirely a matter of personal choice.
IMHO Maple looks more Fendery but as you say the lacquered finish on the fretboard can feel hard under your finger tips compared to rosewood. It doesn't bother me.
Legend has it that Leo Fender introduced rosewood fretboards to Strats and Teles after he saw someone on black and white TV playing very worn maple necks and thought it looked bad. So rosewood wont show wear. It'd take a lot of playing before maple shows wear either.
As regards replacing the fretboard many years down the road, because Fenders have bolt-on necks its generally cheaper to just buy a new neck rather than attempt major surgery on the old neck.

Also, remember as regards on-line dealers they will all fall all over themselves to answer your every question before you buy something. They don't want to know after they've gotten your money.

Ravelleman

Just to confirm, the maple fretboard on the American Deluxe guitars is not 'lacquered'. It has a satin finish. This sets them apart from the American Standard guitars, which have a gloss finish on the maple fretboard.

Personally, I wouldn't base my choice of fretboard, particularly for a guitar of that price, on cosmetic value alone. Maple and rosewood feel and sound different, which is obviously most important aspect of the guitar.

Just out of curiosity, what makes you think of the American Deluxe Strat as being the best available to you?

funkyuser

Just out of curiosity, what makes you think of the American Deluxe Strat as being the best available to you?

I'm open to suggestions. I might have a naive approach to guitars and I'm pretty much isolated in the music world so this forum is a great help. Ok here is some info about my position hope this braindump is intelligible, probably flawed feel free to correct me.

The single coil neck pickup on all strats sounds good to me, particularly the SRV strat, John Mayer strat and maybe the Jimmy Vaughn strat. I really like SRV's tone and John Mayers. All my research is done through youtube, not ideal I know.
Also I know the amps and effects chain contribute to the sound but I'll worry about that after I get the strat.

Heres some links to give you an idea of the tone I'm after.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSM3FL7zUdw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpxoGtSUqkY&feature=related

I first noticed the strat sound after hearing SRV's version of little wing. I'm in no doubt that I love single coils in the neck position on strats and strats are versatile ..I might actually use the bridge pickup 5% of the time.

So recently I decide I finally should buy a strat ...I've put this off for too long. I don't want to outgrow this guitar, I have another guitar that I really like but its a cheap Washburn ..I'd like to buy a guitar that could one day be a vintage collectors model. Not sure if I want to buy a cheaper strat and then be yearning after a better model.

So I think I'd like a standard american can't go wrong.
Then I think about the John Mayer strat as its got the tone I'm after with those big dipper pickups.
I consider the SRV strat would have nice tone but that upside down tremelo would annoy me.
I also consider the Jimmy Vaughn strat.
Then I think I just don't want any sig. strat just feels wrong
I consider the deluxe american strats
I consider the custom shop models, don't like the look of them and probably wouldn't like the tone, extra cost doesn't seem justifiied and I just don't find them desirable.
I think i want a modern guitar ..don't see the point in buying vintage reissue or a battered collectors item.

I'm pretty sure that I want some kind of strat ...often the colours and finish look plain or garish and that traditional 3 tone sunburst looks too cliched for me.
I have never seen a strat that looks as good to me as the 2010 American deluxe ash with that tobacco sunburst and the select Ash with nice grain pattern.
It's strat and it will sound like strat, its a versatile guitar too, and if i don't like those N3 pickups i can swap them out ..i'm thinking I would remain perfectly happy with the tone and the looks of this guitar in the long run.

And then I think again ...sometimes I think I don't need a tremolo I could have cheaper and more reliable stable guitar without it. Maybe a deluxe telecaster
Like this kid...I like that tone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkTBFgqOB4Y

yeah I'm neurotic probably but I don't want to be a GAS victim

any input welcome.

darrenw5094

You could get a mint Custom Shop Strat for around €1400 if you look around.
For the posh people on boards.:)

Ravelleman

I see where you're coming from here. You know roughly what you want but haven't been able to try out any of the stuff you're interested in, right? Often guitars seem really interesting to me when I look at them online but once I play them, I find they're different to what I expected. Things can look good on paper but be completely different once you get your hands on them.

The main thing I'm picking up from this post is a sense of indecision. Without meaning to patronise, before buying a guitar, you really should inform yourself on the range available to you. It's all well and good to say that the John Mayer Strat and the Jimmie Vaughan Strat interest you but they are totally different instruments. Both are on different ends of the Strat scale so you really need to know what you want.

There are so many things to consider:
1. fretboard wood - this does have a difference on tone and totally changes the feel of the guitar.
2. neck shape - do you want a modern C shape like the American Deluxe, a soft V like the Jimmie Vaughan or something like a U?
3. radius - do you want a compound radius or something more traditional?
4. body wood - while this does change the sound, you also have to consider the weight of the wood. Ash tends to be heavier than alder. Colour is obviously an important part but it's not everything.
5. €1400 is a lot of money and can potentially buy you a lot of Strat! Don't rush into any buy without thinking of the possibilities. There are more brands available than Fender! Some of the guys here have Bacchus guitars. I have a G&L Legacy on its way to me now.

If you shop cleverly and know what you want, you could end up with something a lot cheaper that satisfies you just as much. Personally, I don't think the American Deluxe Series are worth what they charge, when you realise that that much money can buy you 2 G&Ls or a top of the line Bacchus with some spare change.

At the end of the day, few current production guitars are going to become collectors' items in the years to come given production volume, automated build processes and such like.

I think the first thing you need to do is decide whether you want a Strat or a Tele and move on from there! If you don't want to outgrow the guitar you should be sure you know what you're getting first.

Johnny Storm

I'd add: don't get hung up on the idea that you're going to buy one really great versatile quality guitar that will last you the rest of your life. There is no perfect guitar no matter how much research you do.
Resistance to GAS is futile.....

funkyuser

I ordered yesderday from musicstore.com

I'm trying to convince myself that I will not like the grain pattern.
I must have the strength to send it back.

funkyuser

i'm sending it back

the grain is too loud and incongruent ...does not complement the strat shape and does not look like it was selected by a person with good taste.

i hate this...
i see an epic battle with the germans.
yeah i was naive to think it could be any other way
should have asked for photos first

yeah it sounds great ...all strats do to my ear
the pickup switching options give lots of tones
the strings catch in teh nut ...why couldn't they put an roller nut on this thing?

*SIGH*

punchdrunk

you don't need a roller nut,you need a nut cut by somebody who knows what he's doing!

http://www.archtop.ie/

but if you don't like the grain just send it back

Ravelleman

Most large online stores ship items without ever removing them from the packaging they receive in the factory. They don't look at them to find the nicst grain patterns possible and send back the ones that aren't as nice.

If you're buying an instrument with an ash body you should expect to see some pretty dramatic grains in the wood - that's part of the charm so I don't really understand your problem. This is what you should have expected.

Like I said before, it seems a little foolish to judge an instrument based entirely on how it looks. If it sounds good and plays well you should keep it.

darrenw5094

funkyuser wrote: »

i'm sending it back

the grain is too loud and incongruent ...does not complement the strat shape and does not look like it was selected by a person with good taste.

I would love to see an actual pic of it up here. Just to have a goo.:)

funkyuser

To provide some context I want to say that I'm reviving my guitar hobby and don't want to give the impression that I'm a great player. Hopefully I don't offend anyone..I enjoy this discussion it helps me think logically and critically about this situation (i hope)

Ravelleman wrote: »

Most large online stores ship items without ever removing them from the packaging they receive in the factory. They don't look at them to find the nicst grain patterns possible and send back the ones that aren't as nice

Somebody somewhere *did* look at it. This ash is supposed to be "select". Obviously that word can mean different things to different people all I know is that I've lost confidence in Fender. I really feel like this is b-stock before I ever got it. I would blame fender, . I don't think anyone should seee this as desirable. I don't believe that I have unrealistic expectations from looking at the other deluxe ash strats on the net and on the shops websites. Anyway my consumer rights in this scenario allow me to have unrealistic expectations and I can return this guitar even if its simply "buyers remorse". I would not buy a guitar on the internet if those regulations weren't in place. Side note - I'll be pissed if musicstore manage to profit from this situation at my expense.

For a few hours after talking to people I had decided I should keep it.. and then again after sleeping on it...and then waking up feeling nauseated and disgusted at my own lack of willpower to demand that my expectations are met and to excercise my consumer rights. I'm tired of being ripped off by corporations and retailers.

Ravelleman wrote: »

If you're buying an instrument with an ash body you should expect to see some pretty dramatic grains in the wood - that's part of the charm so I don't really understand your problem. This is what you should have expected.

I would expect such a dramatic grain to be selected with the eye of an artist. The grain can complement or detract to the form of the guitar. This grain detracts and is also inherently ugly when considered in isolation imnsho. Believe me I wanted to be charmed ...it just didn't happen. I'm really annoyed that I nearly allowed myself to believe that I should keep this guitar out of some sense that "this is what I should have expected" ..not saying youre saying that but others elsewhere have said this and gone further to imply I should learn to love it or something.

Ravelleman wrote: »

Like I said before, it seems a little foolish to judge an instrument based entirely on how it looks. If it sounds good and plays well you should keep it.

Perhaps I have created teh impression that I am only worried about this guitars looks. Actually I don't believe I have ...generally people elsewhere too have been quick to assume that I care about the looks more than the sound.

I'm buying a strat for the sound. The guitar sounds good. I trust the fender pickups are not defective, I think I would notice that btw I'm using a pocket pod. This deluxe is going to sound near enough the same as the next deluxe to my ear ..I will admit that if this guitar was a "tone monster" I might not be able to hear it. I am extremely skeptical of others who claim to be able to hear such things. I will not be keeping this guitar on the off chance that its a "tone monster" and I remain skeptical of the existence of such variations in electric instruments.

To be honest I didn't fall in love with the N3 pickups but that might be becuase I haven't adjusted my signal chain (pocket pod) however just being able to easily replace the electrics with a fully loaded pickguard is part of the attractrion to this instrument. The youtube vids I linked earlier have a nice tone that I would like to copy but I wasn't able to copy it with this guitar during brief experimentation with the pocket pod (and no ...I do not believe the pod is a the holy grail of tone)

I would say that the tone I get will be mostly due to the music I hear in my head and my ability to practice to achieve that tone. I've been playing an acoustic with dean markley single coil pickup and I do whole step bends and other stuff from time to time which is difficult and slows me down. Such things on an electric guitar are so easy and fast ...an electric guitar neck and weak strings feels wrong in my hand but over time I will adjust and get sensitive to it. My touch is too heavy at the moment ..its gonna take time. The shipment included strings for my epiphone sheraton which I will start playing again for the first time in years. I think that trying to play fast solos and bendy stuff on an acoustic with relatively high action and string tension is detrimental to developing a good electric guitar technique am I wrong?

Also maybe I'm naive to think that one reason I'm buying fender is that if my ear does improve that i'll be pleasantly surprised with a renewed appreciation for the quality of this instrument. I don't want a bad surprise and I'm paying extra for a deluxe to minimise that possibility of any kind of defect or flaw in design. That reminds me now of the nut grabs teh g and b string after trem movement and that is something that really surprised me and disappointed me ..i didn't think i'd have to fiddle with that.(at least i think thats whats happening)

I might PM some photos to those that are really interested

I'm worried that I opened the some packaging to get the trem bar also I hope they don't try and say that I left "signs of use" on the neck etc ...any moral support is welcome. If I get bad treatment I'll write about it here on this forum.

Dublin Guitar

Most Fenders are made of 3, 4 or 5 piece ash bodies. These can vary wildly in terms of matching up the pieces. We've seen a huge variety in instruments like that. Got one guitar made of 2 piece ash and the join is invisible. It's really nice looking.

OP, when you spend that kind of money, you should like how your instrument looks.

darrenw5094

Would Dublin Guitar have a suitable replacement for the OP? V.handy if you had.

Dublin Guitar

darrenw5094 wrote: »

Would Dublin Guitar have a suitable replacement for the OP? V.handy if you had.

We're not Fender stockists, just commenting on the appearance of ash bodies is all. The instrument I mentioned is a different brand

ultra55ound

Post a pic man.

Johnny Storm

Let us know how you get on with sending it back, please.

funkyuser

The strat was finally picked up on 24th March, I continually called the sales line for updates as the other reklamation number just gave me hold music. The reps on the phone blamed a new format shipping label that was rejected by UPS, this affected many other customers too. I received a full refund on the 1st of April.

My dusty sheraton II in the closet for 10 years was setup perfect from day one...now I remember why I bought it.. back then I didn't have a pod to plug it into. Funny how I liked this sheraton so much in the Waltons (10 years ago) that I, perhaps naively, insisted that i take the display model even though it had a slight defect in the finish.

I was never able to bond with this strat having played only acoustic for a long time before this and the factory setup wasn't great ..intonation was ok but thats all. If I was to play this strat with a good setup and some weeks of playing electric i might form a different opinion.

I'm discovering that I like the humbucker sound in the neck pickup sound just as well a single coil now that I have this amp modelling with the pod.

I'm still stratless ...i think i'll pickup a second hand squire or mexican sometime when the oppourtunity presents itself

now i want a mandolin

Hendrixfan

funkyuser wrote: »

I'm open to suggestions. I might have a naive approach to guitars and I'm pretty much isolated in the music world so this forum is a great help. Ok here is some info about my position hope this braindump is intelligible, probably flawed feel free to correct me.

The single coil neck pickup on all strats sounds good to me, particularly the SRV strat, John Mayer strat and maybe the Jimmy Vaughn strat. I really like SRV's tone and John Mayers. All my research is done through youtube, not ideal I know.
Also I know the amps and effects chain contribute to the sound but I'll worry about that after I get the strat.

Heres some links to give you an idea of the tone I'm after.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSM3FL7zUdw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpxoGtSUqkY&feature=related

I first noticed the strat sound after hearing SRV's version of little wing. I'm in no doubt that I love single coils in the neck position on strats and strats are versatile ..I might actually use the bridge pickup 5% of the time.

So recently I decide I finally should buy a strat ...I've put this off for too long. I don't want to outgrow this guitar, I have another guitar that I really like but its a cheap Washburn ..I'd like to buy a guitar that could one day be a vintage collectors model. Not sure if I want to buy a cheaper strat and then be yearning after a better model.

So I think I'd like a standard american can't go wrong.
Then I think about the John Mayer strat as its got the tone I'm after with those big dipper pickups.
I consider the SRV strat would have nice tone but that upside down tremelo would annoy me.
I also consider the Jimmy Vaughn strat.
Then I think I just don't want any sig. strat just feels wrong
I consider the deluxe american strats
I consider the custom shop models, don't like the look of them and probably wouldn't like the tone, extra cost doesn't seem justifiied and I just don't find them desirable.
I think i want a modern guitar ..don't see the point in buying vintage reissue or a battered collectors item.

I'm pretty sure that I want some kind of strat ...often the colours and finish look plain or garish and that traditional 3 tone sunburst looks too cliched for me.
I have never seen a strat that looks as good to me as the 2010 American deluxe ash with that tobacco sunburst and the select Ash with nice grain pattern.
It's strat and it will sound like strat, its a versatile guitar too, and if i don't like those N3 pickups i can swap them out ..i'm thinking I would remain perfectly happy with the tone and the looks of this guitar in the long run.

And then I think again ...sometimes I think I don't need a tremolo I could have cheaper and more reliable stable guitar without it. Maybe a deluxe telecaster
Like this kid...I like that tone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkTBFgqOB4Y

yeah I'm neurotic probably but I don't want to be a GAS victim

any input welcome.

Just my two cents, you'll be forever and a day buying guitars if your looking emulate someone else's tone, I dont think its possible to buy a guitar and sound like SRV. Tone comes from the player, how guitar is picked, how notes are fretted and things like that. SRV could play any guitar and sound like SRV if you get me.