Fender American Deluxe Strat

"What Fender?Which one?Strat huh?I'm not sure what to tell.They all look the same,sound the same and that's all what they do."

The above was my answer given whenever people asked me about Strats back in the day working in a music store.Back then we didn't stock any.It was against company policy to display another distributors product.It took me a while to figure which strat was what and for what kind of genre its meant for at least.Good thing the Japanese Guitar Companies made my life easier.Take Ibanez,Yamaha and ESP e.g.They used the numbering system instead.The bigger the the number the higher the model is.Well,to a certain extent based on yearly announced and produced models,but it does made a lot of sense plus easy for us all to understand.Just like currency if I may equate.

The American Company however only prefers to see numbers on their annual report but not on their guitars.They like to give the guitars fancy glorified names instead and that's not all.You'll need to look really close at the decal,headstock size,trem type,how many pick guard screws and among other things before you could pass it as what you think it is.Them Coronites like to confuse you.Ha ha.

Confusion aside shall we.The feature guitar was sent for a full setup.Nothing major when you buy quality instruments.A long look inside revealed the pots was not what I thought it would normally be and google confirmed this.Some images showed that black plastic S1 switch in a Tele Deluxe.Some showed a CTS like S1 in a Deluxe Strat.Did someone made a switch at the factory.Mmm..this is indeed another confusing matter.

Lets just put it back together,forget about the confusion and just play the damn strat.Furthermore I've always wondered what's that S1 switch was all about.Its already shot down my suspicious hunch of it being active in the beginning.The tones does attract my attention because of its non vintage character.Less noise and hotter than the average single coil.Pushing the S1 gave it a mid scoop like tones at certain position and thinned out tones in another.I wasn't sure what the S1 kicks in or out in delivering such scoop and sengau tones.I have to confess I was actually confused(again).Not wanting to google the manual.I decided to kick out my Tech instinct and invite my player instinct.Putting to rest the confusion and enjoying the bloody thing as intended.

Confused Tech
yustech