[MUSIK MESSE 2010] Fender – American Deluxe – Stratocaster HSS

Translation: This is a guitar. These are pickups. They are acutually magnets. This is a switch. You can switch it up. This button also helps. Ah, this switch is amazing. Up, and then down again. These knobs. Watch as I spin them left, and then they also spin right.Don’t forget the pickups. And the switch. And finally, any guitar that has a front, also has a back. This is the back of this guitar. HaHa. lol. 5 stars!

I just tried one at GC and I like it. I absolutely hate the SCNs on my American Deluxe 60th Aniversery. It sounds like I am using MIDI. Not kidding. Completely sterile. They have absolutely no life. I don’t even use it. On my other Strats, I usually only use the neck pickup, but on the new deluxe I tried today, (HSS) I liked the middle pickup a lot more than usual. The pickups are still not perfect. But they are a lot better.

I couldn’t get as much quack out of the “in between” settings, but it was there a little bit. The pickups were a little more glassy than the SCNs, and they had a much better attack. Still a little compressed though. It would be much easier to cover up with some tubes though. The “passing lane”, the thing that bypasses the pots, was crazy! It sounds like a boost because more signal gets through, but it has a lot of treble. Almost sounds like a Tele.

through a loud amp. I didn’t mess around much with the amp settings much, but you could get some real good stuff there maybe, if you turn down the treble, boost the bass. I wish that they put the “passing lane” in all of them. That combined with the S-1 and my fingers could be pretty fun. Looks like I will finally get the guts to put my Texas Specials in my old deluxe and get this one when I can.

But I’ll probably just get a hum eliminator and forget about this crazy dream of a perfect silent tone. Hey Fender, it would be cool if all of your guitars has this “passing lane”. It was a great addition the humbucker AS WELL as the singles.

Sorry about the rambling. The tone of the pickups is still a little compressed, but yeah, much better than the SCNs. I am going to figure out how to mod my other strats with this “passing lane” and put a capacitor in to tame it down a little bit.