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Fender American Stratocaster Plus/Deluxe? Price Paid / Price New: 600$/1200$ Year Manufactured: 1989 Specs: 3 single lace sensors, 2 silver and a blue in the bridge. Rosewood fretboard, wilkinson roller nut. Hipshot tremsetter, TBX tone cut(?) Sperzel locking tuners.... Hope I am not forgetting anything. An alder body I believe, with a basswood, or some other sort of top, there's two slabs together, I am really having a hard time finding information on these guitars in general. It seems it was random that some strat plus models got the single wood body, others got this body.... Before we get to ratings let me preface this by saying I AM VERY VERY VERY PICKY AND CRITICAL! Sound: 3.5/5 This guitar sounds great with nickel strings. It has a really great deep crisp bell like bluesy tone from the silver neck lace sensor, and a nice crunchier dirtier tone from the bridge blue lace sensor. The TBX cut is either not working or something, I can not hear a difference when rolling the tone knob to where it clicks. As a note this guitar sounded like absolute garbage with steel strings, even moreso with dean markley blue steels. Loads of sustain, seriously I can play this thing unplugged and it has loads of sustain. In fact I hate to say it but I do practice unplugged most of the time. Surprised me quite a bit since a stratocaster is like 40% pickguard with pickups in said pickguard. Before I bought this I had been taking all my extra money and giving it up to a layaway on a Gibson VOS 1957 goldtop les paul. I found this and broke the layaway immediately. Yes they are two totally different instruments, but this thing was way more flexible, and much cheaper. Sure it does not sound like that les paul, but it is just as great in it's own stratocaster way. I think fender should have put 500k pots in this from the factory, I think the laces are a little damp with the 250k's in it. I had swapped some different electronics in it for a while, two duncan humbuckers, matched 1meg pots, and no caps, the guitar screamed but the duncans I did not like. I ended up going back to the factory electrics. I am currently searching for dually lace sensors to replace the duncans. A dual red for the bridge and a dual silver for the neck. Instrument Quality: 3.5/5 The guitar has aged well. the finish is great, it seems the top layer of whatever wood is a little soft as it has some dings that did not break the finish but dented the wood some. The neck wood.... jesus. The quality is insane..... It is just great. Very solid. I am overly impressed. Being almost 20 it has aged very well. Neck is straight as an arrow. It is fairly heavy for a stratocaster. If you flick the neck hard and then the body, you can hear the woods have been closely tonally matched.... It seems like the fender folks put a lot of thought/time into these, or I just got lucky with this one. Playbility: 3.5/5 Very very playable. I have short fingers and fat hands so I enjoy a 50's style les paul neck. It actually sucks for me to play something like an ibanez. The finished neck also makes slides happen fast. This guitar with it's current electrics is slightly limited, the bridge pickup sounds great with some crunch and distortion, as does the neck, but it's still not a humbucker sound. Overall Value: 4/5 I really think that the late 80's and early 90's deluxe/plus american strats are an insane value. This thing not setup right blows any new american strat I have played completely out of the water in sound. Let alone build quality...... I am considering buying another one of these exact models because of just how great and inexpensive they are for what you get. It seems they are at their low point. I vowed at one point in time to never buy a strat because of how common they were. I changed my views and even though it's like the ford mustang of guitars, these things are a very great value used. They seem to go on ebay/pawn shops for anywhere from 500 in poor rough shape to 1000 depending on trim. I think the strat ultra was the same guitar just with a dual lace sensor in the bridge position.
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Sep 21, 2007 00:42
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| # ¿ May 4, 2024 16:39 |
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