Hello folks, Newbie here...

See what you think about this one...

Description: Fender American Deluxe with upgraded light Ash body in transparent emerald green. Warmoth True Vintage neck heavy birdseye figuring on a Brazilian Rosewood finger board. Wilkinson GOTOH bridge. The tuners are Grosh Vintage Tuners and the nut is graphite.

All this bears out in the close ups. No serial number given but a bit of research shows this color and finish Ash body indeed was used on American Deluxe's from about 98 to 04 then not offered again nor offered on any other model as a stock item. Appears an SSS but only single Tone knob. Some nice upgrades otherwise. The pick guard is quite ugly but I can fix that. It might look nicer in person.

Some pictures.







I will not put up any headstock or close ups of the bridge as thats not the issue and they are not original fender anyway. But will if someone would really like to see them.

Bought this on a whim long distance for $650 delivered with a hard shell case and hoping I did not get taken but the upgrades alone seem worth near $600 if I was to buy them and if the body checks out I done pretty good as that color is fairly rare. I just took a chance on it I guess.

Anyway.. lay it on me! .

I see one tiny wierd thing in your photos. The neck plate is correct for an Am. DLx body, has the microtilt adjustment hole, but you can see the body through the hole as though the neck pocket has no micro-tilt adjustment equipped.

I am not sure when the Am Dlx models first started using the micro-tilt, but looks as though that body does not have it. Wonder why it has a micro-tilt neckplate? Very strange.

sorry dude... its a no from me. looks like a partsocaster. BUT, if it plays then no one should care. unless the guy that sold it said its genuine.

best regards

He indicates the body at least is genuine by calling it an American Deluxe. At least as far as I am concerned if you use that alone without some sort of explanation your representing it. However I knew it was a parts master otherwise as that was obvious.

However it appeared to me a nice custom built parts Guitar even if not an original.. he does make some comment about having it built by a Luthier. So he may be intending to imply he bought a body and chose parts and built a Strat off of it. It may be he is cleverly just not going into detail. However I would not be that concerned to get a nicely built guitar. But that could explain the slight changes in that it may never have been a full Am DLX in its life time. It may have been a purchased body and gone from there.

Do you think that in parts its worth the money? That was sort of why I went with it because I though it might be, even if the body is fake. Although appears a nice body either way in a nice attractive finish...

Forgot this detail...

Wilkinson GOTOH bridge.

i believe it would be worth it provided it was assembled well... ie. action, tuning, intonation, buzzing, wiring, no warps in the neck. its all up to you to define if its worth it.

So... uh, where is the second tone knob? That seems like a very odd omission...

at a second glance, even the body doesn't seem to be fender. there should be a contour at the right... (tummy cut). i thought this to begin with because i thought why would someone disemble a deluxe strat to a parts guitar??? after second review a very nice looking guitar but not fender at all...?


EDIT. sorry my monitors colour and brightness is off... i see the cut now. but still seems odd that someone would just and ONLY keep the body from a deluxe.

Come to think of it.. .where is the heel contour? When did they start putting those on the deluxe?


I think this is not a deluxe body.

I bet that's a Warmoth body too.

Certainly not an American Deluxe body. No micro tilt, no heel?

Where's the S-1 switch?

Wanna bet the neck plate is the only Fender part?

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

My theory was always (if it is a Fender body of some sort) that they did not deconstruct one but rather that they constructed one completely from chosen parts. I see bodies for sale alone all the time. And this one probably could be obtained. However there are also some nice Strat bodys for building that are not Fender too.

Interesting observation... could be another maker body with a copy cat finish...

Does occur on some models in some years. For instance the American Deluxe QMT HSS has only one Tone knob.

micro-tilt no... heel cut, yes i see it. but still no deluxe.

Oh, OK. Still, I think it's weird for a single coil guitar, unless it's one of those 1983 strats that have been popping up lately.

You should take the neck off... third-party parts usually have the manufacturer's name stamped on them somewhere. I'm in the "bitzer with a Fender neckplate" camp, I think. You're right, you see bodies of all sorts for sale all the time... but a quality body from a reputable supplier will be as good as (or better than) an Am Deluxe, anyway.