I got an American Deluxe Strat about a week ago. Played it a couple times very briefly. Tonight was the first time I really got to get down and play it. Was looking over it afterwards and I think I may have possibly gotten a Friday neck. Starting with the 9th fret the frets are mostly flat below the 6th string. Some have a wide plateau, whereas others just have a very small one. Some carry into the 5th string area, most do not. The 13th and 14th frets are round tops like I expect. Beginning with the 17th fret they are pretty well plateaued completely across all the strings. The 20th, 21st, and 22nd frets have a plateau about as wide as the entire fret so that they are entirely flat. A couple look like they have scratches in the sides of them as well. Also noticed that the finish on the maple fretboard is pooled up in the corner of the 22nd fret basically as high as the fret itself. Maybe not just a Friday neck, but a Friday closing time neck.
(breath)

I'm already resigned to swapping it out since I don't feel 100% comfortable with it after looking at it, but has anyone else seen flat or semi-flat frets new? I had an LP in the past that had flat frets and after checking it out it seemed to be not totally uncommon, whether or not it was right. Never on a Strat before though. Think it may explain why it didn't feel 100% right to me. I initially thought it might just be the switch from the old vintage frets on my Squier Series Strats (also slightly flat, but done by me over time) to the Med Jumbos. I know, play before you pay, but I'm left handed and that is not always a viable and realistic option unfortunately.

I know this is all useless without pictures so I'll try to get some tomorrow if anyone really wants. We have compact fluorescent bulbs so indoor pics come out too fuzzy for the detail required for some reason and I shake like an epileptic belly dancer as it is so even natural light pics are a crap shoot. Until I can get pictures, based on the description, I'm not just tilting at windmills right?

Seems like you got a Friday afternoon / Tuesday morning after the Monday holiday combo neck!

Of note: Your predicament throws the, "web dogma" of American Fender QC being superior to that of Fender MIM QC right out the window.

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You dig?

Sorry for the elementary level question - but what does that mean, "Friday Neck?" - Ive never heard that term

Thanks

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"Wait a minute, somethings wrong here!"

Sub-par. "Friday ____", neck in this case, as in something done on Friday when workers are thinking more about the weekend.

Which is why one best reserves any elective surgery for a Monday or Tuesday, and mid-year, after the holday celebrations...February for example, or at best, no weekend admisssions.

Now, in the matter of the OP, if new, return the guitar to the dealer stat!!

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"Another day in paradise!"

Oh ok, got ya - I like that - id never heard that phrase!

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"Wait a minute, somethings wrong here!"

Well, after checking around on the cost of a fret dress or refret I realized the absurdity of having to do that with a brand new Deluxe that uses "highly detailed fret and nut work" as a selling point. Sent it off yesterday with the last vestiges of my dream of owning an American Strat. Had a great deal on it, but after two months and going 0-2 on Fenders I surrendered.

Got reacquainted with my MIM Squier Series guitars in the mean time though so, lemonade from lemons. Guess my GAS attack ended up just being a little norovirus.

So, at this time I would like to retract all my comments regarding any difference between MIM and MIA strats and any superiority of the latter. MIMs rock! The only difference is the labor costs. Yadda yadda yadda. Rabble rabble rabble.

You can't draw a conclusion from a single story. One bad MIA neck, for example, does not mean that MIA QC is inferior to or equal to MIM QC: You have to have statistical data to draw a conclusion.

Furthermore, you can't draw ANY conclusions based on information you have no first-hand knowledge of: reading something on the Web is a thousand miles from knowing it to be true.

FInally, surgeons, scrub nurses and anesthesiologists do not all take Saturday and Sunday off. There is no advantage to scheduling surgery on the days listed, because the "weekend" is a concept that doesn't exist in health care careers.

This is why nobody can think straight anymore... because we're encouraged to accept anecdotes in lieu of evidence, "common knowlegde" in place of conclusions.

Actually, I do have first hand knowledge as anyone with a modicum of intelligence and marginal reading skills could see. I actually had both of the guitars in my hands, first hand. Both had issues that should have been caught by quality control and one had an issue with something that the company even uses their level of detail on as a selling point. So I am fully confident in drawing the conclusion that the two guitars I received (first hand) were of a lower quality than should be expected of a guitar in their price range, company name being irrelevant. I did not read it on the web, I held it in my hands.

The whole thing about the MIM/MIA quality was a joke, hence the smilies, yaddas, and rabbles. I was making light of the fact that the split on those wonderful threads generally is based directly on where any individual poster's guitar was made. I know MIA guitars are of better materials and presumably better quality accordingly. I just had a bad run personally (first hand) and have given up for now. I've been through two individual guitars (first hand) and now two months of trying to find a decent one and it really is not worth it for me at this point or price point. I know plenty of people who have received American Fenders that were perfect, but unfortunately I did not (first hand).

Also very well aware of how the medical community operates. I also understand that most factories work in shifts as would be more directly relevant here since we're being perfectly literal. The "Friday whatever" is an old saying that I neither created nor defined.

It also could be that nobody can think straight anymore because everyone walks around with that stick up there and no sense of humor, taking everything quite literally, even that which should be readily apparent as hyperbole, sarcasm, and dry humor.

Thanks for your thoughts though.

Hmm Frosty sorry to hear you had problems. I have several MIA Strats and it is not unusual to have the laquer dam up against the fret on the maple neck. Especially on the higher end of the neck where the frets are closer together. It hasn't affected the playablility of my instruments. This "feature" is unique to the maple board and does not occur on the rosewood. I cannot speak to the fret problems but I wish you better luck in the future. Hopefully the vendor will replace it with one you will be satisfied with.

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I'm not slow... and I'm not fast... just sort of halffast...

Sorry to hear of your bad lcuk Frosty. But I guess it does happen.

Being the proud owner of 2 MIA Strats and 1 MIM Strat I can assure you your luck can change. But truth being told the MIA Strats I checked out before i bought them. The MIM my wife went out and got for me (she didnt know anything about guitars just thought the name Stratocaster meant it was like anyother) And it is a very good Guitar I put it right up with my MIA's

It all worked out anyways. One door closed and another opened, such is the way of GAS.

I ended up just getting a refund and then my wonderful wife (probably just to end my moping, but we'll say it was completely out of love) said to go ahead on another guitar I've wanted for a while since I was already within a few hundred of it. So now I'm waiting for this to arrive: http://tinyurl.com/mdon3w Still in the greater FMIC family.

I sold my Peavey Classic 30 to cover the price differential between the initial Highway One and the Deluxe so I was playing through my Pod XT Live and Vibro Champ XD. Worked out a trade on craigslist with the Pod XT Live straight up for a Marshall Artist 4203, spare tubes, footswitch, and volume box. Planning out building a tube pre for the 4203 so I 'll have a JCM on the cheap now.

Plus, falling back in love with the MIMs was an added bonus. I think I came out better in the end although I will miss the Classic 30. No pain, no gain. That which does not kill me makes me stronger. Even the sun shines on a dog's a@# some days. And various other clichés...