that's weird, I wonder if the new 2010 ash are different... mine feels very light! I picked up a few other strats at GC, and everything felt so much heavier than that deluxe. I should weigh it.

Count your blessings if you got a light Ash body.

Personally, I think lighter strat bodies respond better to different pickups and tend to sound better through a wider range of tone (from clean to saturated).

Really heavy guitars (like my DLX) tend to sound really good pushed hard, but can't quite get that woody vintage tone.

I've had:
- 2 set of Wagner WCR ($350/ set)
- Fralin Vintage Hots
- Don Mare Supersports

in this guitar, and they all sounded... ok. Not bad, but not great either.

I dropped those same pickups in my lighter Alder body strats (3 of them), and they all sound great; no matter how I mix them.

But when I really turn up the gain on my pedals, the heavy guitar just out rocks these others. So it makes my DLX kinda singularly focused.

I'm fortunate enough to have a bunch of different guitars to reach for depending on what I feel like playing. But, if I were limited to one guitar, I would vote for a lighter guitar.

By the way, I like the wood grain on your DLX. It looks like a one piece. Mine is a two piece.

Interesting.. the guitars I checked out while at GC, if I remember, were Am. Std, Am. Dlx, couple of reissues, cant remember what they were. Am. Std was the heaviest, followed by Dlx, Reissues, then mine. Kept coming back to it, sounded so sweet thru a DRRI! But, as I mentioned earlier, I couldn't deal with the N3 at home, using my amps, even tho it sounded perfect at the store.

Mate can you give us a quick run down on the N3 pups on the new deluxe...

that is a beautiful guitar

I agree, almost all the guitars I own are heavy guitars (335, LP, Yamaha SG..), I favor a warm overdriven tone, which explains my guitars. My 79 Strat hasn't seem much action in years, but recently I feel the need to hear that clean Strat tone, think Lenny and Riverira Paradise... main reason why I got this new Deluxe, I think I made the right choice, and with the Fralin pups and a tube screamer I get that nice overdriven tone I like, so I'm happy man!

I really like the wood on it, pictures dont do it justice and I have no idea how to take good pics!

well... the new N3 pups are great, at what they do, noiseless, very nice tone, warm actually, just not what I was looking for. To me it didnt sound like a true Strat, no clear sparkle, playing an open low E felt dead and I wanted to hear that bass with a nice clear ring, couldn't get it no matter what I tried on the amps, even tried to adjust the pups themselves, just wasnt happening. I had a SRV Strat that almost gave me all that, my 79 Strat gives me plenty of that sparkle too, N3 failed to do the same.

Here's what the N3 look like now, all alone with no place to call home...





Hope this helps.