If I could have only one guitar.
I know a lot of players like really beat up old vintage guitars. I had a 1965 Fender Stratocaster with a 1965 Fender Super Reverb black face amp.
If I pick up a guitar and it sounds great and has the right resonance when not plugged in that is a start. Some guitars that are just right when you plug in and instantly go "that's it ". I love the new American Deluxe Stratocasters because of the sound of the three N3 pick ups and revised S-1 switching system. To me I could just then have one guitar if I had to. The sound to me is very pure and so many different great sounds. I have been playing for over 40 years and I still play rock full time.

I guess that you particularly appreciate the comfortable compound radius neck which allows for easier string bending and chording with less hand fatigue; truly a great feature!

The big advantage of the HSS model is undoubtedly the all-new passing lane switch, better known as the "blower"; it routes the signal from any pickup position to the bridge with all the controls bypassed. The result is a huge, screaming fat lead sound with tons of sustain.



This guitar lacks of a locking bridge option, a feature suited for heavy tremolo abuse.

Get your own 2010 American Deluxe Strat HSS LT for £231,20 by ordering and purchasing the locking bridge assembly from Applestone Music UK.

http://www.applestone-music.co.uk/conte ... emolo.html

Sounds like an ad. I do like the compound radius fingerboard on the 2010 American Deluxe series that gives more comfotable chord playing close to the nut because of the more rounded curvature of the fingerboard as well as the flatter radius higher up the fingerboard to achieve string bends without choking out on notes from fretting out. I don't like the Fenders with the humbucker in the bridge position. I find the Fender humbuckers like the Atomic model slightly rolled off and bland sounding on the high end compared to a Seymour Duncan JB or Gibson 498T or Bareknuckle Nailbomb and other good humbucking pick-ups plus I like to use the single coil bridge by itself for a really clear sound on some songs. A humbucker and middle single coil type as well don't have to same quack that I want. As for the passing lane switch I have done all my own guitar work for years and I could do that if I wanted but it not a feature that I would use. Tom Anderson guitars used the term Blower switch. John Suhr who used to work for Fender's Custom Shop makes about the best quality guitars along with Tom Anderson and some other small custom manufacturers as does the Fender Custom shop but I don't want to spent around $4000 for a guitar. I have always had several guitars and I own a ten top bird inlay PRS and a Fender Custom Shop Strat. I have a Fender Clapton 25 db mid boost circuit that I was able to buy back in about 1987 because I sold and repaired guitars for a big chain of music stores across the country which I wired separately in a box to use the get a hot sound out of any of my guitars as well as other channels on my amps and pedals like the Love Pedal Eternity Fuse but then each to their own.

I used to own a Fender Ultra Strat like a locking bridge like you have a picture of above but I switched out that bridge because I didn't like it for tone or sustain compared to the conventional bridge. I don't use the whammy bar much on my guitars especially drastically and if I did I would use one of my guitars with a Floyd Rose or Steinberger ZT-3 Transtrem.