Hey Guys, does anyone out there own an American Deluxe Strat? I am seriously thinking about ordering this guitar (Ash version). My question is, how do the N3 pickups compare to traditional stock American Strat pups? Do they have the same chime and sparkle?

Thanks

I have a Dlx Ash, beautiful guitar, quality is great, but I didn't care for the N3 pups, not Straty enough IMO, they sounded dull to me. You should play one and compare it to a regular Strat, then decide for yourself, your ears might hear something different...

Hey thanks! I have played one at GC and thought the same thing...dull. I thought it was just me. I guess it wasnt...lol.

Hey cedarblues, that's helped me a lot too. I'm thinking about getting a deluxe too, but worry I'll be compromising on the sound of a regular strat. What about the S1 switching - how is that for you?

Greetings

I have had a standard which was good and I have had two deluxes. While the quality of the 1 deluxe was marginaly better than my Standard.The sound okay.It was a first generation Deluxe. I will say my new one is way better. I will say that the noise of a strat near lights can be annoying to all it is part of the charm of a strat. But the new N3 are impressive and really are for your ears.

Give it a try

So if you had to go with one and needed/wanted that pure Strat tone, which one would you chose? Can the N3's deliver? I found much more life in the stock Standard pups then the N3's.

I would take that as great news. If you a found a guitar amongst other Strats that are equal or more expensive and you like the sound of it then thatparticular guitar is for you.

If you are buying a guitar it is for you! I have never been disapointed with a Fender.Dollar for dollar they are great. Every guitar is slightly different in sound or more responsive in overall playability.Even though they are maufactured close in specs they still are different.

You can always replace pick-ups but the playability and neck also are big part of the guitar.

So if you did purchase an Am Deluxe because you like it and after a while you decide that you did not really like the pick-ups you can replace them with stocks or custom shop pickups or whatever you desire.

I'm probably the wrong person to ask... the N3 and S1 were replaced couple days after I got the guitar. From what I remember there was one setting I kinda liked on the S1, all the others sounded horrible! A couple were so thin sounding I wondered if anyone will ever use them.

The American Deluxe is a great guitar, if you like the features, if I had to do it all over again I wouldn't buy one, those features aren't for me... but to me this beautiful and extremely light ash body is perfect my Dlx Ash weighs 6 lbs 11 oz and sounds wonderful now!

After a couple weeks with a HSS AmDex --

- The S1 gives you some really interesting options, especially clean or nearly so. In the 5 position with the switch on the neck and middle in series give a really warm "jazzy" tone. And the 3 position with the S1 switch on is ALL pups, neck in series, middle and bridge in parallel -- a huge difference from the "off" position which is just middle pup.

- In general the switch fattens things up a bit, which again is an interesting option to have -- I think. But if you don't think you'd have an use for it...well, different strokes.

- Overall very sensitive to nature-type-amount of distortion, which I think is a good thing. The sustain you get with the roller nut really makes dirt a less is more thing.

- The humbucker dump button is basically a "boost" button in disguise. You can be rolled off in 3 or 4, hit the button and everything goes to 10, possibly 11.

Bottomline it takes some time to test-drive these very flexible Strats to decide if they are for you. But if you KNOW you want maximum options -- I don't think you can go wrong.

I am a Deluxe guy. I am not completely sold out on the N3's but they are exceptionally quiet with zero hum.

Everything else on the Am. Dlx. is so nice that I would go that route even if I were gonna switch out the pickups . . . cannot say enough about the feel of that neck.

Although my next will be a Standard because I want the variety.

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I have a Std. Strat w/stock pick-ups . Am. Std. Strat w/stock pick-ups. Am. Deluxe w/SCNs . and a Am. Deluxe w/N3s ...they all have their own sound....none I am really displeased with.

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2008 Am. Std. Strat
2008 Am. Deluxe Strat
2010 Am. Deluxe Strat
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2011 Am. Std. Strat
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As mentioned in a difference thread, I now have the earlier Deluxe w/SCNs pups - am well pleased with the result.

+1 ...... I too chose the 'older' DeLuxe Ash with the SCN pickups recently. Sure, the newer N3 pups are 'noiseless' too; no hum or 'background' whatsoever, but they seemed a little on the 'mellow' side compared to the SCNs - at least for my taste.