ive come into the oppurtunity of purchasing a avri 57 hotrod strat.

nik, zzdoc, and anyone else who has one.

i need to decide if its worth it, being i have a am dlx vneck w scns

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"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

oogway, kungfu panda 2008

If you're asking of my comparison between the Hotrod and the American Deluxe, well the Hotrod is way above the Deluxe in my estimation. The neck shape is more comfortable for me, I prefer the trem, it sounds better with the humbucker in the bridge position. Which matches the middle pickup well in the bridge/mid position. Fit and finish are flawless. When Justin Novak said these are the guitars to bridge the gap between custom shop and production line at their release, he wasn't joking. Despite having took the neck off the guitar a good few times I can still remove the strings and the neck bolts then pick the whole guitar up by the neck. A perfect friction fit. When I went to the shop to try it, I didn't even bother amping it. It felt like it had been made for me.

It has it's faults, as any guitar does. I often wonder about putting a SCN in the bridge position, but never do because the bucker sounds so good. It's never going to do country music that well (though I'm mucking about with a disco/funk band at the moment and it excels at that so who knows?). I like the bridge/mid position but need the traditional strat sound in that position too.

On my Deluxe (and I'm going to be brief) I like the switching options. If I had to jump on a plane and jet off to some Malibu recording studio because EC, Vernon Reid and Jim Martin were all struck ill during some collaboration and I had to go wrap it up for em (now you can really see how tortured I am by my imagination), I'd take the Deluxe. It wouldn't be perfect, but it would suffice. It's the guitar that will convincingly get you out of a bind. It's the cream of the crop as far as allrounder guitars go, aside from maybe the VG. I don't love the guitar, I'd feel a bit naked if I couldn't have it in its case waiting for the time it's needed. There have been a couple of those times in the past.

In conclusion I wouldn't say the two guitars sound the same at all. Though I'm pretty sure Fender changed something about the SCN's from Bill Lawrences design. Neither does that traditional Bridge/Mid position like a traditional strat, but both have their strengths and weakness's. I think the whole of that S1 circuitry add's a bit (or detracts, depending how you look at it) than we imagine. We blame a lot on pickups when in truth they are three pieces of a circuit made up of what, nine components in most strats.

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No no and no

thanks nik,

i agree, i believe the pot choices, caps, s1 switches affects tone.
i also agree, the s1 switch in the deluxe is very useful.
ill play it this week, im sure itll be love at 1st sight,play and feel.

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"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

oogway, kungfu panda 2008

To be candid, because people hopefully will see I'm not being negative. I find nothing particularly attention grabbing about the Deluxe. It's a great guitar but not a instrument made to suit one or two styles. A year and a half back, I had a dep job with a wedding band. The set list covered a huge variety of styles (Cash, RunDMC and the doors for 3). I had a night to practice and off to the gig on the Satrurday (hang around behind the keyboard player and peer over their shoulder at the chords from the score). I took the Deluxe knowing it would do anything I wanted. It's not ever my first choice though. If it were a more genre bound setlist, I'd have made another guitar work.
In a multistyle situation it rules though.
Everything else that I do like about the Hotrod and don't like about the Deluxe. Like the neck, trem, heel (though I don't dislike the square heel at all). Is a matter of personal prefrence.

Heres the Hotrod (cos I know you asked for pictures looking back at the title)



The Deluxe

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No no and no

Thanks nik,
the hr looks very very sexy!
Dude my deluxe looks similar minus the gold hardware.

_________________
"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

oogway, kungfu panda 2008