I want to pick up an American Deluxe in the next month or so. Does anybody know if they're making any changes to the American Deluxe this year? If so when are those changes likely to be announced? Do they update the American Deluxe every year or just every couple of years?

I think the line was just updated not too long ago. Don't know how often but it's not yearly.

If any change occurs on the USA Deluxe series, it would be a return of the locking bridge option for the HSS Strat.



I know that the deluxe locking tremolo assembly is still in production (http://www.fender.com/products/search.p ... 1996510100) despite a lot of unsourced rumours claiming this product discontinued since 4 years ago.

Hope Fender will reintroduce the locking bridge in 2012!

Fender just updated the Am Dlxs last year; each of the first two generations ran for 6 years (1998-2003; 2004-2009) with only minimal cosmetic changes during the run for the Strats (the Tele had 3 pickups in 1998 but changed to 2 pickups in 1999).

Apparently Fender dropped the locking bridge from the series in order to save money and cut production costs, allowing American Deluxe owners to make their own "HSS LT" since the bridge assembly and the matching backplate are now offered as separate accessories.

I think it's one of those things there just isn't a tremendous call for in strats

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Yep, thats it. Who wants to go cutting ball/bullet ends off every string change. Never mind all the fiddling with allen keys should you have to change a string quickly.

And it absolutely dismisses the current trend for inertia block importance. The string doesn't touch the inertia block.

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Thanks for all the good responses guys. I think I'm definitely going to pick one up. Now I just can't decide between the tungsten/maple and the black/maple/v-neck.

You will be very happy with any American Deluxe Strat !!!

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