I got this guitar less than a week ago. It was a return (they ordered me a brand new one and let me take this one home), and the setup was all wrong. The bridge was set flush, it had 10's or maybe even 11's on it, the action was wrong, and the neck relief was wrong. In fact, the only thing that was close was the pickup height.

The first thing I did was put a set of 9's on it, float the bridge, and do a complete setup. Everything worked great and it stayed in tune very well when using the trem. I'm a pretty heavy strummer, and with the 9's on it I had to set the action to about 3/32nd's and put a little more neck relief to get rid of the buzzing, but that is probably normal for me (former acoustic player).

Last night I noticed that I had a couple sets of D'Addario Chromes 12's in my bag. These are flatwound stings and have a very nice sound for my style (clean strumming, open chord stuff). Anyway, I just had to try a set of the flat wounds on this guitar, so I put a set on, added 2 more springs, floated the bridge, and did another setup. Now I can get the action at 2/32nd's (or maybe lower), and the neck just about straight (hardly any relief), and strum it like an acoustic with no buzzing.

I also made a couple test clips. One is with the S1 switch off with all 5 positions, and the other is with the S1 switch on in all 5 positions. I played the same chord progression for each position in both tests.


Here are the clips...

S1 Off

S1 On


I also took some better pictures than the last ones I posted...

Nice guitar and good comparison recordings. You did all that work to the loaner?

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'10 American Deluxe HSS Sunset Metallic
'10 JA-90 Thinline Telecaster
'15 Music Man JP-15 Blueberry Burst
'07 Les Paul Standard Faded LCPG #82
'14 Carvin ST300
'12 Carvin CS424S
'66 Guild Starfire IV w/Bigsby
'14 Warmouth Partscaster Daphne Blue

Sounds great, and that's a beautiful guitar.

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American Standard Strat, Sienna Sunburst
Gibson Les Paul, Desert Burst
Gibson SG '61 Reissue, Heritage Cherry

Hey good work. Had yet to hear a sample of the new N3 fender pus.
What colour are you going for?

I notice the serial number on your headstock does not begin with a letter; My 2010 Am Dlx has a SN that begins with US. Is that kind of variation normal?

Sweet!!!

I wish they would make an Am Dlx with a rosewood fretboard in a normal 706 black color code (*not* the glitterbomb Montego Black). The v-neck version of the Am Dlx now comes in black, but only with a maple fretboard (and only the TSB gets the tinted maple fretboard). I may eventually bite on one, though I was holding out hope they might come to their senses in 2011.

I think someone at Fender secretly hates me.


Part way into 2010 they switched over to the US prefix. IIRC, it started with Strats with the rosewood fretboards but eventually they all got the US prefix.

FWIW, it's not uncommon early in a calendar year to see, for example, a 2010 Am Dlx Strat (including all of the '10 model updates like N3 pups) still sporting a serial number with the DZ9 prefix.

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A bunch of Strats, some Gibsons, a couple clonewheels, a few Fender amps, various stompboxes