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Post subject: American Deluxe 1998 fake or legit?
Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2013 5:07 pm
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Guy wants to trade his supposed 1998 American deluxe strat for my godin signature artisan tc. Now mine is a good guitar and all but doesn't hold it's value like an American strat. So it seems a little fishy. What should I be looking for?


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Post subject: Re: American Deluxe 1998 fake or legit?
Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2013 7:47 pm
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How about posting some pictures of the guitar?

A 1998 American Deluxe Strat is going to have some of the following characteristics - starting at the headstock and working down the guitar:

raised chrome headstock decal
chrome locking tuners
abalone dots (on both rosewood and maple fingerboards)
aged/parchment plastic hardware
Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups (they should have "noiseless" in script on the covers)
chrome plated solid saddles
snap in trem arm

The body could be alder or ash - the ash ones have transparent colors of teal, white blonde (with tortoise shell pickguard), purple, natural (clear), and I'm missing some other color (probably aged cherry burst or siena burst or something like that). Alder bodies were 3-color burst, black, trans red, and maybe some other color.

If the guitar has a bridge humbucker it could have the LSR roller nut and the locking trem. Also these did not have that contoured neck heel until some time in 2002.

Hope that helps, and good luck. It could be that the owner is selling cheap because this one is two generations old now.


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Post subject: Re: American Deluxe 1998 fake or legit?
Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2013 10:41 pm
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John C wrote:
If the guitar has a bridge humbucker it could have the LSR roller nut and the locking trem.


Not all USA Deluxe HSS Strats came with the mini floyd. This feature was optional.

Dropped as of 2007.


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Post subject: Re: American Deluxe 1998 fake or legit?
Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2013 12:00 am
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The deluxe serial number on a '98 would start with a "DN". Most likely DN8******.
It'll be found on the headstock.


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Post subject: Re: American Deluxe 1998 fake or legit?
Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2013 7:21 am
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chromeface wrote:
John C wrote:
If the guitar has a bridge humbucker it could have the LSR roller nut and the locking trem.


Not all USA Deluxe HSS Strats came with the mini floyd. This feature was optional.

Dropped as of 2007.



RRR wrote:
The deluxe serial number on a '98 would start with a "DN". Most likely DN8******.
It'll be found on the headstock.


Thanks guys; I should have added both of those pieces of information to my post.

In addition didn't some of the 1998 HSS models come with the regular nut, at least for a short while? It seems like the original Fender Frontline page on the American Deluxes listed the LSR nut as only being on HSS models with the locking trem option. However, I could just not be remembering that correctly, and Fender made the LSR standard on all HSS models sometime during the first two years of production.


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Post subject: Re: American Deluxe 1998 fake or legit?
Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2013 8:36 am
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John C wrote:
In addition didn't some of the 1998 HSS models come with the regular nut, at least for a short while? It seems like the original Fender Frontline page on the American Deluxes listed the LSR nut as only being on HSS models with the locking trem option.


No, certainly not.

The LSR roller nut was always a standard feature on the HSS Strats w/ non-locking trems since the introduction of the USA Deluxe series in 1998. The floyded versions were optional.

Here's a photo of an amber rosewood neck 2004 Deluxe HSS showing the regular nut and easyglider string guide.

Image


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