Fender American Deluxe Strat, sunburst, made in USA 2011. History will be kind to these Deluxe models, they somehow take themselves a bit less seriously than their American Ultra successors but deliver a versatile, innovative take on the Strat. My favourite part, without doubt, is the neck. It's s slim, modern C style shape, with an easy access body joint, a gorgeous rosewood slab fretboard and a fancy compound radius. The previous owner sanded and refinished the neck in satin, so it's superbly smooth in the hands and an absolute breeze to move around on and basically seems to play all those fancy lead lines by itself. The sunburst finish shows off some lovely subtle grain lines in the alder. There's some attractive depth in the colouring; this has a certain understated class to it. The noiseless single coils are indeed very quiet offering a shimmering top end and a clear, pronounced 'quack'. The Shawbucker in the bridge position is a lot of fun, especially with the little 'straight to the output' button engaged... it's out for a good time and will get your amp cooking up a creamy overdrive in no time. The S1 switching offers an insane amount of tonal combinations, certainly more than you could ever need, but we're not here to get by on the minimum, right? The roller nut, locking tuners and two point tremolo are all handy touches that make life easy. Deluxe: it's how you want your life to be, right?

Model: Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster
Made: USA, Corona plant, 2011 (serial US11000197)
Finish: three colour sunburst (3CS), 3-ply mint guard
Body: alder 
Neck: maple with rosewood board, 25.5” scale, 9-14” compound radius, slim C profile
Weight: 3.840kg
Mods: neck sanded and refinished to satin
Pickups: N3 Noiseless single coil x2, 'Shawbucker' humbucker x2
Case: Fender Deluxe ABS moulded hard case

Cosmetic condition notes: minor finish wear. The headstock has some marks on the end and bottom edge. The neck is clean and smooth in the hands, there's a couple of minor dimples in the back and obviously you can see where it's been sanded back. The back has some minor chips on the back edge near the rear strap pin, a dent in the elbow area and some widespread but minor scuffs. The sides have no major marks, minor scuffs around the whole body only. The front has no major marks, just minor dimples and scuffs around the whole body but nothing nasty, there's some standard play marks on the guard and horn too. Overall: very good condition (7.5/10).

Playing condition notes: Action is low, neck is straight, intonation is good, truss rod works. All electrics tested and working properly. The frets have some normal wear but have just had some levelling work and a polish, so they're playing great, 7/10 for fret life left. Wearing fresh 10/46 Moonshiners strings.