Fender American Deluxe Ash Stratocaster Guitar Review

The Fender line of guitars, especially at the higher end, has been acclaimed year after year for superiority in quality and craftsmanship. Their American made lines have long been among the top selling and most sought after guitars available on the market. One instance of this line is the Fender American Deluxe Ash Stratocaster. Let's take a closer look at the Ash Stratocaster to see just how well it compares with other guitars in its price range.

Features: The main quality that separates the Deluxe Ash Stratocaster from other Strats is its build. Instead of the traditional alder wood used on most other Fenders, it's made of select ash wood. There are three finishes available, including butterscotch, cherry sunburst, and tobacco sunburst. All invoke the classic Fender look, and they have a nice vintage aesthetic quality to them. The neck of the Deluxe Ash Stratocaster is made of maple wood, and has a modern slim profile C shape. The fretboard, meanwhile, can be either be rosewood or maple depending on the buyer's selection. On the fretboard are twenty two medium jumbo frets, with either pearloid or black dot inlays. As an added luthier grade feature, the edges of the neck on the newest model are hand rolled. The hardware, including the tuning heads, bridge, and input jack, is all chrome. The tuning heads lock to keep strings in tune, and the bridge is the classic Fender tremolo design with a strings through body anchoring system. Electronically, the Deluxe Ash Stratocaster has three single coil Fender SCN pickups, one volume and two tone control knobs, and a five way S-1 switching system.

Playability: The neck of the Deluxe Ash Stratocaster is among the most comfortable you could ever play. The hand rolled edges and high quality finish make for supreme ease for making complicated chord shapes and fast runs. Also, there is pretty much a guarantee that you won't encounter any dead frets, which is another effect of the American made build. Another effect is that the Ash Strat will have just about perfect action and intonation right out off the assembly line. To sum up this guitar's playability in a phrase: you get what you pay for.

Sound: The fact that the Deluxe Ash Strat is, well, made of ash makes its resonance and sustain hard to beat among other Fenders. Also, the SCN pickups are specially designed to eliminate all background noise and pickups. According to most all users, they do an excellent job of it. And the S-1 switching system gives you a huge range of tonal opportunities. You can get the classic bell like tone of the Stratocaster, or depending on how you manipulate it, sounds that rival high quality humbuckers.

Overall: If you have pockets deep enough and are looking for an instrument that is among the best on the market today, look no further than the Fender Deluxe Ash Stratocaster. It has all the vintage qualities of the highly sought after Stratocaster with some innovations that increase both its sound and playability. You can find the Deluxe Ash Strat in music stores for around $1,350.