fender deluxe lone star strat

[philthis]

just picked one of these up. I needed an extra guitar that sounded good but wasn't expensive as I was taking it with me a few places like friends houses and part time job. I was hoping with lots of set up work and mods it would be ok enough to play at casual jam sessions as well. I got one with maple neck, color Ocean turquoise. it has two texas special singles and a fender twin humbucker. it has a split button on the volume nob.
I gotta tell you guys it sounds great. It comes from the Mexican Custom Shop and was only slightly tweaked when it arrived. The frets are smooth on the fret board not poking out or ruff. The neck feels great-the headstock is 70's so its a little big and funky but fine. As soon as I got it I plugged it in along side an American Standard at the guitar shop. This guitar played equally as well and has its own good tone. The American had the fat 50's for singles and they sound fantastic to me but the Texas Specials in this guitar have there own good tone as well. The humbucker works well with these pickups both on full or split. It really is a great match. I picked up this guitar for 600 plus tax and I think its a fantastic value for how well it plays and sounds. I think the guitar retails at around 900 normally. The humbucker is equally as impressive in distortion mode as it sounds full but not too trebley. It sounds like a medium output humbucker which works well for strats and it pushed the Marshall combo amp nicely. if you guys get a chance check one of these guitars out. bang for the buck its a great value for strat tone and playability. Quality on mine is excellent and at this price its pratically unheard of.

amps used for comparison
Fender Blues Jr 3
Fender Hot Rod Delux
Marshall 40C

 

[Butch Snyder]

Re: fender deluxe lone star strat

Congrats on the new guitar. Those guitars are a great value. I have a Deluxe Roadhouse Strat that I traded one of my Teles for. Great feel, fit, and finish. The Texas Specials are, I believe, the same pickups that come stock in the American Special models. They are not the Custom Shop versions. I wonder what the difference is.

Anyway, congrats and enjoy!

 

[Chris of Arabia]

Re: fender deluxe lone star strat

The pickups on the original MIA Lonestar and Roadhouse weren't from the custom shop - just regular Texas Specials, or (in the case of the Lonestar) the PG+. I thought they'd gone the same way with the newer MIM versions, but I could be wrong on that one. The MIM stuff is pretty good in my experience; I have a Classic Players 50's Strat and the Baja Tele, and whilst both have been tweaked to some extent, they both play very well. I just wish they came with 22 frets.

 

[Johtosotku]

Re: fender deluxe lone star strat

I also tested one for some time while amp hunting a while ago. I was pleasantly surprised. The overall feel was nice and I really liked the pickups too. I wouldn't mind having one in the future.

 

[philthis]

Re: fender deluxe lone star strat

I have been playing it for a few days, I think the weak spots could be the string trees on the head stock and the nut on the top of the neck. The tuners are OK but locking would be better of course. The neck plays good and the tones with the S1 switching are excellent.

 

[philthis]

Re: fender deluxe lone star strat

***Update*** I have had this guitar for a little over 3 months now and it plays great with no issues. Position 4 between the middle and humbucker sounds amazing with the humbucker on full and the middle pickup. It still sounds good with the humbucker split and the middle pickup using the S1 switch but I think its not quite as sweet as two regular single coils as it tends to be a little on the treble side. The humbucker seems to add extra bass and defined attack all most like two single coils split but boosted with a pedal. It produces a beautiful "quack" tone in position 4. The Texas specials I turn down tone wise to around 6 to 6.5 as my guitar has a maple neck and its bright. I like the fact I have extra tone to turn up to dig in when I want extra bite and snap especially with the Fender 68 custom twin I am playing through. All in all its a great value and I get beautiful strat tones for $100s less then a regular American. I am going to replace the tuners with locking spertzels and maybe shove on a Super V locking trem for fun. Not sure if that will make it too bright at that point for the Texas special single coils on the guitar with the maple neck. Eric Johnson on YouTube claimed the Super V really didn't effect his tone very much but I am still a little nervous to try it. Meh we'll see, for now just know its a great sounding guitar at a good price so far.