With so many choices out there in the guitar world, it can be a challenge to know where to start when looking for an instrument to buy. I would like to offer my personal review of the Fender Deluxe Player Stratocaster.
The Fender Deluxe Player’s Strat is the second incarnation of what Fender used to call the Super Strat. This tool is a mid-priced offering from a company that covers the entire spectrum in terms of both quality and price. The Strat Player Deluxe is a notch below the American series in the Fender line, but offers a lot of quality features and functionality. More ideas also from the Squier brand entry Stratocaster.
Some notable features on the Ludo include gold hardware, vintage Fender’s pickups, turtle pickups, turtle neck, 12″ radius fretboard, medium-jumbo frets and a unique push-button switch that adds two pickup combinations not available on a typical deck.
In particular, with the five-position plate, it will switch either in the bridge only or in the middle position of the bride, pushing the switch on the pickup neck alternately. This allows you to use the neck and bridge at the same time, or all three at the same time – something you can’t do with a signal. The new sounds aren’t overly dramatic, but the neck pickup adds some extra fullness compared to the same position they’re running without. It sounds especially nice when the world is playing.
Speaking of sound, Stratus has been very impressed with this sound. I have always loved the sound of the strats in the 2nd and 4th position; They have very high quality bells, and the Deluxe is no exception. Just using the bridge pick-up gives you plenty of Fender twanf for country playing. The Tele isn’t quite there in this regard but it comes pretty close while giving you the mobility of a Strat. My personal favorite is just the neck pickup. You can get a very high fidelity Hendrix/SRV sound, especially when you can drive a good tube amp.
Playability is very good, while a little different than the “classic” Neck Strat that the newer 12″ radius with Gibson’s jumbo flares. The fit and finish of the guitar is very good. Maybe it’s not subtle enough. A higher-end American Strat or a Les Paul, but very good, especially for the money.
My only real complaint with Real Player is the weight of the Strat. This is a hefty tool. Not necessarily a problem for me, but I can see that a smaller player would be quite tired after a long gig. I recommend using a nice wide strap.
Overall, I highly recommend the Stratocaster Deluxe to the working guitar player who is looking for a high quality yet affordable instrument that will serve him well in most any situation, from rock to blues to country.
