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The Fender American Deluxe Series was a line of electric guitars and basses introduced by Fender in 1995 and discontinued in 2016. It was upgraded in 2004 and 2010 before being replaced by the American Elite series in 2016. [1]
The American Deluxe line replaced the Plus Series models of 1987. [2]
The entire range came with options such as solid tonewood bodies made from alder or ash, chrome or gold-plated hardware, aged plastic parts, Noiseless pickups, abalone shell dot position fingerboard inlays, a dark aluminum "spaghetti" decal, [3] 22-fret maple necks featuring rosewood, maple or ebony fretboards, quilted or flamed maple tops, rolled fingerboard edges, Fender S-1 switching, [4] highly detailed nut and fret work, a bound top with contoured back on Telecasters, a two-point synchronized tremolo with pop-in arm, [5] LSR roller nut [6] on the HSS model Stratocaster, and staggered locking tuning machines [7] on certain models.
American Deluxe bass guitars (introduced in 1995) came in 4-string, fretless, 5-string and left-handed versions and feature 9V-powered 3-band active electronics (including a new design of humbucker on the Precision Bass models) as well as a strings-through/top-load bridge with stainless brass saddles, Hipshot UltraLite tuning machines, an asymmetrical 5-bolt neck plate with a contoured heel, designed for easier access to the higher registers and a Posiflex graphite-reinforced 22-fret maple neck with rosewood, maple or pao ferro fingerboard. Jazz Basses are made with chrome hardware, a traditional control plate with classic black bakelite knobs, a downsized body shape and a redesigned pickguard with nine holes.
Fender also produced models with rear routed controls featuring flamed or quilted maple tops (FMT/QMT), gold hardware and bound necks with white pearloid rectangular block-shaped position markers from 2003 to 2007.
Models produced prior to 2002 used 4-bolt neck fixing, 5-in-line headstocks, black or white dot markers, Schaller die-cast tuners, 9V power supply and a new design of stacked "single-pole" Jazz Bass pickups (designed by John Suhr). Vintage Noiseless pickups, a dark aluminum Fender "spaghetti" logo and abalone inlaid fingerboards were added in 1998; 5-bolt neck fixing, 4+1 tuners, 18V power supply and Schaller Lite Bass tuning machines followed 4 years later (replaced by Hipshot UltraLite tuners as of 2006). As of March 23, 2010, all American Deluxe basses came with an active/passive switch, a Fender High-Mass Vintage (HMV) bridge, Hipshot lightweight vintage tuners, a recessed string retainer bar on the A string, tinted necks with 21-fret compound radiused fretboards and 1970s-era styling.
Some of the design elements found on the American Deluxe instruments (such as the rolled fretboard edges, the HSH pickup routing and the nut and fret work) were adopted on the American Series models of 2001 (which replaced the first-generation American Standard line produced between 1986 and 2000) and the more recent American Standard Series [8] instruments, introduced in 2008.
The American Deluxe was later updated with Samarium Cobalt Noiseless (SCN) pickups by Fender in 2004. As of March 23, 2010, all American Deluxe series guitars came with a tinted maple neck with compound/conical-radius fretboards, N3 noiseless pickups and the S-1 switching system has been reconfigured with a Passing Lane switch [9] on the humbucker-equipped models.
As of January 2016, the American Deluxe series was discontinued and they were replaced with the American Elite series.
The Fender Stratocaster, colloquially known as the Strat, is a model of electric guitar designed between 1952 and 1954 by Leo Fender, Bill Carson, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares. The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has continuously manufactured the Stratocaster since 1954. It is a double-cutaway guitar, with an extended top "horn" shape for balance. "Stratocaster" and "Strat" are trademark terms belonging to Fender. Guitars that duplicate the Stratocaster by other manufacturers are sometimes called S-Type or ST-type guitars. Many prominent rock musicians have been associated with the Stratocaster for use in studio recording and live performances, most notably Eric Clapton, Buddy Holly, David Gilmour, Mark Knopfler, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Mark Speer and George Harrison.
The Fender Jazzmaster is an electric guitar designed as a more expensive sibling of the Fender Stratocaster. First introduced at the 1958 NAMM Convention, it was initially marketed to jazz guitarists, but found favor among surf rock guitarists in the early 1960s. Its appearance is similar to the Fender Jaguar, though it is tonally and physically different in many technical ways, including pickup design, scale length and controls.
The Fender Showmaster is a discontinued model of electric guitar made by Fender, and is characteristic of a superstrat. Also see the badge change of Stagemaster due to legal reasons.
The Fender Jaguar is an electric guitar by Fender Musical Instruments characterized by an offset-waist body, a relatively unusual switching system with two separate circuits for lead and rhythm, and a short-scale 24" neck. Owing some roots to the Jazzmaster, it was introduced in 1962 as Fender's feature-laden top-of-the-line model, designed to lure players from Gibson. During its initial 13-year production run, the Jaguar did not sell as well as the less expensive Stratocaster and Telecaster, and achieved its most noticeable popularity in the surf music scene. After the Jaguar was taken out of production in 1975, vintage Jaguars became popular first with American punk rock players, and then more so during the alternative rock, shoegazing and indie rock movements of the 1980s and 1990s. Fender began making a version in Japan in the mid-1980s, and then introduced a USA-made reissue in 1999. Since then, Fender has made a variety of Jaguars in America, Mexico, Indonesia and China under both the Fender and Squier labels. Original vintage Jaguars sell for many times their original price.
The Fender Precision Bass is a model of electric bass guitar manufactured by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. In its standard, post-1957 configuration, the Precision Bass is a solid body, four-stringed instrument usually equipped with a single split-coil humbucking pickup and a one-piece, 20-fret maple neck with rosewood or maple fingerboard.
The Fender Jazz Bass is the second model of electric bass created by Leo Fender. It is distinct from the Precision Bass in that its tone is brighter and richer in the midrange and treble with less emphasis on the fundamental frequency. The body shape is also different from the Precision Bass, in that the Precision Bass has a symmetrical lower bout on the body, designed after the Telecaster and Stratocaster lines of guitars, while the Jazz Bass has an offset lower bout, mimicking the design aesthetic of the Jaguar and Jazzmaster guitars.
The Fender Lead Series was produced by the Fender/Rogers/Rhodes Division of CBS Musical Instruments. The series comprised Lead I, Lead II, Lead III and Lead Bass models.
The Jackson Soloist is an electric guitar model introduced by Jackson Guitars in 1984, although prototypes were available before then. The design is a typical "superstrat"; it varies from a typical Stratocaster because of its neck-thru design; tremolo: Floyd Rose or similar, Kahler; or a fixed Tune-O-Matic; premium woods; a deeper cutaway at the lower horn for better access to the higher frets, and a sharper body with squared-off edges.
The Fender Jaguar Bass is an electric bass guitar currently manufactured in Mexico by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation.
The Gibson L6-S is a solid body electric guitar. It was the descendant of the L5S jazz solid-body electric guitar. It was the same shape, very much like a wide Gibson Les Paul, but with a 24-fret neck, the first Gibson guitar to have this.
The Fender Bullet was an electric guitar originally designed by John Page and manufactured and marketed by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. It was first introduced as a line of "student" guitars to replace the outgoing Mustang and Musicmaster models.
The Precision Bass Plus is an electric bass made by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation and designed by George Blanda in 1989. It was one of the first American-made Fender basses to feature a 22-fret neck, requiring the company to slightly oversize the body shape and lengthen the cutaways, which distinctly changed the overall look of the instrument. Other features included a solid alder or ash body, a 1-piece maple neck with rosewood or maple fingerboard, adjustable Lace Sensor Precision and Jazz pickups, Schaller deluxe die-cast tuning machines, 3-ply black, parchment or 4-ply brown tortoise shell pickguard, Schaller Elite fine-tuning bridge, 3-way toggle pickup switch, master volume, series/parallel push-push button for the neck pickup and master TBX tone. It was discontinued in 1993.
The Fender Prodigy is a discontinued model of electric guitar produced by Fender from 1991 to 1993. It is one of Fender's attempts to compete with the superstrat-style guitars produced by Ibanez, Jackson/Charvel, Carvin Corporation and Yamaha. Since the Prodigy series was discontinued after about 2+1⁄2 years of production without a clear reason, it is considered one of Fender's rare models because of its limited production. Fender also produced a Prodigy Bass based on the Precision Bass Plus Deluxe featuring a P/J pickup layout (P as in Fender Precision Bass and J as in Fender Jazz Bass), 2-band active circuitry and a "fine-tuner" Schaller Elite bridge assembly.
The Fender Nashville B-Bender Telecaster is an American Standard series electric guitar made by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. This guitar is a Fender Telecaster with the addition of a factory-installed B-string bender device. The device raises the pitch of the second (B) string by one whole step to C-sharp. The bend is activated by a one-inch downward pull on the guitar neck, allowing the player to emulate pedal steel sounds and play complex country bends. The Nashville B-Bender Telecaster was introduced in 1996 with major design changes in 1998 and 2000.
Starcaster by Fender is a range of instruments and accessories aimed at students and beginners, marketed by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation from the early 2000s until at least 2011. As of April 2018, no products were being marketed under this brand.
The Jeff Beck Stratocaster is an electric solid body guitar made by Fender Musical Instruments for British guitarist Jeff Beck. This Artist Signature guitar was introduced in 1991 and upgraded ten years later. The Custom Shop version, introduced in 2004, is available in Olympic White and Surf Green finishes.
The Fender Elite Stratocaster is an electric solid body guitar that was manufactured by Fender in 1983 and 1984. The name was revived from 2016 to 2019 with the Fender American Elite Stratocaster Series.
The Jazz Bass V is the five string (extended-range) version of the Fender Jazz Bass. It comes in several different versions, with active or passive pickups.
The Yamaha Corporation is a multinational corporation and conglomerate based in Japan with a wide range of products and services, predominantly musical instruments, motorcycles, power sports equipment and electronics.
The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele, is an electric guitar produced by Fender. Together with its sister model the Esquire, it was the world's first mass-produced, commercially successful solid-body electric guitar. Its simple yet effective design and revolutionary sound broke ground and set trends in electric guitar manufacturing and popular music. Many prominent rock musicians have been associated with the Telecaster for use in studio recording and live performances, most notably Bruce Springsteen, Kurt Cobain, Luis Alberto Spinetta, Keith Richards and George Harrison.
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