The Fender American Deluxe Series was a line of
electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...
s and
basses
Bass or Basses may refer to:
Fish
* Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species
Music
* Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range:
** Bass (instrument), including:
** Acoustic bass ...
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.
The American Deluxe line replaced the Plus Series models of 1987.
Features
The entire range came with options such as solid
tonewood
Tonewood refers to specific wood varieties that possess tonal properties that make them good choices for use in woodwind or acoustic stringed instruments.
Varieties of tonewood
As a rough generalization it can be said that stiff-but-light softwood ...
bodies made from
alder
Alders are trees comprising the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus comprises about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few sp ...
or
ash
Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non- gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash ...
, chrome or gold-plated hardware, aged plastic parts,
Noiseless pickups,
abalone shell dot
position fingerboard inlays, a dark aluminum "spaghetti" decal, 22-fret maple
necks
The neck is the part of the body on many vertebrates that connects the head with the torso. The neck supports the weight of the head and protects the nerves that carry sensory and motor information from the brain down to the rest of the body. In ...
featuring
rosewood
Rosewood refers to any of a number of richly hued timbers, often brownish with darker veining, but found in many different hues.
True rosewoods
All genuine rosewoods belong to the genus ''Dalbergia''. The pre-eminent rosewood appreciated ...
,
maple
''Acer'' () is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated since http ...
or
ebony
Ebony is a dense black/brown hardwood, coming from several species in the genus '' Diospyros'', which also contains the persimmons. Unlike most woods, ebony is dense enough to sink in water. It is finely textured and has a mirror finish when ...
fretboards, quilted or flamed maple tops, rolled
fingerboard edges, Fender S-1 switching, highly detailed
nut
Nut often refers to:
* Nut (fruit), fruit composed of a hard shell and a seed, or a collective noun for dry and edible fruits or seeds
* Nut (hardware), fastener used with a bolt
Nut or Nuts may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Co ...
and fret work, a bound top with contoured back on
Telecaster
The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is an electric guitar produced by Fender. Together with its sister model the Esquire, it is the world's first mass-produced, commercially successfulLes Paul had built a prototype solid body ...
s, a
two-point synchronized tremolo with pop-in arm, LSR roller nut on the HSS model Stratocaster, and staggered locking tuning machines on certain models.
American Deluxe
bass guitar
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...
s (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
A humbucking pickup, humbucker, or double coil, is a type of guitar pickup that uses two wire coils to cancel out the noisy interference picked up by coil pickups. In addition to electric guitar pickups, humbucking coils are sometimes used in ...
on the
Precision Bass
The Fender Precision Bass (often shortened to "P-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 instr ...
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
Rosewood refers to any of a number of richly hued timbers, often brownish with darker veining, but found in many different hues.
True rosewoods
All genuine rosewoods belong to the genus ''Dalbergia''. The pre-eminent rosewood appreciated ...
,
maple
''Acer'' () is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated since http ...
or
pao ferro
''Libidibia ferrea'', formerly ''Caesalpinia ferrea'', and commonly known as pau ferro, Jucá, Brazilian ironwood, morado, or leopard tree, is a tree found in Brazil and Bolivia.
Wood
Most species of ''Caesalpinia'' s.l. have poorly defined gr ...
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
A pickguard (also known more correctly as scratchplate) is a piece of plastic or other (often laminated) material that is placed on the body of a guitar, mandolin or similar plucked string instrument. The main purpose of the pickguard is to pro ...
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 marker
Inlay on guitars or similar fretted instruments are decorative materials set into the wooden surface of the instrument using standard inlay techniques. Although inlay can be done on any part of a guitar, it is most commonly found on the fretboar ...
s 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 The Fender Noiseless™ series is a line of electric guitar pickups made by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation designed to cancel 60 cycle (Hz) hum noise while retaining the characteristic sound of single coil pickups. Introduced in 1998, ...
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 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
on the humbucker-equipped models.
As of January 2016, the American Deluxe series was discontinued and they were replaced with the
American Elite series.
References
{{Fender
Fender electric guitars
Musical instruments invented in the 1990s