1988 Fender Deluxe American Standard

This is a Fender Stratocaster Deluxe American Standard. This was a short-lived model offered  up to about 1990. It features a two point tremolo system with three gold lettered Fender Lace Sensor pickups. These are both features of the better known Fender Plus Stratocaster. However, on the Deluxe American Standard, the Wilkinson roller nut is replaced with a standard bone nut. Additionally, the tuners would be non-locking tuners and unlike the Plus, there are two string trees mounted to the face of the headstock. 

The body is painted Mystic Black. From a distance, the guitar looks black, but under bright light a dark blue-green metallic flake sheen can be observed. There are some scuffs, particularly where the elbow rests and there is a filled in and touched up strap button hole on the back of the upper horn, but the body is unusually largely free of the chips and wear often seen on a 35+ year old guitar. The neck has a maple board with a 9.5” radius and a 1 9/16” nut width. The frets are the original medium size, dressed down a bit but with plenty of life left. The tuners are locking Schallers with a brushed chrome finish. They are correct for Fenders of this period, but they are rarely, if ever, seen on the Deluxe American Standard. It is our opinion that they were swapped out at some point. There would normally be two string trees on the headstock. Now, only one remains and the hole for the missing tree has been filled in. The nut, originally made of bone, has been swapped for a jade colored nut. Although the exact material is unknown, it is well made and sounds great.

The pickguard is three-ply white plastic, the electronics are the classic volume-tone-tone with a five-way switch, though the circuit includes Fender’s TBX control: the treble bass extender. This knob has a detent around five, under which it acts as a standard tone control. Above five, however, resistance is added to add more bass, treble, presence and volume, according to Fender’s literature.

Overall, this is a clean, great sounding and great playing example of Fender’s late 1980’s output.