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This review is a little long winded, but if you are considering buying this guitar, it’s a must read. Spoiler alert...It has a happy ending! First of all, this is my first ever Fender guitar. I’ve always loved the sound of a Strat, but never could find one that felt right. The hum of the single coil pick ups drove me nuts, but a lot of my favorite guitarist play Strats. I am, for the most, part a Les Paul guy. I still love my Les Paul, but I’ve gotta hand it to Fender on this one. It has everything I love about a Les Paul (Ebony fret board, noiseless single coil pickups, humbucker in the bridge, etc...) along with the one of a kind Strat tone. This guitar is a gem, by any standard. Plays great, sounds great and looks beautiful. This is probably the most versatile guitar on the market right now. This guitar will give you 10 distinct tones with the switches that come on it. I’m still experimenting with all of the things this guitar can do.As much as I love it, I almost sent it back. Out of the box, it had serious issues. The factory didn’t bother to set it up. The bridge was about 1/4” off of the body and there was a slight bow in the neck, but the biggest problem was electronic. There was a loud pop (audible through the amp) when switching between the pickups. The middle and neck pickups were extremely quiet compared to the bridge. It was like you had the volume turned almost all the way down, even when it was set on 10. To add to the frustration, nobody within 2 hours of where I live, that was an authorized Fender repair center had a guitar technician. Fender did try to get one of the local shops to work on it, but since the guitar wasn’t bought there, they wouldn’t work on it (which is understandable). I called several of the authorized repair locations (that rhyme with mit tar fenter) and they said that they had several come in with the popping in the switch and they were unable to fix them. They suggested that I spray contact cleaner on it and see if that helped. I finally found a guy in Houston (2 hours away) that came highly recommended by Fender, and everyone else in the area. I took the guitar to him and he removed the pick guard and found the problem within 5 seconds. There were 2 wires soldered together that were grounding to other components inside the guitar. He put insulation on the solder joint, did a quick 10 minute set up, and now the guitar plays and sounds like what I expected a high end Fender to be. Thanks to my wife and son, who insisted that I take it to Houston to have it checked out before sending it back. I’m glad that my wife put her foot down because the guitar is now everything I ever wanted it to be.

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I am mostly a Gibson Les Paul man , but needed a solid tremolo system without moving up 2 Alex lifeson model Gibson ranging around $4,000.. I tried several " PREMIUM IBANEZ" ( 1st mistake ) After more research zZounds and myself come to the conclusion of the FENDER ELITE w EBONY FRETBOARD... What a Guitar .. Beautiful and plays amazingly , very smooth and comes standard with locking tuners .. Keeps everything in tune along with push / push controls that give you even more sounding abilities... I would recommend this to any player of any type of music they play , greatful for the patience and time that zZounds has helped finding the perfect Guitar!!! THANKS zZOUNDS TEAM ... !!!!

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In the early 90's I had a custom shop strat with ebony fingerboard and all the bells and whistles made for me, with 4 lace sensor pickups (two in the bridge position with a toggle switch to turn one or the other off or both on). Paid $2000 back then. Broke my heart to sell it when money was tight. Never found another even close to it, until this almost exact version, The American Elite was released. I am absolutely thrilled. It's even a bit better than my previous custom shop axe. Fit, feel, finish are just flawless. The 4th gen noiseless pups sound great, better than the lace sensors. Neck compound radius is fantastic. Ebony fingerboard is dark, smooth as glass, rounded off on the edges, frets are perfect, and the S-1 switching with the extra bypass button gives any sound I could ever want and more. Fender is putting Gibson to shame with this one, I know, because I have 5 Gibsons right now, several are going to be packed away for heirlooms, as I am probably never going to play them again after getting this one. Fender just absolutely shines with this one.

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This Fender Stratocaster does it all for the money this is the best on the market... Out of the Box into the studio and then up on stage sounds great provoke progressive rock country and just over all a great instrument for any professional guitarist. Peter SThe Last Bite Band

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