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Verified Purchaser zZounds has verified that this reviewer purchased this specific product from us.

Received mine today. After thorough inspection, found nothing even slightly wrong: no unfliled fret edges/fret sprout, no finish issues, everything works smoothly and noiselessly. The fit and finish are flawless, and the wonderfully smooth neck and heel make playing effortless. Many of the same features that are found in the newest Fender Ultra model can be had with the Roadhouse deluxe, at less than half the price. I made a good choice for my first Strat. Will definitely make more Fender purchases in the future. Those fine folks at the Ensañada factory have done it again, and have made a high quality instrument that is the perfect tool for the novice and professional alike. I simply cannot recommend it highly enough!

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Verified Purchaser zZounds has verified that this reviewer purchased this specific product from us.

Bought this as a blem/open box, good price. Had to spend a little time tweaking it, although I'm not sure if it's because it wasn't new/non-blem (I'm thinking, someone probably bought this, didn't know how to set it up, and sent it back - thanks, I got a better price because of you! :) . Did a quick fret-level (notched ruler, 12" radius block with 600, then steel wool), and had to mess with the truss rod quite a bit, to get it all smooth and level. The fret ends had to be filed and buffed as well. I'm not sure about the pau fero (or whatever it is) fretboard wood - time will tell, although I can say when I lemon-oiled my fretboard, the color deepened a little bit, moreso than when I do rosewood fretboards, however I can't tell if thats a good or bad thing. In the end, after tweaking, I finally got it so I really love the guitar. The pickups sounds great - albeit they are vintage staggered, which means they are set up for old-school wound-G strung guitars (easy to readjust the pole pieces). Okay, so on to the guitar. It sounds awesome - with the S-1 pushed in, bypassing the preamp, it is very vintage sounding, and all the stratiness and quack comes through. When you depress the S-1, it's got some real beef, good for solos or a more modern tone. I can't speak of the rotary tone adjustment, as I doubt I'll use that aspect, but it does work okay. The tone and volume controls are very responsive. The bridge - after tweaking (adjusting the springs, pivot points, etc) the whammy stays in tune well. The action is nice and low with no fretting out (thanks to the 12" radius) and feels like butter. I love the large headstock, although I wish the logo was solid black instead of outlined lettering. I'm a throwback to the Ritchie Blackmore era of strats obviously. The guitar is pretty light, and is a pleasure playing after a couple sets with my LP - which is heavy as hell. If I had one real wish, it would be really that the rotary dial was just replaced with a regular tone control, however I can see using the rotary if you really want to get some subtle changes in tone, at a preset kinda way. The pickups are noiseless and sound good. I was going to pull the trigger on a hot noiseless for the bridge but ended up going for a duncan hot rails - only because the music my band plays begs for a very high gain option on some songs, however I will say the stock pickups sound miles better than my old american special pickups (I think they were the texas specials - which were okay but a little anemic - I need more gain than that). And again, noiseless - makes all the difference. I swapped out the stock nut for a tusq xl, but that is personal preference and I do that with all my guitars - I just like the tone and glide. All in all, this is a really good guitar, and after a little attention on the setup side, no better or worse than an american standard; for the price I'd do this again. The gig bag it comes with is okay if all you do is move it from one room to another, but if you are going to throw this guitar in your car (I do) then really go for a hard case. Spend the 100 bucks for your 800 dollar guitar. Damn good looking guitar too. Strats are sexy. Get one from zZounds - can't beat their payment plans, their speedy shipping, and I've always been serviced well there.

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Verified Purchaser zZounds has verified that this reviewer purchased this specific product from us.

I've always been happy with zZounds so when I got my deluxe roadhouse it looked gorgeous but begin to play it and it sound treble. So I checked out the settings and it was a poor set up I started by replacing the sissy 9s and went to 10s reset up everything from neck to tremolo and i can .dive bomb all day and it stays in tune. Got familiar with the s1 knob and fell in love I haven't been able.to but her down. For the money you cant do.any better in fact I'll put it against a American made any day. I can get those clean sparkly stratocaster sounds and when I use the s1 wow it goes between a Texas Pic ups and a p 90 love this guitar. Thank you Z sounds your no. One

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I purchased this guitar 2 months ago only to find it had a twisted neck. Quality control problem. I take it to my fender tech and he reached out to fender....they will replace the neck! Wait to of 4-6 MONTHS!!!! Of course after only two months of out of zZounds warranty. I recently made the switch to ordering online and to fender guitars. I must say I’m feeling a lot of regret. I have an $800 guitar I can’t even play.

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