Find Your

After loving my first SE-02, I bought another to take advantage of polychaining, which works great but from my experience only one can use the USB audio connection. I also replaced about 6 of the knobs on my master SE-02 with larger grippy ones that also make it look badass. 3 VCOs x2 sounds pretty massive, and with overdubs it’s almost too much! But you didn’t hear that from me. ;)

Reveals mix issues and transient problems. Some people pay $10k for NS10s when these do the exact same thing. Handle with care and they will last long.

"Deluxe American Standard" - what is that ? At Fender, you're either "Deluxe" or "American Standard," right?

Actually, no because for a few months in 1989 and 1990, Fender produced a "Deluxe American Standard" Stratocaster model, with a production run of around 400 units : "Deluxe" because, like the Deluxe Strat Plus series, the "Deluxe American Standard" was equipped with three Fender Lace Sensor Gold pickups (also fitted on the 1990s Fender Eric Clapton Stratocaster) / "American Standard" because, like the American Standard series, the "Deluxe American Standard" was equipped with a standard nut and standard tuners (whereas the Deluxe Strat Plus featured a Wilkinson roller nut and locking tuners).

To learn more about these rare "Deluxe American Standard" Stratocaster models, you can consult these links : https://www.fuzzfaced.net/stratocaster-deluxe-american-standard.html and https://xhefriguitars.com/page2.html (see the part: "It Looks Like a Plus, But It's NOT!").

The model name "Deluxe American Standard Strat" can be found in a 1989 Fender advertisement, available at the link https://xhefriguitars.com/Stuff/PlusAdd1989.jpg (see the fourth column of text, to the right of the photo of the neck).

So, how can you tell the difference with certainty between a rare "Deluxe American Standard" Stratocaster model and an American Standard Stratocaster fitted with Fender Lace Sensor Gold pickups ? It’s very simple. You just need to look at the label Fender used to place inside the guitar case to verify that it says "Deluxe American Stand. Strat" (see the third photo at the top on this page).

The build quality is exceptional and rock-solid... I’ve been playing a Fender Deluxe American Standard Stratocaster for over 30 years, and nothing has budged.

In terms of sound, the Deluxe American Standard Stratocaster is an excellent guitar, thanks to its Fender Lace Sensor Gold pickups that deliver top-notch sound - whether clean or overdriven - all without any background noise !

For even more aggressive distortion, simply install a Fender Lace Sensor Red pickup in the bridge position... I’ve rarely heard such punch and dynamics as with this setup !

Truly a very rare guitar.

I've been using Reason since version 1.0. At that time it was the only DAW choice next to Cubase. Cubase crashed a lot on me. Reason was very stable so it won out. You couldn't record, edit audio or master tracks very well in the beginning so I had to use other programs on the side (Acid and Soundforge) and I even still used Cubase for midi handling of external instruments. Reason quickly grew out to become a completely independent DAW and it replaced every other program in my workflow. For period of time it became tho only thing I made music with. I often thought about leaving Reason, or combine it with other DAWs, when modern features were not jet incorporated and Reason seemed to become outdated. Like when VST became a must, but it didn't support VST yet. When it finally supported VST but there were still issues with it other DAWs had already fixed. In the end all the VST issues were fixed but then it didn't support VST3 yet which had become the new standard, etc. I thought about moving back to Cubase because I hear it has gotten a lot more stable over time. Or use Reason in combination with Logic, so I could say "I don't use instruments to make music. Instead I use Logic and Reason", like I'm some sort of Greek philosopher who theorises music out of thin air (you'd be surprised how many people don't get that joke). Each time I was about to jump ship, Reason came with an update to fix all of the issues I had. I'm still using it to this day. Even though most of my sound nowadays comes from hardware instruments and VST effects, I still like the Reason workflow. The 16" rig interface makes it feel like you're still working with a real hardware studio, even when on your computer. Some people claim you have to be "savant" to be able to handle workflow, but this is how hardware always worked. To me it all makes perfect sense and it actually helps me to see what's going on and dig deep into sound design. Where in other DAWs you only see the surface and everything else is hidden in menus, in Reason you just have to follow which cable goes where, what position each button is in, to see exactly what's going on. The sequencer is fine. quantisation, time stretching and pitch correction sounds good. It may not be as advanced as Cubase in that regard (where for example you can quantise to a groove instead of just the grid) but I think you can do everything manually (as you should). The build in instruments and effects are also not to be overlooked as well as the third party rack extensions (Reason's alternative to VST, from when they didn't support it yet). Their latest instruments such as Objekt, Algorhythm, Europa and Parsec are fine by themselves, but you should dig deep into their older devices to discover sounds and effects you can use as building blocks to create your own sounds. For example; Subtractor has some really unusual wave shapes (only displayed as numbers). NN-XT has unusual sound effect samples like thunder or didgeridoos. Thor has rare oscillators and formant filters. You can use the external input of Radical piano to make sound resonate with the strings of an acoustic piano, etc. Most devices have options for advanced cv routing. Reason is extremely inspiring. A creative playground for people who want to build their own sounds.