American Deluxe Professional 2 vs American Deluxe Professional

[JBryantfan]

Does anyone know what is the difference between the American Deluxe Professional vs American Deluxe Professional 2? Why was the 2 put out in the first place?

 

[Tuxedo Poly]

Pickups?
The Am Pro D/L has Shawbuckers and the Am Pro II D/L comes with V-Mod II DoubleTap with coil split/tap.

Am Pro vs Am Pro II - marketing.

 

[BerkshireDuncan]

All Pro's have trad Tele headstock regardless of pickups and an (FSR?) ebony board option on the Shawbucker.

All Pro 2's have bevelled neck plate, rolled board edges (to my eyes not really noticeable in an A/B) and 'smoother' neck & board finish.
Pro 2 Deluxe (only) has '72 big headstock and a belly cut.

Pickups as Tuxedo mentions (Pro 2 has push/pull pots for coil tap)

Tall narrow stainless frets on all.

IMHO these are (both) FANTASTIC necks. I have an ebony Pro neck on a partscaster and also a 3T/rose Pro 2 Deluxe. My two go-to guitars.

 

[John C]

For what it's worth on USA models Fender has put themselves on a 4-year product life cycle - so now every series is supposed to get an update/"upgrade" every 4 years or so. The American Professionals came out in December 2016, so they were due for an update in December 2020. However, due to the various COVID-related shutdowns Fender wound up losing weeks of production so they wound up putting the American Professional II series into production early and release them in October 2016 instead of waiting until December. From what I've read there was supposed to be one final batch run of American Professional models in the spring/summer of 2020 that was scrapped since they were planning on the changeover to American Professional IIs in the fall anyway.

The others have detailed the differences between the two models.

 

[fasteddie42]

y'all are missing the fact the the PRO 2 have the contoured heels.

 

[Fenderdad1950]

This really is splitting hairs

 

[JBryantfan]

I have the American Professional 2 and like it but it is a strong sounding guitar
especially with the middle position push button. Its hard to see the Deluxe
equipped one with humbucker being much stronger or different. Anyone own
both to compare as I've thought of adding the Deluxe but don't want to spend a
lot for something very similar or only a little different than the AP2 I already own.

 

[John C]

I have the American Professional 2 and like it but it is a strong sounding guitar
especially with the middle position push button. Its hard to see the Deluxe
equipped one with humbucker being much stronger or different. Anyone own
both to compare as I've thought of adding the Deluxe but don't want to spend a
lot for something very similar or only a little different than the AP2 I already own.

Caveat - I have not played the current American Pro II Tele Deluxe model so I don't know just how powerful the humbuckers are in it.

That being said your American Pro II Tele gets you one kind of humbucker-sounding/thicker sounding setting. With the American Pro II Deluxe you're going to get the that thicker humbucker sound from each pickup in each position. Unfortunately Fender doesn't have the "Service Manual" up for the Pro II Deluxe model; they do have it up for the Pro II HSS Strat and the version of the Double Tap humbucker in it is very low powered - about the same as a Strat single coil in humbucker mode, and half that output in single coil mode. And the humbuckers in the previous American Pro Tele Deluxe were low powered as well.

So you're going to get a somewhat Les Paulish sound out of the American Pro II Deluxe model; while the American Pro Tele in that series mode is thicker and kind of humbucker-ish the ones I've played just gave you a thicker/louder sound as opposed to a true humbucker sound (and that's not just the American Pro II Tele; that's pretty much any Fender Tele that has the series wiring option).

 

[tele_pathic]

No, this is NOT splitting hairs. The rolled edges, smoother fingerboards, and contoured heels are VAST improvements over the previous generation. Unless you are restricted by budget, go APV2 vs previous gen.

 

[JBryantfan]

Caveat - I have not played the current American Pro II Tele Deluxe model so I don't know just how powerful the humbuckers are in it.

That being said your American Pro II Tele gets you one kind of humbucker-sounding/thicker sounding setting. With the American Pro II Deluxe you're going to get the that thicker humbucker sound from each pickup in each position. Unfortunately Fender doesn't have the "Service Manual" up for the Pro II Deluxe model; they do have it up for the Pro II HSS Strat and the version of the Double Tap humbucker in it is very low powered - about the same as a Strat single coil in humbucker mode, and half that output in single coil mode. And the humbuckers in the previous American Pro Tele Deluxe were low powered as well.

So you're going to get a somewhat Les Paulish sound out of the American Pro II Deluxe model; while the American Pro Tele in that series mode is thicker and kind of humbucker-ish the ones I've played just gave you a thicker/louder sound as opposed to a true humbucker sound (and that's not just the American Pro II Tele; that's pretty much any Fender Tele that has the series wiring option).

So it sounds like the American Pro 2 gives something of a P-90 type thing instead of humbuckers. It sounds like adding
the Deluxe model would be redundant if you already have the AP2, not enough difference to make it worth it. I do notice that the AP2 gives a much stronger mid range sound including the back pickup. My 83 standard has more of that treble Tele sound. Both Tele's but different.

 

[John C]

So it sounds like the American Pro 2 gives something of a P-90 type thing instead of humbuckers. It sounds like adding
the Deluxe model would be redundant if you already have the AP2, not enough difference to make it worth it. I do notice that the AP2 gives a much stronger mid range sound including the back pickup. My 83 standard has more of that treble Tele sound. Both Tele's but different.

No; I wasn't very clear. They will give you a PAF humbucker sound - a bit "underwound" but still a PAF humbucker sound. I think the regular Pro II in series kind of acts like you have a P90 in the middle position.

Sorry, but really you would have to play it to see if it was something you wanted. I've played the older version, and while the pickups per spec were somewhat underwound it was pretty similar to my LP Tribute model - the LP Tribute is kind of lower output compared to some of the other LP models currently available.

 

[Creaulx]

No, this is NOT splitting hairs. The rolled edges, smoother fingerboards, and contoured heels are VAST improvements over the previous generation. Unless you are restricted by budget, go APV2 vs previous gen.

I have a 2020 Pro II single-coil and a 2017 Pro Deluxe Shawbucker - and the only thing the Deluxe missing is the contoured heel. Not a big deal IMO. The sound difference, however, is huge. Having the Shawbuckers potted professionally and will report back once the job is done.