The Ultra is Here!!

I'll hold my peace, but I will say this... I thought Fender went too far discontinuing the American Vintage line in 2018 with the American Original line.

 

Not impressed. I'd take an Elite over this, anytime.

 

I like the looks of the cut away on the back. I'd like to try one just to see if it adds a little more comfort. I'd never buy one...especially at that price but when I get around to my own build it's something to consider

 

Don't worry I'm sure the Marketeers at Fender are taking notes. This Ultra series appears pretty basic. When you add a roasted Maple neck, call it an Ultra Plus series. And next, add an ebony board; call it an Ultimate series.

Personally, I hope the D neck is more like the Vintage neck thickness of the 60's Strat necks, like the 1970 4-bolt I have. I have the first Ultra, a 1990 Strat Ultra, and I love it's radical switching options, speed of switching, and its sound with the Lace Sensors. The only thing I don't like is the modern C neck ( #5). I have the #3 neck on my 1970 Stratocaster(4-bolt neck), and it is my second favorite Fender neck. The Baja's soft V neck (#2)is my favorite, and it is so comfortable. Both necks on my Strats are oval or D shaped necks, but the vintage oval is thicker.

Also, on the HSS Strats, I'd like a splitter switch so I could have a HSS or SSS, on demand. This is on the Ultra I have. It is the best feature I can think of and all this feature would need is a 4 lead humbucker, to access the coils individually.

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The marketing on this thing is too over the top. Some nice refinements subject to personal preference and taste, but it’s still a strat not that different from others.

 

Fender must have listened to those who were saying "I would buy an AV if it just had a modern radius and bigger frets". I still expect them to bring back some kind of vintage-spec USA model, particularly if the vintage-spec MIM Vinteras continue to sell as well as the old MIM Classics sold. It's just a missed opportunity to not have both an American Vintage and an American Original in the lineup - they had both the AVRI and the modernized Hot Rod Vintage models in the lineup together for 6-7 years and both sold well enough. But I could also see a revived AV series as still having the nitro-over-poly finish like all the USA reissue models prior to the AV series.

Yep; Fender's marketing department kind ran wild with the teaser/launch videos.

 

I do like that Texas Tea Strat and Tele, even though I own an Elite Tele(Mystic Black) so it would be the Strat I would go for.
I was not a fan of the S1 switch, and have since modified the whole setup, with a normal 3 way, no S1 and Fender Custom Shop Twisted Tele bridge and neck pups. The ergonomics of the Elite coupled with Custom Shop pickups makes for an absolute killer guitar.

 

Man does this mean that they are going to re launch all the other models again??? I don’t think I can take all that again

 

Hopefully not - the other models tended to stick around for longer "product lives" than the American Deluxes. So hopefully we'll get a few more years out of the American Professionals, and the American Performers just came out 11 months ago.

 

Wasn't the amdlx around for more than a decade?

 

Yes, actually more like 2 decades. But it was 3 generations over 18 years - major revisions every 6 years:

1. American Deluxe V1 - 1998-2003 with Vintage Noiseless pickups, no compound radius
2. American Deluxe V2 - 2004-2009 with SCN pickups, S-1 switch, no compound radius
3. American Deluxe V3 - 2010-2015 with N3 pickups, S-1 switch, add compound radius

Fender could have just kept the American Deluxe name, or to my way of thinking they could have gone back to the American Deluxe name instead of changing to "American Ultra" - I think they scaled enough back from the American Elite specs that they could have restored the old name, much as they brought back the name "American Standard" after a 7 1/2 years as the "American Series".

 

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I never cared for the “Elite” moniker myself. A bit arrogant sounding if you ask me.

Plus, the fact that I personally never found any real benefit from the so-called “advanced features” helped to keep my interest in line with the decidedly more “low-brow” versions I currently own...



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I’m sure the Ultra is nice. The Select series was nice. I am a fender guy! I’ve got custom shop Strats and Teles. I’ve got 2 Select series guitars (Strat and jag)
They are nice guitars. They are what they are. This new Ultra thing seems like a marketing trick. Cut a new contour here, deepen a cut away there, slap a new name on it and charge $2000. Seems silly to me. Fender has chosen to stay true to its roots. Not interested in innovating. I’m fine with that, but give me a break with this whole, “Fender is releasing something new and sexy” only to have it be a pretty nice Strat that is just like the million other pretty nice strats in the world.

 

Did you even try it?

 

Nope but....


What the F on scraping the Elite.


Great guitar. Gone to soon

 

Why don't you wait until you try one? How about this - if all Fender had done was change to the new more contoured neck heel area and the pickups (Fender always changes the pickups when they refresh a model) how would you feel?

 

I just picked an Elite up. Easily the best Strat Ive played. If the Ultras are better the they must be truly amazing

 

I played one at the local guitar center, sounds great and feels great, easily the best strat I’ve played in a store ( including some custom shops) but I could stand the new volume and tone knobs, they look so cheap. Its a easy 5$ fix so that wouldn’t stop me from getting one if I was in the market.

About the sound, it was really fantastic but I wonder how much was it the guitar and how much the twin reverb amp I was playing through...


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+1 haha.... Based on what I hear from fellow players that I know and from info on forums I gather that there's plenty of people like me that never cared for deluxe or elite series mainly because of the pups. Now with this series you get a modern playin' axe and there's some changes that are negative for some people mostly Deluxe/Elite players but there is some changes that are positive for people that would like to try a modern meets vintage kind of guitar so IMO one have to ask if this models are intended for people that already bought elites or to appeal the vintage craze crowd to try something new or maybe just new costumers. Who knows? I think they are trying to appeal new customers with this series instead of trying to make the deluxe/elite people to upgrade.

Like I said before I have only vintage reissues so my next guitar will be something modern for sure. I will give the HSS strat a go and I definitely see myself buying one ultra jazzmaster one day. This jazzmaster is a homerun IMO.