Fender's New Ultra Series

[charjo]

Some nice new features, I’m still not sure about noiseless pick ups but Danish Pete can make anything sound great. The new Tele is gorgeous. Unfortunately, I think Fender just devalued the Elite series for all their loyal customers.
John

Topic

[6stringer Pete]

Lace sensor pickups, no noise, install them. The gold ones, but the blue and reds ones are just as good.

The melody of the notes is what expresses the art of music . 🙂 6stringerPete

It really is all about ”melody”. The melody comes from a language from our heart. Our heart is the muscle in music harmony. The melody is the sweetness that it pumps into our musical thoughts on the fretboard. 🙂 Pete

Pete
Moderator

[Richard G]

I watched the Anderton’s reveal of the Fender Ultra series yesterday and was blown away by the look and sound of that Texas Tea (aka black) Telecaster. I did however note that at £1,739 the price had risen considerably from the elite series.

Richard

[John H]

John,
I already have a bad case of GAS. Didn’t need to see this! Just kidding. Gorgeous looking and sounding in every way. Gonna have to settle on the Squire Vintage Classic Tele!!

[Billy]

Sat and watched this yesterday about 30 mins after it was put on the internet, can’t get enough of Pete’s playing no matter which guitar is in his hands..
1st impressions we’re, that’s a strat and that’s a Tele.
2nd thoughts on it were just how many coats can one concept wear and dare to be seen as something new or groundbreaking..
Fender and Gibson tend to keep repackaging the same concept and fender so far have failed to impress me again.
Choice is not a bad thing, it’s good to have choice, too much choice on the other hand….well.

..Billy..

[Kevin S]

I’m severely underwhelmed, especially with that pricing. I’ll keep on lovin’ my Player Series HSS.

[GnLguy]

Billy wrote:

Sat and watched this yesterday about 30 mins after it was put on the internet, can’t get enough of Pete’s playing no matter which guitar is in his hands..
1st impressions we’re, that’s a strat and that’s a Tele.
2nd thoughts on it were just how many coats can one concept wear and dare to be seen as something new or groundbreaking..
Fender and Gibson tend to keep repackaging the same concept and fender so far have failed to impress me again.
Choice is not a bad thing, it’s good to have choice, too much choice on the other hand….well.

Couldn’t agree more, Billy. Different color lipstick on the same pig given a different name – and all in time for holiday shopping!!
It would be different if there were major improvements to differentiate this series from others but there isn’t.

When a Fender Master Builder is surprised at the overall quality of sub-$259 Squier Strat, you have to ask, what are the expensive series really giving a person in the terms of a quality guitar for making music?

[Billy]

One of the videos I watched, think it was with Phil Mcnight, when he asked the question “Just what is the difference between custom shop and”,I thought Ron was never going to find an answer, the silence near hit the embarrassing stage before saying “greater attention to detail”…
Tbh I don’t know if expensive guitars really do play or feel any different to say a $200 guitar or if It could be a placebo effect or whatever it’s called..i probably couldn’t afford to find out thh..

..Billy..

[sunjamr]

My 4 year old American Strat has noiseless pickups, and I can’t hear a lot of difference between mine and the new ones. Maybe hearing them in person would be different.

Sunjamr Steve

[Duffy P]

Almost nothing new here for Fender, and nothing at all that is groundbreaking. They basically have started calling some things ‘ultra’ and declared that it’s new as a result of the new name. Same goes for the colors.

I cannot understand why Fender doesn’t offer a variety of necks, pickups, bridges, and wiring as options below their Custom Shop level. The thing Leo did that made his guitars revolutionary, is that he designed them to have interchangeable parts. Changing the neck from one profile to another doesn’t necessitate having a new model line. There’s no reason at all that there should be 37 different flavors of Strat.

[GnLguy]

Duffy P wrote:

Almost nothing new here for Fender, and nothing at all that is groundbreaking. They basically have started calling some things ‘ultra’ and declared that it’s new as a result of the new name. Same goes for the colors.

I cannot understand why Fender doesn’t offer a variety of necks, pickups, bridges, and wiring as options below their Custom Shop level. The thing Leo did that made his guitars revolutionary, is that he designed them to have interchangeable parts. Changing the neck from one profile to another doesn’t necessitate having a new model line. There’s no reason at all that there should be 37 different flavors of Strat.

Leo’s final company carried on that tradition of offering various neck, fingerboard radius, finish and other options on all of their USA models

USA Guitar Options

Made in Fullerton Finishes

[Billy]

Talking about pickups, has anyone else watched the video about the most expensive pickups in the world, Wilkinson silver series?..silver wire instead of copper wire, these things retail at over 300 dollars each, that’s near $1000 for a set of Strat pickups..

..Billy..

[Richard G]

That’s a good example Billy, of the ‘law of diminishing returns’. Where the costs esculate into the premium range and you get very little benefit for for quite a bit extra cash. It’s a mindset thing and a good marketing ploy.

Richard

[charjo]

Hey, what’s wrong with diminishing returns? They’re still returns. Nice guitars give me a lot of happiness and I do spend a lot of time with them.
John

[Richard G]

Couldn’t agree more John, I know that if I play one of the best instruments that the industry can produce, if the resultant sound is not to my liking, then it’s my fault and I can at least do something about it.

Richard

[Duffy P]

Bah, I will see your $300 per pickup, and raise you $6200 per, for original Gibson PAF pickups (which probably aren’t all that good).

https://reverb.com/item/28903948-1959-1960-gibson-original-sealed-nickel-double-white-cream-gibson-paf-patent-applied-for-humbuckers

[snakechisler]

For the price the elite’s and now the Ultra’s (at full retail) are pushing into an area where if your budget stretches to that sort of money your more than likely looking for specific sounds / Features.

There a solid workhorse instruments with a decent range of features

In terms of diminishing returns it’s a complex thing, quite a bit of those percentage points on the scale are the connections you feel to the instrument and that feedback to the player isn’t really something you can put a $ sign on.

While the Ultra’s have a good spec if they just feel OK is that good enough?

[Billy]

Duffy P wrote:

Bah, I will see your $300 per pickup, and raise you $6200 per, for original Gibson PAF pickups (which probably aren’t all that good).

https://reverb.com/item/28903948-1959-1960-gibson-original-sealed-nickel-double-white-cream-gibson-paf-patent-applied-for-humbuckers

What is that they say about a fool and his money, oh yeah “easily parted”..hahaha
Seriously though it astounds me at times the amount of money paid out for vintage bits, especially vintage electronic bits which don’t get better with age..ans we all know that tone depends on which colour pick guard fitted..

..Billy..

[Author]

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