Fender American Ultra Stratocaster HSS - Cobra Blue with Rosewood Fingerboard Reviews

This is probably the best feeling, most versatile guitar I have. Mike Soper, my engineer, picked me out a good one.

This thing can get your typical Strat sounds, minus the annoying hum. I had a fear this thing would sound a bit too bright, or harsh.. nope. Sweet single coil magic to a fat bridge humbucker.. the humbucker isn't quite as "tight" feeling as say a JB, but it sounds great and has its own unique character.

The Cobra Blue finish sparkles endlessly, and it's easy to get lost in those metallic speckles. The fit, finish and feel of this guitar is superb. Fender is doing a hell of a job. The ergonomics of the Strat are just hard to beat, and with the added modern affinities like the carved heel, this one feels above and beyond.

Thanks again to Mike and the Sweetwater crew.

I bought this guitar a few months ago and wanted to put it through the paces before posting a review. This is the best Strat I have owned. The humbucker is perfect. The neck is amazing. I set mine up with 9.5 to 44 strings and the tuning stability is great even with heavy bar use. I did switch the neck pickup to a Dimarzio Injector (just a preference). This is my go to guitar, it does everything right. Just get get it you will not be disappointed.

I was looking for a Strat. Thought I wanted an HSS configuration. The Fender Ultra has great satin finish neck and the way the neck is carved you can easily get up high on the neck. The single coil pick ups on the HSS version are said to be hotter. They're pretty hot. You'll have fun with these. The cobra blue is pretty sweet, too.

Thought about the Ultra Luxe. I would like to have gone with the stainless steel frets but the color options offered on the Luxe are limited.

I have to mention the case. It's nice.

Only negative for me is that the fret markers on the side of the neck are quite small. The smallest on any of my 10 other guitars. But my vision isn't the best. I used a bit of Liquid Paper to emphasize the stock markings.

In the considerable number of years I have been exploring the fine guitars of the world it is a rarity to find undiminished quality and craftsmanship in a line production model! Fender has accomplished that here. Recent years have been difficult on everyone to acquire the essential resources to truly manufacture a fine instrument however 2023 mid year manufacture appears to have crossed the threshold for exceptional attention to detail at Fender. I usually find various defects and compromises but not in this version. From cosmetics to setup and playability this beauty is perfection! I sincerely mean it!

Oh well let us say I got what I dreamed for.
Had the SSS model in the same color and the quality of the built and specs being perfect meeting my high expectations made me
go for this one with Rosewood neck and an extra Hum-bucker which totally made my Dream Guitar. Got it Aug 29 and have been
pleasantly enjoying it playing on my Fender Deluxe Reverb and my Spark amp. Have 4 other Fenders but these two ultras have necks
that are perfect for me.They took me to another level of playing.Not fighting the neck or frets to get the speed I want on tone or bend.
Remarkable instrument . Fender did a great job. Now all this became reality from the Trust I have with Sweetwater and my great sales engineer
Collin Blue. Collin listens to your inquiries and gives you straight answers about the product you are about to buy and never tries a hard
sales. I really enjoy not being pressured for a purchase and have walked away from Guitar Center several time. Again thanks to Sweetwater
and my great agent Collin Blue ... Cheers

I wanted to add a strat to my collection. Cant play guitar and not own one of these. I like to play heavier music so of course I gravitated towards the HSS model given it lends itself to precisely this purpose. Sounds great through a 6505+. Make no mistake however, this is a strat through and through. I think it just gives metals players a seat at the table!

The feel, tone, and playability of this guitar is amazing. I love the quality craftsmanship and enjoy playing this every day.

My first guitar was a MIM Strat that i purchased second hand. It made learning (at age 61/62) as easy as it can be. I have a few other guitars, but none of them can match the Strat for playablility. At the one year point, to celebrate that I was still playing and hadn't quit, I rewarded myself with an American Ultra Strat. Great choice. The playability is the same as my MIM, and now the pickups don't create the hum I'd grown somewhat used to. The bridge humbucker is slightly hotter than the bridge pickup in my MIM, and overall I love my new Strat. It is now my daily practice guitar. I have a Les Paul, an SG, and a Taylor GS-Mini. They are all fun guitars to play around with, but I find myself always moving back to the Strat in a few days.

Literally made me a better player. No regrets on this one!

The reason I chose this guitar is because you could play it as a regular Stratocaster three single coils and having a humbucker. I like to play the blues and this guitar does it all. It's been a year and 4 months and this is my number one go to guitar. I don't know how you could possibly improve on this guitar. Thank you Sweetwater for the wonderful service. Thank you Greg Baum!

This is my first Strat and I absolutely love it. I'm currently using it in an 80s new wave cover band. I run it through a few Boss stomp boxes and into a Fender Hot Rod Deville. For non-shreddy music, this guitar checks all the boxes for me:
1) I like the Ultra Satin finish on the neck (I prefer non-glossy neck finishes on all my guitars).
2) Pickups: noiseless neck and middle along with the humbucker bridge pickup helps keep my sound free of annoying noise. That stuff bugs me. I also use a ISP Decimator II on my pedalboard. Yes, I hate noise! But if I really want the single coil sound, I can get that with the Ultra Double Tap humbucker.
3) The locking tuners keep things in tune really well. I can do some pretty big bends and hardly ever need to adjust the tuning. When I do, it's by small amounts.
4) The vib. bar is the perfect design for the style of music I play on this guitar. You just pop it in. It hangs out of the way when you don't need it. On my shredder guitars, I like to have the bar tight, so it's always right where I want it, but that's annoying when I only need to use the bar infrequently.
5) The overall weight is not too heavy and it is well-balanced.
6) The sounds are exactly the classic Strat sounds I was looking for.

In all, a classic sound and feel with some great modern improvements.

Please note, however, this guitar came with .010s on it, even though the listing says .009s. That actually ended up being better for me, though.

Sometimes the right things come together in the right combination and something magical happens. Tone tone and more tone. It is as solid a guitar as you can put your hands on. Decided on this HSS over the Ibanez AZ Prestige and the PRS CE 24 and not a bit of regret.

It will cover a lot of ground stylistically and allow you to do it in a comfortable way due to fit and finish absolutely no issues there.

The Schaller locks don't really allow you to use just a strap. I prefer the Dunlop Duel design and will be swapping them out.

The split coil works as advertised. If you are familiar with PRS split coil on core guitars this is just as good and one of the reasons I chose this over the Ibanez. The case is nice w/ata style locks which is why I chose this over the CE (and the hss configuration) For the price, it may truly be the only guitar you will ever need. Mine is a touch over eight lbs. so a good Anthology strap will be needed but after that, nothing to do but play and enjoy the magic that is this guitar.

I bought this guitar around 3 weeks ago. Its an absolute joy to both play and to look at. The finish and craftsmanship is impeccable. The tone is magnificent and the playability is exactly what I hoped it would be.

Bought this guitar because of both the Rosewood finger board, and I loved the color. Also love the new profile and the ease of playing the upper frets. Oh, also like the whammy bar. It's so smooth to play and the sound is incredible. Guess it would have been easier just to say I like most everything about it, but why use only a few words when lots of words will do? Really happy with my purchase and the quality of the instruments I get from Sweetwater.

I Gibson Custom Shop Ebony and this Fender, both purchased from super folks at Sweetwater and I remain a happy customer!

I bought this guitar and won't ever look back. Here's my full review. I bought this guitar about 3 weeks ago and wanted to fully understand her before making comments.
I was on the fence about this one since it came out (price, quality, feel etc.) I'm also a Huge Gibson lover....so I really wanted to buy another LP standard. Interesting thing is I went to the shop and had both the LP and fender Ultra Hss side by side. And well I couldn't put it down. I actually really wanted to not like it therefore I kept trying side by side but so reason I kept going back to the new fender.
Simply put,this guitar is amazing! It has all those wonderful warm buttery fender sounds and combined With the Humbucker on her she shreds too.
Hope this helps....as I am one happy Fender Owner.

We got our new Strat, cobalt blue, this week. I sounds great and everybody loves it. I was supposed to be the house guitar but the regulars won't let it go! Thanks to my man at Sweetwater. The delivery was fast the guitar was in perfect condition.

The sound is exactly what I expected. The feel is outstanding and it came out of the case ready to go.

Gorgeous and a joy to play. All the modern improvements and sculpting make it a step up on a great tradition.