Fender American Ultra Stratocaster - Texas Tea with Maple Fingerboard Reviews

Before saying why this guitar gets all the stars, let's lead with "Why I never liked Strats".
- standard pickups sound so thin
- comfortable to play but never as comfortable as other factory guitars
- Ehhh, everyone has one (but me)
- Never managed to like any that I pulled off the wall at the store
- Noisy
- My meager talents, or lack thereof, are amplified by the standard Strat
- DON'T TOUCH THE TAIL TWISTER IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SONG if you like to stay in tune

Call me, cranky, spoiled, demanding. I have many guitars and have even made a few from bare wood. I'm no great musician and never will be. The instrument needs to be extremely well done else even I won't listen to me play. For beginners, I'm an advocate of buying the best instrument you can IF you want that beginner to enjoy learning instead of being frustrated by a poorly built guitar.

THIS Stratocaster has changed all that. Absolutely the widest variety of clean tones I've ever experienced from a single guitar. Driven hard, the tone doesn't go straight to mud and, yet the wide variety of tonal ranges available from the super quiet pickups with the S-1 switch (adds the neck pickup to all switch positions) allows me to change 'flavors' easily without modifying amp settings.

The locking/clamping tuners make a string change fast and easy, possibly even something you can do in the dark! The D profile of the neck is perfect and matches the ease and comfort the design originator's guitars deliver.

The neck's compound radius is done extremely well. Sharp bends even at the nut end of the neck are clean with no deadening. Being used to waxed finishes on the neck, I've always had trouble with 'sweaty grip' limiting movement up and down the scale but the finish on this guitar is amazingly slick and comfortable. I've never moved more easily.

And, of course, the general appearance of this model really stands out from the crowd. The finish is perfect with excellent hardware. The case is modern with high quality locks and lots of interior space for all your "just in case" items like spare strings, picks, cables, etc.

I'm still calling this a factory guitar but it's a fantastic offering at a reasonable (but not cheap) price point. In my experience this might be the best quality machine in that price range on the market today. We'll call it a bargain, then!

Of course, none of this would be a reasonable set of claims if we didn't mention the attention to detail that purchasing through Sweetwater brings. Delivery was fast, everything was labeled well (including the advisement to WAIT before opening to let the instrument come to ambient temps), the package was unmarred and I STILL cannot find the blemishes that Sweetwater found when inspecting the guitar for sale as a 'demo' and which were photographed on the sale page.

Title says it all. This guitar is quite possibly the best American made production line guitar. Fit and finish are spot on. Spencer, as always is awesome to work with as well.

I've had this guitar for about 10 months now. I've never been a big Strat fan. Just prefer a shorter scale, wider neck and humbuckers, and I hate the noise of single pickups as well. Some of the music I've been playing just needs that strat tone so I decided to buy one. First strat I've owned in 20+ years. Right out of the case I was blown away with the overall quality of the guitar. The finish is fantastic. From all the other reviews I might be in the minority, but I really like the gold pickguard. The neck is as smooth as silk and so easy to play. Mine is a bit heavy for a strat, but I like heavy guitars so that was a plus. Everything about it just feels good and makes me want to play. The pickups are fine, sounds like a strat to me. I've not regretted buying this guitar for one second.

Bought in 8/20 and after playing and drooling at its sight for 1.5 years it's officially a great buy worth every cent.
Ended up swapping the gold guard out for a 3 ply black one and I couldn't be happier. Looks absolutely amazing. Experimented with pickup height and found that lower / increased distance from pickup to string gave me an airy, more stratty tone that I appreciate. Simple living room setup sounds great: Strat-tube screamer-pro junior IV.
After a little setup experimentation and adjustments to my liking it sounds and plays like a dream.

I just got it today, and it sounds great! Real easy to play, and love the color! I play it threw my EVH 5150 Stealth 100 and it Rocks!

I love the design, playability, and look of this guitar. I did change out the pickguard and think it might look even better with a silver one Like the Texas tea Telecaster. I put on a MOTO aged white pickguard, giving it a look reminiscent of root beer/Guinness Stout, or maybe coffee and cream. As I see more photos with the gold pickguard, I'm thinking of putting it back on.

Great guitar- plays like butter! Beautiful color, and neck profile is amazing, I can't put the thing down!

Plays like a dream.

This guitar is percect!! Easy to play! Sounds great! I mean it's just great!

Honestly this guitar looks so good in person, as the maple finish matches the color of the headstock as its a bit darker. Its black or its brown depending on the light and it has some sparkles too it. Only downside is mine came with a weird finish on the nut as it looks like a minor blemish but I was told it should not hurt the guitar.

Fantastic guitar! Quality is outstanding and is very comfortable. The anodized pickup was difficult for me due to the "chalkboard" texture (just a personal preference). However it looks great with the Texas Tea color. I swapped out the metal pick guard for a mint green plastic one and I really like the looks and playability. I highly recommend this model.

This guitar is beyond amazing! The tone, the shape, its playability - fantastic! And no photo on earth can do the color justice! Its color is a mix of black brown sparkle magic that is just beautiful. And the customer service at Sweetwater is unbeatable. Shaun made me feel like a vip, from the time i placed my order, to a follow up call a week later to check and see if I was happy!

Fender really knocked this one out of the park. The tone is gorgeous, it plays like a dream, and the Texas Tea finish is the best paint Fender's ever put on a guitar. This is a special instrument.

This is the best playing guitar I've ever owned, and I've owned many.My sales engineer,Nick Rice made it all happen faster than I thought possible. I ordered my Ultra on Friday, and it arrived the next day before I could wipe the sleep from my eyes! It was PERFECT! Sweetwater,you're the best! Thanks Nick for making it all happen so fast.

Excellent guitar, sounds like a strat, pretty loud unplugged, no blemishes or imperfections, awesome color black/ deep dark brown with copper and green sparkle, new neck shape feels good - I do prefer a slimmer neck feel. Might change the pickguard because I use my fingernails and the guard isn't smooth like plastic so it makes noise when I contact it. Still might keep it though since I can't hear all that when amplified. All electronics work and are quiet. The case is quality. Buying it was nice and simple, Sweetwater calls and makes you feel comfy about the purchase. Was at my door in 3 days.

There are not enough words in my personal vocabulary to express how much I adore this instrument. I have a serious problem putting it down; so much so that I've had to delay or cancel personal obligations because I'm so addicted to playing it. The body is light and the instrument is extremely comfortable to play, especially in the upper registers, thanks to the modified cutouts. The D-shaped neck is fast and smooth, and I never find my fret hand catching or sticking anywhere. Each of the three single-coil pickups produce strong, warm bright, chimey tones that are absolutely perfect for any genre, but especially for blues, rock, and soul. S-1 switching produces a very unique sound, especially when combining the bridge and neck pickups. Last, but certainly not least, is the gorgeous Texas Tea finish; the pictures certainly do not do it any justice, and I've not owned a guitar with a finish that I've liked more than this. This is the supercomputer of guitars, and is probably not for the traditionalists, but if you take your strat playing seriously, I could not make a stronger recommendation. Absolute masterpiece.

I love this strat! The first thing I noticed was how nice the neck was. The frets are rolled off so well. In fact, so well that it's really hard to not cringe when I play other guitars now. The pickups are good but I will absolutely swap them out (hence the half a star) and for other pickups on down the road. My Ultra is easily the best neck I've played. The paint is cool because it looks black, then when the light hits it might turn green or a brown. It was a good color for me because it's flashy but not flashy and the neck is just mmm butter. If the tele is this good then I'm on it.

Love this guitar. It sounds fantastic, it plays fantastic, and the paint is beautiful, but the pickguard is an abomination for two reasons.
For one, based on the pictures, I thought the pickguard was an aged white like the knobs and pickups. It is not. It is gold. Very gold. It makes a $... guitar look cheap. Absolutely hate it. Had I saw it in person instead of online, I would have kept walking. No worries, I can flip it out for an aged white one, right? Wrong. The only aged white pickguard I've found (I have looked and looked and looked again) comes with the electronics attached... So for now, I'm stuck with the gaudy beast.
Second, the pickguard, which is metal, is textured such that if you drag your fingernails on it, it feels like the emery board your mother used to shape her fingernails. It's an off-putting feeling when you're playing; like nails on a chalkboard when you're not expecting it.
Again, I absolutely love the feel, sound, and playability of this guitar, and I love the paint, but that ugly gold pickguard is the worst. Hey, Sweetwater, use your pull and get fender to come loose with an aged white pickguard sans electronics and I'll be first in line to buy one!

Microphonic pickups. Very microphonic. Returned it with no hassle. Felt like the price point was a little high on this one.

This a very visually appealing guitar but out of the box it didn't sound quite right. I'd fiddle around with the truss rod, let it set for a bit and then checked to see if that helped. When it didn't, I'd set it to the side and play one of my other guitars instead. After a week or two I'd pick the guitar again, rinse and repeat. Fast forward a few months and my options were either have it looked at by a professional or give up on it and put it in storage (I don't sell guitars). Today, I took it to a luthier and was told 4-5 of the frets towards the nut were too high and needed to be taken down. One of the selling points of an American-made Ultra over a Mexican-made Player series is supposedly the build quality. Needless to say, I'm disappointed but hopefully my luthier can fix things because it sure is a pretty guitar.