Fender American Ultra Telecaster - Cobra Blue with Maple Fingerboard Reviews

Love the quality, love the sound and love the playability

I've never been a tele guy but when I saw Fender roll out a modern version in the Ultra, I decided to give it a go and was not disappointed. The traditionalists won't like this guitar but it's just right for me, who wanted more player friendly features. The scooped heel and belly cut are just right and make this thing easy to sit and practice with for hours. I normally don't go for maple necks because the finishes are sticky but the satin finish here is great and a breeze to play. The pick ups also great for my purposes (small solid state amps) and I can get all the sounds I need for rock, blues, and even some jazzier sounds. Wish Fender put SS frets on these, but that's evidently the next evolution of the Ultra. I have just one complaint about Fender's design here: the binding (which looks great, btw) has a rather sharp/pointed edge, and this guitar could have used a forearm contour like they have in the Ritchie Kotzen Teles. Not a huge deal for me but I do notice my forearm needs to rest a specific way on it in order to avoid a red line on my skin. Overall this is a great guitar!

Two small cosmetic things which you can only see at certain angles in the light...no biggie and basically a non issue for me. Sweetwater provided very good customer service as well, I might add.

I was a little hesitant about making such a significant purchase "sight unseen", but there were no places local to me that stocked the Cobra Blue and I have only had good experiences with Sweetwater up to this point so I took a chance.

First, the service - Top notch from beginning to end. Mike is always responsive and the whole process was as painless as could be. The shipping was a little slow (7 days from order to delivery, two days passed the original Fedex delivery estimate), but technically was within 5 business days. Of course it was free so I am not going to complain about that and it certainly had nothing to do with Sweetwater. I am generally not a fan of Fedex Ground and in the future I will probably just pay for a different shipping method. Nevertheless, a week is perfectly reasonable for a purchase like this and it showed up safe and sound which is the most important thing. The packing was great. The guitar was in its travel case and in the original Fender packing box. That box was wrapped in protective foam and inside a larger Sweetwater shipping box. Each box had Sweetwater branded tape across the seams such that you could tell immediately if the boxes had been opened. It was very securely packed. Believe it or not, it actually was not only perfectly setup upon arrival, but was also in tune right out of the case. Impressive.

The guitar - What can I say? It's just a lovely instrument. It's quality from top to bottom, as you would expect at this price. But beyond the finish and hardware, it just feels like it was designed and built by somebody that cares. It feels quite a lot like a custom build or a boutique model. The neck shape is excellent and although I don't normally play in the upper register, I found myself doing so with ease. It was hard to put down and I found myself happily playing it for several hours without fatigue.

The sound - It definitely looks and feels like there is significantly less bulk than a vintage Tele, but somehow, it maintains excellent tone and sustain. The pickups are, indeed, very quiet, but the output does not seem limited in any way. There is an amazing variety of tones that can be achieved and I dare say that it would be hard to imagine a genre or style that you could not support with this guitar. Between the no load Tone, the S1 switching, the treble bleed, and the quality and output of the pickups, there is a ton of flexibility.

Bottom Line - It's expensive for a Telecaster, without a doubt (especially considering the fairly high standards of the entry-level, MIM, Player series). Because of this, my expectations were exceedingly high. Yet somehow I feel pleasantly surprised by the quality of the guitar, both sound and build. There is a lot of value here and I suspect that without a lot of effort, you could spend more money for less. The experience of buying from Sweetwater was excellent and I would (and will) do it again.

Been mainly a strat and jazz bass guy for years but wanted to get that clucky tele sound so I finally got this as my first tele. I managed to pick out exactly which of the 3 units Sweetwater had in stock and Mike D. was always open to answer questions throughout the whole process.

Was surprised that the guitar came in tune and studio ready out of the box!

Shipping was more than prompt as it even beat the estimated delivery date by 2 days.

I just got the Cobra Blue with a Maple neck. It is extremely playable with awesome tone! Very comfortable to play and very well set up. The pickups sound great too. They finally got the noiseless pickups right! Fit and finish is also very good as well. I highly recommend this guitar! You will not be sorry you chose it!

I’m blown away by the new ultra. It’s leaps and bounds above the American tele. Pickups are great, best thing is the neck which is unreal. I recommend the maple fingerboard!!! The feel is unbelievable

Thanks Colin for arranging everything

Just received my Ultra and I am amazed. This is the most expensive Tele I have bought to date and wondered if it was worth it. The answer is yes is it is exquisite. The neck is perfect. I purchased the setup with Sweetwater and it was dead on. All I can muster is wow. Kudos to Sweetwater for their customer service. It takes some of the worry out of buying over the internet.

Absolute awesome guitar...Our band plays old Rock n Roll and Rockabilly music and this is the premium guitar for that..My SWEETWATER Engineer Clint Bransteter explained all the details about this special guitar to and said we would love it but it has exceeded all of our expectations...Thank you Clint for always giving me great advice so that I can make the right decision on my purchases.

These are awesome guitars. Built well. Sound fantastic. Innovation that just keeps coming.

Really a joy to play, feels great in your hands

Nice guitar but the neck pickup is NOTICEABLY quieter than the bridge pickup. It runs at about half the volume of the bridge pickup. This is just plain unacceptable on a guitar in this price range. It's advertised as a top of the line guitar. I don't think so. I've got a Squier Tele that does better than this. One tuner is way harder to turn than the others though it does hold tune properly. I'm not normally so nit picky but for this price I expect perfection.On the bright side, fit and finish are excellent. Delivery was on time. Sweetwater and Cody Krauss take good care of me but I would expect Fender to up there game somewhat especially on high dollar products.