Fender American Ultra Telecaster - Ultraburst with Rosewood Fingerboard Reviews

I bought the Tele Ultra to sit next to my Lone Star Strat and could not be happier! In short, it plays better than advertised and sounds so good I'm making up words to describe it. The playability of this guitar is 10/10. If you're interested, go for it! As for my Sweetwater experience, I cannot say enough good things. My gear shipped the day of purchase and arrived the next day. The Tele was double boxed and arrived in truly perfect condition (and almost in tune!). The setup was perfect and it was 100% playable the minute it arrived. The case is light, very sturdy and and perfect to protect my investment. Finally, the pictures don't do the guitar justice. It's flawless and gorgeous - more like fine furniture. I bought it to keep and can't be happier. Thank you to my rep. Dan A. and all of the Sweetwater team. Thanks for another addition to a long history of positive experiences.

Great guitar with a slimmer neck which I like. The sound is just what I wanted and the sunburst is beautiful.

From the moment I opened the case the playability was just fantastic. Feels comfortable in your hands and no set up needed. Great guitar!

I've been playing guitar for over 25 years and never bought a guitar from an on-line retailer. This time my local guitar store couldn't get what I needed in a reasonable time frame so I decided to give Sweetwater a try since all my smaller on-line purchases have been good. I couldn't be happier. My Fender American Tele Ultra was shipped fast and arrived quickly, packaged great, set up perfectly and in impeccable condition. There wasn't even a fingerprint on it when I pulled it out of the case. When they say it's been through a 53 point inspection, the proof is in the guitar. Great job Sweetwater! I still love my LGS, but Sweetwater certainly earned my confidence on this purchase. I will not hesitate to make another purchase.

This guitar is awesome. The locking tuners is a game changer. No more wrapping strings around the post. And it has the classic sound every Telecaster fan is looking for. You gotta have one of these. Your collection won't be complete until you do.

Last October I picked up a friend's Les Paul & we played a livingroom concert for about 2 hours dispite being distanced across the room from each other. I once had a Thinline Telecaster but never really got into it & couldn't get much out of it. I've always played swampy fingerpicking acoustic blues so ended up selling the Thinline Tele. Thing is, I have poor hand circulation & recently have only able to play my acoustic guitar for 15 or 20 minutes before hand cramps set in. From that long playing session I decided an electric guitar would work for me again.
Now what to get. I like high end guitars, who doesn't, but affordability was a factor. The 2020 American Telecaster Ultra fit my budget & the Ultraburst fit my not so flashy taste. My goal was to improve, I wanted deep, clean tones for blues, I wanted to get into flatpicking a bit more & spend a lot more time playing. This American Telecaster Ultra did all that for me. Concern that it might play way to bright turned out not to be a factor, the tonal range of this Tele provides the right sound for a variety of styles & the American made, '98 vintage Fender Blues Jr amp I use with it compliments the tonal flexibility that I was looking for. The carved body & tapered neck make the guitar a real pleasure to play for longer sessions. I opted for the tortoise shell pickguard as a more subtle upgrade but I'll safely store that original white guard with the sticker on it. The American made aspect mattered to me. It was a gift to myself for the December holidays, where solitude has been commonplace in these times, What better than an instrument you can spend hours enjoying & be really proud to show off when we get back to our music parties with friends?

This guitar is very well-built and its sound is clean and addicting. I had never had a Fender guitar before, and I'm glad I've decided to purchase my first one.

I received my Fender fast within a day of ordering and it was perfect not a smudge and in tune right out of the case. The noiseless pick ups sound amazing. I loved that I could pick from 4 in stock guitars side by side and get the actual one I picked. Sweetwater is a great place to buy your next guitar. And well the American ultra Telecaster is the best fender I have ever owned and the most comfortable to play by far. You can not go wrong here!

This is one heck of a tele. I had an American vintage reissue tele before this and wasn't really sold on the whole tele vibe. Then I traded and got this thing and now I'm sold! This thing plays like a dream up and down the fretboard no problem. Love the bridge on it easy to control the open strings with your palm. The pick ups sound good for noiseless pickups. The bridge can be a bit bright but just roll the tone off slightly and that's the sweet spot for rock tones all day. Now this and my lp standard are the #1&2 on the rack. No regrets about this one

First of all, this guitar is absolutely a stunner in the looks department. I have truly enjoyed playing this guitar straight out of the box these last two weeks since its arrival. I've been strictly a Gibson owner for 40 years (79-SG, 89-Explorer, and 19-Les Paul Special) and it has been a pleasure to mix things up a bit with this wonderfully constructed, made in the USA Telecaster. The tones derived are oh so sweet and the push pot gives three extra settings, providing full tonal range. The noiseless pickups are awesome, the action is sweet and the overall craftsmanship is impeccable. If you are on the fence, come on down and make the purchase. You will not be dissatisfied. Randy Poteete is my guy at Sweetwater and I can't say enough about the care they put behind a sale. Great buying experience and Killer Guitar!!

First of all this guitar is beautiful. I waited a couple of weeks before writing the review. I am very happy with this guitar and love playing it. The action is perfect and I love the tones. With the push-pot, there are 6 combinations offering a variety of range. I've been a Gibson man for 40 years but it sure is nice to hear the tones this thing gives. Stays in tune very well and it just feels great. If you are on the fence, come on down. Make the purchase. Randy Poteete is the man!

This is the ULTRA TELE. Material, workmanship, design, are excellent. Noiseless pick ups are great and flexible. FENDER really worked it out with a lot of thought put into the design. Highly recommended.

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.

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

Fender put all of the best ideas for a Tele on this guitar! The body contours are great, the contours on the back of the body at the neck joint that allow for greater access to upper frets are very well done and the color of the neck itself is beautiful. Although I haven't changed strings yet, I do like locking tuners so I hope these are solid. I got the rosewood board model and the rosewood is outstanding.
The noiseless pickups sound excellent throughout the whole range of Tele sounds and are so quiet. The S-1 switching doesn't do much on this Tele (series to parallel on the middle position) but what it does do sounds great and is a nice new 4th sound for a Tele.
Overall a beautiful, highly functional, great sounding Telecaster - thank you Fender and Sweetwater!!!

Really a joy to play, feels great in your hands

First, props to the staff at Sweetwater: The purchase was easy, the sales person was excellent, and the tech's set-up (at extra cost, of course) no doubt improved the guitar's action. I like this Tele a lot and play it every day; beautiful instrument! But, I also play (on a daily basis) a '79 Gibson "The Paul" and it is a better axe in terms of playability. Don't get me wrong, as I said, the Tele is a very nice guitar, but I find myself wondering if the set-up can be improved upon? In any event, I would without hesitation buy another guitar from Sweetwater!

I wrote the Nicest Tele Ever review and have an edit:
The jack on this Ultra Tele is unlike the jack I have seen on any other Fender and I do not like it. There is no solid thunk feel when you insert the cord jack and while the cord does not fall out on its own, it does pull out too easily. When playing in my music room I previously would be lazy and not pull the cord up over the strap button but with this jack on the Tele, you have to or you will be plugging back in all the time.
I still love the guitar but would ( and may) change this jack.

I purchased my new Ultra telecaster two weeks ago. I have to admit it is a fantastic guitar. It has everything on it that normally would be an add-on on other telecasters.
Now here comes the but! When i plugged it in to my amp it has an open ground and as a result it buzzes. Touch any metal part of the guitar and it goes away. This what's telling me there is an open ground somewhere. Its not a big problem but I find it frustrating that one pays significant amount of money for a guitar and the darn thing buzzes. This also happened to me on a 2019 Gibson Les Paul Studio I bought. I'm faulting the manufacturers on this type of workmanship. I can fix the ground but my point is, with the money I paid for this guitar and my other one, both American made, I shouldn't have to open up the guitar to fix anything! Shame on you Fender! Your quality control on these guitars are slipping. With noiseless pickups, I shouldn't be hearing noise. That being said, setup and intonation was spot on out of the box! The case is extremely nice. I just wish they could have made the guitar truly noiseless!

Let me begin by saying that this guitar has a classic Tele sound, and I do like that. I also like the series/parallel button. Putting it in the volume pot makes it quite handy. I'd also like to say that I own or have owned a Strat, an ES-355, a Les Paul, an old Thinline Tele, and various other acoustic and electric guitars of varying quality, and I've done lots of mods on most of them. This is the most expensive guitar I've ever owned.

The construction is what you hope for in an American-made instrument: it's well put together with attention paid to the details. There are a couple of very minor nit-picky cosmetic things, but they're certainly not worth grousing about.

The playability is where I have a few complaints. First, they've used a tone pot that has a detent position at fully on. Maybe some people think this is a great default setting for a tone pot, but for me it's not the setting I want all the time on a Tele. When I switch to just the bridge pickup there are times I want to be able to roll off just a wee bit of that shrill brightness, and that detent setting makes it tricky to do so with just a touch of the pinky. You've got to get on the knob in order to accomplish this, and in the heat of the moment it detracts from the pleasure of playing this otherwise fine instrument. Second, I take issue with the position of the controls: The pickup switch and volume knob are too close together. When the switch is in the bridge position, it's so close to the volume knob that it's tricky to operate, taking more time and attention than I care to spend when things are really rockin'. It also makes it easy to unintentionally bump the volume knob. This seems to me like poor planning. Third, the neck dives a bit, so you also have that to contend with. My intention is to get a new tip for the pickup switch so I have a little more room to get a finger in there, and also to install a new tone pot. These are things that I shouldn't have to do on a $ instrument.

In closing I want to say that I enjoy this guitar. It's beautiful, it sounds great, and, except for the issues outlined above, it's really fun to play. In other words, it's a keeper. With all the mods I've done over that years, these fixes are minor; I just take issue with having to do them on a guitar that, with tax, title and licensing, cost me $.

After returning two American Professional Fenders with problems with the pickup selector and one with a problem with the bridge pickup, I bought an American Ultra that came with a problem with the bridge pickup and the S1 switch, so if you don't want to stay for many days If you don't have a guitar to play, buy another one