Experience the American Ultra
A lot has happened since the birth of the Stratocaster in 1954: wars, cultural upheaval, the birth of rock and roll, and the development of the frozen pizza, to name a few. Throughout it all, the Strat has remained constant, more or less unchanged by time. It’s an American icon, and its enduring popularity is a testament to the strength of Leo Fender’s original design. From the get-go, the Strat was a favorite among working musicians because of the versatility offered by its three pickups, its reliability, and its sweet styling. In the ensuing decades, Fender updated the design based on feedback from players—a tradition dating back to 1953 when play-testers complained about the Strat’s vibrato system, leading to the development of the much-better synchronized tremolo still used on Strats today.
Now, Fender has introduced the latest refinement to the Stratocaster formula. Wildwoodians, we are proud to introduce the American Ultra Stratocaster, a guitar that showcases all the things that made the Strat great in the first place while providing discerning modern guitarists with player-friendly appointments that enhance the music-making experience considerably.
Style and Grace
The American Ultra Stratocaster is a workhorse that will get the job done in style. Fender has decked these guitars out in a variety of brand-new finishes sure to induce much drooling, and they have also contoured the body to optimize the player's comfort. When you pick one of these terrific Strats up, it feels like you're playing the six-string equivalent of a souped-up Corvette because of its sleek lines and superior ergonomics.
Supreme Speed and Comfort
Speaking of speed and comfort, let's talk about the fretboard, which has a compound 10"-14" radius and 22 medium jumbo frets. The compound radius maximizes each section of the neck for pitch-perfect playability. By the first fret, the fingerboard is flat enough that you can still bend strings easily but rounded enough to allow fluid chording. Around the twelfth fret, the radius becomes much flatter, which makes bending strings a breeze. Wailing Gilmour-esque lines and screaming pedal steel licks suddenly become much easier!
The medium-jumbo frets also do a lot of heavy lifting to improve playability. Their height allows you to bend easily, but you can still feel the wood with your fingers and get a tactile connection to the instrument.
Of course, we have to talk about how comfortable the neck is beneath that fingerboard! Fender has outfitted these guitars with a Modern D-shaped profile, and it is a marvelous example of a slim, fast-playing neck. If you like to keep your thumb closer to the center of the neck, this profile gives you a nice rounded back to anchor on. But, if you like to hang your thumb over, the shoulders of the "D" give you plenty of leverage to bend easily. If you switch back and forth between the two techniques, congratulations--this neck will feel especially buttery to you.
As a result of these enhanced ergonomic features, the American Ultra Stratocaster has wonderful handfeel that will suit just about any style of play.
Quiet In Between the Loud Moments
For the longest time, guitar players have waged a war with noise. The original pickups in iconic guitars from the sixties and seventies sounded great and had tons of vibe, but they squealed and made horrible noises in between blasts of loudness. In the eighties and nineties, manufacturers developed noiseless pickups that solved the problem while creating another: the new quiet pickups lacked that "it" factor. So, you could get modern precision, but you had to sacrifice a little bit of mojo.
Now, you no longer have to choose. Our friends at Fender have developed a delectable new set of pickups for the American Ultra series, the aptly-named Ultra Noiseless Single-Coil. These sweet-sounding single-coils have a three-dimensional, dynamic voice that sounds true to the classic sounds of yesteryear. The moment you stop, a Jekyll-and-Hyde transformation occurs and they become quiet as a church mouse. They stay quiet in between the loud moments, and the loud moments sound glorious.
Strat Attack
In particular, the Ultra Noiseless Strat single-coils in this guitar are voiced for maximum versatility. The bridge pickup has focused, cutting midrange to go with tight lows and that iconic bell-like clang, sparkle, and jangle in the highs. The middle position is balanced across the board. The lows are round and warm, the midrange is punchy and prominent, and the highs are sunny and open. Flip to the neck position and you’ll find deep, warm low-end along with broad, throaty midrange and glassy highs.
By contrast, the in-between positions have much more of a scooped sound. In positions two and four, the guitar has a much brighter voice with more quack and an inspiring vocal quality. You can also use the S1 switch to blend the neck pickup in any position on the 5-way selector switch. So, you can add a bit of gristle to the bridge pickup, or run all three pickups at once for extra flavor. With these seven tones in your toolkit, you can feel confident that your American Ultra Stratocaster will handle business on the stage, in the studio, or on the couch.
Leo Would Be Proud
As you can see, the American Ultra Strat is a versatile, supremely playable, incredibly easy-to-use guitar. It's quite stylish, comfortable to play, it works well in a wide variety of genres, and it offers all of this at an incredible value. In other words, its aim is no different than those original Stratocasters from the fifties: to be a working musician's tool that looks cool, sounds great, and plays easily. Though the American Ultra Strat uses modern technology to achieve that goal, it still carries the spirit of a vintage Fender. We're proud to present the American Ultra Stratocaster, and we're sure it will inspire you to make all sorts of joyous noise.
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