Fender American Ultra Telecaster

The Big F puts a contemporary spin on its new top-line Telecaster.

RRP: $3,899

Body: Alder*

Neck: Maple (Bolt-On)

Scale: 25.5 inches

Fingerboard: Rosewood and Maple Frets: 22 (Medium Jumbo)

Pickups: Two Ultra Noiseless Vintage Tele Single-Coil

Controls: Master Control w/ S-1 Switch / Master Tone / Three-Way Blade Selector Hardware: Six-Saddle American Tele w/ Chromed Brass Saddles

PROS

S-1 switching and ultra noiseless pickups offer wide sweep of Tele tones A very playable Tele

Some of the smartest new Fender finishes in years

Locking tuners

CONS

Might be too new-school for some

Fender’s American Ultra Series was one of those event launches we only see every few years or so. It saw Fender revise its flagship US models, rolling out a number of contemporary features to suit today’s player, including compound radius fretboards, tapered heels, newly sculpted bodies, noiseless pickups and locking tuners. The Fender logo is rendered in gold foil on the headstock.

The American Ultra Tele wears these updates well. It has a compound 10-to-14-inch radius that feels right, especially atop the new Modern D profile neck. It’s a profile that plays quick but fills the palm in all the right ways, with its satin finish a supersmooth enabler for swift position shifts.

There are a suit of stunning new finishes – Texas Tea and Mocha Burst are particularly mind-blowing – but for all the modern accoutrements, the American Ultra Tele is still a textbook Tele, with raunchy twang and more than a little snarl when you turn the gain up. The S-1 switch allied to the three-way pickup position switching makes it sound a little like a ‘greatest hits’ of Tele tone. That in itself is enough of a recommendation.