Video: Fender's New American Ultra Series Offers High-Performance Instruments

After a week of teasers on its website and social media channels (and quite a few leaks yesterday), today Fender is officially unveiling its new American Ultra guitars and basses.

The Ultra series models are Fender's latest high-end, high-performance instruments, and will replace the existing Elite series. Like their predecessors, the Ultra series instruments are designed with cutting-edge players in mind. The instruments feature the types of tonal options and upgraded components a player might seek out in a boutique Fender-style guitar or bass.

If you're familiar with the Elite series, you'll already know some of the features you can expect to find on the Ultra, but nearly every aspect of the Elite models has been modified and redesigned.

The deep contours of the Elite models have gotten even deeper, with the back of the bodies now recessed from the top bout through the neck joint and into the arc of the bottom horn. What had been a C to D-shaped neck profile on the Elite is now a full Modern D neck with end-rolled edges and a compound 10"-14" radius.

Ultra models feature a revamped version of Fender's S1 pickup voicing system, which allows you to choose various in-series or parallel pickup configurations, in addition to the standard ones found on the Strat, Tele, and others.

Humbucker-equipped Ultra guitars will also feature the Tim Shaw–designed DoubleTap push-pull coil splitter, which can change the humbucker to a single-coil with no loss of volume. (These same DoubleTap pickups can be found on the American Performer Series, released in late 2018.)

New finishes include Cobra Blue, Texas Tea, and Arctic Pearl. Starting at $1,899, all new models—including the Ultra Stratocaster, Ultra Stratocaster HSS, Ultra Telecaster, Ultra Jazzmaster, Ultra Precision Bass, and Ultra Jazz Bass—are on Reverb now. Shop Ultra guitars or Ultra basses by following the links.