expirediconian | Staff posted Feb 09, 2024 11:51 PM
Item 1 of 2
Item 1 of 2
expirediconian | Staff posted Feb 09, 2024 11:51 PM
Fender American Ultra Telecaster Electric Guitar (Cobra Blue or Arctic Pearl)
+ Free Shipping$1,499
$2,150
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16 Comments
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As with a lot of electric guitars, if you're a good player, you probably get 99% of the benefit of this for a fraction of the price. The low noise pickups and the tuners on this are good, but they're also overkill for most people. So you can pick up a good telecaster for $600 or so and be happy.
However, if you like guitars, you're unlikely to be disappointed with this one.
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I compared the Ultra and prior Elite series to the American Pro II -- both great guitars -- but the Ultra and prev-gen Elite were superior in fit and finish in a way you can notice if you examine and feel them with an intention of spotting differences.
Do you "always" get build quality improvements on American vs. Mex? Nope. Especially in the lower-end USA models where, honestly, some MIMs models tend to surpass some of those USA models, on average. Should you expect a difference when dipping into the higher-end USA models? Yep... and if you don't, it's more anomalous than a regularity. And when talking specifically about the Ultra? If you don't see and feel a clearly superior built and feeling guitar?, return it... some disengaged drunk must have slapped inspection passed stickers on a reject.
The Elites/Ultras are buttery smooth, in all of my encounters, including (typically) better quality fingerboard selection vs. lesser USA models. I wish they had stuck with the Ebony they used back in 2017-ish timeframe when the CITES issues were all the rage. That, for a time, was another nice differentiator (imo).
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I've seen enough posts with this sentiment that I was surprised at how much nicer the Fender was. To be fair, the Affinity is the second cheapest guitar that Squier makes. The Classic Vibes guitars are nicer - and yea, they do feel nicer.. the Ultra still feels a lot nicer than those.
But they are all electric guitars, and I think that's where the differences are pretty subtle. If I handed both guitars off to a really good player and they did a blind test (especially with pedal effects cranked up) I'd be surprised if I could tell the difference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnvYSKs
It's not as if that isn't a common topic lol..
The neck on the fender is beautiful, though. The finish is silky smooth, the edges are rounded off so nicely, and I love the 12" radius and compound neck.
To be fair, you can get most of that from any other 'super strat' from ibanez or sterling music man or whatever for a lot less money.
But that's ok, I wasn't really trying to go strictly bang-for-the-buck. I do think the diminishing returns hit pretty hard somewhere between $500 and $800 though. Especially right now with so many random guitar deals!
But yea, that $150 squier affinity does an amazingly good job. As surprised as I was about how much better the Fender Ultra feels... I was also impressed at how well the Squier holds its own.
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