Fender American Ultra Luxe ’50s Telecaster and ’60s HSS Stratocaster Review

Ultra Luxe Vintage ’50s Telecaster

Effects of the American Ultra Luxe Vintage makeover are most obvious on the ’50s Telecaster. There’s the contoured body (something Strats have had since day one), an angled pickup-selector switch, and individual string saddles for more precise intonation than on a three-saddle Tele bridge. There’s plenty of vintage flavor, though. The ash body looks great and the butterscotch finish really pops the grain. The weight, on the test guitar at least, is neither especially hefty nor light—a little heavier than my own 1974, though that guitar has had its finish stripped off for decades.

The vintage-ness extends to the playability too—it has a broken-in feel right out of the case. I’m used to compound radius fretboards, so I did not have to adjust to the 10-14″ shift (versus the 10-16″ I’m used to) and it will probably feel more natural to players new to compound radii. Upper fret access was effortless. The build is super tight, giving the guitar a strong unplugged sound that offers the pickups lots of resonance to work with.

I admit, I was initially resistant to the angled switch. Somehow, as a guy who’s wrestled with a traditional straight switch angle for decades, I think of it like driving a manual. Once you learn it, you love it—until you’re in heavy traffic. But like a high-performance automatic with paddle shifters, the angled switch is a blessing that gets you in gear faster. If you play a Strat, the angle will be very familiar. The three-position blade switch gives you the traditional Tele combo of neck, bridge and both in parallel. A subtle push/push S-1 switch mounted in the volume knob bypasses the switch settings to give you the two pickups in series for some extra oomph—way easier than four-way blade switches wired to accomplish the same goal. In real world performance situations, the combined switching system is a godsend, especially if you want to kick in the series setting for leads.

Strength in Series

Overall, the Pure Vintage single-coil pickups deliver the Tele spank you’d expect. I’ve always thought the traditional Tele neck pickup underrated and Fender nailed it here. Through the clean Ampeg, the guitar delivered twang and detail. I was able to go from country to jazz tonalities without adjusting the amplifier, and I especially like the way that rolling back the volume doesn’t come at the expense of detail.