"What do you mean you've seen this? It's brand new..." - 'Back to the Future' (1985)
We've really taken the '50s for a whirl, haven't we? With so many musical touchstones from the decade, none the least of which being its instruments, the time travelers really have their work cut out for them, huh? What year is it? Well, it could be 2025 and Fender could be hitting us with a brand-new take on its 1950s classic, the Stratocaster, but we aren't quite certain yet. For any potential time-space skippers out there reading this, we're here to lend you a hand.
This is the Fender American Ultra Luxe Vintage '50s Stratocaster.
Shop the Fender Ultra Luxe Vintage 50s Strat
Rock 'n' Roll Jubilee
Introducing the Fender American Ultra Luxe Vintage '50s Stratocaster
When it comes to talking about the Fender Stratocaster – truly – where do you start? A legend in just about any era for guitarists, we don't need to spell it out, it's iconic. It's with this ubiquity that we approach this new model from Fender. The Fender American Ultra Luxe Vintage series rolls out with a number of stellar guitars inspired simultaneously by history's greatest musical contributions and the modern day's most forward-thinking innovations. Among these guitars is the Fender American Ultra Luxe Vintage '50s Stratocaster.
This premier model from Fender couples the vintage sensibilities of original '50s Strats with the breakneck modernity of today's Strats. Players seeking that particular balance of midcentury aesthetic and 2020s playability need look no further than this model to deliver on the very best of every dynamic. The Fender American Ultra Luxe Vintage '50s Stratocaster executes on the pinnacle of its American design and assembly for the dedicated players of the world. Let's talk some specifics.
Shake, Rattle and Roll
Fender American Ultra Luxe Vintage '50s Stratocaster Design
With a guitar like the American Ultra Luxe Vintage '50s Stratocaster, we're treated to suite of fine materials, electronics, and specifications to all add up to one knockout of a guitar. Many of the specifications found with the American Ultra Luxe Vintage series might come as familiar to the experienced Fender player. While a good couple specifications are classic Fender features in motion, each one is definitively elevated to impress on every level.
Fender American Ultra Luxe Vintage '50s Stratocaster Specifications
Kicking the whole experience off, this American Ultra Luxe Vintage model begins with a premium alder body taking Fender's iconic double-cutaway profile. Following in other American Ultra series models' example, the body is treated to deep body contours that are designed to maximize on handling and playing comfort. Holding this alder body up with a strap or over the knee is an effortless experience.
Continuing on, this Strat, like all other American Ultra Luxe Vintage models, is fitted with a quartersawn maple neck. This higher-quality maple is cut to an incredibly comfortable and highly mobile Modern D profile – the kind you'd find in similar, modern Fender series like the American Ultra II. At the highest registers on the neck, players will encounter some more contouring to facilitate easy reaches to the highest frets possible. This Modern D profile is made even more comfortable with a satin finish that makes for smooth travels across the palm.
On the fingers, the American Ultra Luxe Vintage '50s Stratocaster lines its maple fingerboard with twenty-two stainless steel Medium Jumbo-sized frets. Balancing the speediness and articulation of more modern fret designs with the feel of more vintage-leaning fret designs, these frets are effortlessly maneuvered to let your best licks fly. Part of what makes this guitar so playable is a more modern consideration found across the fingerboard. A compound fingerboard radius measuring ten inches to fourteen lays out across the board. The radius in question, fitted to an already quite flat and speedy ten inches near the headstock as it flattens to a blistering fourteen toward the body, enables players to make the best of chording in lower registers and soloing in higher registers.
The Fender American Ultra Luxe Vintage series treats its players to one unique aesthetic choice in particular for its bodies. Across the Ultra Luxe Vintage '50s Stratocaster's alder body, you'll find some charming paint checking. This is due to a fairly new Fender development, their Heirloom finish treatment. Heirloom, a finish treatment entering a Fender production line model for the first time with the American Ultra Luxe Vintage series, imparts some particular age to the finish, forgoing the kind of relic artifacts you might experience in some Fender Custom Shop models. What this all leads to is a finish treatment that serves up some unique, emulated age without incorporating chips, scrapes, dents, and the like. However you like your finish aged, Fender's Heirloom is definitely one worth checking out with the American Ultra Luxe Vintage series.
Little Things Mean a Lot
Fender American Ultra Luxe Vintage '50s Stratocaster Tones and Hardware
With the American Ultra Luxe Vintage series, we're treated to a host of fine electronics and sturdy hardware appointments to elevate the whole experience to the next level. This begins with a set of three Fender Pure Vintage '57 single-coil pickups. These pickups, wired with CTS 250K potentiometers, enable some deep and expressive tonal mixing while they are played. The Pure Vintage '57s summon the exact image of the proverbial "dream" Strat where all the sparkle and snappiness of classic Strat single-coils paint vivid portraits of an iconic electric guitar in action. Alongside these single-coils is an S-1 push/push switch built into the volume knob that opens the spectrum of sounds even wider. However you slice the American Ultra Luxe Vintage '50s Stratocaster, you're playing with generations of single-coil spirit.
These pickups drive the tonal experience of this American Ultra Luxe Vintage model, though smaller considerations in the hardware department must also be acknowledged. At either end of the scale, strings are grounded stably with an American Ultra two-point synchronized tremolo bridge with a cold rolled steel block and block saddles and sealed locking tuning machines. To stabilize strings and make the best of tuning accuracy and intonation, these two features ensure the best of playability. At every juncture, Fender takes strides to bring features old and new into the modern era.
Fender American Ultra Luxe Vintage '50s Stratocaster Final Thoughts
For any Strat fan, the American Ultra Luxe Vintage '50s Stratocaster is a homerun. Its masterful balancing of sensibilities retro and modern appears across the entire model as it impresses on every level. Whether you're a fan of more classic Strats and are looking to inch your way into more modern designs or you're a fan of more recent Strats and are looking to lean back into some more vintage aesthetics, the American Ultra Luxe Vintage series has you covered. This model is a marvelous representation of a Fender legacy manifested as the brand looks in both directions, toward the past and future.
