The Fender American Ultra II Stratocaster was launched in 2024 during the 70th anniversary year of the Fender Stratocaster. It represents the latest in high tech innovation from Fender guitars. Consequently, Fender wanted to improve on the Fender American Ultra Stratocaster which was released in 2019 and it has integrated these improvements on the Fender American Ultra II Stratocaster. The Fender American Ultra Stratocaster is still available as of 2024 and here at Deluxe Guitar, we’re not sure if the Ultra II will be replacing the Ultra, or just serve as another choice in the Ultra Stratocaster line.
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Upgrades
Compared to the Fender American Ultra Stratocaster, the Fender American Ultra II Straocaster features several important upgrades. These upgrades include a quartersawn “D” profile neck, Luminlay glow-in-the-dark side dots on the neck, short post locking tuners, and a newly designed Ultra II Noiseless Vintage Strat pickups. Also, the bridge is a new 2-Point American Ultra Synchronized Tremolo with Polished Stainless Steel Block Saddles and Cold rolled Steel Block bridge pieces. If you buy one of the American Ultra II guitars in 2024 you will also get a 70th Anniversary Stratocaster decal on the back of the headstock. Additionally, the optional rosewood fingerboard found on the Ultra Strat has been replaced by a gorgeous ebony wood fingerboard.
New Colors
The Fender American Ultra II Stratocaster will feature some exciting colors, new to the Ultra line. These colors are:
- Sinister Red
- Solar Flare (a gold/yellow)
- Avalanche (white)
- Texas Tea
- Noble Blue
- Ultraburst
These colors come matched with either a maple or ebony neck. All pickguards are made of 1-ply anodized aluminum in either black, silver, or gold. Indeed, all the colors are vibrant and very eye catching.
What Stays The Same
Many of the amazing features found on the American Ultra will remain on the American Ultra II. On the Fender American Ultra II Stratocaster, you will still get a 10″-14″ compound radius neck. Additionally, enhanced body contours featuring a tapered neck heel and sculpted rear body contour are still in place. It also has soft touch knobs giving better grip for smooth volume changes. In addition, the S1 switching remains the same. With the S1 switch engaged, it simply turns on the neck pickup in any blade-switch position.
Neck
The Fender American Ultra II Stratocaster neck features either a quartersawn solid maple neck, or a quartersawn maple neck with ebony fingerboard. You may ask, what is quartersawn? Simply put, Quartersawn means that the wood used in the neck is cut from the tree such that the growth rings of the tree run perpendicular or nearly perpendicular to the face of the finished neck board (at approximately a 60-90 degree angle). This provides extra strength to the neck as it makes the neck less prone to bending under varying string tensions. Ultimately this extra strength results in an increase in the guitar’s tuning stability.
Another awesome feature on the neck is the use of Luminlay®side dots on the edge of the neck. These Luminlay® side dots are glow-in-the-dark side markers that make finding your place on the neck a breeze on a dark stage. This is such a great solution for guitarists who regularly play on darkened stages!
This neck features a modern “D” profile which is extra comfortable in the palm of your hand while playing. The hand rolled edges are perfectly tapered to the frets for amazing comfort while sliding your hand up or down the neck.
Additionally the new neck features a satin finish on the back on the neck for smooth touch and frictionless playing. Yet, the front of the headstock is a high gloss finish. That’s a very cool mixing of the two types of finishes on this neck.
The neck features a 10″-14″ compound radius neck with the neck tapering from 10″ to 14″ as you go up the neck toward the body. This results in a more rounded board down toward the nut and a flatter board in the upper registers where you will likely be doing more radical string bends and more soloing. The flatter section allows longer string bends without fretting out. It also gives you more speed since the neck surface remains more consistent.
Finally, the fingerboard is available as the quartersawn maple or an ebony wood. The ebony wood replaces the rosewood that was found on the previous Ultra Stratocaster.
Short Post Locking Tuners
Previous versions of the American Deluxe Stratocaster, American Elite Stratocaster, and American Ultra Stratocaster, each featured locking tuners that had variable length tuning posts. On those guitars the high E-B-G strings had a longer string post while the low D-A-E strings had short posts.
The locking tuners on the Ultra II Strat all feature the short post. This increases the break angle of the strings over the nut of the guitar. As a result, there is more downward pressure on the nut which gives an increase in sustain as the strings lock more tightly against the nut. As in the past, we recommend Big Bends Nut Sauce in the nut slots to maintain friction free movement through the nut slots for greater tuning stability.
Pickups
The Fender American Ultra II Stratocaster features all new Ultra II Noiseless Vintage Strat pickups. These pickups are a stacked single-coil design. This design uses a 2nd coil underneath the first one. This effectively cancels out the 60-cycle hum that is the bane of traditional single coil pickups. The new pickups maintain the classic bell-like chime tone that the Fender Stratocaster is famous for.
Tremolo
The Fender American Ultra II Stratocaster features a newly designed 2-Point American Ultra Synchronized Tremolo. It is a known fact that the 2-point design with a knife-edge base plate gives unparalleled tuning stability. Additionally, what makes this new tremolo special is the use of polished stainless steel block saddles with a cold rolled steel block. As a result, this reduces string friction at the saddle which results in improved tuning stability and better tremolo response.
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Summary
In summary, I feel like the Fender American Ultra II Stratocaster is a very nice upgrade to American Ultra Stratocaster. The new quartersawn neck, short post tuners, and new 2-point synchronized tremolo are sure to increase your tuning stability. The new pickups have their own unique sound helping to differentiate the American Ultra II Stratocaster from the American Ultra Stratocaster. The body contouring is the most comfortable body contouring I have ever played on a Fender Stratocaster. The new colors are also vibrant and exciting. I personally love both the new Solar Flare and Sinister Red colors available on this guitar. The best thing about buying the top-of-the line factory-built Stratocaster is that the Fender American Ultra II Stratocaster should hold its value very well for years to come! At any rate, make sure you do a proper setup on your new Strat using our Stratocaster Setup guide.
Check out this cool video from Fender discussing the latest innovations that are found on the new Ultra II Stratocaster.