0:05 [Music] [Applause]
0:06 [Applause] [Music]
0:16 [Music]
0:17 Hey, this is Harrison Whitford and I'm
0:20 excited to be here at Fender and Corona
0:21 talking about the American Ultralux
0:24 Vintage Stratacasters.
0:26 I've been playing guitar since I was 12.
0:28 The thing that I've spent the past 10
0:30 years doing the most of is playing with
0:32 other songwriters, artists like Phoebe
0:34 Brides and Matt Burninger, Noah
0:38 Gunderson, Role Model, many others. And
0:40 and I would say the role that the guitar
0:43 plays for me throughout all of that is
0:46 it's my primary instrument. So, it's the
0:48 thing that I use to communicate ideas in
0:50 all those different realms. It's just a
0:52 tool. It's the thing that I have with me
0:54 all the time that gets me through all
0:55 those uh circumstances. [Music]
1:08 To me, the thing that makes a guitar
1:11 like the Ultralux special is that it's a
1:13 Fender. you know, like you could have
1:15 some kind of modern boutique instrument
1:18 that or or other instruments made by
1:20 other companies that have similar
1:22 features, but I just feel at home on a
1:26 Fender. And so to have a guitar that is
1:28 traditional, but with these
1:29 appointments, it's what I know, you
1:31 know, and I think it's what a lot of us
1:33 know. There's definitely a trust in the
1:36 feel of a of a Strat or a telly. For me,
1:39 every guitar has its own personality and
1:41 you bring your personality to it. In the
1:42 scenario of doing work that you feel
1:44 good about, it is important to have a
2:22 [Music] [Applause]
2:23 [Applause] [Music]
2:38 I'm a huge fan of checking. I always
2:39 love that look on a guitar. I don't
2:41 know. I've always felt that checking
2:43 looks kind of elegant and there's like a
2:46 wobbishabi quality to just it's not
2:49 quite perfect and it makes it a
2:51 beautiful object and and it's really
2:54 tastefully done here and you know the
2:57 finish looks like a vintage guitar. [Music]
3:12 If we find ourselves above the 12th
3:14 fret, the tapered neck heel really uh
3:17 aids in just sort of getting to these
3:19 higher position notes. You know, if I
3:20 want to play a high D flat or something
3:23 or some kind of lead or arpeggio up the
3:26 neck, even if it's not a lead, but just
3:28 a high part, it's nice to be able to do
3:31 all that kind of effortlessly. [Music]
3:38 [Music]
3:40 The cool thing with being able to, you
3:42 know, coil tap it and switch to a single
3:44 coil is if you're in the middle of a
3:46 tune that's, you know, you have a rhythm
3:48 part for the most of the tune and you
3:50 have a lot of clarity coming out of this
3:52 pickup when it's engaged as a humucker
3:54 and when it's a single coil. Sometimes
3:56 there's gigs where I don't show up with
3:58 a pedal board and I just have an amp.
4:00 And this would be a scenario where, you
4:02 know, if you have an amp at the right
4:03 volume, this basically can become a
4:06 drive for you, but with tons of clarity.
4:08 Like you're not losing tone, but you're
4:10 gaining that lift that you need sometimes.
4:12 sometimes. [Music]
4:45 [Music]
5:08 [Music] Hey,
5:15 hey, hey. [Music]
5:30 [Music]
5:33 I would say it has to feel like it's
5:35 been somewhat played in. Doesn't mean
5:37 that it has to have been played in, but
5:38 sometimes a guitar can be set up in a
5:40 certain way. Whether that means the
5:43 actions in a sweet spot, um the right
5:47 strings and hardware like the guitar
5:49 staying in tune is obviously really
5:52 important. And then obviously spending
5:54 time with an instrument and it kind of
5:58 molds to you that crosses that bridge of
6:00 it becoming, you know, special. [Music]
6:12 First Fender artist that probably really
6:14 changed my life was Jeff Beck. Just
6:17 seeing that he could wrangle such
6:20 otherworldly sounds out of a Strat, that
6:21 really hooked me on, you know, what
6:23 could be possible with a solid body
6:26 electric guitar like a Strat. always
6:28 artists that are really stretching the
6:32 limits of of their imagination and using
6:35 a tool like like a Fender guitar to to
6:38 do it with. [Music]
6:50 [Music]
6:51 I feel like the ultra rolled edges just
6:54 aid in everything feeling smooth.
6:56 Whatever I go for, there's not a lot of
6:58 resistance. It's a balancing act, right,
6:59 of like the right amount of resistance.
7:01 It's not something that's too easy to
7:03 play, but something that's easy enough
7:06 so that uh you know I can play without
7:40 [Music] [Applause]
7:46 I think the cool thing with the Ultralux
7:49 Vintage is that it to me feels almost
7:51 like a personally modified guitar,
7:54 especially with like vintage aesthetic
7:57 like the finishes. is married with these
7:59 sort of modern appointments. To me, it
8:03 feels like if you found some guitar in a
8:05 pawn shop a long time ago and somebody
8:07 might have routed some old Strat for a
8:10 humbucker in the bridge or put locking
8:12 tuners on it. these things that make it
8:14 a little bit more reliable as a studio
8:17 or live instrument, but without
8:20 compromising, you know, things that make
8:22 a vintage guitar attractive like Fiesta
8:24 Red or or any of those like great
8:27 features that we love. [Music]
8:29 [Music] [Applause]
8:57 [Music] [Applause]
8:58 [Applause] [Music]
9:03 [Music]
9:07 I'd say the significance of having a
9:09 good instrument and not even just a good
9:10 instrument, but one that you feel
9:14 connected to is so that there's as
9:16 little resistance as possible between
9:20 you and getting an idea across, which is
9:21 why I like, you know, bringing a Strat
9:23 into the studio cuz it's very versatile.
9:26 Something that has a lot of options. I'm
9:29 always a fan of as little as possible,
9:32 but enough things to kind of create
9:34 something larger than all those things
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