0:01 okay today we're going to pull out all
0:04 five model ranges from fenders american
0:05 lineup we're going to compare all the
0:07 usa strats so you don't have to let's
0:10 get into it [Music]
0:18 [Music] so
0:34 [Music] [Applause]
0:44 hello ladies and gents jack here from
0:45 peach guitars hope you're doing very
0:48 well today is a part two if you haven't
0:49 seen part one it'll be linked in the
0:51 description below what we did there
0:53 was we took each of the five model
0:55 ranges that fender now offers in its usa lineup
0:56 lineup
0:58 for telecasters today we're going to
1:00 apply that exact same logic to strats
1:01 this is something that a lot of people
1:03 are asking for in that original video so
1:05 we're glad to be able to deliver part
1:07 two so i think we wanted to make this
1:09 video mainly because there's kind of the
1:11 classic ideal that people have of an
1:13 american strat although it's classic
1:15 it's kind of different for every player
1:16 so when you go on to fenders website or
1:18 the peach guitars website whatever it
1:19 might be suddenly you're met with a
1:22 plethora of different styles different
1:24 kind of vintage inspired designs some
1:26 way more contemporary it's very hard to
1:28 actually nail it down to just one
1:30 american strat now there is definitely
1:32 cause to own more than one and hopefully
1:34 in this video by breaking down different
1:36 proponents of each range i'll kind of
1:38 give you a little bit of information
1:39 that maybe you didn't have or maybe you
1:41 did have and i've just helped to kind of
1:43 file it all together so without further
1:45 ado let's get into the specifics of each
1:47 model we'll start off though with a back
1:49 to back tone comparison so you can hear
1:52 the differences highlighted for yourself [Music]
2:15 [Music] [Applause]
2:16 [Applause] [Music]
2:58 [Music] [Applause]
2:59 [Applause] [Music]
3:24 [Applause] hmm
3:32 [Applause] [Music]
3:36 [Music] hmm
3:42 [Music] [Applause]
3:46 [Applause]
3:47 okay so we're going to start off here
3:49 with guitar number one this is the
3:50 american performer number one point that
3:52 i want to talk about with the american
3:54 performer is how comfortable this neck
3:56 is it's a satin finish neck so if you're
3:57 coming from maybe a less expensive
3:59 guitar maybe a less expensive fender
4:01 even or a squire or any other kind of
4:03 similar strat design
4:04 you're going to become very much at home
4:06 on this kind of guitar very quickly i
4:07 think this is such a comfortable neck
4:10 profile they've gone for their modern c
4:12 shaped profile so it's quite a thin neck
4:14 i'm not talking like super modern flat
4:16 feeling but
4:18 compared to a more vintage style neck
4:20 this is a little skinnier it's very easy
4:21 to get your hands across this is
4:23 definitely a kind of guitar that fits
4:25 all kinds of players it's not just for
4:27 those vintage enthusiasts
4:28 so carrying on with the neck you've got
4:31 a nine and a half inch radius with jumbo
4:33 frets really really comfortable to kind
4:35 of play chords or single note lead lines
4:36 whatever you want to do
4:38 it's just a very comfortable neck i'm
4:39 using that word comfortable a lot but
4:41 that's kind of the striking
4:43 overpowering feature of this guitar now
4:45 point number two i want to talk about is
4:47 the way this thing sounds so the pickups
4:49 in here are proprietary american
4:52 performer yosemite pickups single coils
4:54 obviously i don't know what magic
4:56 they've put into these but i think these
4:58 are possibly in my opinion the best
5:00 sounding american strat single coil
5:02 pickup design that they've currently got
5:03 they're just such a juicy sounding
5:05 pickup without being overpowered but at
5:07 the same time you can apply this guitar
5:08 to a more modern context whether you're
5:11 piling on effects or using higher gain
5:13 these pickups just follow you down every
5:15 tonal avenue and that's complemented by
5:16 fender's grease bucket tone circuit
5:18 which basically allows you to dull the
5:21 tone at high end frequencies without
5:22 muddying the tone as you go down the
5:24 control i believe this is also the first
5:26 time that we've seen fender adding in a
5:28 rather premium feature into their most
5:30 inexpensive american guitar range which
5:33 is this push pull tone control down here
5:35 on the second tone control
5:37 which allows you to add in the neck
5:39 pickup to positions one and two so it
5:41 gives you seven total combinations of sounds
5:42 sounds
5:44 which is two more than you get from a
5:46 traditional strat setup i think they're
5:47 really usable sounds and obviously it's
5:49 really easy to access but that's just
5:51 one little attention to detail kind of
5:52 touch that fender have decided to
5:54 incorporate even way down here at their
5:56 most affordable american guitar lastly
5:58 point number three is a little bit of a
6:00 personal one but i'm so pleased that
6:02 they've decided to carry on with the big
6:04 headstock 70s design this is something
6:06 that a lot of guitar players tend to shy
6:08 away from most people don't really or
6:10 they're not crazy about fender's 70s
6:12 period but pretty much all of my
6:13 favorite strap players throughout
6:15 history have played
6:17 70s era strats with the big headstock so
6:19 i just love that maybe it's nostalgia
6:20 maybe it does something different to the
6:22 tone subliminally i don't know but i
6:24 love the design i love the way it looks
6:26 i love the way it feels
6:27 i'm really glad it's here [Music]
6:38 [Music] do
7:11 hmm [Music]
8:10 [Music]
8:28 [Music] [Applause]
8:30 [Applause] [Music]
8:32 [Music] [Applause]
8:32 [Applause] [Music]
8:55 uh [Music]
9:09 [Music]
9:11 right so guitar number two is coming
9:13 from the american professional two
9:16 family this is arguably the perfect
9:18 strat for probably the greatest number
9:19 of people this is kind of the goldilocks
9:21 design for those familiar with fenders
9:23 history you'll know that the american
9:25 standard was always at the forefront of
9:27 fenders kind of more modern thinking
9:28 design fender as a company anyway has
9:31 always decided to maybe leave heritage
9:33 on one hand and then always push forward
9:35 with new player friendly ideas on the
9:37 other hand and the standard was always
9:39 the way that they did that that evolved
9:41 more recently into the american
9:43 professional line
9:44 and now we've got the american
9:45 professional 2 which brought about a
9:47 couple of further refinements some new
9:49 pickups and so on
9:50 and most importantly some new finishes
9:52 so this is kind of where you can get the
9:54 craziest with the spec list on this
9:55 guitar there's tons of great finishes
9:57 available including this really cool
9:59 mercury finish which is exclusive to the
10:01 american professional 2.
10:02 you can also get a ton of variants
10:04 especially on the strat like guitars
10:05 with humbuckers in the bridge two
10:07 humbucker versions but
10:09 for sake of comparison all these guitars
10:11 have traditional three single coil
10:13 setups okay point number two i want to
10:14 talk about on this guitar is the tone
10:16 and once again this is kind of that
10:18 goldilocks sweet spot right in the
10:19 middle you've got just enough of that
10:22 vintage warmth and juiciness
10:23 combined with a little bit more of a
10:25 modern approach with their new v-mod 2
10:27 pickups these pickups have this kind of
10:29 really bell-like crystalline quality to
10:31 the high-end frequencies which some of
10:33 the other guitars don't necessarily have
10:34 which allows you to just do more with
10:36 this than you could do with a more
10:38 vintage specific strat it's also
10:40 complemented by the same this time it's
10:42 a push push control down here on tone
10:44 control 2
10:45 to add in the neck pickup once again to
10:47 positions one and two so you get a total
10:49 of seven different sounds on this strap
10:50 now this is the first range as well that
10:52 we see the introduction of fenders
10:55 different bridge design traditionally
10:56 it's always been about the six screw
10:58 bridge and purists and traditionalists
11:00 of the brand will say that that is the
11:02 only acceptable option but i've always
11:05 really loved their two post trim design
11:07 here it just affords you way more tuning
11:08 stability you can really get all those
11:10 nice flutters with the trim that you
11:11 can't necessarily do with a vintage
11:13 style bridge and this guitar has been
11:16 upgraded with a cold rolled steel block
11:18 as well for increased sustain and once
11:19 again it helps a little bit with the
11:20 tuning stability so that's the
11:21 aesthetics covered that's the tone
11:22 covered point number three that i want
11:24 to talk about is just how comfortable
11:26 once again this neck is rather than the
11:28 modern c profile which is a little
11:30 slimmer on the american performer this
11:32 guitar has a deep sea profile so it
11:34 feels a little bit kind of fuller in the
11:36 hand but it's still got that very
11:38 comfortable linear kind of sweep to it
11:40 of the c profile
11:42 you've got hand rolled edges on this as
11:44 well so it feels extremely smooth all
11:46 the way up the neck it's complemented by
11:48 some really nice big jumbo frets once
11:50 again it's just an absolute joy to play
11:52 this neck whatever kind of style you're
11:53 going for the neck just really molds
11:56 into your hand and once again fitting
11:57 with the theme of all the other points i
11:59 made it is really kind of the sweet spot
12:00 it is the one that most people are going
12:03 to feel most comfortable on [Music]
12:17 [Music] [Applause]
12:19 [Applause] [Music]
12:36 [Music] foreign
12:37 foreign [Music]
13:12 so [Music]
13:15 [Music] [Applause]
13:17 [Applause] [Music]
13:27 do [Music]
13:47 [Music] you
13:56 [Music] [Applause]
13:59 [Applause] [Music]
13:59 [Music] [Applause]
14:02 [Applause] [Music]
14:31 [Applause] [Music]
15:19 [Music] [Applause]
15:22 [Applause] [Music]
15:24 [Music] hey
15:36 [Applause]
15:38 right guitar number three comes from
15:41 what is probably the most popular with
15:43 all the purists anyway range of fenders
15:46 american lineup and this is definitely
15:48 the one for those who just love
15:49 everything about the brand's history and
15:51 maybe if you can't quite stretch to a
15:53 custom shop budget this is the range to
15:54 look at so right here i've got the
15:56 american original 50s there's also a 60s
15:58 strat which has a rosewood fingerboard
16:00 slightly different spec so point number
16:01 one i kind of touched on in the
16:03 introduction to this range here this is
16:05 genuinely the closest that you can get
16:08 to a custom shop spec and quality in
16:10 fender's standard usa lineup kind of an
16:12 off-the-shelf design
16:14 you've got enough kind of variety in the
16:16 range to be able to satisfy any of your
16:18 needs if you're looking for vintage kind
16:20 of strat designs which most people going
16:22 to custom shop are doing this is the
16:24 very closest way that you can get there
16:25 so all the hardware and the specs are
16:27 kind of vintage correct
16:29 you've got the only guitar here by the
16:30 way with a seven and a quarter inch
16:32 radius which means that the fingerboard
16:34 is a little bit more curved like the
16:35 guitars were back in the day it's a
16:37 little bit more comfortable i think for cording
16:38 cording
16:39 but the nice thing is they've kind of
16:41 combated the traditional fretting out
16:43 issues that you'd have with this radius
16:45 by giving you tall vintage threads point
16:46 number two that i want to talk about is
16:48 another exclusive feature for all the
16:50 guitars here this is the only guitar
16:52 with a nitro cellulose lack of finish
16:54 and basically the nitro finish allows
16:56 the guitar theoretically at least to
16:57 breathe a little bit more the wood is a
16:59 little bit more resonant than the poly
17:00 finish which all the other guitars here have
17:02 have
17:03 it also
17:04 and this is a sticking point for a lot
17:06 of people tends to age a little bit
17:07 faster that's why you see all those
17:10 great beaten up old looking guitars but
17:12 you can get that out of the box here but
17:13 you can do the damage if you want to
17:16 consider it damage anyway yourself this
17:17 is a nice thin finish so the wood is
17:20 really open sounds great looks great
17:21 over time
17:23 or if you really want to be careful you
17:24 can just keep this thing pristine for as
17:26 long as you can point number three and i
17:27 think this is kind of the biggest
17:30 sticking point with the original lineup
17:32 compared to the american vintage which
17:34 this range succeeds
17:35 basically with the vintage they decided
17:38 to uh give you year specific specs so
17:41 you had for example a 57 or maybe it's a
17:43 56 i believe and a 59
17:44 what they've done here which i think
17:46 makes a lot more sense is they kind of
17:49 amalgamated all of that decades spec
17:51 changes so all of the different uh
17:53 evolutionary spec changes that fender
17:54 went through in the 50s they've kind of
17:56 just thrown all the best or the greatest
17:59 hits if you will into this one american
18:00 original lineup
18:02 so what that means by way of example is
18:03 that you've got for example here an
18:07 early 50s two-tone sunburst finish
18:08 but they've complemented it with a mid
18:11 50s soft v neck profile like you get
18:14 kind of around 56 57 and then to top it
18:15 all off they've gone to the end of the
18:18 decade with pure 59 vintage pickups or
18:20 pure vintage 59 i should say pickups
18:22 here so it's kind of a little bit of all things
18:23 things
18:24 and it makes these guitars genuinely a
18:26 little bit more versatile and usable
18:28 than the american vintage guitars that
19:05 [Music] mm-hmm
19:19 [Music] [Applause]
19:21 [Applause] [Music]
19:29 so [Music]
19:33 [Applause] [Music]
19:40 [Music] so
19:43 so [Music]
19:58 do [Music]
19:58 [Music] [Applause]
20:01 [Applause] [Music]
20:41 [Applause] [Music]
20:54 hmm [Music]
21:02 [Music] yes
21:22 okay second to last guitar i'm going to
21:25 talk about today is probably the most
21:26 contentious one here this is the one
21:28 that a lot of people when it came out
21:30 didn't really understand given fender's
21:32 long-standing history of making vintage
21:35 style instruments so the ultra is for
21:36 the modern guitar player this is the
21:38 kind of thing that fender haven't done before
21:39 before
21:41 it's really their most modern design and
21:42 what i mean by modern is it's a lot
21:45 sleeker i mean the original strat design
21:46 a lot of people would argue is kind of a
21:49 very stealthy sexy shape anyway but what
21:50 they've done here is just further all
21:52 those points and kind of exaggerated its
21:54 features so you've got a lot more
21:56 sculpting on the back with the body
21:58 contours you've got a far more accessible
22:00 accessible
22:01 upper neck
22:02 section here as well so you've got an
22:05 extended body contour here as well
22:06 everything's just a little bit sleeker
22:09 feels a little bit more modern and kind
22:11 of easy to get to grips with that is if
22:13 you're coming from other similarly
22:15 contemporary guitar designs if you are
22:16 though a fender purist and you've only
22:18 ever played vintage style instruments
22:19 this is going to take a minute to get
22:21 used to but when you do
22:22 it offers you something legitimately
22:23 different to everything else that's here
22:25 so point number two i kind of alluded to
22:27 back there in point one
22:29 the ultra noiseless pickups on this
22:31 guitar is kind of the latest technology
22:32 that they've got now with their
22:34 noiseless designs it's never gonna be
22:36 for everybody some people just love to
22:38 have that kind of all guns blazing
22:40 hum that you get from a single coil
22:42 pickup there's no other way to put it
22:44 however some people genuinely need to be
22:45 rid of that if you're playing in a
22:47 studio setting or if you're playing with
22:49 a lot of gain or if you're really
22:51 playing with detailed kind of
22:54 heavy processed effects laden tones as
22:56 well these noiseless pickups really
22:57 really do the trick so what you kind of
22:59 lose slightly in a little bit of that
23:02 vintage warmth and juicy character you
23:05 gain in sheer pragmatic ability to use
23:06 this guitar in more situations you've
23:09 got a slightly different take on the
23:11 adding in extra tones here you've got
23:13 fenders s1 switch which hides here in
23:15 the volume control so you push that and
23:16 once again same as the other guitars you
23:18 get the option to add in the neck pickup
23:21 to these lower positions one and two
23:24 you also have the really cool no load
23:26 tone control so down here on the second
23:28 tone control for the bridge you feel a
23:30 little click when you get up to position
23:33 10 which takes the tone circuit out of
23:35 the signal chain so you get a little bit
23:36 of extended top end a little bit more
23:38 output and then as soon as you roll it
23:40 back it's active again so with all of
23:41 those other things i've talked about
23:42 kind of leads me on to point three which
23:45 is basically that this is the best for
23:46 high performance
23:48 range here so if you're the kind of
23:49 player that really wants to push your
23:51 instrument a little bit further or if
23:52 you're kind of a tinkerer and you've
23:55 always modified your existing guitars to
23:56 make them a little bit more player
23:58 friendly fender fender have done that
24:00 for you out of the box they've kind of
24:02 applied all of the attributes that they
24:03 think necessary
24:05 to make this guitar the best that it can
24:07 possibly perform [Music]
24:27 hmm [Music]
24:35 [Music] so
25:01 [Music] [Applause]
25:03 [Applause] [Music]
25:54 [Applause] [Music]
26:14 [Music] so
26:25 [Music] [Applause]
26:29 [Applause] so
26:31 so [Music]
26:37 [Music] [Applause]
26:37 [Applause] [Music]
26:41 [Music] [Applause]
27:05 so on to the final range of today's
27:07 comparison and this is the newest
27:09 addition to fenders usa lineup
27:12 the ultra lux now obviously the name
27:14 suggests exactly what this is this is a
27:16 simple continuation of the ultra lineup
27:18 so everything i just talked about with
27:20 that previous range still applies here
27:22 but they just decided to tweak it ever
27:24 so slightly further to to offer stuff to
27:26 players that they've never offered before
27:27 before
27:29 stainless steel frets make their first
27:31 appearance on a fender usa guitar in history
27:32 history
27:34 this was something that really took
27:35 people by a little bit of surprise i
27:37 mean it's not the biggest deal in the
27:39 world obviously but when this came out
27:40 people were really quite surprised that
27:42 fender actually did this for those who
27:43 don't know what stainless steel threats
27:45 are all about they're basically a far
27:47 more hard-wearing material
27:49 the other boutique builders have been
27:51 using for some time the trade-off is
27:52 that you do get a slightly different
27:54 tone you get a little bit more of a
27:55 zingy kind of top end which i actually
27:57 kind of really like once you get used to
27:59 it you don't really notice it anymore but
28:00 but
28:02 you get that increased durability like i
28:03 said you kind of get these frets the way
28:05 you like them and they never wear out
28:06 that's kind of the beauty of them we
28:08 actually covered this range in a lot
28:10 more detail in a separate video which
28:11 will be linked down below
28:13 but it's just a little bit more of that
28:14 ultra sensibility if you like what those
28:16 guitars are about and you want the kind
28:17 of best performing instrument that you
28:19 can get this just takes things a little
28:21 bit further with a couple of slight spec
28:23 changes like those threads now one big
28:25 thing that i was also quite surprised to
28:27 notice here is that the ultra lux
28:29 guitars are fitted with ash bodies
28:32 rather than older now back in 2020
28:33 fender made an announcement that they
28:35 wouldn't be using ash bodies anymore i
28:37 guess for availability reasons so i
28:39 don't know how or why they've
28:41 reintroduced it here with the ultralux
28:43 but i think it makes a little bit of a
28:45 kind of more concrete
28:46 determination between this and the
28:48 standard ultra the ash body is a little
28:50 bit weightier i think maybe it's a
28:51 little bit more resonant sounding as
28:54 well because of that and i like that you
28:55 get a little bit more of the grain
28:57 showing through so point number three
28:59 kind of just throws everything in
29:01 together here this is genuinely the most
29:03 modern fender design that they've ever
29:05 come up with that is not going to be for
29:06 everybody and i'm sure that you will be
29:08 the first to comment down below with
29:10 your thoughts if that's you but for the
29:11 player who's never considered fender
29:13 before because they've never quite
29:15 ticked these boxes now you can come on
29:17 board with arguably one of the biggest
29:20 guitar builders of all time one of the
29:22 most important guitar brands and they've
29:23 got a product that is genuinely right
29:25 for you that you don't need to take to
30:17 [Music] [Applause]
30:23 hmm [Music]
30:44 [Music] do
30:46 do [Music]
31:00 [Music] hmm
31:05 [Music] do
31:07 do [Music]
31:15 [Applause] [Music]
31:29 [Music] this
31:31 this [Music]
32:10 hmm [Music]
32:15 [Music] [Applause]
32:28 [Music] [Applause]
32:30 [Applause] um
32:31 um [Music]
32:37 [Music] [Applause]
32:39 [Applause] [Music]
32:44 [Music] [Applause]
32:46 [Applause] [Music]
32:57 all right folks there we go i hope
32:59 you've enjoyed today's overview of
33:01 fenders usa lineup of strats if you
33:03 haven't seen it like i said there is a
33:05 part one to this video which was the
33:06 same thing with telecasters so if you're
33:08 interested to hear those same
33:09 differences explained for the telecaster platform
33:10 platform
33:12 click the link in the description below
33:15 and you can check that video out as well
33:16 but hopefully i've sort of flattened out
33:18 some of the questions that you may have
33:20 had regarding usa strats if you've got
33:22 any more questions though you can click
33:24 the links click click the links in the
33:26 description down below to each of these
33:28 individual guitars you can check out the
33:30 full specs get pricing information check
33:32 out listing photos
33:34 and all that good stuff over on our
33:36 website so hopefully i've explained the
33:37 differences and similarities here but
33:39 most importantly of all i would like to
33:41 know your thoughts so let me know in the
33:42 comments below which of these five
33:44 guitars ticks all the boxes for you
33:46 maybe there's a couple maybe you can
33:47 genuinely see a couple of these guitars
33:49 being in your life whatever it is let me
33:51 know your thoughts down in the comment
33:52 section below and if you've enjoyed this
33:54 video be sure to leave a like and if
33:56 you're new to the channel hit subscribe
33:58 ring the bell you know exactly what to
33:59 do by this point but yes please do all
34:01 those things thank you very much for
34:03 watching take care and i'll see you in
34:04 the next video [Music]
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