Fender American Ultra Luxe - Reaction Thoughts & Pricing Break Down

Consider Supporting the Channel buy Getting some Merch
lucas-crossley...
Fender FINALLY offers Stainless Steel Frets!!
So Fender just released some new axes for 2021. The models that stood out most to me were the Ultra Luxe models. The biggest reason is because Fender FINALLY offers a guitar with stainless steel frets.
As a fan of Stainless Steel Frets I have been wondering why Fender was missing these while so many other companies offer them. I would love to know why it took so long for them to do this so if you know the answer feel free to leave a comment to enlighten me. I am always interested to learn.
So, let’s take a look at the offering;
So what do we make of Fender’s new offering? Well, on the surface it seems like they have certainly addressed the shortcoming of not having Stainless Steel frets in their lineup. I like the neck on this guitar as well. Having spent some time with the original Ultra Series. However, for me, I am trying to justify the prices that Fender is charging for these guitars.
The Ultra Luxe Strat and Tele Retail For - 3,219.99 Canadian
The Ultra Luxe Floyd Strat and Tele Retail for - 3,359.99 Canadian
By the time you add the taxes to one of these you’re at about 3800 bucks.
That’s a lot of money for a guitar.
When you look at the differences between the Ultra and the Ultra Luxe it seems like for the most part you are just getting Stainless Steel Frets and the Floyd depending on the model.
Let’s compare the two models without the Floyd Rose;
The American Ultra Strat at L&M is 2659.99 + Taxes = 3,005.78
The American Ultra Luxe at L&M is 3219.99 + Taxes = 3638.58
So basically, you are paying 632 dollars for stainless steel frets.
I think you could use Warmoth to make you a neck that’s just a good in terms of quality with SS frets and you can have it built to your exact specs. Ok, you might not be able to get the Floyd if that’s something you would like to have but you can achieve the same kind of playability and have it to your exact specifications.
I also am not a fan of painted headstocks. I think for the money they are asking I would have made this with Roasted Maple Necks and NOT painted the headstock. Then you could have a guitar that has the traditional look with modern features that players want.
For me this feels like 2,500 dollars’ worth of guitar being sold for 3,500. I think guitar prices in general are going nuts. I remember when Suhr Classics where or Anderson Icons were under 3 grand and these days, they are at over 4 grand here in Canada. It didn’t seem to me to be that long ago.
What do you guys think? 600 bucks is a lot of money for Stainless Steel Frets.
My 2007 Highway One strat only cost me around 700 dollars for the entire guitar.
JOIN MY MAILING LIST
Tips, Tricks, Lessons and much more delivered right to your inbox
Chances to win products only offered through our email list!
www.lucascross...
WEB - www.lucascross...
PATREON - / lucascrossleyguitar
RUclips - / lucascrossleyguitar
FACEBOOK / lucascrossleyguitar
INSTAGRAM / lucascrossleyguitar
TWITTER - / lcrossleyguitar