Fender American Ultra II Meteora – is this Fender’s most impressive guitar of 2024?
$2,249/£2,339, fender.com
Back in 2019, Fender launched the original American Ultra range – its most advanced guitars ever, so they said. Back then, the range consisted of a Strat, Tele and a Jazzmaster – the holy trinity of Fender electric guitars, and why not? Well…
READ MORE: Fender Player II Telecaster review – the best affordable Tele out there?
You see, offset enthusiasts are a particular bunch, and for the scores of players who have made Fender’s once-derided outsider the modern-day staple of guitar cool that it is today, the rough edges and foibles that the American Ultra range was designed to knock off – with its locking tuners, noiseless pickups, tapered heels and such – are the very soul of what makes people love these guitars.
Which is a short way of saying that, despite the original American Ultra Jazzmaster being a truly excellent guitar in its own right, it deviated enough from the tried-and-true formula that offset fans were, if not getting their pitchforks out, were at least sharpening them.
This brings me to the brand new American Ultra II range and the replacement of the aforementioned Jazzmaster in the line-up with a different offset guitar entirely – and one that carries a great deal less baggage – the Meteora.
Image: Adam Gasson
Fender American Ultra II Meteora – what is it?
As with the original range, the American Ultra II guitars are designed to be Fender’s most advanced instruments ever – this time with the sensible stated aim of catering to pro-level players who require something a little bit different to the classic specs seen on guitars in the vintage-vibed American Vintage II line, for example.
In practice, this means that the guitars in the range all come with compound radius 10-14” fingerboards; quartersawn maple necks with ebony fingerboards sporting Luminlay side dots and ultra-rolled edges; medium-jumbo frets; short-post locking tuners, sculpted heels for better upper-fret access; stainless steel block saddles; brushed steel pickguards; and Graph Tech Tusq nuts.
On the Tele and Strat you also get Noiseless pickups, while this Meteora gets a pair of brand new Haymaker humbuckers – more on those later – and a trio of interesting colours in the shape of Avalanche white, Ultraburst and this Texas Tea, last seen on the first gen Ultra Telecaster, which is a very interesting black with a hint of gold sparkle in the paint.
The Meteora itself is of course relatively new too – in every kind of way. Fender’s most modern offset creation was first introduced back in 2018 as a limited-run in Fender’s Parallel Universe line, it’s since evolved from its Tele-toting beginnings to become the twin-humbucker mainstay of Fender’s Mexican Player Plus range. The Player Plus is effectively a more affordable take on the ‘refined classic’ approach of the Ultra II, so it makes sense that it’s graduating to being a proper USA production model for the first time here.
Image: Adam Gasson
Fender American Ultra II Meteora – build and playability
The Ultra II range is designed for pros, and that’s a vibe that’s instantly reinforced upon sliding the rugged and weighty deluxe moulded hard case out of the box – with rock-solid protection, rugged hinges and latches all round, this feels like something you can throw in a van or trailer underneath a bunch of gear night after night and never worry about too much.
The guitar itself feels refined, and it’s a smaller guitar than you’d think, but not so small that you feel like you’re playing a toy, especially with a weight just shy of 8lbs. But it gets out of the way while leaving you with enough mass to get to grips with.
The finishing and general build quality are excellent on this test example – that luxurious Texas Tea finish is perfectly applied, and everything feels tight, well done and generally solid. The sense is that this is an instrument that can take a lot of punishment straight out of the box. With the hard-tail bridge and those locking tuners, everything is very stable in that regard as you would expect, and playability is a breeze.
The Ultra series Modern D profile has always been one of Fender’s most comfortable neck shapes – with a back a little flatter than the usual C, offering a more solid platform for the sort of technical playing where your thumb is rooted to the back of the neck – and that’s still the case here. It feels wonderful against the palm and lends itself to playing comfortably for hours on end without too much wrist fatigue.
Image: Adam Gasson
The compound radius and ebony fingerboard prove to be another godsend – it’s rounder up top where you’d want to mainly be playing chords, but flatter as you move up the neck, giving you the perfect platform for the most intense lead playing. It also feels smooth and luxurious and comfortable all the way up the neck. It handles everything with ease, from huge djentle shreds to boomer bends.
There is one massive and baffling issue however – and one that I’m struggling to see how Fender missed during R&D. The knobs on the Ultra II range are knurled metal examples, but not the gently embossed types you’d see on a Tele, for example. In order to ensure these knobs can be easily gripped in the heat of the sweatiest stages, these knobs have big, chunky, literally pointy knurls that share more in common with a meat tenderiser.
It’s a bit excessive, but it wouldn’t be a problem if not for the knob placement on the American Ultra II Meteora. In another presumed concession to player convenience, the knobs have been shifted forward and up slightly from the Player Plus version, so that the volume knob is directly below the bridge pickup and barely a centimetre away.
I found that I was hitting the knob way too often when playing, and thanks to the aforementioned meat-tenderiser nature of it, hitting it is not a pleasant experience! If you do a lot of bridge pickup strumming, it could be downright hazardous – our commissioning editor managed to take some of the skin off his pinky finger after just one particularly chug-heavy song. Player-friendly that is not.
The worst part is, you can’t easily just swap the knob if it’s a problem – the volume control contains the S-1 switch that controls the coil split, so you can’t just grab any old knob and swap it out. Really, Fender should start swapping the knobs for the classic Strat type on the next production run.
Image: Adam Gasson
Fender American Ultra II Meteora – sounds
To put a modern offset like the Meteora through its proper paces, I decided to run it through my tried-and-true Matchless Laurel Canyon – Matchless’s modern take on the Fender Deluxe Reverb. Upon plugging in my pedalboard and strumming my first chord, I was hooked! Admittedly, the offset traditionalist (or snob) in me wanted to hate it. But I couldn’t stop smiling, and more importantly, I couldn’t put this guitar down!
Often, people don’t think of Fender for their humbuckers, but the Haymakers may very well shatter that notion. As the name implies, the Haymakers deliver a huge tonal punch to the face that sounds incredible. The neck pickup, in particular, is my favourite for rhythm – it provides a tight, clear sound that never gets muddy.
With the bridge pickup, highs never come across as shrill or sterile. I found myself gravitating towards this for my leads. Overall, both pickups are articulate and well-balanced. I would dare say these are some of the best humbuckers that Fender has ever offered on a guitar! Furthermore, they more than lent themselves to any kind of gain/distortion thrown at them. From my Strymon Sunset to my Klon KTR, each drive sings with a chime and character that I have yet to hear from any other Fender humbuckers. This might be the Meteora’s greatest tonal asset.
With the S1 engaged, the Meteora does become more of a typical Fender single-coil affair. However, being that it’s split, this is not quite in the neighbourhood of a Tele, Strat, or even Jazzmaster, especially in terms of bottom-end response. It’s serviceable as a single-coil solution and still very usable for those in need of a quick single-coil-like sound, but probably more for utility than something you’re going to build a track around.
Fender American Ultra II Meteora – should I buy one?
As the muted reception for the Ultra I Jazzmaster demonstrated, offset fans are not the easiest to please, but this is a really intriguing and compelling alternative from Fender that really caters to those looking for something a little more modern in terms of both sound and design.
In some ways, it’s probably best to think of it less as a successor to the Jazzmaster, and more like the most rock-ready American-made guitar in Fender’s current line-up. You should play one first to check that the pointy knob situation doesn’t impact your playing style, but if it doesn’t this is the most compelling and unique guitar in the American Ultra II range.
Fender American Ultra II Meteora – alternatives
There are of course plenty of interesting and unconventional offset guitars out there that break from the Jazzmaster mould. An excellent but more classic-looking option is the Harmony Silhouette ($1,499), while Omar Rodríguez-López’s Music Man Mariposa ($3,199/£2,999) offers a more modernist take. If you like big-name brands doing slightly leftfield stuff, the recently revived Gibson Victory ($1,999/£1,749) is an interesting beast, to say the least.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
