Great weekend for me - after a long search for a nice clean, stock, early year ultra I brought one home yesterday. I know they are not everyone's cup of tea (that's my there are so many kinds of Strats, right?) but I love them. The build quality is so good, I like ebony fretboards and yes I like Laces. Maybe it's because I play with my fingers and not a pick. These are subtle axes.

It came with a one piece flamed maple front and back as the early ones did, in a brown burst that lets the grain really shine. I'll try to get some picks up soon.

Anyway -other than babbling about my new find I wanted to ask other Ultra players what their favorite setting are. I'm playiing mostly blues right now, into a Blues Deluxe tube amp of the same year -91.

OK -so I'm wildly excited and want to talk to other Ultra owners in general.
I'm not interested in tossing the Laces or changing out the Wilkinson nut though, I realy like them the way these are and just want to talk about getting various tones.

Chris

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Never trade the thrill of living for the security of existing.

Custom Semi-hollow body (Tashka Leon)
1991 Strat Ultra
1996 60th Ann. Standard Black Strat (MIM)
Blues Deluxe (USA)
GDEC 30

I've seen a couple of those for sale in my local guitar center. I've wondered what makes them so special. Are Lace Sensors active pickups?

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"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


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They are passive. The Ultras have a lot of other features though - the ebony fretboard is unusal for the Strat, they havelocking tuners, flamed maple veneer, wilkonson roller nut, a different bridge setup, and they are wired ala Jeff Beck in position 3 for bridge and neck pickups. They have a three position switch to split off the dual reds at the bridge too, or run them like a humbukcer. There's also a TBX setup for the lowwer tone that allows you to cut the treble OR bass. Some people find the total tone options too much and never find the sweet spot for their style, other see therm a the - well ultimate - versatile guitar.

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Never trade the thrill of living for the security of existing.

Custom Semi-hollow body (Tashka Leon)
1991 Strat Ultra
1996 60th Ann. Standard Black Strat (MIM)
Blues Deluxe (USA)
GDEC 30

Wow, sounds like I need to check one out. Does it come with a mirror pickguard or is that some dumb after market thing?

_________________
"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


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Chris, I would love to see it- post some pics up here mate and Ill show you mine. The colour you have is more likely Antique Burst. Better than 3 colour, Brown or tobacco burst in my opinion. They look old.

Anyway, I like to split the dually to get that tele sound.. the ultra reigns supreme in all the 'deluxe' models made since the nineties. Hands down. They even look better than the current ones today. The neck, build quality and everything else are second to none.

I will say, the one piece veneer is highly sought after in an Ultra. Mine is a two piece but you really have to look twice- they matched it nicely.

I cant wait to see it, Ill show you mine like I said

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Talk about an enigma well that is the Ultra. By far the best looking and most solid Strat I own. This guitar you can tell by just holding was made top shelf. The non locking Floyd bridge is by far the best and most fun trem I have on a Strat. As someone that is not big with the bar when this comes out it is bombs away as it holds it's tuning better than any of my other Strats by far. The Blue Burst finish with white pearl pick guard makes it a thing of beauty. Also the Ebony fretboard makes for a super fast neck, and it was the first Strat I had with locking tuners which in my opinion I would want on every guitar I own as they hold tuning better and make changing strings a snap. If you are not familiar with Lace sensor pups they work much different than any others in the fact that it is best to raise them really high under the string.

Some months back I put up a thread on how Fender should bring this ax back and revamp it with humbuckers and a few other tweaks as I think it would be huge with the shred crowd if done as a total metal ax. I am not even really into metal but this thing could be a weapon of mass destruction.lol

There is one more weird thing about this ax. You very rarely see one for sale on ebay and when you due they dont really sell for a crazy price usually $1,100 to $1,500 but a lot have been moded. It just seems to me everyone has theres under there bed and are waiting for something. What-well that is what I am waiting for.lol

It doesn't sound like this guitar needs to be modded. Sounds like a over-all great value strat.

_________________
"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


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Thanks for the replies. I'll get some pics up ASAP. Hey Blertles - I grew up in Ngaio, when it was outsideWellington and up the hills a way (1966). I imagine it's just part of the city now though. Love it there. Thanks for clearing up the colour name. I really like it myself. Played my hands raw this weekend. What a pleasure it is to play an instrument like this.

_________________
--------------------------------------------------
Never trade the thrill of living for the security of existing.

Custom Semi-hollow body (Tashka Leon)
1991 Strat Ultra
1996 60th Ann. Standard Black Strat (MIM)
Blues Deluxe (USA)
GDEC 30

Talk about 6 degrees of separation! Ex-pat Kiwi? Wellington is great- artsy fartsy capital of NZ. You would notice a big change, I think Ngaio is much part of wellington now- even Auckland has joined up with albany and soon a motorway down to Hamilton. Its Crazy Keep playing mate- one things for sure, I dont intend on parting with mine at all

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Here are some pictures of my '89 Ultra. I love this guitar - it does everything from clean finger-style to fiery blues to metal. And it sounds awesome in my Fender Blues Junior (miked of course)
I probably provided more pictures than what was needed but then again you can have too many pictures of guitars!

Still has a pretty good finish for it's age


Fortunately, I was lucky enough to get an ultra with a one-piece veneer.



This guitar has an unlimited variety of tones at your disposal. Such as:
3-way selector switch for coil selection on the bridge pickup.
5-way selector for pickup selection.
2 tone knobs, one for basic tone changes and the second for adding or remove presence and brightness. Unlike passive pickups, you can't tweak the frequency of these pickups.

The 5-way selector operates in this way:
Position 1) Neck pickup
Position 2) Neck pickup + Middle pickup
Position 3) Neck pickup + Dual Sensor pickup (Bridge)
Position 4) Middle pickup + Dual Sensor pickup (Bridge)
Position 5) Dual Sensor pickup (Bridge)

Pickup configuration:
Dual Red Lace Sensor (Bridge)
Gold Lace Sensor (Middle)
Blue Lace Sensor (Neck)


This guitar came with a Standard American tremelo.


Wilkinson roller nut. Love the sustain this helps to create.


Locking tuners.


Bolt plate.


I hope this gives you an idea of the quality of this guitar - this is the only guitar you'll ever need, imo.

Nice Guitar. I wanted to get a 35th anniversary strat that looked similar.

Guitarman-

You may find your Ultra may indeed be a '90 as I thought mine was an '89 aswell- Untill I looked on Xhefris site and found they were introduced in '90.

Check out the serial vs. neck date:









I would be interested to see when yours was made if you ever decided to pull it apart

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I really should take another picture of my '91... This one looks as if it should be on the lid of a box of dark liqueur chocolates or something.

There's another from the same year selling at a shop near me, but it's not quite as nice and has had the odd superfluous mod (black knurled knobs? Why?)... so I remain happy with this one, which I've owned since it was one year old.

I have seen a persistent local eBay seller with a smoke-grey flamed ultra... but the starting price is about the maximum you'd want to pay, and he just seems dodgy in some way. Still, that smoke finish is probably my favourite out of all I've seen from that era.

As far as getting various tones out of it go, I've not been that adventurous. It's always just been my guitar, and I like to get sounds out of it that are difficult or impossible to make with a regular Strat configuration... as Blertles says, the "tele" sounds from the neck+bridge combination with variation provided by the mini toggle and the treble boost/cut knob. A nice, thick slab of sound you'd normally only get with the addition of an overdrive pedal with a 3-band EQ. Some guitars are sleek, dangerous hotrods... this one is more of a plush luxury sedan — a tad sedate, perhaps, but utterly dependable and versatile when required. I can see why they're popular with session guitarists.