Fender American Ultra Jazzmaster

[daysleeperjeff]

I was afraid I was going to have to explain to my wife why I need another Jazzmaster in the days leading up to this. Such a relief these are not for me. BUT like others have said I’m interested in these noiseless pickups, especially in the home studio.

If these sound as good as the AV65’s with no noise I’ll be replacing some pickups!

Also, why are so many impressed by the bone nut? Wouldn’t you expect that on a $2000+ guitar? My AMPRO & AO both have bone stock.

[Larry Mal]

The pickups are pretty convincing Jazzmaster pickups based on that video... I'd need to listen more, but it certainly doesn't sound like some average humbucker, anyway.

Maybe I just want to believe that since I want noise free Jazzmaster pickups.

The switching is even less useful to me than the typical Jazzmaster switching, but whatever. That's just me.

[Arthon]

My type is more "noisemore" then "noiseless"

[Larry Mal]

Not me. I'm totally done with that concept, and I have begun to realize that there's no good reason I should be a slave to the sounds of the 1950's in a quest for some kind of electric guitar authenticity. Why do I care what Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton sounds like? I don't play their music.

Besides, while I might want to add in a bunch of distortion and feedback, those are all things that I control. 60 cycle hum isn't something I control and there's no good reason for it to be there, nobody wants to hear it, it just sounds like what it is, old or bad equipment. Fuck that.

I used to object to noiseless single coil pickups just because they weren't any good, they didn't have the dynamic range nor high end of typical single coils and also didn't have the things that make humbuckers good despite their own limitations.

But the second that noiseless single coils exist that are good, or there is another solution, I am all over that. I am certainly not married to 60 cycle hum.

[Larry Mal]

I'm actually going to Guitar Center today, my older son is off of school, and we like to go there. On the slim chance that they have one of these followed up by the even slimmer chance that he'll let me play it for any length of time, I'll try and plug one in.

[Supa-Stang]

Hats off to Fender, I’m usually pretty cynical about the rebadging of lines but the metallic brown burst colour is outstanding and I think they’ve managed to do something fresh with an old design that they haven’t previously.

I’d be interested to try one out and I’d certainly love to see the colours in the range on other models.

[RIORIO]

I actually love these

[DrPete]

I spent the day bitchin' about how uninspiring the Strat and Teles (and even the Jazzmasters were) on the new Ultra line.

Then I watched theJM Fender video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHv5hmKZ62g - and I've been totally suckered in.

The Mocha finish is gorgeous, the noiseless pickups are tempting, the compound neck appeals to my fuzz soloing, the binding is beautiful, the tele knobs are cool, the bridge looks neat, and the switching and phasing brings it up to date.

I think it's amazing.

If the case is of my liking, i.e., not too modern, then I might have to have a serious conversation with myself come the Holidays!

[Supa-Stang]

I spent the day bitchin' about how uninspiring the Strat and Teles (and even the Jazzmasters were) on the new Ultra line.

Then I watched theJM Fender video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHv5hmKZ62g - and I've been totally suckered in.

The Mocha finish is gorgeous, the noiseless pickups are tempting, the compound neck appeals to my fuzz soloing, the binding is beautiful, the tele knobs are cool, the bridge looks neat, and the switching and phasing brings it up to date.

I think it's amazing.

If the case is of my liking, i.e., not too modern, then I might have to have a serious conversation with myself come the Holidays!

Just saw that video, some really cool sounds. I like the phase switch and the pickups sound good, still a Jazzmaster but with a few new sounds in there.

The guitar looks gorgeous in the video. Just about the only thing I don’t like about it is the skunk stripe with a rosewood board. Looking forward to trying one.

[Larry Mal]

So, they didn't have the Jazzmaster Ultra at Guitar Center. I actually got there so early that they seemed surprised that I was asking for one, then some guy came running up all excited with the Strat version, that I guess they had just gotten delivered even as we were playing the drums. The Strat and the Tele looked very nice, but you already knew that.

It's OK. I don't go to Guitar Center for any guitar, as you can see:

[timtam]

Big box ultra JM demos ...

GC ..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f65CHLs9mhM
MF ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9RCOmrFjcQ
SW ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_babxD2DqY

[timtam]

Wikipedia already has an entry for the new (5th) generation ultra noiseless pickups.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fender_Noiseless_Pickups
It doesn't say much of interest except "These pickups are not sold separately by Fender and are available only on the Fender Ultra Series guitars. " So Stratosphere may be the only option to get them aftermarket ?

[andy_tchp]

I like the look, but man, in every video all switch positions (even the neck pickup) just sound incredibly thin, brash and harsh.

[Futuron]

I'll get to watching the videos a bit later, but just considering the switching options, even if the alternative circuit activates OOP, it means you have 2 separate volume controls (ie presets) for each pickup. Just that the middle position of one of those is OOP. The down side is that all of the settings have 1 single tone control. If it was me, I'd have dual-concentric knob(s) to allow for separate tone for either the 2 pickups or the 2 modes.

[adamrobertt]

Hmm, I'm genuinely surprised that I kind of want one of these after watching that video...