Which Strat?

Hi, I’m in the market for a new guitar and have my eye on two Strats, the Pro American II and the Ultra. I already own a Les Paul Standard so I’m covered for smooth and rich. I’m looking at a Strat for when I want a crisper tone with more bite. On paper the Ultra seems to be the better buy, and I have quite small hands so the slimmer D shaped neck would be a plus. The only thing I’m concerned about is the noiseless pickups - that they might soften the tone too close to my Gibson, thereby defeating the object of buying a Strat. On the other hand, how much of a problem would hum be on the Pro II? 

Obviously I’ll be trying both out in the shop but in the spirit of research I’d be grateful if anyone can offer some thoughts / opinions on these guitars?

Many thanks in advance

Those are pretty similar models with subtle differences in the details.  

The Professional is closer to the classic Strat sound with single coil pickups & close to standard controls.  Also it comes with a standard C profile neck which is a bit smaller than D, better for smaller hands.

The Ultra has the noiseless pickups, upgraded electronic controls & D neck.

I have a Strat with the N3 noiseless set, they are excellent.  Definitely lose a little bit of the high treble end of the spectrum, but well worth it for the hum cancelling.  Of course I'm used to that having put Dimarzio HS-3s and 4s in all my Strat for decades.  I find it essential for any kind of gain tone.  For clean tones I still have other Strats with standard single coils when cancelling that 60Hz hum doesn't matter as much.

Having said all that, I'm pretty sure you can get all those things as options (neck profile, pickups, electronics) on either model.  And often you'll find a better deal if you look around guitar stores for sales & used models.

No matter what you do, make sure to try before you buy.  Play lots of Strats until you find one that really feels & sounds good to you.  Have fun gear hunting!

Thanks for this very helpful breakdown. I was surprised that the C shape neck would be smaller than the D. I’d been led to understand it was the other way round. I’ve got to say I’m kind of hoping that, when I try them out,  I get on with the Ultra and that it’s sound  is sufficiently distinct from my Les Paul because I’m definitely drawn towards the locking tuners and the noiseless pickups. Having said that, would a decent noise gate resolve the Pro II’s hum enough for gain tones? 

You're welcome.

This page on the Fender website has good info on neck designations, depths & widths.

https://www.fender.com/articles/instruments/c-u-v-which-neck-shape-is-for-you

But in my experience there are still slight variations in manufacturing, at least enough to make it useful to try a guitar before buying it.

Any Strat is going to sound distinctly different than a Les Paul.  And of course feel quite differently in playing.  

The issue of noise cancelling, gain tones, noise gate is going to depend a great deal on quite a few interacting variables.  How much gain are you using?  How loud are you playing?  Do you hold notes or chords long enough to ring out while other instruments are quiet enough for the hum to be noticeable enough to be an issue?  How good are you at always keeping the volume knob on zero while not playing?  Or disengaging the gain setting or pedal when you don't need it?  How much are you going to miss the amount of treble missing on noiseless pickups?

I never really noticed it until I started being more aware of using a variety of dynamics.  Then when I got into studio work where your tone is under close scrutiny it became essential to have absolutely no hum from my Strat.

This is another reason trying a guitar is a good idea.  It's really helpful to play a guitar at the volume, using the amount of gain or effects you would expect to use if you buy the guitar.

Hope that helps!