Fender Player Plus Stratocaster Guitar | Sienna Sunburst

Potentially a great classic guitar with worthy upgrades. Love the rolled edge fingerboard and 2 extra tones courtesy of a pull tone control giving 7 pickup configurations. Guitar arrived with string broken at the locking tuner - so not convinced that particular upgrade is so great. Once restrung I realised position 5 on pickup selector didn't work. On packing guitar for return the zip broke on the gig bag as not stitched in at the end. Just waiting for replacement now. I think a tremelo arm spring could have been included in the price as the arm relies only on friction of the thread when screwed in. It would have cost nothing. Otherwise, wow, it's a cracking Strat!

A great Strat and a Compian to my Gibson les Paul special

I use the [product for the tangy sound which a les paul can't do. This guitar is very good for late 50'S Rock and Roll. The price is right and the Yosemite pickups sound awesome. I like the single coils a lot on rock and roll. I purchased the lake placid metallic Blue and the color is awesome. Any beginner guitarist can do no wrong with this guitar. I have used fender strats, fender jaguars, fender telecasters and this guitar the best for my playing. Would recommend this guitar to anyone.

Almost Perfect

Overall:I'll try to keep this short. The rounded fret ends and back-of-neck satin finish make this an incredibly smooth playing instrument. The Player Plus Vintage Noiseless Pickups differ from previous versions by using Alnico V magnets. I have a Deluxe Nashville Tele that came with the older Alnico II's, since replaced, and while they didn't sound bad, they had a distinct lack of testosterone. These new ones sparkle. Crank the gain and they sing. Position #2 (bridge and middle) is my favorite setting. Go listen to EC's playing on George Harrison's 1992 Live in Japan CD. If you like that sound, and I love it, then you want this guitar. Allen Collins had a very distinctive tone when wielding his Strat. This guitar can give you that tone.I also had a Player Series ... MoreOverall:I'll try to keep this short. The rounded fret ends and back-of-neck satin finish make this an incredibly smooth playing instrument. The Player Plus Vintage Noiseless Pickups differ from previous versions by using Alnico V magnets. I have a Deluxe Nashville Tele that came with the older Alnico II's, since replaced, and while they didn't sound bad, they had a distinct lack of testosterone. These new ones sparkle. Crank the gain and they sing. Position #2 (bridge and middle) is my favorite setting. Go listen to EC's playing on George Harrison's 1992 Live in Japan CD. If you like that sound, and I love it, then you want this guitar. Allen Collins had a very distinctive tone when wielding his Strat. This guitar can give you that tone.I also had a Player Series Strat that I sold before getting this. Compared to that, the Player Plus is a huge upgrade for not a lot more money. And it comes with locking tuners, too. Also, the block saddles on the bridge makes for a nice even platform to rest your picking hand, and palm mutes are easily done. I used to swear by the vintage style bent saddles but not no mo'. I titled this review "Almost Perfect" because this guitar IS almost perfect. Vintage Noiseless pickups come with 1 Meg pots and the taper on the volume knob takes some getting used to. There's a huge jump on volume between 8 and 10. That's my only knock.

Beautiful to look at and play

Got the blue opal. Looks and plays excellent. The Pau fretboard has a nice 'flame' color streak to it. As a woodworker, I like the flame streaks on the rosewood, ebony, and Pau boards, it adds interest, and does not affect function. The frets are nice. The satin neck is straight and smooth as butter. The blue color finish is perfection. The pickups sound great with my amps. With modern saddles, locking tuners, and a gig bag included, this is worth the extra cash over the regular player series. This is 90% as good as my old American Ultra Strat at half the cost. The Mexican factory is state of the art with real craftsmen working there. This thing played right out of the box with no setup required. Thank you Fender.

Definitely a Super Strat!

Overall:Let me start by saying I have been playing guitar since 1975. So I do have some experience. This guitar is one of the best guitars I have ever played. I bought the 3 tone sunburst. I have previously owned Player Strats & have enjoyed them but found the quality slightly lacking(fret ends). This guitar bridges thst gap. Beautiful well made & great looking guitar. I do my own setups so on this model I did not have to fight with it at all. Very user friendly. Plays like high class guitar. Sounds very great too. This is my 2nd Player Plus Strat. Both are super guitars. I would not hesitate buying another. You should not either.

Disappointing

Used click & collect and on checking in store found the bridge pickup not working. Got another by courier two days later. Not all will like the Noiseless pickups - I didn’t. There was a lot of lacquer on the frets but it was uneven - some had been worn off by a previous player who had also presumably returned it - meaning that at first glance the frets looked rough. Finally it was difficult to achieve a good playing action, which was surprising given the 12” neck radius - leading to the conclusion that the frets needed professional work out of the box. A shame because the overall fit and finish is pretty good. A minor point is that the push pull switch is slightly awkward to use - a knurled knob would be better for this. Note to manufacturers - don’t cut off the ... MoreUsed click & collect and on checking in store found the bridge pickup not working. Got another by courier two days later. Not all will like the Noiseless pickups - I didn’t. There was a lot of lacquer on the frets but it was uneven - some had been worn off by a previous player who had also presumably returned it - meaning that at first glance the frets looked rough. Finally it was difficult to achieve a good playing action, which was surprising given the 12” neck radius - leading to the conclusion that the frets needed professional work out of the box. A shame because the overall fit and finish is pretty good. A minor point is that the push pull switch is slightly awkward to use - a knurled knob would be better for this. Note to manufacturers - don’t cut off the string ends 0.5 millimetres from the tuners! Decided not to try a third one because ultimately I didn’t like the sound of the pickups. Staff in store very helpful when it came to returning the guitar.

Excellent Player plus Stratocaster.

Overall:This is a great addition for anyone to own and play! For most people, the neck radious is going to be very easy to get those tones out! This is a fast playing, hot sounding guitar and as you already should know, if you have any issue at all, zZounds has fantastic customer service to help. What's not to like about it? The noiseless pickups have that "singing" Bell like tone that makes the Stratocaster famous. Do not allow anyone to tell you about this guitar, buy one, play it and fall madly in love with how this guitar sounds after you get it set up and going! That is how you should do it. Pay no mind to negative reviews. I was lucky as to this guitar, it was given to me as a birthday gift from a relative that purchased from zZounds.

Great Instrument

Picked this up (in Opal Spark) at my local GC last week. Fit and finish is flawless; rounded edges on the fingerboard make the guitar feel and play like an old friend. Set-up was basically perfect out of the box, including proper intonation. I was skeptical about the noiseless pickups, but they are superb - rich and full in the neck and good spank in the bridge. The best part of the electronics is the push-pull feature on the bridge tone knob; it brings in the neck pickup, which allows you both to replicate the middle position on a tele and, in my favorite tone, to activate all three pickups at once for a unique tone that really can't be produced on most strats. Unlike most strats, the noiseless pickups really handle high amounts of gain beautifully. I'm very ... MorePicked this up (in Opal Spark) at my local GC last week. Fit and finish is flawless; rounded edges on the fingerboard make the guitar feel and play like an old friend. Set-up was basically perfect out of the box, including proper intonation. I was skeptical about the noiseless pickups, but they are superb - rich and full in the neck and good spank in the bridge. The best part of the electronics is the push-pull feature on the bridge tone knob; it brings in the neck pickup, which allows you both to replicate the middle position on a tele and, in my favorite tone, to activate all three pickups at once for a unique tone that really can't be produced on most strats. Unlike most strats, the noiseless pickups really handle high amounts of gain beautifully. I'm very pleased with this guitar.

Quality control issue

Overall:I’ve owed another Mexican Strat, also bought it from zZounds and like them both. However I have an issue with this one. The dots on the fingerboard are not centered and are partially on the neck. This makes them very hard to see when playing. It would really benefit from some neck binding contrasting with the color of the dot.

Wonderful color

Overall:The color on this guitar is wonderful. However, the cost for what you get on this instrument is not good. First the good... of course the color is fun and unique and great to look at and the saddles on this guitar are perfect and wont tear up the furniture or your hands and lastly the locking tuners are great and keep the guitar in tune especially on those dive bombs. Now the bad...First and foremost, It has a modern C neck profile which is fine if you are a beginner but many of my musician friends hate them. It's sad, but lately the modern C or the deep C is the only neck Fender seems to wants to pump out. Every stage musician I know only uses a soft V, mid sixties C or an oval shape...but mostly a soft V. Secondly, the bridge has a zinc block which is ... MoreOverall:The color on this guitar is wonderful. However, the cost for what you get on this instrument is not good. First the good... of course the color is fun and unique and great to look at and the saddles on this guitar are perfect and wont tear up the furniture or your hands and lastly the locking tuners are great and keep the guitar in tune especially on those dive bombs. Now the bad...First and foremost, It has a modern C neck profile which is fine if you are a beginner but many of my musician friends hate them. It's sad, but lately the modern C or the deep C is the only neck Fender seems to wants to pump out. Every stage musician I know only uses a soft V, mid sixties C or an oval shape...but mostly a soft V. Secondly, the bridge has a zinc block which is just no good for sustain or sound transfer (steel is needed). Lastly, Fender noiseless pickups...to my ear and every musician I have ever met that played guitar (save Eric clapton)...just doesn't cut it. As far as what's left on the guitar it's all pretty common and relatively cheap to make or buy. The price on this guitar seems way to high, and for me to buy it just for the positive items I have already mentioned seems a waste. Honestly, after the neck replacement, the bridge and block replacement (not the saddles) and the pickup replacement, I would be out another six to eight hundred dollars just because I like the looks of this guitar. AHHHH...NO. I love Fender guitars but for the last two to three years there has not been one single new guitar that I would buy. PEACE