Fender American Professional II Stratocaster - Dark Night with Maple Fingerboard Reviews

This "Strat." is a dream to play. From the stay put turners requiring very little adjustments even after using the tremolo. This American Professional II Strat. has that just right feel in my hands, the neck is fast playing and smooth as silk. Body is beautiful.
The sustain is everlasting. If you want a quality Stratocaster which is American made don't pass this one up.

I've played off and on for years, but this is my first electric. It's absolutely beautiful and sounds amazing, I couldn't be happier. Shout out to Craig Mills at SW - he was extremely helpful and wonderful to work with. I highly recommend this guitar, along with Craig, and Sweetwater.

This is my first American made stratocaster. The pickups are very articulate and sound great through my Bugera Vintage V22 combo amp. It comes with a push-push tone control that activates the neck pickup in any position.I tried it a few times and found that I will probably never use it. I've been playing Squier stratocasters for years and finally decided to spend the money on the American made Fender. I absolutely love the American Professional 2 Stratocaster but to me personally I don't think I would spend the extra $ again on the American Fender. Please keep a couple of things in mind: I only play as a hobby and I also wear two hearing aids which definitely makes it harder to tell the difference in tone quality. Great guitar but I have a hard time justifying the price.

This guitar is a amazing and so easy to play, I have 5 other starter type guitars and this one makes me sounds like a pro! So easy to make it sound awesome, the playability is simple, the feedback of the feel is fantastic. Sweetwater is such a great buying experience, they also follow up to make sure everything went well. I will definitely buy my next guitar from them. Also, it comes with an awesome very high quality case to protect it!

I picked out this beautiful Dark Knight Professional II stratocaster and right out of the case not only that it sounded great but it played like a dream. But I gotta give credit where credit is due... My sales technician John McWhirter, He went above and beyond to make sure I got this guitar on a timely manner, Great guy super down to earth and very knowledgeable and professional... John will hook you up! His technical knowledge and skills are Superb I couldn't be happier with my experience with John and sweetwater. I'm definitely coming back! this is my store now.

As all My Fender USA Strats
This is my Fav, Thanks Jake H.
AAAAA+++++ Thanks Sweetwater

Love the finish, sound and comfortable neck profile!
Smooth transaction!
-Thank you Ed

Just received my order to day. American II professional Strat. Dark Night, Maple fingerboard. Beautiful guitar. I haven't had a chance to really check the sound of it yet, other obligation's to do but, I'll be on it as soon as time permits sometime today. I do wish I had ordered a fuzz pedal with it but that will come later. The service at Sweetwater was stellar. My order came sooner than I expected, packaged very well. And special shout out to Daniel Free for extending his knowledge and expertise in assisting me on the purchase. It's the second guitar and amp I've bought from Sweetwater and no issues on either purchase. You simply can't go wrong with Sweetwater's service and employee's.

I've had this guitar for 2.5 weeks now. I must say that it is great! When I first opened the case, I could tell I was going to love this guitar. The feel of the neck is so smooth. I love the narrow tall frets. I have other Stratocasters, Player series and Eric Clapton model, and I like the slightly wider neck on this one. The "Deep C" neck feels great in my hand. It feels just substantial enough, without over-filling my hand. This guitar feels and sounds great! I'm impressed!

This is my 4th Strat - I've got an 80's MIJ Strat, an SSH Highway One and an Eric Clapton Strat - all of which are excellent guitars and do some things very well but none are *exactly* what I want. After watching 1.2 million youtube review videos I pulled the trigger and bought the Dark Night model. The main thing I was interested in were the V-Mod II pickups - specifically the marketing blurb which claims they have a "vintage-style Strat sound with enhanced clarity" - looking for that early Knopfler sound with some punch and brightness. That is exactly what I got!

The narrow tall frets are now my favorite style - making bends easy and fast. The guitar was setup perfect for me out of the case (just luck here - I'm not real fussy as long as the action isn't too low) with the intonation 100% spot on! Seriously - it's perfectly intonated. The deep C neck feels super comfortable and never gets in the way. The star of the show here is the V-Mod II pickups. They really do feel bright and punchy - which makes positions 2 and 4 sound great. A lot of Strats get that quack from 2 and 4 but are a bit on the darker side (my MIJ Strat is that way) - but this guitar really shines on positions 2 and 4. Quacky and punchy and bright. I'll never sound or play like Knopfler but I can get his vibe with his guitar and that's what I wanted. The only downside if I have to find one - is that the extra punch and clarity brings the 60 cycle hum which is a bit more present than my other Strats. Not egregious but maybe a bit more present.

Overall this is just a wonderful Strat and now my number one - worth every penny in my mind.

Awesome guitar! Added more chrome and Fender locking tuners. Breeze to change strings and tuning is stable. No modifications required.

I have danced all aroung buying a Stratocaster for about 25 years. I disdained the marketing ploys of having three catalog pages of different permutations, signature editions, pickup versions and such, but the couldn't pony up bags of cash for a "vintage" instrument that was either a stratospheric-priced good instrument or an overpriced quacker.

I bit the bullet and bought this gem (pun intended: I had just bought mi esposa a piece of jewelry nearly the same color).
It came from Sweetwater properly set up - action, intonation, string gauge - and I didn't have to tweak a thing.

I now have access to tones that I have been chasing fruitlessly with my other axes, tones that only a Strat can properly deliver. The "flaws" that prevented me from buying previous editions have all been addressed in this guitar. The strings stay in tune even after tasteful use of the vibe arm. The high end doesn't run and hide when I roll the volume pot back. I can now combine the neck pickup with the bridge pup. Even though it has a longer scale length than any other of my guitars, I was immediately at home on the neck - it plays like a dream. A good dream. It may be that after another couple of months and the honeymoon is over I will find some minor niggle, and that will actually be welcome: as it is right now the guitar is so good that I deem myself unworthy of this jewel. Oh, here's a flaw - the plastic membrane that covered the pickguard left some tiny scraps of plastic under a couple of the screwheads, and I will have to loosen the screws to remove them. Someday. Maybe.

This guitar plays as good as it looks. The finish is so nice in person.

I'm loving my new Dark night strat, I've been happy with my telecaster but after a couple of hours with this I'm full of excitement of the unlimited possibility's that I now have. It came in tune ready for fun. Sweetwater came thru again

Absolutely amazing sound. Great customer service through Sweetwater. Fantastic shipping.

Excellent playing guitar light weight stays in tune very well

Sweetwater followup every step of the way, from delivery and after.

This guitar is absolutely stunning. Pictures don't do it justice. As far as quality goes, it's top notch. Plays fantastic, neck is very smooth. Thanks Ian for setting me up with this amazing strat!

This guitar is probably the finest instrument I've come across in over 24 years of being a musician, Drum and Bass included. The satin finish on the neck is killer, and the single coils provide unreal clarity. And don't forget the finish! Probably the most unique looking Strat you'll find. Thanks to Kyle and to Josh for hooking me up with this wonderful Fender product. Top notch gents!

Bacon, butter and ice cream all wrapped up in a guitar. Every sound I could ever ask for playing through the fender Blues Jr. SW edition. Very impressed with the set up as requested with Sweetwater and of course, the buying experience is always second to none here. This was my first string instrument purchase without actually playing it before hand, but now it certainly will not be my last. Thanks Jeffrey Green for the assistance.

This is the fifth guitar I have bought from sweetwater. Four electric and one acoustic. Everyone of them plays beautifully.
My new American professional ll strat almost plays it's self. The setup is perfect. A Huge Thank You! to my sales engineer Evan and the team a Sweetwater. You guys always come through for me. I can't thank you enough! Well Done...Again!

Thanks,

Charlie

Really nice strat, love the feel of this guitar. Sweetwater did a nice job setting it up. I still have a few minor adjustments to make but all in all they did a good job setting it up. And as usual Matthew was great to work with he always exceeds my expectations.

Wow, just unboxed my new American Professional II Stratocaster Dark Night color series, Love the color and maple neck that really sets it apart. Plays like a dream and sounds great. My only beef is the tremolo arm swings loose so I had to order the drop in tension spring today so I can correct this. This is my reason for the 4 1/2 stars. This guitar is well made and worth the money. I would recommend this guitar to anyone wanting a well built American made Stratocaster. Thanks Tiberius

Sweetwater does a great job of working with customers and getting products to them very quickly. My only quibble about 5 stars is why the pick guard is so scratched up for being a brand new guitar.

The way to fix the tuning issue is to install a second string tree on the G and D strings. This is a common fix to avoid the most annoying G string detuning issue on most flat head electric guitars. Half star deduction because I had to clip the strings, drill a leader hole in maple ( not easy ) , and screw in the string tree. And lastly an Important detail; make triple sure its in the precise spot under the A string tuning key perfectly even with the strings.

My experience with Sweetwater was very satisfying. The guitar arrived in 2 days just as they said. I love the look and feel of this Stratocaster. The one issue I have is it doesn't stay in tune as well as I would like, but this is my first strat. So perhaps they are a little finicky. I plan on checking the nut.

A really nice guitar. I had to do a little tweaking on it when I got but nothing major. I've owned 2 other strats and loved them both but the neck on this one is alot better than they had. The only thing I've got reservations on is that push tone to add the neck pickup but that's pretty minor and I think I like the older pickups a little better but once again I can change them if I want to. But all around it's a really nice guitar and once again Matthew was great to do business with. If you're looking for a great salesman he you're man. Sweetwater you guys ROCK.

The main reason why I bought this strat was the color. I play in Coverrockbands, like Fender more than Gibson and own a Stratocaster longboard from 2016, a Stratocaster deluxe from 2009 and played a black "the Edge" model. All of them have advantages and disadvantages based on the pickups, neck design and the sound.
I had to adjust the trustrod to obtain a better playability even if the strings are almost to buzz now, but you won`t hear it through an amp.
I have only one thing which I don`t like (and therefore only 4 stars): the second tone-poti is designed as push-pull-poti and it sticks out too high.
Sorry for my English, I am not a native speaker

Overall, the American Performer II is not much better than a Mexican Player Series strat. I am baffled about the omission of locking tuners on this "professional" instrument. Although the neck is great and trem is smooth, you're really paying double for the really nice case and slightly better electronics compared to the Player Series.