Fender American Performer Stratocaster HSS - Satin Surf Green with Maple Fingerboard Reviews

I love my new guitar, even though it looks like a piece of Easter candy.

I've owned about 20 guitars in my day and been playing for 26 years… this is the best guitar I've ever owned or played. Amazing build. Plays like butter. Tuners are solid. Sounds perfect. The satin finish is genius because it doesn't ever look dirty with grease marks from your nasty hands and arms. I replaced the pick guard with a black one and it looks fire. I've had girls at shows want to take pictures with my guitar afterwards because they love it so much. Same dog, same.

This is my first Fender American Performer series guitar. I'm also using a fairly resent American Professional and a similarly priced JV Modified 60's Strats. The Performer has a satin finished neck and fretboard, similar to the JV. It also has gumbo frets which was new to me. I may still slightly prefer the medium jumbo on the JV, but I'm still evaluating that and I really like both. The matte Surf Green body finish is beautiful.

The neck and middle pickups have that classic Strat tone. I must say though, that the bridge humbucker is what make this guitar the most versatile Strat model that I own. The pickup has a nice, slightly warmer and punchy tone, but also has that nice clear single coil clarity when you split the coils by pulling out the bottom tone knob. The grease bucket feature allows you to get "woman tone by rolling off the treble on that pickup without losing volume. I believe Fender really succeeded in making that particular pickup work well in both humbucker and single coil mode.

The fit and finish are excellent and worthy of a Corona California made product. So, I have another keeper. Well done Fender, you've created another beauty!

I purchased this guitar a few weeks ago and I couldn't be happier. Pictures do not do it justice as it is absolutely stunning in person. The matte satin green is unlike anything I've ever seen before, and it looks incredible with the Maple Fretboard. It is so easy to play, sounds amazing, and is a guitar that I can confidently say will be with me for the rest of my life.

I also want to give a quick shoutout to the Sweetwater Customer service team. I noticed a week later after my purchase there was a sizable crack on the side of my guitar from shipping, and they couldn't have been nicer about the situation. I called my personal sales engineer (Stephen), and within 10 minutes, Joe from Tech support had already ordered a new guitar to be sent to me the next day. I have honestly never had a better customer service experience in my entire life than with this return. People say that whoever designed the Chic Filet drive through should be running this country, which may be true, but I think it has to be the Sweetwater team. Sincerely appreciate what they do, and will happily be a customer for all future musical purchases!

I couldn't be happier with this purchase. It sounds, looks, and feels amazing. It stays in tune very well. There's just something about it where it almost feels like it plays itself. I highly recommend this guitar!

It's the favorite guitar in my little stable. The satin finish (neck and body) is fantastic. Playable out of the box. Love the pickups. With the option to coil split the bridge humbucker, this is by far my most versatile guitar. If I had to sell them all and keep one, this is the one I keep.

This was my first venture into more premium (tm) electric guitar territory. After a Fender Starcaster (a Strat knockoff box axe sold at Costco) and Squier Tele, I'd taken a 5 year long break to focus on acoustic and fingerpicking.

This one caught my eye as a solo recording guitar for those surf-inspired punk riffs that've been bubbling up, courtesy of TikTok.

The satin surf green finish is more gorgeous in person. The exact antithesis of your old school glossies that would catch every fingerprint. First two pickups offer you classic tones from positions 1-3, but that push-pull humbucker makes this thing a crazy versatile instrument. Switching from surfy, clean tones (think Mac DeMarco or The Allah-Las) to playing along with an Iron Maiden backing track (with the hum of course) is something I never thought I could do with the same guitar.

Huge ups to Gage M. for helping me secure this one. Folks - if it's in stock, you won't be sorry. It's a Strat with a kick.

I bought this guitar back in the summer of 2019 so after owning it for quite some time I can honestly say I've found my forever #1 guitar. First off it's gorgeous the color is what first attracted myself and Im sure everyone who has bought it as well. Still get so many compliments over how beautiful this guitar is when its seen by others. The craftsmanship that went into this guitar is beyond expectations, cant beat that USA quality. Tone wise, this baby is extremely versatile. Beautiful clean tones in all positions and a wide range of tones when playing with other effects (distortion, ambient effects etc.) That Yosemite Humbucker is so underrated in the pickup game in how versatile it is imo. Super comfortable all over the neck and after playing for a couple of hours it will not kill your back like other guitars. Ended up selling other guitars due to not being able to put this baby down. If you're hesitant about buying this guitar just pull the trigger! You will not regret it. Will forever love this guitar. Shout out to the homie Aaron R. for always looking out with this purchase and every other sweet piece of gear ive bought from here.

I was gifted this guitar over the winter break, and I gotta say that it is one of the most beautiful looking and sounding guitars I have ever picked up. The tone's on this baby are in huge variety and I can promise you will be pleased with your purchase.

I got chills when I saw this guitar online, in this exact color. I literally cannot put it down. Like, I'll pick it up just to play for a bit, and hours later I'm still playing it. Everything about this guitar is a dream.

I do have to say that it's my first online guitar purchase, and so there were a couple qualms I had at first. I gave myself fits of anxiety trying to pick the "right" guitar among its identical siblings. I know that guitars that are the same make/model can have their own individual quirks and different tone. I ended up going with the lightest one available at the time. My recommendation if you're having a hard time choosing among serial numbers is to maybe zoom in on the wood grain of the neck and see if one speaks to you. Otherwise, they all look the same as each other and there's really nothing to distinguish them. Wish I'd thought of this before picking one! I might have saved some anxiety. Then again, maybe not.

This is only my second electric guitar ever. My other guitar is a vintage Ibanez Musician with two humbucking pickups. Heavy as heck. I knew I wanted a Strat for my second guitar ever since playing one at my teacher's house. I wasn't sure if I "deserved" a guitar this nice since I've only been playing for a year, but I decided to get the best guitar I could afford, so that I won't have to replace it later.

This guitar plays like a dream. So responsive. So comfortable. I can play barre chords with ease. And I love the fact that you get SEVEN different tones with this guitar. I absolutely love the big sound you can get from the humbucking pickup, but the push-pull dial splits it into a single-coil so you have two more different sounds with either the bridge pickup alone or combining it with the middle pickup.

It sounds great on a variety of different tone/volume combinations. Really different and interesting sounds throughout the range of volume/tone levels, so I guess it has way more than 7 tones, haha. I am new to Strats so I feel like I'm only just beginning to explore the tonal capabilities of this guitar. I'm absolutely happy with it, and I love it more each day. It took a few days of playing it every day for the tone to really "wake up," but I'm finding that the tone has more depth and nuance with each passing day. (I really wasn't sure about the unamplified tone at first since it's so different from my other guitar).

The color is absolutely wicked. Be prepared for a matte, artificial kind of look. It reminds me of Easter candy? The finish seems hella durable and it hasn't shown any fingerprints or dirt of any kind. Granted, I wash my hands every time before I play -- doesn't everybody? The color of the finish looks soooo amazing with the maple neck. Just beautiful. For the first few days, I would literally gasp at its fine good looks every time I walked into the room where I practice.

Did I mention I can't put it down? It's practically attached to my body. Just so, so comfortable to play.

I really love everything about this guitar. The only thing I didn't love was the anxiety of buying it online sight-unseen, but everything worked out in the end. I absolutely love it and it's a great addition to my (small!) collection.

I bought this guitar a 2 months ago and haven't been able to put it down since. Super smooth neck and a ton of different tones. Being able to switch it down to a humbucker in the bridge pickup is a lot of fun and adds a lot of versatility without changing guitars. It can still go single coil in the bottom pickup with the push/pull tone knob which is nice but I find it hard to switch to quickly as you cannot simply leave the push/pull knob up due to it keeping the pickup active when in other positions. However, it does give you additional positions not available in other strats by keeping that bridge pickup active.

Mine stays it tune pretty well after a bit of a break in period and came set up well from Sweetwater. This was my first major purchase from Sweetwater and it won't be my last.

The matte finish is awesome and durable. Not as worried about fingerprints or other small scratches and the color is great. Makes you want to play surf rock but then you pick it up and feel like you can play anything!

I bought this guitar on a whim when they launch these , I wanted a new guitar and was really looking to buy another Schecter , but when I saw this guitar the color was really nice so I did some research on YouTube to see what it sounded like.
The tone was better than I hoped listening to the demos online and so I went I got it and now it's my favorite guitar that I own.
Very versatile for all styles I my opinion. Great price on this guitar as well, you're getting a lot of guitar on this one.

Every guitarists, songwriter, or producer should have one of these laying around. The quality of tone you get from this guitar, is one words could do no justice for. this is one of those guitars you need to try out for yourself and I guarantee you will be blown away by the quality and pure fun you will get from playing this. Thank you Sweetwater for another great purchase!

Haven't played it enough to write a review, but, I can speak to the amazing service and professional manner Forest and Sweetwater handled the sale. I asked tons of questions, all answered in depth. It is apparent Sweetwater hires extremely knowledgeable and professional sales staff. I wouldn't buy music equipment anywhere else. Thanks Forest.

I bought this guitar in September 2019. I was intrigued by the color and satin finish. When it arrived I took it out of the, plugged it in and play it for two hours. The sounds you can with coil splitting humbucker are just what I needed. The playability is awesome, love the satin finish and the satin neck. All around great guitar.

Extremely versatile. My favorite thing about this guitar is the coil tapped humbucker in the bridge. It is a heavy hitter and when you pull the knob you still get that clean single coil sound. I think you could play just about any style you could want in one guitar. Love the versatility. Highly recommend to someone who wants a lot of different sounds without having to own multiple rigs. Also it played like a dream right out of the box. Thanks Sweetwater!

I have been searching for a strat or some strat variation for a bit. Immediately connected with this as soon as I pulled it off the shelf. The nicest strat-esque guitar I have ever owned was a tom anderson but this guitar is close. I got my hss strat during a promotion last week, you really can't beat it. The satin neck and satin finger board are really comfy. The neck profile while called a modern C, the string spacing to me feels a touch bit narrower than some strats I've played in the past, but this neck can reallllllllly shred. I also tend to love guitars that have a humbucker in the bridge and then one or two single coils. Lots of versatility if you want to pull a bunch of different sounds out. however for me, a good distorted tone and a good clean tone is all I need live. The tone controls actually do work as they claim, the tone doesn't get muddy when you roll back the tone or the volume, but I always just leave everything at 10. There is a lot of bite in the single coil tone, and it really gives that classic spanky strat tone in positions 2-5. The humbucker can handle any distortion my EVH5150iii throws at it too though, so I can use this as a swiss army knife in my cover band. The push pull is a nice touch if you like a bridge single coil but if it's not your jam but at that point you might as well just get a SSS that has some kinda humbucker selector option, i think that looks more iconic too when it's SSS, but idrc about that for me. The biggest thing I've found is that there is a wide variation of quality in guitars even within the exact same model. There are also big factors when at the store; whether the guitar is set up well, intonated properly, and if the strings are new are not, can all affect tone and playability. But these pickups to my ear absolutely blew a deluxe strat and another strat out of the water at the shop I went to. I've had probably 4-5 Fender strats over the years and played dozens others and this and a 2003 standard strat that had noiseless pickups dropped in take the cake(not counting the tom anderson).


Now for some gripes,
This isn't my favorite style of bridge, as the screws jut out and make it a little uncomfy, and you will likely want to swap out the tuners for something locking, but at the price point you're always gonna have some imperfections like some sharp fret ends and such. Any guitar that isn't some kinda custom shop or not plek'd, you're gonna need to have the frets leveled and crowned. Also too, the shape of the neck and the satin finish beg to be shredded, however a 9.5 in radius neck doesn't allow for the lowest action especially if you're doing lots of bends in the upper registers. Cool trick though, if you know a guitar tech/luthier worth their weight in salt, the fact that the frets are jumbo and not medium jumbo allows for them to work the frets down more over the middle strings in the upper register of the fretboard to give you more of a compound radius and thus lower action. I think that's the only fundamental thing about the guitar I'm not crazy about, but considering it's a strat and that's the classic strat radius, it's like I'm going to mcdonalds and complaining it's not burger king.

Overall though, you can get this guitar and drop on it with a guitar tech and it'll outplay lots of guitars that are more. Also I weirdly like the headstock shape on this guitar, even though I tend to like the regular fender headstock more. The overall feel finish and sound/aesthetic of the surf green model is just on point. They really knocked it out of the park on this one. Also, do yourself a favor and upgrade to a better gig bag/case. they're gonna have to cut corners somewhere and I am by no means complaining.

I consider myself a Tele guy but took a chance on a new Performer series HSS Strat. All I can say is WOW. I'm really starting to appreciate Strat tones! The only qualm I have is that the setup wasn't that great. Upon taking it to my guitar tech we made the necessary adjustments to make play a little better. I plan on purchasing the Honeyburst Strat soon!

I bought this beauty in April of this year. After much concern over the color, I've fallen in love with the Sea Foam green. Play ability is outstanding, with a super smooth next. Satin finish body feels wonderful and is a sight to behold in person. Pickups are new to this guitar model and I personally think they are outstanding. The bridge pickup pot I don't use really to switch between single or HB modes, but I wanted the option. Still, love the guitar for it's play, tone and overall great looks.

The only reason for the 4 out of 5 rating is that it did not come with a hard shell case which cost me extra. I also replaced the tuner's with genuine Fender locking tuners I also got through Sweetwater.

Lastly, my sincere appreciation to my Sales Rep: Jason Thiele for his patience with me. As I said, I had fussed over the color even after ordering and receiving the guitar. We had spoken long over the guitar before I ordered. When I spoke with Jason about possibly returning it, he told me to let him know and he would take care of the return. I was never pressured to keep or to feel I was a pain in the &#@.

Sweetwater's easy payment plans with No Interest and Free Shipping is a HUGE PLUS for someone like me.

This isn't a bad guitar. And I'm kinda old (50) so I'm not really sure if I didn't get what I paid for, which is the lowest priced American made strat they offered. What I'm also not sure of is whether or not I couldn't have gotten as good a guitar made in Mexico or a Squire. Right out of the gate I had to intonate it and 3 ppl have tried and failed to get the buzz out of a 10th fret bend on the E string (still). It's even been refretted. I also had to adjust the saddle and it wasn't grounded properly. This was all before even breaking it in. Within a year I had to replace the input jack and, just recently, had to replace the volume pot. In all fairness I'm a gigging musician who plays a lot. I've put hundreds (if not 1000s) of pretty hard hours on this rig and played a lot of venues. It's not all bad. It still sounds great, the tone knobs are not overhyped and I can still play the crap out of it anywhere besides a couple of (somewhat rather important) notes. Just keepin' it real