Fender Player Stratocaster HSS with Floyd Rose - Polar White with Maple Fingerboard Reviews

I wanted an axe that could copy most any sound in my music. This fits the bill perfectly. I insist on stable tuning so why have a tremolo? I bought a cheap Squire Bullet six years ago with a Champion 40. Years of practice seemed like a waste. Then, I got an old Fender Frontman 212R. I put in two new Eminence GB 128s, 50 watts, 8 ohms. The Squire for the first time made real sound. When I saw the Floyd Rose, I knee jerk bought it. That week waiting for it, had me worried. It only took a few hours to tame the bridge and get my dream of both tremolo and return to essentially, perfect tune. I was in heaven! Ian and the others on the sales desk are awesome, their knowledge and professionalism are the clincher. I never do a review unless I am blown away. I also purchased, a cool soft case that is so well padded that my new baby is safe. I recommend the Boveda 2-way humidity system. I bought a digital humidity meter and realized that the room changes humidity a lot. PS The technicians set this up perfectly.

I really can't say enough about this guitar. It's been everything I hoped it would be. I was a little worried about the Floyd Rose set up. But I've learned to tune it. I haven't learned to use it yet. But I will. It plays like a dream. I am learning to play and I'm getting better every day. I ordered a Fender strap and StrapLocks and they work great! Sweetwater is simply an amazing company. I've ordered several items and they have always been great. My next guitar is going to be Telecaster.

I love this Fender with Floyd Rose. Sound quality is absolutely incredible for the price. Love the body style with its smooth comfortable fret board. I would buy another without question or hesitation. Love the affordability and the great Fender tone. Great sounding humbucker pick ups and you still get the single coil sound too with a flick of the switch!! Absolutely awesome. Hard to put down!!

This thing rocks it's so well built it never goes out of tune and the action is.great the sound is perfect the best of both worlds less Paul and strat thank you sweetwater you guys are the best you got to me in a couple of days and it was like I would have done to it! Thanks your friend Allen.

This Guitar Rocks it's a super strat and looks amazing!! You have the best music store I ever did beussness with you folks care about your customers and go that extra step to keep them happy thumbs up I will be ordering from you soon!

Fender Player HSS... Now this is a fantastic guitar! I'm really glad I ordered with Sweetwater! Chris Nunley, Sarah and the guitar inspection team did a great job on the order and follow up! The guitar was delivered in 2 days!! I've been playing guitar for over 50 years and have played and owned hundreds of guitars. In the past few years I have also bought a Charvel San Dimas and EVH Wolfgang from Sweetwater. Both good guitars, no complaints!
The Fender was delivered and packed extremely well, and was actually just about still in tune. I'm the guy that usually will check and reset up everything, truss rod, intonation, Floyd Rose, pickup height, string height... I'm really picky about how it plays, feels and sounds, so I'm constantly making sure it's right. I was very surprised to receive a guitar that was setup to my likening, Thank you Fender! The neck is fabulous, great feel and finish, excellent fret work, simply just feels right! Pickups also cover everything from chimey clean single coil sounds to heavy crunch and great lead sounds. I don't need to replace them. (I typically use Dimarzio Evolution and Seymour Duncan pickups) I've played the guitar with my effects and Marshall amps and also have played it unplugged for many, many hours already! It's a very inspiring instrument, I've already written a few songs on it! Playing lead on it is a joy, the Floyd Rose was actually set level with the body, and works great! I even liked the Fender 250 strings 9-42 (I normally use Ernie Ball super slinky) I own many other guitars including 2 Satriani Ibanez guitars, and I immediately felt at home on this guitar. I took a chance going with a new Fender and I am so glad I did! If your on the fence trying to decide on a guitar brand, this one is a winner! I love it, it's my new favorite guitar!

This guitar is amazing! I love everything about it.
It was well packaged and shipped out perfectly! Couldn't ask for a better product! Thank you Sweetwater!

Great guitar right out of the box the pickups are not all that I put in Seymour Duncan's but that's my flavor awesome guitar rock on

Fender is really listening to the customer base and making some great guitars at affordable prices. This guitar has several key features: HSS pickups, floyd rose, maple neck, 22 frets, 12" radius neck, and a satin finish on neck. It makes for an extremely fast and playable instrument.

Sweetwater really does a great job of inspecting the instrument. Mine came in pristine condition!! If you haven't watched the video of how they check out each guitar prior to shipping, you need to. I will be buying all my gear from them going forward!

This is a really great guitar the bang for the buck off the roof. Note the body & neck is made in USA using Alder & Maple assembled in Mexico = a great value! The pickups sound good Alnico II Bridge & Alnico V neck & middle very defined top end but not ice picky.

The Floyd set up & tuning was spot on it came in tune. Take Note the back of the neck is a satin finish so non sticky gloss that many have issues with. It's a 12" radius fretboard so really you can play any style & not look out of place w/the Fender spaghetti logo it looks classy yet it's look could be at home at a metal, country, blues, gospel… w/a good Floyd Rose that you can abuse & still be in tune I forgot how much i missed the Floyd Trems I love em & you will too once you figure out how to set em up right.

Thanks to Alex Rodriguez for getting this to me in 2 days! For the price you can't beat it when compared to Charvel / EVH Frankenstein strats aka any Super Strat being sold this holds it own. USA made body & neck assembled south of the boarder yes .

It's a no brainer solid electronics very responsive tone pots nice solid switch. I'll be putting a Pearloid Pick Guard & back plate on it , that should really bring it up to another level as a beauty of a Super Strat.

A Fender Strat with a Floyd and a Humbucker? I"m sold on THAT alone...!! Okay, so after a lot of debate with wanting a "different beast" of a guitar (I"ve been loyal with Schecters w/ added active pups for a few years), and after going back and forth with a few Charvels, Fender telecasters and a few other choices, I randomly came across this beauty and decided it was for me. I"ve never even held a Fender Stratocaster...in 25 years of playing...seriously...but I have recently fallen in love with the shape (and it"s ease of access) and LOVE maple fretboards. I wasn"t quite sure what to expect, but right away, I could feel and hear a difference...that Strat sound (position 4!?! HEAVEN!) OMFG! While I currently use some high-end active pickups in my other guitars, and my favorite set so far has been the EMG 57/66, they pale in comparison to the warmth, snap and articulation that these pickups provide. Like I said, I have NEVER even held one of these. It has been a very pleasant addition to my guitarsenal, and I haven"t put it down since. I"ve since installed a trem stop so it dives only, but other than that, this instrument is perfect (I"m sure it will end up striped like Mr. Van Halen"s, eventually...). It really is. But, if I have to be 110% honest, the primary reason that I went with this purchase, with Fender and Sweetwater, was the communication from Mr. Matthew LeMarche! He went out of his way to take care of me and ultimately got this fiddle in my hands, after a few back and forth with my indecisiveness, made it happen - easily, no hassles. He is great to talk with, over the phone and email! He just simply rocks, and I have since referred a LOT of folks to him...I hope they"ve called! Matthew, thank you for making this happen, my friend! Sweetwater - pay attention to this dude! He is part of a team of why you guys are rockin" on top, no doubt! After this interaction with Mr. Matthew LeMarche, and purchase from Sweetwater, I see no reason why I will use any other company from here on out. Period! Thanks!

This is my very first Fender guitar, I have a squire contemporary that I fell in love with. This is the color combination. The pickup combination the tremello combination that I've wanted forever in a day. I've now had it for just over a week. I can't say enough about it. So much fun to play. Stays in tune. Very happy.

This is on of the best guitar put together out of factory.

I purchased the white HSS with Floyd for reference. For years I have bemoaned Fender"s insistence on limiting their MIM guitars to 21 frets (with a few exceptions such as the Blacktop series, which are getting harder to find), and the alnico V pickups, which just didn"t sound "Strat-y" enough to my ears. Don"t even get me started on the traditional lack of a tone control for the BRIDGE pickup, sheesh! I also prefer a 12" radius neck, since I cut my teeth on Charvel guitars back in the days of hairspray. Enter the Player Series. It"s almost as if Fender has been taking notes of my personal wish list. I would like the contoured heel they have on some models, and I wish there was a split option for the bridge humbucker, but outside those wishes the guitar is pretty much exactly as I would have spec"d it myself from the custom shop. My .5 deduction is actually for the gloss fretboard, which I will have sanded down soon. Just doesn"t really feel right to me. The bridge HB is slightly low output compared to my other guitars I"m using, but it sounds great and balances well with the single coils.

Humbucker aside, the other four positions on the switch are pure Strat. Spanky, chimey, quacky, etc., etc., etc.. I played Strats exclusively for many years before switching to "beefier" guitars, but I always missed having that certain thing only a Strat can do available. I finally have it again, and it puts a big smile on my face.

To put it in perspective, I had three other much higher-dollar guitars on stage at a recent show. I was fortunate to be sharing the stage with a very well-known guitarist in Nashville, who is considered a go-to tone guru. Guess which guitar he asked me about...

As always Mike Godlove and the Sweetwater team made the purchase a piece of cake. The guitar arrived ready to rip, and faster than one could say "It"s about time Fender!". Kudos to Fender for finally breaking with tradition in a positive, practical way. I can only hope that sales of the Player Series line will be huge, and keep Fender heading in this direction with future offerings.

I am sorry to be the one to give a lesser review! I bought this guitar with three simple things in mind:
1. I want a strat
2. I want a floyd
3. I want something with awesome reviews

Caution: When I spend $... on a guitar… a case, and $... on a PLEK, I am OCD. It's a rare treat. I own about 15 guitars. All manner of Ibanez, ESPs, Les Paul, Gibson, Epiphone, and several Fender (and all-parts) strats. So, I may have expected too much out of this guitar. There's your grain of salt.

I took other things into consideration like neck radius, knowing my hands and playing styles and learning goals. I also went for the PLEK process (I HIGHLY recommend it).

I have waited a week to provide this review so I could be clear and concise.

Construction: Very high quality. Almost American. The neck body joint is flawless. The locking nut R3 is awesome. The nut is cut perfectly in the neck. the fret edges are smooth. The electronics work well and the body and neck feel very gig-worthy, like it would most certainly stand up to hours and hours of playing and sweat. The finish is flawless. The Floyd Rose Trem keeps the guitar in tune very well and takes a fair amount of abuse before having to retune. I can see why Floyds are popular. Buyer Beware: This is a "licensed" Floyd, not a "real" Floyd if you know what i mean. It's "Licensed by Floyd Rose to be constructed in Korea". Ok...well at least it's not China! But I am so disappointed. The trem block is made of left over alloy "pot metal" and the saddles are "zinc alloy". More on this below.

Appearance: Very, very pleasing to the eye. Quite stunning in person.

Tone: This is where I have to dock it a star, at least. Not good. I think...most of the tone issue will be traced back to the Floyd. The tone is dull. The saving grace is the rear humbucker which provides good rock tones, borderline Metal. Definitely good for Neo-classical stuff. The neck and middle pickups are lackluster and very buzzy. If you play a distortion/overdriven sound, you won't care about the hum and dull tone. You'll be able to doctor it up just fine by EQ'ing your pedals and amp to your heart's content. My thought on this, after doing a ton of research on Floyds and talking to a Floyd expert who makes his OWN brass trem blocks is that the dull tone is directly related back to the crappy parts used in the Floyd. There is a video on youtube that shows the removal of the Floyd Special w/replacement using Floyd Brass high end and Schaller parts. WHAT. A. DIFFERENCE. So, if I keep this, I might go down that road. Right now...the tone is Meh. Low output neck and middle and dull. OK-ish bridge, lacking clarity and lacking high end. On the positive, you can tease a spanky stratty tone out of neck and middle if you like.

Playability: Good. The PLEK helped a ton. I have the lowest action possible with a little fret buzz. That's ok. It plays easy. It is fun to play. The neck shape, a full "C" profile, hurts my hands down in the open/first position. When you play open chords, the spikey part of the string 1 portion of the R3 nut rubs against your hands. So...this guitar probably not great for cowboy strummers (which shouldn't be an issue anyway as those attracted to a floyd are probably not strummers). The neck is the thickest neck I own, even with a Jazz box archtop, in my collection.

In my heart, I feel I should dock it two stars. One star for the lack of tone and one star for the neck profile and R3 nut hand pain stuff. But you could argue that is MY issue, not the guitar's.

Summary: Great next guitar for blossoming shredder. Step up from the Squier. You could, of course, spend a little more… and get a Charvel San Dimas Pro Mod or Dinky. I know...this is a Mexican and these days you get what you pay for. Some of you will think I'm stuck up and OCD and that I should get real. Other of you will think...hey, I could get brakes, rotors, pads, and a front-end tie rod on my Kia for the price of this guitar, so this guitar needs to be able to be my #1. Whatever! It's all relative. I hope you found this helpful.

Upgrades: replacement of the Floyd Rose "special" trem block, Saddles, Spring Claw, Spring Claw screws and springs. Potential pickup replacement to your taste and ears.

This is my first review of an instrument I have posted. I ordered this beautiful Stratocaster and was completely head over heels with its premium looks, a Floyd Rose, and fast satin neck. Then I got it and started to play it and suddenly the enthusiasm was gone.

First the things that I really liked:
- Stunning looks
- The build quality looks really nice. No fret sprouts, no blemish's and the set up was playable on receipt.
- Stays in tune

Now the the things I didn't like:
- The single coil picks were dreadfully awful. Expecting the classic jangle of a strat and all I got was boring and bland tones. Such a let down. They also seemed to be fairly low output to my taste having played many strays. The hum-bucker pick up was ok at best, still fairly low output but workable, yet it has a lot of noise. A bit uncharacteristic of a good hum bucket.
- The neck seems thick. Probably, just my own preference but did not find it enjoyable to play on.
- NO GIG BAG! I know it is in the description, but c'mon Fender this practically a $1000 instrument and you cannot even include a flimsy bag? Glad my PRS-SE actually had a very good bag

The Verdict;
I really really wanted to love this guitar. Great looks and that is where it pretty much ended for me. That being said I am gonna have to send this one back and hope as much as it breaks my heart. Average at best guitar for a fairly premium price.

The guitar itself is Nice.. Feels Great... Very disappointed with the Floyd. I had to Block the Floyd, because the floyd keeps going out of tune... I will be upgrading the Floyd Rose "Special" to the Original Floyd... The neck pickup sounds weak... I will be upgrading the pickups as well.....
For the Price, the could have at least put the Original Floyd, Not the Floyd Rose Special!!!!

it will be a 5 Star Rating once I do the upgrades... For now, it can stay hanging on my wall...