Fender Player Stratocaster - Polar White with Pau Ferro Fingerboard Reviews

As a Gibson guy, I finally pulled the trigger on one of these after months of mulling it over. It's everything I was hoping it would be and more.

I can't say enough how impressed I am with the quality. This is a thoroughly beautiful guitar. Very well built, plays very nicely, and it sounds just like you want it to. I've found absolutely no negatives to report so far. I find myself wanting to pick it up over my Les Paul Standard 50s so far.

Fender is really offering something special with this Player Series of guitars.

Sweetwater, as always, is phenominal. Tiberius sent over tracking and photos of the guitar almost instantly. And it showed up to my door in a timely fashion (even with the Thanksgiving holiday mixed in the middle.)

Overall a 5 star product from Fender, and a 5 star sales experience (as always) from Sweetwater.

Been playing a little over a year now. Started with an Epiphone Special II. Wanted something better. After much research I decided on the Fender Strat player in polar White with Pau Ferro fret board. I am completely satisfied. Robb at Sweetwater was very helpful answering my questions and getting it ordered. It arrived in 3 days. It was packed extremely well. Perfect right out of the box. I love the look. The action and tone is excellent! I have a Music Room set up and I can't walk by it without stopping to stare at it.
By the way, I was a Drummer back in the 60's! Always wanted to play guitar. It's never too late. I'm 70 and loving it!
Highly recommend the Fender Stratocaster Player!

I have been playing on this guitar for a couple months now. I set this guitar up my self and did a bunch of tweaking and playing including adjusting the springs on the back and also turning the truss rod and raising and lowering the pups and using the allen wrenches on the screws on the bridge. I didn't measure anything I just went by feel and sound.

I had a more expensive creme clored telecaster last year i sold to my friend that was Made in USA and I think i like this mim strat better. My second guitar I ever owned in the mid 90s was a black and white MIM strat and it wasn't near as good as this, IMO.

A few years ago I had a made in usa sienna burst hss shawbucker strat with a maple fretboard that was really cool but I needed money and sold it. As good as the strat was I was able to part with it. This particular Player series MIM white sss strat with a pau ferro fret board I will not part with It is a keeper. I am not saying I like it better than the higher end strat but something about a really affordable good sounding guitar that grows on me and is more my style.

I play it through a Carvin V3, a Marshall SV20H and doing direct in recording with a Line 6 Helix stomp and a Line 6 Toneport UX2. For the most part I was playing new school punk rock and blues then I added some pedals and was able to get heavier sounding like AIC and Sgrdn and even more extreme metal tones and of course cleans for blues. I was away from Single coil pups for so long there are things only single coils can do and vice versa. I delved into other types of guitars like Ibanez,Schecter,Gibson, and LTD all with humbuckers to name a few.

If I can make this guitar sound like this my next guitar just might be another Fender and possibly a made in mexico one. Thank you Sweetwater. This guitar is really neat and has grown on me in a weird way that I like.

I bought this strat after having bought a MIM telecaster from Sweetwater and being very impressed. (Nashville deluxe, awesome telecaster) so.I had a lot of confidence in Mexican Fenders
I was a little worried about the 9.5 radius fretboard, because I'm used to 12, but turns out I like it just as much
The pickups sound great. Traditional strat tone. The Pau Ferro fretboard is actually very nice, and looks incredible with polar white. Rosewood too dark, maple too light, although I love both on other guitars. The only changes I maid was too replace tuners with Fender locking staggered post tuners,an easy upgrade to do yourself ( no drilling, same dimensions) and tightened up the floating tremelo
Just put the springs on the outside positions on both ends and tightened the screws just a little. Brought the bridge down solid on top of guitar
Now has more sustain and sounds noticeably better. This is my now my favorite guitar. It's amazing what you get for your money on Mexican Fenders
Also, Sweetwater deserves some praise for consistent delivery of well inspected instruments and excellent service
I would like to thank Colton for always ensuring excellent service
I would encourage anyone thinking about this guitar or any guitar to buy it. Well worth it. And Sweetwater has been great for me

The guitar is fun to play and was delivered promptly and well packaged.

Out of the box, this Strat is ready to for the gig. Tune it up, plug it in and enjoy the evening. Detailed, finished & adjusted. I had to do some personal preferences like strings, and string height. I've owned many guitars over the decades, including many Strats. From low end Squiers to high end collectors. This is definitely a working man's guitar. Girls too. A guitar you'll love to keep.

Love my new strat. Fast shipping w/ tracking, and the guitar was set up very well out of the box. Excellent customer service too. Sweetwater does great business!

Love The Way It Plays and Sounds and Looks

Purchased this player series strat and absolutely love it!! Great feel and playability. The satin maple neck feels and plays great. This MIM strat would be hard to beat for the money! Kudos to Fender on this one. If you are thinking about buying one of these, my advice would be DO IT!!

This guitar is my first actual fender! I was playing a squier before this for about 2 years and when the player series was first announced I fell in love with this color before i even played the guitar. I found the same style in black and played it and lived the pickups and the feel of it. The pickups are quiet and sparkly like a classic strat so if you're looking for an overwound srv style sound you may not get it here but this guitar is amazing if you're looking for a blank canvas to create on.

I've bought several guitars from Sweetwater reviews are mixed. But this Fender player series is the best yet. What a guitar! I'm glad I went with the single coil pickups great classic stratocaster sound. Matt my salesman is top shelf and knows his stuff. He has been a huge help in introducing me to new products. " I'm a dinosaur " This fender player series is just the slickest guitar in my collection. Thanks to Matt and Sweetwater.

I received my Fender Player Strat about a month ago and this guitar rocks! This Fender Player has a nice warm, rich sound and has a very distinct sound that I've only heard on Fender guitars. This guitar felt perfect in my hands, it's very comfortable, nice and light. I can play this guitar much easier than any other guitar I've ever bought or tried. There's just something 'magical' about Fender guitars. I just can't say enough good things about this guitar. Shipping was super fast, customer service was great as usual. For anyone thinking about getting this guitar, all I can say is- get it, you can't go wrong! Thank you Sweetwater!

This thing is sweet! I've put locking tuners and block saddles on mine but it is really not necessary it is perfection as is. In fact I put a set of Seymour Duncan high end pickups in it and decided I liked the stock Player Series pickups better.

I also have an American Professional Strat and I couldn't tell you which one I like better.

Plays like butter, sounds like a Strat.......you can't beat that!

Brings back fond memories of how reasonably priced guitars were made back in the 50s & 60s - HIGH QUALITY. Plays great, feels great, did not need a fret job out of the box like some higher priced guitars (that shall go nameless), and has the characteristic Strat sound and dynamics without straining to get them. I'm more than satisfied and, of course, Sweetwater customer care exceeds all expectations.

This guitar sounds and feels great, however, upon arrival I had some minor issues. The low E nut slot was abit low which gave me that sitar sound when not fretted. Also the intonation was off, 3/4 of the guitar is sharp. it's also having trouble staying in tune (falls out of tune slightly after about 10-20 minutes). I waited the recommended time before opening/playing. The guitar sat for an extra 2 days inside a warehouse due to fedex error, so that may have something to do with the neck being out of whack. Overall I do love it, just sucks it was a dud.

After borrowing a guitar from a friend and testing a bunch at local shops, I decided to get this as my first guitar. I've been enjoying the variety of tones you can get from the 3 single coil pick ups. I've had no issues with any of the electronics or hardware. I also love the shape of the neck and satin finish on the back.

Unfortunately though, on my serial number the quality of fretboard is pretty poor. 12 out of the 22 fret slots are cut too deep and look like they were sloppily filled. Even with giving it time to acclimate to the climate before unpacking, a few frets had slight fret sprout out of the box. It has a lot gotten worse over few months since I bought it, which I suspect might be because the slots weren't cut well. Having played other Mexican Fenders that have perfect necks, I think it's just bad quality control on my serial and I got the bad one out of the bunch. Another minor thing is the saddles look like they were never adjusted and the intonation was no where close to spec, which I didn't originally notice was evident in the pictures on the site.

Overall though I'd still recommend it and would rate other Player Strats I've played as a 5. I think in my case I would have just chosen a different serial if I'd seen a picture of the fret slots or played it first.

I don't know what happened to fender, but Sweetwater sent me three strats and all were unplayable. Now I'm stuck with a guitar I can't do anything with.