Fender Player Stratocaster Plus Top - Aged Cherry with Maple Fingerboard Reviews

A couple of years ago, I saw this guitar at a national guitar store chain who shall remain nameless. I've never been a Strat guy but I was captivated by the color and the flame maple top. It happened to be plugged in so I picked it up and started picking away. I was floored by how good it sounded! I fell in love with it. The store was a couple doors down from where my girlfriend worked, so every time I'd go to pick her up, I'd go in and lust after this guitar. She wound up getting the exact one I played for me for Christmas that year. It's such a fun instrument to play! Plays and sounds as good as it looks!

I ordered this guitar online without trying it first. Bad idea I know... but it worked out.

Once received, I plugged it in and fell in love with its sound. Those iconic strat sounds tickled my ears and made me smile. I couldn't set it down. I expected it to sound thin and to be somewhat disappointed like I was every time I tried a squire stratocaster in a store. Not so. This is a great sounding guitar. It doesn't sound thin. Except with tone at 10 at the bridge
which is what you would expect and want. My new favorite!

I played some gigs with it, and listened back to the mix. It cuts through so nice and clear. Complimenting the other instruments. Sounding beautiful and glassy on top. The leads I played sang out of this guitar. My other axes tend to sound muddy in a whole band context in comparison. (Seymour duncan humbucker based) yes I know I am comparing apples to oranges here. This stratocaster just sounds overall better with the whole band than my other guitars of similar price point. I am now a strat guy.

The only downside is that the flame top is thin and it isn't as deep and convincing as my Schecter C1 classic. This stratocaster top looks more digital or unnatural if you inspect it too closely. It is still beautiful and stands out. Just not on par with others I have seen.

As for buying experience, it was great. I was contacted by email when it shipped and sent some high resolution photos of my actual guitar while I waited. The sales rep checked in with me by phone call after I received it to make sure I was happy. I believe if I wasn't, Sweetwater would actively work to make sure I was.

I purchased this for gift to my friend/attorney. It was more then he expected. Sounds great and looks fantastic. As soon as my playing skills increase I will buy one for myself.

This is such a guitar I am buying one for my attorney and one of my best friends. Plays sweet, If yu are looking for someone aknowleable about guitars, please contact Pat Walsh, He has the answers fo al you questions

Sounds and plays like a strat! flawless and well built!

Was looking for a Strat to break the mold of the guitar I currently have, and this baby nailed it. From the single coil action, to the BEAUTIFUL color on the guitar it's just amazing. Between Fender and Sweetwater, this guitar is well worth the price and some. Huge shoutout to Kurt for helping me get the exact one I wanted as well! Very helpful, great guitar, shipping was speedy. No complaints whatsoever. Thanks guys!

Very happy with this guitar.
Feels better than my more expensive models (tha will be leaving now)
Upgraded to fender locking tuners, mint pickgaurd,and Graphtech Tusq nut and String Saver saddles..
This thing is a beast.!
Cheers from Vegas.!

Great price good sound and feel the fmt is awesome thank you ray gonzalez again dude you are my guitar guru I can't speak highly enough you're awesome thank you again bro the team there set my strat perfect there awesome as well best service I've had from any store

I'm a new player who's been having a blast learning on an acoustic over more than four months. I've been playing every day, steadily building my skills while researching electrics. This was a little over my beginner's budget and was not even in stock, but I lucked out when a demo model became available. (only minor scratches on the pickguard and spring cover as noted by Sweetwater; otherwise in mint condition)

As another reviewer mentioned, it is hard to photograph as the texture of the flamed top changes slightly as light hits it at different angles, making it far more striking in person than in photos.

I haven't changed a thing. So far, after more than a week, I'm not having trouble with tuning and I think it sounds great. It sounds like I'd expect a Strat to sound.

Coming from a guitar with a glossy neck, I find the satin finish on this neck far more comfortable to play on. I'm also really happy with the shape of the neck and feel of the fretboard.

I've read reports of some guitars having high or uneven frets causing unavoidable buzzing, but there is no sign of that here. Any properly fretted note rings out without buzzing. Not that I was really concerned about that in a Player Series Fender, but something I checked anyway.

The only minor annoyance was there were frayed remnants of the protective shipping film that covers the neck plate stuck under the screw heads. I had to slightly unscrew each one to get the rest out. It seems strange to me that they would put the screws in over the film, but it was a minor problem easily solved.

First off, I want to give a bit shout out to my sales engineer, Kyle. I had some trouble in the past with a previous purchase and Kyle made this most recent purchase not only easy, but also fun and informative. Kyle also plays strats and has helped with recommendations and overall information of the guitar.

I added Fender locking tuners (purchased from Sweetwater) and a Fender elite string tree (off reverb) and even when doing dive bombs, this guitar stays in tune perfectly. I have been really pleasantly surprised with the stability, tone, and feel of this guitar and it is now easily my favorite guitar that I own.

Another note I would like to add, no matter how I try I cannot take a picture of the guitar to truly show it's actual beauty, I don't know if it has something to do with the way they do the flaming of the maple or what it is; but in every picture I take it looks a bit plain and bland, even the pictures Sweetwater take don't do it justice. I promise if it looks remotely good on the website it will look even better in person.

If you are even thinking about getting this guitar, don't hesitate and just get it; but also get the upgrades mentioned above. Locking tuners and an upgraded string tree, no matter which ones you choose to get, will make your experience better with this guitar.

I’m still loving this thing. Only thing I’ve done is block the trem and changed out the stark white plastics to antique. Here’s how that looks if you’re interested.

OBTW: I got the kit at Sweetwater of course!

My family surprised me with this guitar for Christmas. It had been on my radar to get a Strat for a long time, but each time I tried, the guitar just wasn’t right.
This one is just right.
The neck is fabulous. Zero fret drag. The entire fretboard feels like butter and is quite inspirational to play.
The body woods are beautiful. Is it a veneer? Of course, it’s under a thousand dollars......but the finish is great. No blemishes, gorgeous burst, nothing to complain about.
The tone is that strat tone, even the factory pickups sound good. Snappy, good sustain, dynamically balanced. It crunches and sparkles.
The tremolo is smooth and musical.
Trust me......MIM doesn’t matter. This instrument is as good as anything Fender makes costing twice as much.
I couldn’t be happier with this guitar.

I posted my review December 6th 2019 and if there was a way to edit it I would. I made a statement in that review that was so incorrect I could not let it stand:

I said the pickups were too low from the factory and nothing could be further from the truth. My other guitars don’t have these powerful alnico’s so they have to be set higher. So I set these to a generally recommended height. Big mistake. The B & high E strings sounded terrible. I lowered and lowered until I removed all fuzz and fizz and actually wound up slightly lower than delivered. About .200. And WOW does it sound good now!! Pure clean chime and ring.

Awesome working with Ronuel. He took his time and made sure I got the guitar that met my requirements. It arrived early & was beyond beautiful - plus top is stunning! Came set-up & ready to play. Candy was good too:)

I ordered my guitar with the case. I asked them to place the guitar in the case for shipment. It arrived in VERY sturdy and tight double packaging. The 55 point inspection obviously included some "set-up" which is appreciated. The personal attention and follow up I received will keep me coming back. It's like a local store with online convenience.

I'm very happy with this guitar. They thought about every detail to ensure playability at the highest level. I've been using the tremolo a lot as it was designed for (as a tremolo) and it doesn't get out of tune at all. Plus Sweetwater post-sales servicing is amazing. Very nice idea to have a sales engineer following up the whole process. Bravo!

Never played a players series strat before, I have many older models, and love them, but this guitar looks, Feels, and plays amazingly well. The satin finish on back of the neck is so smooth. If you're looking for a great looking, sounding and playing strat for less, Definitely take a look at the players series. Give Ryan at Sweetwater a call today and order yours. You won't be disappointed.

I purchased this guitar thinking that I would have to do some setup work as I have with all the guitars I"ve ever owned! Much to my surprise, the setup was dead on! The playability is fantastic and the satin neck feels awesome. The new alnico 5 pickups sound perfect, just like a Strat should sound! Fender did an awesome job with the new player series. Sweetwater customer service is second to none! It"s a keeper!

This is simply a drop dead gorgeous guitar in the aged cherry finish, which is flawless. Plays like an absolute dream too - paid a little extra for a custom set up and I could not be more pleased with the action, etc. I really can't see spending hundreds more for a U S version with the quality and playability of this MiM model. Thanks to Miles and the good folks at Sweetwater for their service and followup!

This is my first Fender. My other electrics are Gibson and Ibanez. I"m amazed at the apparent quality of this guitar. I"m going to upgrade to locking tuners for the convenience, and switch the strings to 10s, but otherwise I"ve got no issues, concerns, or complaints. I"m curious why the fretboard is gloss finished rather than satin like the back of the neck, but I"m not bothered about it. I"ll probably get a hardcase for the guitar, but I"ve got a couple of Gibson gig bags that it fits in. I chose a Maple fretboard because Rosewood isn"t available now on Mexico made Fenders, and Pau Ferro is a forced compromise that I won"t accept. I considered getting a black bodied model, but the beauty of this Aged Cherry Plus Top changed my decision. This is, indeed, a beautiful guitar.

It is a beautiful guitar. Love it!

This is a beautiful guitar, everyone who sees it loves the flamed top finish, but the real surprise is the tone, this guitar sounds fantastic right out of the box.

Normally one of the first things I do is replace the center pickup on a Strat with a Seymour Duncan model and I had planed on doing that to this one but after setting it up with a set of .011's and playing it for a couple of weeks I'm blown away by the different sounds the stock pickups have. Each pickup has a unique sound and the three work together so well, for now I'm keeping this baby stock.

The 2-point tremolo bridge works very well and I consider it a big improvement over the vintage style bridge for tuning accuracy.

I have two American Standard Stratocasters and except for slightly larger frets they have no clear sonic advantage over this bargain "Player" model. The detail and workmanship on the Player are top notch.

Very happy with this guitar, a great deal from my Sweetwater sales engineer, thanks Jim!

Good music to all!

I'm writing this review from the perspective of a novice player. I convinced my wife in August of 2017 that i wanted to learn how to play the guitar. She was a bit hesitant as i'm the type of guy who gets excited about a new hobby, does it for a month or two and interest in it wanes. She reluctantly agreed and off we went to Guitar Center to pick up a starter kit. The Squier Affinity stratocaster wasn't a terrible instrument to get my fingers used to but it certainly wasn't a great instrument by any stretch of the imagination. Serviceable is the word i'd use to describe it. I pulled my fathers old 1994 Floyd Rose MIM stratocaster out of storage, got it set up and restrung and it was a noticeable upgrade over the squier. Fast forward about 11 months to July of 2018 and i'm feeling like i need another instrument. I love the Strat i was playing, but i was locked into standard tuning as having to go to alternate tunings meant i'd need to unlock the nut, tune up and hope the new string tension doesn't throw my FR out of whack. I played a few MIM stratocasters but nothing seemed to grab me. I read about the release of these new player series models and went into Guitar Center to try one out, but unfortunately they didn't have any in stock. I really wanted to play one of these prior to buying one, but i had a good feeling about it and went ahead and pulled the trigger anyways. I am no expert at playing by any means, but this guitar just feels *RIGHT* in my hands. The action is super low with very little fret buzz (any that exists on my guitar certainly isn't being picked up by my amplifier) The pickups are clear, and the finish is amazing, at least for the price point of this guitar. I feel like this is an instrument i can and will be using for years to come. Kudos to fender for this great guitar and thank you to Sweetwater and Zach my Sales engineer. My guitar shipped with a pop in tremelo arm and after a quick call to Zach, a threaded one was shipped and delivered quickly. If you're on the fence about purchasing one of these player series guitars, my advice would be to pull the trigger.

This is a very nice instrument for the price. The neck is very good. The satin back feels nice and the gloss fretboard is a joy to play on. The finish looks even better in person than the pictures can show; and that glorious sound! Oh man! It's got that great Strat' howl and the tone control wired on the bridge pickup is a terrific choice by Fender to really make this a fully functional tone toolset. Thanks to Jon and rest of the crew at Sweetwater for ensuring the instrument arrived ready to go out of the box. I'd like to write more but frankly I want to go practice some more on this instead ...

This one's a keeper.

I recently bought an Epiphone Les Paul plus top here (TOTALLY AWESOME btw) and wanted a Strat for chime and quack. Boy, did I get it.

Pluses:
Very high quality build with flawless and drop dead gorgeous poly finish.
Very nice neck finish, gloss front and satin back (which I had to wetsand my Les Paul to get!)
Electronics seem high quality and this guitar has all the chime and quack I was hoping for. This thing is gonna live it the second switch position from the back.
I saw a review here on the player series and the guy said he considered this guitar a "toy." I SO disagree. This is a serious piece of guitar machinery. Did I mention it's gorgeous?

Minuses:
I've seen people reviewing say that they received their guitar ready to play. Not this one! And I'll say this right up front - the following is not a complaint. At this price point I do NOT expect the guitar to be set up to the degree I need or want. With that said, this thing needed a bunch of setup: I lowered the first fret action a LOT, then lowered the bridge action. I got to 4/64 where I like it and not a hint of buzz anywhere. I know I could've gone much lower but I like it at 4/64. This tells me the frets are LEVEL. Who needs a pleck? Maybe this should've been in the pluses?
After I got the actions right the relief was excessive so I decreased it a quarter turn.
The fret ends seemed a little sharp-ish to me so I made a foam sanding block with 600 grit and made that right real quick.
Basically everything on the axe that has threads was loose, even the pots. I used a little locktite here and there and tighted up the whole machine. Also adjusted the pickups up quite a bit. They were LOW.
The intonation wasn't even close for the 9s that came on it but that also is an easy fix.

Again, the whole setup didn't take an hour or two and I enjoyed every minute. And now I have a seriously fine Fender Stratocaster that's as nice as just about anyone you'll find at just about any price. And did I mention IT'S GORGEOUS???

Hope this helps you all with your buying decisions. . . .

Thanks to my sales engineer Tyler Moore. If you're going to call me anything....I'm a bass player. But, I tinker with guitar and drums. So, when it comes to my stoopid questions on equipment I'm not necessarily an expert on, Mr. Moore is always helpful and patient with me. Looks great, plays great and has got that classic Stratocaster tone.

This is my first Stratocaster. I've been playing Gibsons for 30 years. I LOVE this guitar. The tone choices are fantastic and the neck playlets like a dream.... so fast and smooth. I can get stones from Jimmi, to SRV, to Brian May on this guitar. I am not thrilled with the trem system as it detunes easily... I'm not talking dove bombing, but just with vibrato... adjusting the trem (should have been done in pro set up payed for) and lunricating the nut (also should have been done) and straightening the neck ( NO WAY THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN MISSED) it sounds much better. Next time I will tend to my own set up, as unusually would. I got this guitar discounted due to a scratch... I might have b****** about things a little bit I feel that the guitar is well worth it. Thanks to Nick for always taking care of my needs.

I got an American Performer before this but it had several issues. We couldn't get rid of the fret buzz and either the nut or lockers were faulty and buzzing on open string, so Sweetwater graciously accepted a return and I decided to go with this one instead of another Performer. I've played and owned Charvels, Jackson and Schecters before but this is my first Strat. The feel and sound is of course different but besides these, there are some others pros and cons.

Pros:
This guitar is to me superior to the MIA Performer... The craftsmanship on the Performer was slightly better than this but the tuners, bridge, pickups and the headstock on this is better IMO. The look of the Aged Cherry is beautiful. The neck is smooth (I believe sanded) which is not very common for guitars at this price range. It makes it easier to move up and down on the neck. It is also a very versatile guitar. 5 way switch and the neck pickup tone controller (I don't know anyone that uses the bridge tone controller) gives you lots of tones to choose from.

Cons:
- 10th fret is about a milimeter shorter than others. Not a huge deal but it kills the sustain when you play those notes. I'll take it to a Fender repair shop to get it fixed. It is very annoying to have a brand new guitar getting fixed. After having two guitars in a row with issues, I have doubts about the Sweetwater 55 point inspection and Fender's QC process. If they are not catching these issues, I wonder what they are looking at during the inspection.
- As a general complaint for Stratocasters, the neck joint point is ridiculously huge. I've been hearing people complaining about this and I was thinking how bad could it be, but yeah, compared with the others I owned, accessing above the 17th fret needs a little practicing on this. I think Fender needs to seriously fix this.
- Pickups are ok (better than the Performer), but you may still want to replace them with DiMarzios or Seymour Duncans if you want more output.
- It needs a fair amount of setup. I had to adjust the actions, truss rod and pickup height when I received it and a few days later after the strings settled down I did the intonation. If you are not willing to set it up yourself it will probably cost you… extra.

Overall, if you need a versatile guitar, this is probably the best out there in this price range. I have professional musician friends using MIM Strats (with some upgrades) for their recordings and this is the proof of quality for me for these guitars. Though, if you are more of a rock/metal player or need warmer or fatty tones and don't want to bother with changing the pickups or electronics this guitar may not be for you.

I also have to say that I am very comfortable with the customer support that I received from Sweetwater and a huge thanks to my sales engineer Nick. Most companies would probably force me to keep the previous guitar but Sweetwater was willing to making things right as soon as I received the first Performer with issues. This isn't something very common these days and I definitely appreciate it.

Where are my guitar strings I've been waiting on them 101 Deer Glen Circle Vacaville California I bought some strings from you guys some weeks ago I thought Sweetwater was all about getting things done please send my strings I need them Peggy Williams

When mine arrived it was missing whammy bar spring. Otherwise it is a beauty. And sounds great. Sweetwater says Fender will send me a spring. I've ordered more just in case.

Obviously a beaut! However, upon receipt, due to fret buzz, I had to go to work with file
and sanding bars on the first 8 frets .

For $ that should have been a gimme on a Fender. Just a hint: After 2 1/2 years (at the time of this review) hanging on a wall mount in a less than 70degree house the truss rod does need to be loosened a tad once a year.
Truthfully, it's best just to keep it in a case.

I just need to be clear, my hatred of this guitar has nothing to do with it being a good or bad guitar.

This is a visually appealing guitar. I've had to change some things on it already, put locking fender tuners on it, replaced the string tree with TUSQ tree's and will be putting a better bridge on it soon. I absolutely loathe the single coil pickups on this. Honestly I have absolutely no idea why I bought it. I'm going to put a different set of pickups in it soon as well. It plays fine (So long as it's not plugged in and I don't have to hear the pickups) Needs a proper setup though.

Pro's: The neck is awesome, it's well made. visually it's very nice. Aright to play. The changes I made were in no way necessary beyond preference.

Con's: I'm Biased, I'm not a single coil strat guy. I really wanted to start delving into different styles and sounds, but I honestly hate these pickups. That's really the only thing I hate about the guitar. the tuners, and all of that is a preference thing, but the pickups just don't work for me.

the one on the right is the new Sweetwater MIM Strat pick guard w/junk Squire PU's in it. The left is a 2009 MIM Strat. The PU's on the left have the magnets on em. Their good sounding PU's and they have good Strat tone. I feel like at every turn were paying too much for this stuff. I will toss the Squire PU's in the trash and replace with the one on the left. This way the gtr will sound like it's supposed to. And Im also having it set up with a Jeff Beck nut, bridge and tuners but that's just me. Still, it's cheaper to do all this then buy an American made (??) Strat. I've been playing 50 years and it is my first cheap gtr.