Fender Player Stratocaster Plus Top - Tobacco Sunburst with Pau Ferro Fingerboard Reviews

First of all I have to say I love my new strat I got a month ago, this past weekend I put the Texas specials in and Wow!!! This strat is Alive! These were the first purchases I've made from Sweetwater and it is certainly not going to be my last. I have to give a shout out to Isaac Alvarez, who called right after my order was placed, Sweetwater, do not change your customer service model, it works well, I am looking forward to purchasing more equipment very soon. If I could give Sweetwater 6 stars I would, if I could give it 10 I would but this is all I get soooo…

This guitar has the best neck pup I have ever had in a Strat. The bridge is a little light compared to the neck but it plays great and of course sweetwater had it set up nicely! Definitely recommend!

Fender has really upped their game on these MIM Stratocasters! Mine came properly set up, right out of the box. The neck felt great with the fret ends dressed well and, after stretching the strings some, it stayed in tune after quite a bit of tremolo use. Impressive! The pickups are fairly vintage voiced and all switches and pots operated smoothly. The finish is beautiful and I can't find any fault at all. Overall, it's an awesome value on a guitar that will be a reliable workhorse for many years to come. I have to thank Sweetwater and my sales engineer, Jim Ridings, for their customer service that's second to none.

This guitar was set up wonderfully and ready to go.
It plays better than I do which makes it kinda hard to put down :)

Thanks also to my sales engineer Kyle , he has helped my buy a couple of guitars from Sweetwater and both experiences were as positive as they could be .

Easy to play, great sound, great customer service at Sweetwater.

Very pleased with the shipping (double boxed) and setup was excellent.

I really love this guitar. It was a gift from my wife, I had a artist Signature Series strat, It was a very nice guitar. It was sold during the 07/08 recession. (Had to feed the babies!) I had a great SKB case that laid empty and I had always told my wife I was going to replace my strat one day. Well, that one day came, I grabbed the case to run to the music store, and it seemed heavy... I opened it and this guitar was inside... OMG! I thought as I plugged in my Fender Twin.... Hummmmm. ZERP.... It was in almost perfect tune... I strummed a couple of chords, hit the button on my looper..... I couldn't put it down. This guitar has great tone. Its a great Value. Its made in "who cares were" planet earth. Seriously in this global economy does it really matter? Tone, playability, value, good looks, quality workmanship... I'm very happy.

I was never a fan of the "feel" of a Strat in my hands. After playing one while a friend tweaked knobs on an amp he was looking at, I found that this was a guitar I could actually get seriously interested in. Another trip to the Sweetwater showroom and I had to have one. I was a bit hesitant about a guitar not built in the US but not any more, this sounds and plays extremely well, and I am seriously considering finding a new home for a Les Paul that I bought a few months ago. Of course the patience of the sales engineers at Sweetwater is also a major bonus of the awesome experience.

This is my third Fender Strat; the other two being a MIM Standard Strat from the mid-90's and a MIA USA Professional from about 2015. This guitar compares favorably to both.

The satin finish on the neck is great, and the figured top is beautiful. Fretwork and setup were both very good right out of the box. The stock pickups are clear and relatively noise-free, delivering the trademark Strat tones.

I replaced the factory pickups with some Lace Sensors, so I had a need to open up the electronics. The shielding on this guitar is much better than on my MIM Standard. Body routes were nice and clean.

On the down side, I've never really liked the stock "modern" tuners on my Fenders and always replace them with locking tuners, as was the case here.

This is my first Fender with the 2-point tremolo, and ti works as expected, but I was disappointed to see that Fender is still using the wonky screw-in arm that never stays where you want it.

This is also my first Pau Ferro fingerboard, and it's fine. I couldn't tell the difference between it and Rosewood by touch. I will note that the fingerboard on my guitar was super dry. It was nothing that a little conditioning didn't fix, but it looked kind of stark compared to the brightly colored/figured body.

In my opinion, the Player Series Strats are the best value currently out there in terms of quality-for-money. If you compare a Mexican Player Series to a Squier, you'll feel the difference immediately. If you compare a Mexican Player series to a USA-made Strat, they feel about the same. I just wish that they still made candy apple red...

I received this guitar without previewing it, Sweetwater had just received them and hadn't posted pics. The fit and finish is very good. The color and the flame on the body are very good also. The flame- not too much, not too little. Just luck but the neck and headstock have a light flame also. Really like the satin neck. The Pau Ferro has nice color and tight grain, well finished as are the frets. One oops, the back cover was missing one screw...I remove that cover anyway. I also don't care for the bridge pickup but I can live with it. All three P/Us have their own unique voice, electronics seem to be of fair quality. The jack nut was a little loose. Sweetwater didn't get to do their checks because I wanted it shipped ASAP. No gig bag but I hate buying guitars and a case and having a bag left over. After about an hour of initial set up and tweaking I'm really impressed with the guitar. it's only going to get better. I believe that these new Players Series guitars are going to be some of the best deals from Fender (or anybody) in a long time. Also, this guitar works with all my amps but truly seems built to play with the Marshall, who knew...
Thanks again Tim Harrington for the excellent service....