Review: Fender Player Plus Stratocaster

Although it was a long time ago, I vividly remember the day I went to the local music store with a stash of hard-earned pocket money to buy my first Fender. Bringing that charcoal American Strat home was a proud moment and I treasured that guitar like it was made of gold. 

Nowadays, that ‘first Fender’ feeling isn’t as distant as it seemed to be years ago to a young guitarist full of passion and enthusiasm and much less full of cash. Fender’s Player Series sold like crazy and proved a fantastic entry point into the world of Fender instruments at an irresistible price point.

Fender now launches the Player Plus Series. It’s a lineup of seven Mexican-made electric guitars and basses with a raft of updated and improved features over the Player Series. Luckily we got a chance to write a Fender Player Plus review before the product’s official launch date. 

MAKE AN IMPRESSION

Looks are important. Right out of the bag, the Stratocaster we were sent looks absolutely gorgeous. The Player Plus series introduces a handful of never before seen finishes including a coppery Aged Candy Apple Red, the mysterious Silver Smoke gradient, and the head turning finish on this Strat model, Tequila Sunrise. 

Since the Series is called Player Plus, you’re right to expect additional features over the Player series. One unmissable distinction is the inclusion of Noiseless pickups. Single coil hum is a headache, let’s be honest. I love that these Noiseless pickups maintain every ounce of glassy Strat authenticity but without the hum. It’s really a win/win. 

Locking tuners secure each string in the threading hole – a feature that vastly simplifies string changes.

The neck is the classic C shape with a 12-inch radius, 22 medium jumbo frets and a 1.6875-inch nut width; super comfy and just the right amount of girth. The Player Plus Stratocaster I received for review has a one-piece maple neck while other Player Plus varieties come with a rosewood fingerboard. A more subtle detail is the rolled fret edges which not only protect your fingers and thumb from being grazed as you slide up and down the neck, but it instantly has that nice worn-in feeling. 

A feature I enjoyed more than expected on this triple singe coil Strat is the push/pull bridge tone knob. Pulling it up combines the bridge and neck pickups for a quacky tone on positions 1 and 2 that ends up sounding like a mixture of positions 2 and 4 on a traditional Strat.