The Fender Player Stratocaster brings the classic looks of the iconic Strat at an accessible price. The Fender Player Stratocaster is made in Mexico (like most other MIM Strats) and it’s offered in 3 different colors: Olympic White, Black, Silver, or Charcoal Frost Metallic.
It features a solid alder body covered with a polyurethane gloss finish to give you the traditional tone associated with the early Strats models. It comes loaded with either Vintage Noiseless pickups or Texas Special pickups but you can also get the guitar with HSS configuration if you don’t like them for some reason. For this review, I got my hands on one of their latest silver frost metallic models which sport a C-shaped maple neck sporting 21 medium jumbo frets on a rosewood fingerboard.
The Fender Player Stratocaster also has a vintage-style synchronized tremolo bridge with pop-in trem arm and traditional bent steel saddles, aged plastic parts, modern 9.5″ radius, and 25.5″ scale length. The guitar is available in 4 different colors: black, Olympic white, silver frost metallic (my favorite) and Charcoal Frost Metallic.
As you can see the guitar features 3 single coils but it’s not quite your typical Strat tone – the guitar seems to have its own character which makes it suitable for any type of music including rock, blues or even some more aggressive genres thanks to its relatively low noise level similar to other humbucker equipped guitars.
The guitar comes with a box including all of the usual accessories such as trem arm, strap, cable and some Allen keys. Assembling the guitar is very simple so you won’t have any problems with it – you can check out my video for a quick demo:
You may say that the Player Strat is a “no-frills” instrument but once you plug it in and start playing it you’ll notice that this is not quite an entry-level model because its build quality surpasses many of those beginner models I’ve tried before. It also seems like Fender took care to make this one suitable even for more experienced players (and their wallet) – for example, there wasn’t any fret buzz on the reviewed guitar or poor workmanship on the body and fretboard.
Pros: – good build quality – nice finish – a very affordable price for a MIM Stratocaster compared to other Fender models – great tone
Cons: – none really considering the price point
Conclusion: If you’re looking to get an iconic guitar at an affordable price then take a look at Fender Player Stratocaster. It will deliver a nice vintage tone, very solid build quality and it’s suitable even for more experienced players while being relatively affordable compared to other models from this manufacturer. This is definitely one of the best guitars in this price range.
Pros: – good build quality – nice finish – a very affordable price for a MIM Stratocaster compared to other Fender models – great tone Cons: – none really considering the price point Conclusion: If you’re looking to get an iconic guitar at an affordable price then take a look at Fender Player Stratocaster. It will deliver a nice vintage tone, very solid build quality and it’s suitable even for more experienced players while being relatively affordable compared to other models from this manufacturer. This is definitely one of the best guitars in this price range.
Rating: 8/10 (a 9 would be perfect if it wasn’t for those “aged” plastic parts)
