Fender's New Player Series - Is It Worth Upgrading? 

It's a STRATegy

Tried the classic vibe and player series in a shop today. I wanted to like the classic vibe for the price, but the second I strummed the player series, I knew I liked it more. Felt more warm and clean...even just the open E string was a major difference with the upgraded pickups.

You're right! I do have respect for Fender for working to get themselves back in the game. The Player series does look pretty promising!

Lots of cool new "affordable" made in Mexico models from Fender this week! Are the new features and colors enough to entice you to upgrade? Any of the new models on your "must buy" list?

I like how from 3:23 onwards you deliver the sickest burn to Fender with a calm voice and a smile.

Of all the thousands of guitar player channels (I've seen them all) this guy is definitely number one. Always great detail and the video quality is so high you can get a good idea of the guitar sounds he demonstrates.

Do it... its a whole different guitar. I did it, and no regrets.

As a direct marketer by trade, I'm a big fan of the naming convention of their new lineup. It's really transparent in who each line is for without making the MIM line, for example, sound like a lesser product. You can get a player's guitar, a professional guitar, or an elite instrument. (Or something Custom higher up the range.) And they all sound like something you might gig with. There was never anything exciting about saying "oh you know, it's just a standard Strat." That said, when people start missing that name they can make even more money bringing back the "American Standard" at some point down the road. Make a big deal of it. Pretty smart, I think.

The new player strat in that metallic green is awfully tempting, 22 frets and a proper trem? I don't have a strat currently, so it seems like a no brainer...

I'm also looking forward to the new Jazzmaster. And I love that Buttercream color especially. I think this was a necessary change for Fender to stay competitive in the lower end market. There are some really great affordable guitars right now. Truly is something for everyone. Thanks for all the great and knowledgeable content.

i was going to buy the standard mim strat a couple days ago, then saw the Player series pop up, but with the price increase i hesitated, slept on it, and decided to stick to the standard, and was again about to pull the trigger when your video came out and totally changed my mind. i had totally missed the 22 fret and 2 point trem upgrades! Thanks for all you do for us. (and in such a classy way)

I really like my MIM Stratocaster. I updated the pickups some time ago to Tex-Mex pickups, wired it to have tone control on the bridge pickup as well, and installed a switch to bring on all the pickups should I choose to. It's hard to beat a proven instrument.

I like the look of the Buttercream colour Strat, white pickguard with maple neck. Looks beautiful. I defo MUST buy this one day!!!! I’m only a beginner at guitar but am developing GAS already for these haha 😂

Great info, Darrell. Your knowledge in this area really helps people in their research. Keep up the great work and God bless.

A Jazzmaster without those weird switches and with humbuckers is not much of a Jazzmaster to me.

I was selling a Charvel and a guy offered me cash + one of these strats in buttercream. I went with it as he was desperate for the Charvel. Anyway, I am glad I did it, I absolutely love it and haven't even upgraded anything yet. I will likely put locking tuners on, but that's probably it. It gets more playtime now than a couple of Wolfgangs and my Musicman Liii, there's just something about it. Highly recommend if you come across one!

They look awesome. I love the new features and can't wait to pick one up! Love the videos bro! Keep it up!

Great video Darrell!!! You just can't go wrong buying used. Any brand any model.

I say hats-off to Fender for the revamp. Marketing-wise, it was smart to release the higher priced models before the new MIM Players and not interrupt that revenue stream. As just a bedroom hacker, I’m not ready to swap out my 2016 MIM Strat for a Player (I too, really like the ceramic pickups), but I think for the person who is looking to upgrade, or start out on a guitar they plan to keep for a while, it’s right in that sweet spot price-wise. Too bad Gibson hasn’t figured this formula out yet. Having an Epiphone just isn’t the same as having a foreign assembled instrument with the Gibson headstock and logo in the minds of our brand-loyal market sadly. Look forward to seeing you put the Player through its paces Man! 🎸🤙🏻

Just recently purchased my Player Series Strat and it is an outstanding sounding guitar. Great upgrades and chose the Buttercream color.

I just aquired one 4 days ago. I am very happy with it. What I noticed: The frets are taller. .050" tall. Mim strats were typically .040/.045 tall. They are finished nicely. I set the neck dead straight and the action is .042 @ the 17th fret! And I havent even cut/polished the nut yet! Nut slots are approx .020. The fret work is much better. The neck pocket is very tight. I dont understand why they used vintage saddles with a modern 2 post trem? The tone pot for bridge is long overdue and a simple mod.[You can see it on my channel] The chrome on the tuner bodies is a bit crappy looking. Either it's a fluke or they're making these guitars better now.

How could they leave out the best two colors for the re-tooled Strats!? Would it kill them to make Daphne Blue and Surf Green standard colors? Why are BOTH finishes associated with "Classic" Strats? Not that my way is correct, but Daphne Blue is my color for my 2 "Modern" Strats. Surf Green does have a "Classic" appeal and does especially fit my '57 AVRI, but both are very popular colors and would fit into the new lineup perfectly. I've have not played the new version, yet (never owned MIM Standard, only '50's Classic Series) but I always thought highly of the Standard Strat. The first one I ever tried was a 2002 and it cemeted my love of Strats, leading to my purchase of my very beautiful Surf Green '57 AVRI 8 years later. I'd love to see an HH Strat in Daphne Blue with a Maple Neck and Floyd Rose.

Darrell always does a fantastic job explaining everything without being super boring or wordy.

Just bought one. Actually really happy with it as well. Player series Stratocaster sunburst 3tone really enjoying it.

I’ve got one on the way. Black on black with a maple fretboard. I’m stoked. Played for 25 years and never had a Stratocaster.

Always loved the At-At in the background! Great videos!

I agree too, the jazzmaster in that colour is so tempting! 😍

Hey Darrell!!! Greetings from Buenos Aires, Argentina!!! I'm a new viewer of the channel and I wanna say thank you for all the information and cool stuff you post here!!! Keep on rockin' buddy!!!!

Have a MIM Standard, and got a Player today. Sound is very different. Much more chime like was pointed out. Oh, and the Ferro feels so nice, I'm loving it.

I was waiting for this video so much, glad you made it!

They look and sound nice. Might be worth considering if I was entering the market for the first time, but I would not pursue the purchase to replace the awesome standard strat I already own. Thanks again for another great video!!

I love my special edition surf green player stratocaster with matching headstock. Absolute beauty guitar. Upgraded to locking tuners and currently having a hot rails installed in the bridge.

I just left Guitar Center hoping to try the new Player Strat. Of course they didn't have it in stock. I thought, oh well it won't be long before Darrell has a review on the series. Checked my phone and there it was. Thanks!

I bought this guitar a few months ago and I’m super impressed. The quality of the guitar is amazing. I’ve been looking hard to find any sort of Mexican model imperfection but the quality is equal to any American made model I’ve seen. As far as sound goes, this thing sounds like a modern American strat model from 2012+. It has that classic bell sound I was after. The middle and bridge pickup together sound amazing!! Like any typical single coil strat it’s missing the beef of a humbucker but I have other guitars that can handle that. Save yourself the $1000 and buy the player series instead of the new American strat.

i bought a polar white player strat and its just an awesome guitar. hands down.

I own 3 Player Plus Top Stratocaster HSS’s and I couldn’t be happier! They are gorgeous! The quality of MIM Fenders has greatly improved over the years almost rivaling American made guitars. I also own 3 other MIM Strats and they are great too! I am no longer a MIM snob!

That guitar looks soooooo cool. Love the candy red with maple neck!

As the Player Strats are all routed HSH, they are a great platform for Lefty’s to mod to get an affordable HSS or HSH Strat. No more paying Custom Shop prices (Fender do not offer left handed HSS nor HSH Strats in their non-custom shop product ranges).

Damn this guy said everything I wished I was thinking. Great video.

This is my first higher end guitar after playing on 5 or 6 cheap one's throughout the years and man I couldn't be happier with it.

I just bought a HSS Players series, put some Suhr pickups and sounds fantastic. But I think is the wood that resonates really well. Fender really got that wood process recipe. No matter what flavor of pickups you choose this guitar will sound very good. Planning to try Xotic 50's pickups and go all single coil.

I was looking into this new line. Thanks for the video! Going to grab something not sure which yet,maybe a tried and true Telecaster.

Been playing my Players series HSS Strat for a year now. Decent guitar , the humbucker sounds good. What i love about Fender Humbuckers is there usually moderate output. not to hot , not to low. the Single Coils on the neck and middle are REALLY chimey and Bright. Also very microphonic. You really got to turn down the tone control knob to get them down alot lower. i would prefer much warmer single coils than the current ones. But overall a great guitar. Stays in tune very well, although when using the whammy bar its comes out of tune unless you're gentle on it, then its not too bad. But i hardly use it anyway.

Can you please compare MIM standard with player series strat with a demo so that pickup gain and tone can be compared

Just ordered a limited edition black top player series strat. It's got the white pick-ups with the white volume and tone knobs, so it looks like the gilmour custom shop strat. Super excited! I've been wanting a new strat for years.

Got one and love it. Had other guitars that were more expensive and more features but this is what I connect with. It's a lifetime companion for me, tried and trusted. If I ever feel like upgrading will just buy a new neck that is roasted with stainless frets and it is the pinaccle at that point. There always will be better guitars such as lighter weight, headless, hollowed out, etc. but just pick what your heart wants at the end.

I just bought a player series a polar white color. It plays amazing it looks amazing. It’s solid just upgrading to locking tuners. I may be some pick up on your good to go.

I got the new stratocaster , buttercream and maple. It is an amazing guitar , sounds and feels fantastic. There's a huge difference between the old and new, both really great , but new is definitely a good move .

They got me. That buttercream HSH strat is joining the family.

Yes they are cool. I just like the new colors the best though. Love the buttercream color and the Sonic red. But, I have my MIM Standard with a swapped out loaded pickguard of SSL1's in Lake Placid blue with rosewood so I'm good. Don't care about the difference in the Fender logo's.

American Standard Trem and Tone on the Bridge pickup is worth getting into the by itself. The MIM guitars are excellent, and with these upgrades they're even better.

I really like that red one you were holding at the start.

Looking back, this was the best guitar in the last year when you consider the price point. I was crazy for the buttercream strat, but the take and jazz master were also nice upgrades.

I bought the HSS Floyd Rose Player Series Strat in white w black pickguard last year in September. I had been wanting another MIM Standard Strat and missed my 1999 Sunburst Strat I had. I always said that if it had 22 frets it would have been my main guitar. When the Player Series came out and I saw the prices were decent I pulled the trigger on mine. I'm happy to say that when I played it the first time I was totally satisfied with it on every level. Stick, it plays and sounds better than just about every Fender Strat I've ever owned or played. No need to swap pickups and the Floyd Rose Special is pretty darn solid and stays in tune better than any other trem I've ever used. Hands down ready to burn straight out of the box. Best guitar purchase I've ever made. Thanks Fender.

I won't lie, I'm tempted. I like the changes and I'm also glad they wired the tone pot to the bridge pickup.

About to be on my 3rd one because of getting defects out of the factory. Biggest problem is neck pocket chips and cracks. Ordering a hss plus top hopefully it Comes in good condition this time. Love these strats. fingers crossed for a flawless one.

Great video. I liked the updated model a lot. I have these improvements in my Fender Strat Deluxe, and they become our lives a lot easier in our gigs.

Is this the first video where Darrell doesn't start with "Hey guys"?

I have a 2015. Mim has strat, “special edition” not sure what that means but that’s my main gigging guitar. It’s legit all I play when I’m out. I carry a backup guitar. Usually my studio but that thing has never gave me any issues. Holds tune, sounds good, it’s light. I love it

Another awesome video!!! Hopefully we will see you actually get to see a demo video of you playing one of the new Player Series!!! Keep on rockin’!!!

This is the first Strat I ever owned that I did not want to replace the bridge pickup. The bridge pick and tone work so well it's a great 'Rock' guitar with the tone at around 7 and a good deal of gain. It sounds great with some gain. Mine has frets .050 tall which is the tallest of any 'non-jumbo' strat I have had. MIM strats always had frets around .040 - .045 which is ridiculously short. These .050 fret's on my player are the only reason I havent broke out my home made fretting technique lol. With that longer/stiffer scale, strats really can use jumbo frets and a bit more radius. That's why SRV used jumbo frets.

I like the new line! That buttercream Strat looks awesome!

One thing i'll miss about the old MIM Standard series is the fact you could go on Musician's Friend and just buy a replacement middle pickup for them if you needed a cheap middle pickup that wouldn't sound too bad for something like a budget build.

There’s a lot of reviews these days on the new player series but i am eagerly waiting for yours to come out which im sure will be the best ones.

Maybe upgrade the tremblock and you're gonna have a perfect strat.

I don't need to upgrade my HSS Player Strat, to me that guitar is more than good enough.

It was explained to me that iconic brands like Gibson and Fender are "bound by history" meaning that they simply cannot evolve. I hear that Fender released a '63 reissue P-bass and added a single string tree..a much needed improvement. The outcry and backlash was fierce and immediate. Sadly, I think the vast majority of brandists do not want a better Strat,Tele, Les Paul and SG. I think they just want the nostalgic connotations from these iconic time pieces..and that's valid...kinda.. Companies like PRS simply took a Les Paul and fixed all the mistakes.. something if done by Gibson, might have got their factories burnt down (in hindsight, that could have been a Godsend to them LOL). Companies like Ibanez took the Strat to new heights and again, if this was initiated by Fender, the Purists would go on a witch hunt! I think these very important and legendary companies find themselves in very difficult terrain and as much as they can rely on their history for future sales, it may also what limits it.

I got the left handed player series P-Bass today and it's a solid instrument. So glad they finally make the p-bass left handed. Would recommend highly to any left handed players out there.

The new Strat also has a dedicated tone pot for the bridge pickup, which I personally think is way huge. I purchased a "Polar White" Strat with maple fretboard and am really enjoying it. Overall I think the totality of all the upgrades more than justifies a $50 increase over the MiM Standards. Just the new pickups alone make it worth it.

I just got a new Player Series HSS Strat. Build quality and finish are absolutely perfect. It plays wonderfully and I haven't pick up any of my other guitars since I got it. The Plus Top finish is beautiful. $679. Tough to beat. Very happy with it.

I'd love one in sage green but with a maple board but the red and sage have horrible ferro boards. Neck feels wider, block saddles be much better on the bridge.

I've got a mim standard and a mim player, quite different guitars love them both. The Player is white on white and the Standard is black on black 🤠

I'm glad that I haven't been able to afford a fender strat up until now hopefully the years of waiting paid off. I ordered the butter cream maple strat this morning and can't wait!

All your reviews are so well done. Excellent, thank you.

I bought one and I gotta say I'm impressed and very satisfied with my purchase. Quality went way up.

imo good vid on good news for Fenderheads. The Jazzmaster is my all-time favorite Fender, so glad to see the current edition. The rebrad seems pretty good. imo

You hit the nail on the head with the comment about the strange mix of vintage and modern features of the the previous MIM Standard Strat. Seems like this rebrand alleviates that somewhat. Even the pickup selection seems more "vintage" to go from ceramic to alnico, I just think it gives more people access to that classic strat tone. Of course there are good ceramics and bad alnicos, but I'm sure these will be quality given how good (if not super "stratty") the old ceramics were. I ust bought a new strat last month but I'd most certainly be considering this range if I hadn't! Love the content DB!

I played an new Strat today not knowing it was new. It felt comfortable and sounded brighter than I was expecting. I could tell the pickups were different and the frets felt better too. Didn't notice the extra fret but the paint was amazing. It was yellow with a white pickguard and maple fretboard. The tones were more expressive than the Mex Standards I've played...much like the Eric Johnson Strats. Price wasn't high enough to dissuade me should I be in the market anytime soon.

I'm mostly a Gibson player, but I just picked up a 2020 HSS Player's Strat in red. It plays and sounds like a Fender should. The pickups (even the Humbucker) sound really good, and after a good set-up, it's every bit as good as my friend's American Strat $$$. And I got it (used) for $300. No complaints here!

I got a Player Tele last week and I would not change a thing. I'm as happy as Larry.

For $150 more you could grab an ML-1 Traditional Pro which ticks all the boxes at the end. Pop-in bar, stainless frets, locking tuners, recessed heel, and rolled edges. Food for thought

I love Tele's but have never really been a Strat fan, but the polar white Strat is just that damn gorgeous that I brought one yesterday.

I’ve had the fender American nitro satin Strat since 2014, and it’s still my dream guitar. Just feels aged lately, since it hasn’t caught much of a break in the last 6 years. Bur it’s a Beauty

Nice presentation Darrell! I personally love the new Player Teles and wish I could get one!

Love your videos so much and I know it's a slim chance that you're going to catch a comment from a two year old video but I am dying to know what guitar that is at you 10 O'clock. And if you have any videos of you playing it.

Thanks for this nice video. You mention that lots of competitors offer more for the same amount of money, but which competitors do you have in mind? Which ones would you recommend?

I ordered a Strat. I like the upgrades, 22 frets, two point trem, and the tone control wired to the bridge pickup. I suppose Fender had to do something to make the Mex Standard sell for $649. Wasn't the previous Standard up to $599 anyway? I remember the price jump across the board over the last year or so.

Thank you! Great review for someone like me who is considering a new Stratocaster purchase.

Thanks for the concise update. If you don't have a strat and need a strat this would be a great way to go. Fender risks cannibalizing itself with this upgrade. My favorite MIM strat is my Jimmy Ray Vaughan signature model looks and plays great.

Until they either up their fretwork QC a considerable amount or at the very least loose the 9.5" radius for something flater I've just accepted that I won't be able to find one that will be able to get a low enough action without notes choking out or buzzing. The 9.5" maybe more modern in comparison to 7.25", but every MIM fender I have ever owned and played has choked out with what I would consider a medium action, and I play with a much lower action than that. It's frustrating.

Finally, they upgraded to the 2-point trem! But not fixing the screw on arm was a missed opportunity. And they added a tone control to the bridge pickup, which might be a huge selling point alone.

I has an old MIM Powerhouse, bought an American Standard...and the American sounded terrible so I sold it! I wish they made more variants of the Powerhouse. The 122 dB boost really gives it depth of sound.

All those features you mentioned towards the end Fender are going to have to give them a some point to keep up like you say. I haven't looked but are these upgradable in the custom shop? SS frets ect.

Fender knocked it out of the park with the player series! I actually really want one.

Well I did just order a new players series strat. I went with gas although I will still change the bridge pickup for starters. Probably a jb. I got white with rosewood. I'll put black covers on the single coils and a black jb in the bridge.

I was more interested in the tele line, they did the 6 bent steel saddles, 22 fret thing and some new colors, vintage logo. That's about it I still haven't found out the body wood. Poplar, Agathist, basswood???

Best explanation of the MIM line rebrand/upgrade. Not quite convinced about the price increase being that it was just a couple of years ago they increased the price $100 ($499 to $599). Affordable is starting to get up there. Will the Squire line become the new affordable line?

Really good review, buddy. You are one of the best imo.

I’ll keep my 2001 am std strat. I used to hate that guitar because of its SSS configuration. But, after changing all those pickups to humbucker, it becomes a beautiful instrument. I have tried am pro strat and I love it. The new neck shape, unpainted neck, and tall fret are wonderful. It makes me want to own another strat someday.

Got a "Player series" P bass on the way! Watched and read a handful of reviews before buying; and all in all the response was very positive. Looking forward to getting it!!