This Fender Player Plus Stratocaster HSS in Belair Blue weighs 8 lbs 9 oz. The Brand New Player Plus Series from Fender offers player-centric upgrades. With perhaps the most playable neck to come out of the Fender Ensenada Mexico Factory and new Player Series Noiseless Pickups, the Player Plus Strat plays as great as it looks!
Let's start with the neck. It is carved from a single piece of Maple into a Modern C Profile and it has a Pau Ferro fingerboard that carries a 12" fingerboard radius. This flatter than average radius is what is commonly found on Gibson Guitars. It feels fantastic on a Fender and allows for easier big bends than a lower radius. 22 Medium Jumbo Frets offer fantastic playability. With a large string to fret contact point, fretting notes is quite easy, allowing for crisp and articulate sounds. 1.685" nut width is slightly wider than vintage and 25.5" scale length keeps the strings taut and snappy.
The body is made from Alder. This tonewood was introduced in late 1956 and has been the most often used wood for Fender instruments ever since. The guitar is finished in a Brand New Finish for Fender called Belair Burst. This bottoms-up burst is like a breath of fresh air, literally! The cool colors selected for this Blue Gradient Finish blend into one another in a very tasteful yet striking way!
The new Player Series Noiseless Pickups may have lost the annoying 60 cycle hum but they have not lost that Strat mojo! The bridge humbucker pickup offers thick rock tones, early-onset gain, and that sweet humbucker compression. The humbucker in single-coil mode rings with some zing and cuts thru the mix with ease. The middle pickup finds that sweet balance between bright and boomy, while the neck pickup is fat, round, and hollow, perfects for singing leads. Throw in the Push/Pull control on the tone control that splits the humbucker to single-coil mode and you have one guitar that covers some serious sonic ground! A master volume and 2 tone controls offer complete control over this stellar array of single-coil pickups.
The New Player Plus Series from Fender is rewriting the script on what a value-packed guitar looks like. Looks, tone, and playability were at the forefront of this redesign and Fender just crushed it! Killer colors, proprietary noiseless pickups, thoughtful neck specs, and classic looks have me wondering what more could you ask for?
