2021 Fender Player Stratocaster Limited Edition Surf Pearl

The Player is a decent modern Stratocaster...

...provided you can find a good example of one such as I did.

It's worth it to hunt for a good one of these.

Maybe you'll get lucky and get a great one on the first try. Or you may have to do what I did and try several before you find one that doesn't have any issues with it.

If it's a Stratocaster you want, and you want it made by Fender, be willing to try a few of these before committing to a purchase.

When you find one of these that's sorted properly, the feel, playability and sound is all there. It's "all Fender," as it should be.

Is Mexico making a better Stratocaster these days?

Yes and no.

No, in the respect I had to try five of these before finding one without a nut slot issue.

Yes, in the respect you get better color choices and "more normal" electronics and pickups.

I'm going to directly compare the SSS (meaning not HSS) Player vs. American Pro II, starting with colors.

Colors

(M next to the color means maple fingerboard only, P means pau ferro fingerboard only, R means rosewood fingerboard only, MP means choice of maple or pau ferro fingerboard, MR means choice of maple or rosewood fingerboard.)

Player: 3-Color Sunburst (MP), Black (MP), Tidepool (M), Polar White (MP), Buttercream (M), Capri Orange (M), Silver (P)

American Pro II: 3-Color Sunburst (MR), Olympic White (MR), Mystic Surf Green (MR), Miami Blue (MR), Mercury (R), Dark Night (MR), Roasted Pine (MR), Black (M), Sienna Sunburst (M)

The Player, while having fewer color choices, does have the better color options.

Pickups and Electronics

The Player has alnico 5 magnet pickups that I best describe as "the most normal." They have a reliable and predictable sound to them, with the only real (and very welcome) change being there is tone control wired to the bridge pickup.

The Am Pro II has V-Mod II pickups. V-Mod means "vintage + modern" and this is the second generation of them. It is Fender's attempt at getting the best blend of vintage and modern tones in a pickup set. V-Mod II pickup magnet configuration is as follows: Front side neck pickup has alnico 2 magnets on the bass side and alnico 3 on the treble side. Middle pickup has alnico 5 on the bass side and alnico 2 on the treble side. Rear side bridge pickup is all alnico 5.

Only one complication exists for the V-Mod II, and that's the push-push tone control that adds in the front neck side pickup on selector positions 1 and 2.

V-Mod II tone is decent, but it's the push-push to add in the front neck side pickup that gives the Am Pro II the advantage over the Player - if the two tone types added in are of any use to you.

For some players, the Am Pro II is the dream Stratocaster they've been waiting for because of that push-push. Now they finally have a Strat where in addition to the regular 5 positions, bridge+neck is now there for Telecaster-like twang, and bridge+middle+neck is also there for a "fuller 2."

However, if all you want is a regular Strat with regular pickups (meaning no fancy dan pickup magnet mixing) along with tone control wired to the rear bridge pickup, then the Player is the better option.

Longevity considerations

In the end, the Player model isn't necessarily any better than the American Pro II, but I do believe it will age much more gracefully. The Player as it gets older will age just like any Stratocaster does. As for the Am Pro II, absolutely nobody knows (because it's still far too new) how those mixed-magnet pickups will age or whether that push-push will stand the test of time or fail quickly.

I'll just say that had I bought the Am Pro II instead of the Player, the first thing I would do is buy a replacement push-push switch - even if that meant I had to call Fender directly just to get one.

A push-push potentiometer looks something like this:

The price of this one isn't exactly cheap, nor are others. Why? It's a very nonstandard type of potentiometer for a guitar. This thing is long because of the switching mechanism. Is this the one Fender uses? I have no idea, hence the reason I would ring Fender up to get exactly the correct potentiometer they use in production Am Pro II Stratocaster guitars.

I know that switch will be the first thing that fails on that guitar, so I'd buy one and keep it in storage until needed. And it has to be a "Genuine Fender" part just to ensure the stupid thing will fit in the guitar correctly. The cost would be ridiculous, like $25 or so (which is a lot for one potentiometer,) but I'd buy it anyway just to make very certain I'd have a replacement ready for the #1 thing to fail on the guitar first.

Published 2021 Aug 26