Fender Player II Advanced Stratocaster HSS HT Limited-Edition Electric Guitar Arctic White

This is the best Fender Strat I've had. I recently sold an Ultra II Strat that was a killer guitar but I hated the pickups and I didn't want to start modifying it. These SD pickups are miles better and honestly this guitar plays and feels just as good as my Ultra II did... for over a thousand dollars less. I also much prefer the hardtail. The locking tuners make string change a a snap. The only thing bad I can say about this guitar is that Fender did not split the coil on the humbucker in position 2. No excuse for that in my opinion. Position 2 sounds crappy (in my opinion) with the full humbucker. Fairly easy fix though: I installed a "super strat 5-way switch" and wired it to properly split in position 2. Now it is perfect. As I said, best strat I've had (I've had probably ten or so over the years).

This is one of those guitars that pretty much sold itself, Duncan pups, ebony fingerboard, locking tuners and a HARDTAIL!! Love satin finishes and this blue with black hardware just looks awesome. Plays excellent, sounds killer, rolled frets, silky smooth neck. Just had to set it up with my preferred 9-42 and Eb tuning and was ready to shred!!

First one failed within a couple of weeks, no sound from the bridge PU. Exchanged for another but had noticeable paint and finish issues when I inspected at home. Kinda sucks but still a solid guitar. Ebony fretboard feels great.

Perfect feature set for a hard tail with the string thru body and locking tuners. The satin finishes feel very nice. The markerless ebony fretboard has a vibe.

I was really excited to see this offering from Fender as it's basically exactly what I was looking for. I happen to be a sucker for Daphne Blue so it was obvious I needed to purchase one of these. It sounded great and I think the fit and finish was 'ok'. Once I got mine home I noticed a crack starting at the bottom (upper register) of the neck and then that drew my attention to micro-cracks going up a few frets. Sure it's fixable but this is a brand new instrument so I intended to swap it out for another one. There were 5 other examples (including white) available to me and all of them had the same issue; some better and some worse. I've heard that ebony is more likely to crack for that reason than other alternatives. I noticed other ebony fretboards, even other Fenders (Ultra II) were dry but not to the point of cracking. Not sure what happened here. If you're a fit and finish stickler, be careful. If that sort of thing doesn't bother you, this is a great, modern option in the Stratocaster lineup.