A fellow lefty just shared this Reddit post on Basschat.co.uk:
Quote:
[DISCUSSION] Do NOT order the new Fender Player Series guitars, especially not online.
EDIT: By popular request, I took pictures of the nut slots of the remaining 6 guitars we have with issues. We have 22 total after sending 12 on their way back to Fender. Check the album here: https://imgur.com/a/MYiboYV
Let me introduce myself. I work in one of the largest guitar stores in the Southeast, and so I have access to a lot of products before they're officially slated to be released. Nothing was different about the new Fender Player series, slated to launch tomorrow 6/19, which I got a week and a half early. I feel the need to put out a PSA advising everyone to not order one at all or at least go to a store if you're dead set on it, but there are reasons why you shouldn't buy one, even if you like it. I'll go over them below.
Preface
The Fender Player series is the successor to the Mexican Standard series. Fender got tired of people asking about the difference between the American and Mexican Standards, so Fender abolished the former in favor of the American Professional series and the latter in favor of the new Player series. Keep that in mind as you read this.
Nut slots
You know how everyone has been ragging on Gibson for not cutting their nut slots right sometimes? Well, the Player series is making Gibson look like saints. We have 34 guitars out of that series, and 18 of them have incorrectly slotted nuts. String spacing seems to be the most common issue - strings too far apart (causing another pair of strings to be too close together).
Fret ends
Every single one of the 34 we have has sharp fret ends. One of our techs actually cut his finger a bit while moving up the fretboard. We're currently in talks with Fender to have them pay us in credit to fix that issue on all of them. When you pick up a new Player series, be sure to check that out. It seems like they rushed QC to get these guitars out fast.
Downgraded electronics
The new pickups are alright, but the problem is that Fender switched to cheap Chinese pots instead of the CTS pots they were using before. It's noticeable, too - the volume taper isn't as smooth, and a few of them out of our 34 plainly refused to work. This makes the new pickups they designed almost inconsequential.
Price
The real kicker in all of this is the price. Player series Strats and Teles are more expensive than the Mexican Standards they replaced - the new ones are $675 street versus $600 street on the old Standards, even with the downgraded electronics.
Conclusion
I'm not ordering you to not buy them, but I'm advising you to explore other, more economical options instead of these. The problems these have been having and the scale on which they've been happening make them a risky buy, especially if you're ordering online. You're pretty much guaranteed to get sharp fret ends, a 50/50 coin flip on the nut slots being cut correctly, and a slight but still possible chance that some of the electronics won't work when you receive it.
If you have to, please try one out in a store. You might find a good one. But there are too many bad ones to take a risk, in my opinion.
Thanks for reading.
