Fender Limited Edition Player II Series Stratocaster Electric Guitar, Lake Placid Blue

I don't often write a review unless I am thoroughly dissatisfied but felt I needed to say that my Fender Player purchase turned out to be a good move. I build and and mod guitars as a hobby for myself and my friends so I approached this guitar with a critical eye.First thing I did was put some # 10 strings on it, lowered the action and reset the pup heights. Besides being a great looking guitar, this thing plays and sounds great ! I am impressed with it. I could not build this guitar for the price I paid. Couldn't be happier.

It’s a made-in-Mexico strat, but I’ve played a lot of different guitars in my day, and this one is as good as any. I played a couple similar Player Series Stratocasters at Guitar Center and other music shops, and they were fine. But none of them even mentioned placid blue as a color option, and many of the guitars in inventory were dinged, dented, or scratched. And the best price I found was over $700. So I went with the Amazon option, and I am certainly glad I did. The guitar arrived in pristine condition. Not even a hint of a scratch. The fretboard had was fresh, without any signs of wear. A far cry from the ones I saw at guitar center, where greasy haired basement dwellers relentlessly hammer out Free Bird while sprinkling in innumerable “blue notes” hour after hour and day after day with no touch or finesse whatsoever. This guitar is above average quality in construction, boasts that sparkly trademark Stratocaster tone, wrapped in a unique placid blue color that changes hue depending on how the light hits it. And you get all that for less than $650. It’s a no-brainer.

Beautiful guitar! Sounds as expected for a fender. Alas it arrived damaged with several blemishes on the body and most upsetting two stress crack on the neck. it was very poorly packed, I’m referring to the original fender package. For a guitar this expensive you’d think it will be sent maybe padded within a gig bag or just deep padding. There was not a single foam or poly insert in the fender box. Instead, the guitar was just hanging tight at the headstock and base. The likely culprit for the neck crack is either tough bolting of the neck or the guitar was stressed during transport. I’m waiting for a resolution from Adorama.UPDATE: George B. and his team at Adorama have been amazing to work with. After consulting with a local Fender certified repair shop, Adorama issued an appropriate refund and I am happy to keep the guitar as is. It is not known if the cracks will propagate or not, and the Luthier said they cannot repair them. But with the adjustment I can justify keeping such a great Fender guitar.

I was weary of having this Strat delivered by another courier other than Amazon, just knew it would get jolted around and have loose parts... well, I was wrong, the packaging within packaging helped it arrive to my door in top shape. After getting it all unpacked, I was again surprised to how close in tune it was, just an octave down or so and once I tuned it, was already set up (no need for a luthier to fine tune the bridge or adjust the neck...etc) and ready to play. I'm mostly into rock&blues, so I tend to bend the strings a lot and this baby stays right in tune! The frets feel great, unplugged in it has a great tone, but plugged in it has that natural warm fender sound that made the Strat famous. The 5 pos switch works flawlessly between the 3 pickups.... great sound and volume from each. Yes this one is assembled in Mexico, but you won't even think about that while you're playing it, very well assembled, thoroughly tested and inspected with all paperwork, this Strat meets all of Fenders specs for quality. I'm very pleased with this guitar and plan on playing it for years to come!

Overall I'm happy with it. After a much needed setup, it plays really well, and sounds good. The hardware and electronics are good.The finish is mostly good, but there is an obvious touchup where the neck meets the body that was not done well, and is pretty visible. I've attached a picture.I'm a little annoyed at the flaw, and suspect these are factory 2nds, but they are also a bit cheaper than the going price for player series strats.

This color is really amazing. Lake Placid Blue on these guitars certainly looks different in person compared to what you see online.It was slightly out of tune, but only one string. I bought a new mustang lt25 to go with it... great combination. It's just so clean and crisp. The player series pickups are not bad at all and you can't beat this price.

I bought this as a compliment to my Les Paul. I'm happy I did. There was one tiny flaw from the factory. A little bit of tar or resin got under it. I tried to wipe it off but it's under the clear coat. After a moment of disappointment, I realized that it's hidden where I'll never see it ( bottom edge below the plug), and is a unique identifying mark, if anything were to ever happen to it. Everything with Adorama was perfect. Packed well with everything included. The setup was good out of the box too. Idk much about the difference between this and an American, but I used to sell Squires and they're trash by comparison. Well worth the extra $.9 months later:The setup as it came was good enough for me as a beginner, but over time, I intonated it, made a slight truss rod adjustment(i measured it just a little higher than my other guitar which I paid to have setup), put on locking tuners, and installed a Free-way 10 way switch. This thing is a monster now!

Love this guitar! Love the color! I changed the white pickguard to a black one. Changed the pickup coversto black and the knobs to chrome! Changed to Fender locking tuners. This is a sweet guitar now! Playsgreat! Sounds great! Looks great!