I would like to clarify that I am not saying that all those guitars are bad. It is just that for such money I expect that I am not playing roulette but rather I get a better or worse made INSTRUMENT TO PLAY, not a semi-finished product for further processing. Especially since for 1/3 of the price you can find guitars without such glaring shortcomings. >Subscribe: www.youtube.com/@bazokguitar?sub_confirmation=1 >Fender Player II Strat: redir.love/zrD8swnq >FGN Boundary: redir.love/maPElpg1 >Larry Carlton S7: redir.love/iYg0tpJt >Harley Benton ST62: redir.love/mUs3rCgR
Remember when Fender discontinued the Squier ProTone series because it was cutting into MIM Standard sales? Now they're trying to undercut CV sales with an inferior Standard at 30% higher price
I have a Player II and I have the opposite opinion... the tuning is excellent, the edges are knocked down, there are no sharp frets, the sound is good, all in all the guitar is excellent.
I just bought one in November. It's exactly as he says. Maybe yours is older. I heard they were awesome years ago which is why i wanted one. Although I'm disappointed I'll put it on the bench and keep it but lesson learned.
@@KnuckleheadStueyPlayer II literally came out around Q3 or Q4 last year so your speculation is inaccurate. People get lemons. That’s what happens when you’re producing thousands of pieces of product on the daily. Doesn’t mean that every Player II is garbage.
this is still disappointing, top guitar company gives crap in lottery. and its not the cheapest guitar, i agree that itsalso not expensive, but still...disappointing
Absolute shocking,,what’s seriously wrong with fender ,you feel they would protect their brand as high quality no matter the price range ..my favourite guitar right now is a cheap Harley Benton ST-Modern plus ,a true jewel for the price 🙂
Lifestyle brand whenever they start selling merchandise of any kind with their logos on it, they forget about what made them a household name no one is going to give a bad review of their tee shirts lol
Fender and quality have never been the best of friends Years ago i decided i wanted a USA Strat, then the fun began despite trying as many as i could find they all had issues. I bought the best sample that was free of blemishes then asked a good luthier to do a full setup. This transformed the guitar, but it made it more expensive. Now they have intruduced a new Stndard Strat made in Indonesia, from what i had seen they are dire why pay more than a Squire CV for a worse guitar ?
I've tried $10,000 guitars that had issues and needed setting up, I've played les Paul's that would not stay in tune, there were ways to adjust and fix that, the stratocaster is the best and most famous electric guitar on the planet, for some reason fender didn't behave the way you want them too and it made you angry,sorry..probably the nicest strat copies I've tried were pensa suhr, but hey, they're just a copy
Cheap hardware? The hardware is the same as the American series lol. I've seen problems with tuning on the American series too. I think everything needs improved, not just the player series
What do you mean it doesn't deserve it? Bullshit..they are made in the Cort facility in Indonesia Cort has always been known for their professional quality builds and since 1973..stop spreading bullshit..
I completely agree.Just before Christmas,I bought a fender player plus,as I was curious as to what players saw in them,as I already had a sire s7,several Harley Benton’s,and a Jet js400.when the fender had arrived,I went to collect it the following day,to be told by the shop,that it would have to be returned to fendermdue to issues. It had serious fret buzz,sharp fret ends,and a badly cut nut,so I left it there.2 days later,I received a phone call to say it was all sorted,and ready to collect.slightly confused,I again went to see what was what,to be told that he decided not to return it,but to have a well known,and very good luthier,to sort out the issues,which he certainly did do. Nowmthe guitar is how it should have been,when it had left fender, Would I buy another?No…the sire S7V I have,is a better instrument all round,and at almost half the cost.
Tuning issues are caused by not lubricating the nut and hardware. A little Nut Sauce and the problem is solved. Strange noises and creaking at the nut can occur even on a Custom Shop guitar if it’s not lubricated. Of course, with a Mexican Fender, you need to set up the guitar properly. Another thing-yes, Mexican Fenders have poor fretwork. Decent fret material is only used by the Custom Shop, while both American and Mexican Fenders have lower-quality frets, so replacement is necessary sooner or later. Mexican Fenders also have subpar hardware; replacing the zinc tremolo block with a steel one improves tone and sustain by 100%. They’re not bad instruments, but they’re only good for a short time if you don’t have the money and are a beginner. If you get a good piece and invest in hardware, electronics, and frets, you can have a decent instrument. But in the end, it’s up to the player to decide whether it’s worth the investment.
@@bazokguitar I think it’s unfair to compare this. People don’t complain as much about Asian guitars because they either expect flaws or accept them as normal. But if you compare many manufacturing processes-lacquering, drying times, wood quality, etc.-Fender operates on a completely different level. Pots and switches last for years, and the tuning machines don’t need to be replaced. But components that affect tone do. I want to be able to buy a higher-quality instrument, not one that’s made to compete with Asian manufacturers. That kind of competition could lead to improvements in some areas while making the instrument worse in others. However, it’s fair to say that Fender has weak quality control-inconsistent neck pocket fit, poor fretwork, and bad geometry. These are real issues that should be addressed. These problems exist in both the Mexican and American factories in recent years, despite the fact that many of Fender’s recent innovations and products have been great.
You can work most of the issues out on your own, that's true. And it would be the perfect solution...if the guitar was $150, like my SX strat that I worked on for one evening and it plays beautifully now. For $800 with quality control signatures and a big brand logo on the headstock? Nah, man. You can and should do better for this kind of price these days.
I know a lot of people expect a perfect guitar out of the box but the truth is that many of them will need a thorough setup and some tweaking. Sharp edges and tremolo issue aside, the guitar sounds great but it may need an intonation adjustment.
i noticed the same things abou them went to guitar center and picked up a bunch and the quality control was all over the map for them. some had sharp frets, some didnt, lots of terrible looking nuts.
My Player II Tele feels and sounds great. I did spend time at my local shop testing a few of them out and picked the one that felt the best, so I'd say just go to a shop and play them if you can. Sounds like you got a lemon.
Budget guitar companies are putting out some really good guitars at lower price points and Fender is struggling and destroying their brand name by putting out low quality guitars at higher prices than competitors.
Not at all. I borrowed the amp to make fair comparison with vox, boss, marshall from same price range. After making the video i was asked to change my mind, because my mustang gt40 review was too honest 🥸 i refused. Disgusting company.
Well said mate! 😎👌 This was exactly my experience with the Fender Player ii. The example I tried also had the strings binding in the poorly cut nut. But I do still love the pickups. and same as You... I've gone from Fender Fan boy, to... yeah pretty close to a hater in the past few years 😬 I'd also recommend Jet Guitars. Their JS300 is the kind of Strat Fender should be putting out. JS400 is even better (imo) Great vid - cheers! 😀👍
Looks like Fender is bad at every price point. Fender recently introduced the Standard Series made in Indonesia so that we have a bad guitar at $600 price point.
I bought a Player Series Tele and it was superb. I bought a Player Series Strat and it only had one issue: fret buzz on one fret that affected primarily the A string. I only sold it because it didn't sound much different from my Hendrix Monterey Strat. I bought the Player Plus Series Strat and it has been nothing short of incredible. The rolled fretboard edges are smooth as silk and the new-at-the-time Alnico V 'Vintage Noiseless' pickups are magnificent. Plus, the S-1 switch where you can combine the neck and bridge pickups is a great option. Oh, and it has locking tuners.
the best strats in the world right now are the ones made in the cort factory in indonésia (best QC of any guitar factory in the planet). A squier sonic hss in coral for 160€ in europe is probably one of the best strats ever made. The output from mexico, trumpland and china is much much poor quality, and the output from the land of the rising sun is on par with indonésia. Just go out and buy a sonic strat from indonésia. Leo Fender and Freddie Tavares would be proud!!!
@@019bc3I love the lightness and resonance of the guitar. The 40mm thickness from the Internacional Metric System should became the norm for electric guitar bodies, and not the trumpland 1940/50s 2inch (45mm). "How much is 2 inches in mm? No one knows. 😆"
After playing a few player 2 strats in a shop, the biggest dislike I have is that the rosewood neck feels and is thinner than on the player 1 pau ferro neck, which is a big minus and turn-off for me and secondly most of the player 2 strats are too heavy otherwise I would've purchased one already because I like the player series guitars in general 😊
My brand new Player Tele direct from Fender had a bad output jack right out of the box. It was damaged beyond repair couldn't even plug in. The jack had to be replaced before the guitar could be played through an amp. I only buy used now. They usually have issues sorted or at least you can get it for the right price and sort issues yourself.
I purchased a 2025 Fender Standard Stratocaster HSS just the other day. Yep, they've gotten so-so reviews so I thought, for $500 (discount at my local store) they must be good. Whenever something gets bad reviews I like to grab one to see what the fuss is all about. I've been playing guitar semi-pro for about 50 years and have been through every manner of Fender guitar. Out of the box it needed very little set up. The neck is perfect. A little wide, but frets are rolled and there are no sharp fret ends. Like every Strat ever made it has tuning stability issues. I don't think I've ever bought a Strat that doesn't, and every Strat I've ever bought gets lockers automatically unless it's my JV Modified Tele which comes with excellent lockers. Sound wise the HSS configuration is very cool. That bridge pickup really snarls. The finish is Black and the paint is even and glossy. One thing I really like is the neck being matte finish. That coupled with the profile makes for a really comfortable ride. Having played it nonstop for the last week I really can't find anything bad about it. It's certainly the same if not slightly better than the Classic Vibe I have, and the thing is, the Player is now priced too high. So it makes sense that Fender brought out a Fender branded Standard that is at a decent price point. I wouldn't pay more, but at $500 ($599) you really can't go wrong. I've owned way worse Strats that are far more expensive. This guitar has some heft to it making it a solid player, and overall feels like a quality Strat. And the fact it's made in Indonesia doesn't bother me at all. Fender does a decent job of QC in all their factories, and the Indonesian plant is no exception. I recommend this, would gig without a backup, but like almost every Strat, you have to take steps to stabilize the tuning if you're going to use the tremolo. Just a fact of Fender life. And $59 for a set of Fender lockers is a better investment than paying $900 for a player and having to put lockers on it anyway.
An honest man on You Tube! How refreshing! Thank you Sir! My Indonesian made Squre 40th Anniversary strat was crap, nut almost cut my hand, frets super sharp, neck needed tweaking, after a day of fixing all that I plugged it in and shazam a tin machine, sounded shit. My Chinese made 2014 60th Anniversary Squire Strat is made flawless, sounds superb and way better guitar all the way around.
In my experience, Fender, Gibson, and Epiphone are hit or miss on quality control and features. Oddly enough, I have never had a problem with Squiers. They play great, sound great, and look great. If you want consistent performance out of the box every time then PRS SE, Gretsch, Yamaha, G&L Tributes, and Guild are for you. Those are the ones that I have tried but I’ve heard good things about Eart, Sire, Jet, Harley Benton, Fesley, and Fojill. Additionally, I have bought a few Firefly’s and they have been pretty good with some occasional minor setup and cosmetic issues.
The stores that have the original player series are selling them at a discount now ($600) and you can get a used one for even less. Brands like Sire are not going to hold value, and adding aftermarket pickups makes it the same price as an original player series. At $800 Fender Mexico would be a better purchase than an Indonesian PRS.
Harley Benton, Jet, Sire, Ibanez, Schecter - there are so many other brands who make much better instruments for less money. Even Squier is better at this point. I hate the phrase "for the money", but this is definitely very bad for the money.
I returned my first Player Strat - it could've been made by people under great pressure to rush it out - with a quick and meaningless squiggle on the QC card. I think Fender is over-priced, not just because of the logo, but also because of the cost of poor quality and retailers having to cover that cost as well as make a profit. I now have another Strat, and after a few upgrades kept it.
I have no idea what you talking about. The play ii strat i have is amazing. Perfect smooth fret work and awesome neck. Significantly improved from play 1. You might just get the defeated copy.
I'm glad your piece is fine. I would like to clarify that I am not saying that all those guitars are bad. It is just that for such money I expect that I am not playing roulette but rather I get a better or worse made INSTRUMENT TO PLAY, not a semi-finished product for further processing. Especially since for 1/3 of the price you can find guitars without such glaring shortcomings.
I've heard of plenty of people doing post purchase mods, tweeks and finish refinements on cheap guitars. But if you find yourself needing to address a whole catalogue of quality issues as well as needing to perform a basic setup out of the box, then I think you'd be rightly wondering if you've been seen off with something counterfeit. I mean, sharp and unfinished fret ends on a new and Branded guitar? Yes, occasionally it happens, even with expensive guits, sometimes the frets need reseating because the wood has either slightly expanded or contracted. But when it's an obvious QC issue then it puts a whole different meaning on the term "shredding".
I just purchased my first Fender, a player II, in November. Sharpest frets out if the box out of any of my 15 guitars. About a week earlier i picked up my first PRS SE and it was immaculate out if the box, it was even in tune which is a first for me. Fender was a total let down. I just picked up a new Donner strat last week for $70 shipped. The frets were way smoother than the Fender. How is that even possible? I'd buy another PRS. Heck I'd buy another Donner. I won't ever be buying another Fender. I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed this.
In the late 90's and early 2000's I recall picking up a lot of MIM Fender Standards that had razor sharp fret ends. They improved but it took awhile. I thought this was going to be about the new Indonesian Standard series, but no.
Good review. Your comment about the nut is interesting. I bought a player series telecaster a few years ago and nut string spacing and heights were terrible.
Thanks for the honest review; a breath of fresh air compared to all the other youtubers shilling for the corporations. You should try an American Vintage II; for over 2 grand they are worse than the player II; the fretboards are splotchy dye jobs and the e-strings fall off the fretboard above the 12th fret. Horrible junk.
Good video man. The last Fender I bought was in 2012. I Ordered it MIM Nashville Telecaster. It was junk. The nut was cut so low the strings touched the first fret, the bridge plate didn't cover the cavity, pickups didn't come close to a real Tele sound, the finish was flawed and wrong color. Fender would not honor their warranty, they said it was within specs. I'll never buy another Fender product.
Fender instruments are not bad by any means but when you compare the quality of their products with other manufacturers, I can't help but feel 35% to 50% of their prices come from just having the name on the headstock.
I haven’t tried out any guitars since 2018. No need, since I’ve got a 2001 MIM Fender Nash Deluxe and an Epi 335. No need to get anything else, since both are awesome. (Of course, I have no disposable income anymore either, but that one’s on Biden.)
I've never bought a Fender Strat, and my first Strat-like guitars were Yamaha. My friends with Fenders always assured me that I wasn't missing anything. When I finally had the money to buy a Fender, I went to my local Guitar Center and played many options they had at the store, but none of the Fender Strats they had convinced me. I returned every other month to check the new arrivals for almost a year, but nothing. These guitars weren't worth it. One day, they had a Sire S7; what a great guitar! The setup was horrible, but you can tell it was a superior guitar, it just needed a good setup. To have this level of quality in a Fender, you'll pay more than a thousand dollars. The guitar had a little dent, and they knocked off 20% of the price! It was a little over $500. After a while, I swapped the bridge and neck pickups for Seymour Duncan, and it's one of my favorite guitars. I'm a humbucker guy, but you always need an SSS strat in your arsenal.
So you got one bad guitar which happens in even $2k plus guitars. My player 1 strat was pretty much flawless besides a bit of lacquer on the frets. Stays in tune perfectly wven with heavy tremelo use, no sharp frets at all, nut cut great. After 4 years of owning it all ive done is change the string tree. Ive been playing 20+ years and no problem gigging with mine.
You could purchase a Jet guitar JS300 or JS380 (nicer on many details) and you'll be satisfied on evey point you've mentionned here. I had three Harley Bentons but now I have three Jet guitars (JS400 for 170 euros, JS300 for 205 euros and JS380 for 287 euros stock B with few work to do on the bone nut) and the pleasure to put my hands on these necks is a blast!
For once an honest review. Thank you 👍. Tired of watching gear reviews and being told this sounds great, when you can clearly hear that it actually sounds shit. And €800 for that is a disgrace.
I got a new Fender player 2 Tele and it had the same Horrible nut and string buzz, somehow both Fender and Sweetwater sold me this. So, they did offer to reimburse me $90 towards the repair. Had to take it to some stranger and he had it for 2 weeks, then I had to pay him and wait for Sweetwater to pay me back. It's a pretty good guitar now, but for the price, this is ridiculous. How it passed 2 inspections is ridiculous. Also, what about my new guitar experience that other people get? I'm paying for that also, not a buzzing guitar. I would go to a physical guitar shop if you want this model, and thoroughly check it out. At the time, I would have rather paid a little more to get one that someone put their heart into/ a company that doesn't let this happen. I wouldn't put my name on something like that. 2 of the 3 guitars I bought from Sweetwater had serious issues.
I ordered a player II and set it up myself. No fret issues on mine and it sounds good. The current pickups they are using are not my favorite strat pickups but they do sound really clean.
And if anyone thinks im just a Fender stan, its the only Fender i have. My other guitars are a Guild, a Gibson, a Solar, an Ibanez, and a Mr. Frankie (dont ask). Just happened to get a very nice Player II!
It's really disappointing that they try and narrate peoples reviews of their products. Also disappointing that no one is talking about that down here in the comments. People really have become comfortable with dishonesty.
the only mexican fender i have is a player plus nashville tele and it’s actually pretty damn good. i don’t know how much of a difference there is between the two besides probably locking tuners and the pickups and maybe the neck radius. but it’s good enough i’d gig with it
So I went to local dealer (Serbia) yesterday to buy this guitar. The guy that works at the shop went to basement (shop's warehouse) and brought factory sealed box and opened it in front of me and gave me guitar to try. And it was a DISASTER, guitar was never tuned or set up - pickups were crooked, back cover was severely deformed, intonation, action, everything was total crap. Also switch felt super cheap and broken... Sound of the guitar was really good, but I'm not gonna buy 900 EUR guitar that needs fixing and replacing parts. Really disappointing!
I currently own 7 Fender guitars. 1 is a USA Custom Shop, 2 are Japanese, 1 is Korean and the rest are Made in Mexico. None of them are labeled "Ensenada" like the current iterations are and they're far better this this example. I would have sent it back and said try again. I'd have blue taped marked where all the flaws are. It's ridiculous that this is where Fender is heading.
"The displeasure of working with working with them" 🤣....... You're a fkn legend! Subscribed! To be fair, My US Standard from 2010 and my AV 2 are amazing!
sharp edges are not directly their fault in my opinion but have to with wet/dry wood, season changes and air humidity. But of course it's their fault using wood that has grown to fast an dried to fast that makes the wood shrinking different than wood tha has been grown slow and stored for longer time before using.
Is the nut made of bone or plastic? I don't know why companies try to save money using shit plastic nuts. Schecter and other companies ship mid price guitars with graphtec nuts! Fender probably have bone nuts just lying around their factories in piles.
These days Fender just wants you to buy a custom shop for 5-6-7 grand or even more which is outrageous ( even if it’s one of their so called Master~Builds lol ). I bought an American Professional Telecaster new roughly five years ago and it was nice…..sure. However I just purchase amazing bodies and necks from Warmoth now and they’ll have comfort carves and a plethora of options to customize it any way you like. Nice, honest video, thanks.
Just think, if it was stamped squire is would make sense and be no issue. Its just down right offensive and repulsive Fender would degrade their name with this Indonesia fire wood.
100% acurate. if you know a little bit about guitars, fenders (besides 5K custom shops) are so bad right now. don't know what they are doing. I tried the new standard series and they are way better set up wise but pick ups are cheap. fenders can't compete anymore. I tested more than 100 guitars last year. If you want to be safe buy a jet guitar. 200 bucks and the only thing you need is tuners and maybe pickups, the rest is on the level of my fender custom shop
@@bazokguitar I do. I am trying to decide between a Fender, PRS, and Sire. I may have to buy it online, so I won't get to hold the guitar before I buy it. This was helpful to me.
Excellent honest review. The onslaught of glowing reviews for the new Ultra II recently, all released on the same day made me vomit inside. I own a USA standard strat that I saced hard for as a kid and bought in the late 90s, the G tuner had to be changed and the middle pickup was microphonic, I was gutted. So I'd always be alert for anything I buy from Fender.
I don't really want to agree with you (says the guy - me - with a cheap Strat alternative) but you have made the point very well. There are plenty out there trying to beat Fender and succeeding, but I feel that Fender guitars are generally better than you have experienced with this one.
I would like to clarify that I am not saying that all those guitars are bad. It is just that for such money I expect that I am not playing roulette but rather I get a better or worse made INSTRUMENT TO PLAY, not a semi-finished product for further processing. Especially since for 1/3 of the price you can find guitars without such glaring shortcomings.
Piszę dla zasięgu. Pozdrawiam serdecznie. Też mam fendera z serii player, ale telecastera z humbackerami. Rzeczywiście te progi jakieś milutkie nie są, ale też nie ranią czy coś. Brzmieniowo mi się podoba i też lubię kształt szyi. Pozdro!
The problem with Fender is that they are not consistent, some guitars are good, others not, in my experience mostly are bad, Fenders to me are just junk, playing Suhr guitars now and trust me they are superb.
I sold my Ultra I last week to purchase the new Ultra II but with all the aggressive marketing behind the Player II and the praise online (Some TH-camrs stated that these Players II are like the old American Standards) I though I could go for one, throw some mods at it and have a great guitar whilst saving some money…Yesterday I finally decided to go order the Ultra II and today this video pops up…I feel like I dodged a bullet 😂 Thanks for the honest thoughts!
Following the footsteps of great Poles like Kościuszko or Paderewski, Bazook has now also set out into the world, to conquer the English-speaking YT. Bravo, I am proud and I wish you success in the international arena, saber in hand and on horseback like a soldier of the Hussars. Greetings from such a small country located in CENTRAL EUROPE.... ;)
Gibson will be following Fender to Southeast Asia soon, and if Gibsons quality control is so crap now imagine what it's gonna be like when they start paying people 95¢ per hour!
I own a Meteora Special Black Edition. Flaws: - very dirty and ugly maple - sharp fretends and fretsprout - Logo half painted with clear coat - neck angle wrong . badly cut saddle (sitar effect, to high AND too low slots) - paint stains on fretboard - neck screws not tight - spilt knob failed after a week - tremolo bar ist the loosest ever, unusable without mods - cheap strings - strange brown streaks on back of neck I tried to buy a Charvel SoCal, had two of them here, on both the same flaws: - sharp fretends and fretsprout - Toplocks already shimmed, way to0 much on the left, wrong angle, wood screws already ruined AND loose - never stayed in tune because of Toplocks - dings and dongs on top of body and side of head (only 2nd Charvel) - middle pickup leaning far to the side (only 1st Charvel) Maple on these was nice. Seller tried to convince me, that all that is "normal within the price range". Tried to convince me, that 1000,- Euros is cheap now. Told him, maybe it's normal, maybe it's cheap, but it will be cheap and crappy on YOUR wall, not mine. Fender seriously sucks now, up to 2000,- Euros. Those fretboards are ALL worse than on my 1989 Yamaha RGX112 beginner guitar, even worse than my chinese 2008 B.C.Rich. It's not easy to produce lower quality than a 2008 B.C.Rich...
It's amazing. Squier has put out classic vibes of better quality than this for a fraction of the price. I don't think you will get a good guitar out of fender unless you get an amercian model and pay the hefty price tag.
Its not where the guitar is built, but the quality of the workmanship and components Lots of US built guitars are poorly built, poor quality control and cheap components to maximize profit
These $800+ MIM’s make zero sense to me. First of all if you’re in the market for an affordable strat, a Sire or PRE Silver Sky SE is a far better guitar and costs a few hundred bucks less. After tax you’re talking almost $900 for a MIM player II. If you want a 900$ strat why wouldn’t you just get a lightly used american strat for 800-1000 w/ a hard case and not have to change a thing? These make no sense to me. By the time you get one, take it to a luthier or put time in it yourself to make the frets decent, and then upgrade the pickups etc all the sudden you’re 1300$ into a Mexico strat and you’re spending all your time arguing on the internet trying to tell everyone that your MIM destroys custom shops 😂 If you need a brand new guitar for some reason- a squier classic vibe is way cheaper, so are Sire offerings and silver sky SE. I will never understand why people pay american guitar money for a MIM
I will buy Fender made in Japan, all day long. Owned made in USA and Mexico, but Japan made Fender is way above. Apart from USA Custom Shop, Japan is the best.
Each guitar is individual in every price range. I played a week ago beautyful Gibson Les Paul Custom ebony black, and was full dog. Before buying play the instrument
I would like to clarify that I am not saying that all those guitars are bad. It is just that for such money I expect that I am not playing roulette but rather I get a better or worse made INSTRUMENT TO PLAY, not a semi-finished product for further processing. Especially since for 1/3 of the price you can find guitars without such glaring shortcomings.
>Subscribe: www.youtube.com/@bazokguitar?sub_confirmation=1
>Fender Player II Strat: redir.love/zrD8swnq
>FGN Boundary: redir.love/maPElpg1
>Larry Carlton S7: redir.love/iYg0tpJt
>Harley Benton ST62: redir.love/mUs3rCgR
just wait until the new made in indonesia standard gets out more. i expect the quality control will be all over the map pretty quickly
My $400 Sire S3 is a far better guitarfor tone and build quality than any Fender Player Series.
@@SurprisedBeaver-cv9vq i don't know, i have not owned a sire s3. have you owned a player?
Unsponsored and unbiased reviews are refreshing.
Quality checkers are basically only checking if there is a guitar in the box or not.
Seems so.
Remember when Fender discontinued the Squier ProTone series because it was cutting into MIM Standard sales? Now they're trying to undercut CV sales with an inferior Standard at 30% higher price
I have a Player II and I have the opposite opinion... the tuning is excellent, the edges are knocked down, there are no sharp frets, the sound is good, all in all the guitar is excellent.
I just bought one in November. It's exactly as he says. Maybe yours is older. I heard they were awesome years ago which is why i wanted one. Although I'm disappointed I'll put it on the bench and keep it but lesson learned.
@KnuckleheadStuey I bought it in December.
@@KnuckleheadStueyPlayer II literally came out around Q3 or Q4 last year so your speculation is inaccurate. People get lemons. That’s what happens when you’re producing thousands of pieces of product on the daily. Doesn’t mean that every Player II is garbage.
I bought mine end of December and it's excellent
Me 2
I have two Player I and they are great, I think you were unlucky with a bad one.
I have one and i don't have any intonation problems or sharp edge
this is still disappointing, top guitar company gives crap in lottery. and its not the cheapest guitar, i agree that itsalso not expensive, but still...disappointing
I've tested a lot MIM strats and teles and I think you were lucky with a good one.
I've experienced most of these problems with Fender. Never buying a Fender, ever again.
At least, they should file the fret ends.
I have a 2023 Player plus Nashville and it is perfect. All I had to do was set the action the way I like.
I have never had a bad player strat including the new player 2. Not sure what planet u got yours on?
Absolute shocking,,what’s seriously wrong with fender ,you feel they would protect their brand as high quality no matter the price range ..my favourite guitar right now is a cheap Harley Benton ST-Modern plus ,a true jewel for the price 🙂
Yup… 💩
How's the palm muting on that Babicz bridge, a little more difficult than usual?
@@Ben-ld1qi I have no problem with parm muting,,yes I do remember some were complaining in videos I watched
Lifestyle brand whenever they start selling merchandise of any kind with their logos on it, they forget about what made them a household name no one is going to give a bad review of their tee shirts lol
Fender and quality have never been the best of friends
Years ago i decided i wanted a USA Strat, then the fun began despite trying as many as i could find
they all had issues.
I bought the best sample that was free of blemishes then asked a good luthier to do a full setup.
This transformed the guitar, but it made it more expensive.
Now they have intruduced a new Stndard Strat made in Indonesia, from what i had seen they are dire
why pay more than a Squire CV for a worse guitar ?
I've tried $10,000 guitars that had issues and needed setting up, I've played les Paul's that would not stay in tune, there were ways to adjust and fix that, the stratocaster is the best and most famous electric guitar on the planet, for some reason fender didn't behave the way you want them too and it made you angry,sorry..probably the nicest strat copies I've tried were pensa suhr, but hey, they're just a copy
I disagree, my PII HSS Strat Rocks! The Quality Is fantastic, my friend! What Can I say, probably it's a lottery. I won, You lost 😁🎸
it shouldn't be like that
@ agree
Cheap hardware? The hardware is the same as the American series lol. I've seen problems with tuning on the American series too. I think everything needs improved, not just the player series
Holy shit this random octaver on his voice is so anoying
What do you mean it doesn't deserve it? Bullshit..they are made in the Cort facility in Indonesia Cort has always been known for their professional quality builds and since 1973..stop spreading bullshit..
What? Mexican Fenders are made by Cort? Are you ok? 🤷
The new Standard Strats are made in Indonesia. The Player series are MIM...
i agree! new stuff is becoming rubbish, i just buy old and used. the new stuff is junk!
I completely agree.Just before Christmas,I bought a fender player plus,as I was curious as to what players saw in them,as I already had a sire s7,several Harley Benton’s,and a Jet js400.when the fender had arrived,I went to collect it the following day,to be told by the shop,that it would have to be returned to fendermdue to issues.
It had serious fret buzz,sharp fret ends,and a badly cut nut,so I left it there.2 days later,I received a phone call to say it was all sorted,and ready to collect.slightly confused,I again went to see what was what,to be told that he decided not to return it,but to have a well known,and very good luthier,to sort out the issues,which he certainly did do.
Nowmthe guitar is how it should have been,when it had left fender,
Would I buy another?No…the sire S7V I have,is a better instrument all round,and at almost half the cost.
Thanks for sharing your story!
I have a Jet JS-450 and impressed with it so much more than with my completely uninspiring MIM Player Strat.
@ they are really nice guitars,have beautiful necks on them,and half decent hardware,although I have changed the tuners for locking ones.
Tuning issues are caused by not lubricating the nut and hardware. A little Nut Sauce and the problem is solved. Strange noises and creaking at the nut can occur even on a Custom Shop guitar if it’s not lubricated. Of course, with a Mexican Fender, you need to set up the guitar properly.
Another thing-yes, Mexican Fenders have poor fretwork. Decent fret material is only used by the Custom Shop, while both American and Mexican Fenders have lower-quality frets, so replacement is necessary sooner or later.
Mexican Fenders also have subpar hardware; replacing the zinc tremolo block with a steel one improves tone and sustain by 100%.
They’re not bad instruments, but they’re only good for a short time if you don’t have the money and are a beginner. If you get a good piece and invest in hardware, electronics, and frets, you can have a decent instrument. But in the end, it’s up to the player to decide whether it’s worth the investment.
The point is, you can buy a lot better guitar for less. Mex Fender is like 100$ for guitar quality 700$ for look, pickups, and logo.
@@bazokguitar I think it’s unfair to compare this. People don’t complain as much about Asian guitars because they either expect flaws or accept them as normal. But if you compare many manufacturing processes-lacquering, drying times, wood quality, etc.-Fender operates on a completely different level.
Pots and switches last for years, and the tuning machines don’t need to be replaced. But components that affect tone do. I want to be able to buy a higher-quality instrument, not one that’s made to compete with Asian manufacturers. That kind of competition could lead to improvements in some areas while making the instrument worse in others.
However, it’s fair to say that Fender has weak quality control-inconsistent neck pocket fit, poor fretwork, and bad geometry. These are real issues that should be addressed. These problems exist in both the Mexican and American factories in recent years, despite the fact that many of Fender’s recent innovations and products have been great.
You can work most of the issues out on your own, that's true. And it would be the perfect solution...if the guitar was $150, like my SX strat that I worked on for one evening and it plays beautifully now. For $800 with quality control signatures and a big brand logo on the headstock? Nah, man. You can and should do better for this kind of price these days.
You can lube your nut all you want, if it is not cut well(slots), you will still have tuning issues!🎸🤘🏼🎸
I know a lot of people expect a perfect guitar out of the box but the truth is that many of them will need a thorough setup and some tweaking. Sharp edges and tremolo issue aside, the guitar sounds great but it may need an intonation adjustment.
Setup is another thing. This is a joke. Half-done product to finish on your own.
i noticed the same things abou them went to guitar center and picked up a bunch and the quality control was all over the map for them. some had sharp frets, some didnt, lots of terrible looking nuts.
Nice work.
Interesting for me is the bass side of things, Can you check out the Indo New Standard Basses please ?
My Player II Tele feels and sounds great. I did spend time at my local shop testing a few of them out and picked the one that felt the best, so I'd say just go to a shop and play them if you can. Sounds like you got a lemon.
Maybe "Player" means we're being Played by Fender?
Get it set up properly and change the pickups. These guitars are very very good quality. You may have got a really bad product.
May have?
I paid for a working guitar, not semi-finished product.
".....very, very good quality..."? 🤣🤣🤣
Budget guitar companies are putting out some really good guitars at lower price points and Fender is struggling and destroying their brand name by putting out low quality guitars at higher prices than competitors.
Sounds like somebody asked Fender for some free stuff, and they said no. 🙄
Not at all. I borrowed the amp to make fair comparison with vox, boss, marshall from same price range. After making the video i was asked to change my mind, because my mustang gt40 review was too honest 🥸 i refused. Disgusting company.
Well said mate! 😎👌
This was exactly my experience with the Fender Player ii. The example I tried also had the strings binding in the poorly cut nut. But I do still love the pickups.
and same as You... I've gone from Fender Fan boy, to... yeah pretty close to a hater in the past few years 😬
I'd also recommend Jet Guitars. Their JS300 is the kind of Strat Fender should be putting out. JS400 is even better (imo)
Great vid - cheers! 😀👍
Thanks for the comment! 💪🏻
Fancy seeing you here!
+1 for the js-400. got one and love it better than my PRS that is 3 times the price.
My Squier Classic Vibe '60s Stratocaster is better quality than that Fender 😛
I’m also disappointed by fender but with am pro ii model. Had to return 3 and finally gave up trying.
Same here, QC gone down the drain.
@@Ryzanuwhich is a shame, because the Am Pro I and II are the best American stats they’ve made in the last 20years in terms of design
Looks like Fender is bad at every price point. Fender recently introduced the Standard Series made in Indonesia so that we have a bad guitar at $600 price point.
fender should do it in japan, indonesia are for squires only
Bottom line, you get exactly what you pay for...
lol, that's quite a statement
I bought a Player Series Tele and it was superb. I bought a Player Series Strat and it only had one issue: fret buzz on one fret that affected primarily the A string. I only sold it because it didn't sound much different from my Hendrix Monterey Strat.
I bought the Player Plus Series Strat and it has been nothing short of incredible. The rolled fretboard edges are smooth as silk and the new-at-the-time Alnico V 'Vintage Noiseless' pickups are magnificent. Plus, the S-1 switch where you can combine the neck and bridge pickups is a great option. Oh, and it has locking tuners.
the best strats in the world right now are the ones made in the cort factory in indonésia (best QC of any guitar factory in the planet). A squier sonic hss in coral for 160€ in europe is probably one of the best strats ever made. The output from mexico, trumpland and china is much much poor quality, and the output from the land of the rising sun is on par with indonésia. Just go out and buy a sonic strat from indonésia. Leo Fender and Freddie Tavares would be proud!!!
Who else makes guitars in that factory?
Sonic Strat's body is too thin for my liking.
@user-bx2kd7jt8t every major brand. PRS SEs for example. This factory makes 6 M/year guitars.
PRS have their own indonesian facility no?
@@019bc3I love the lightness and resonance of the guitar. The 40mm thickness from the Internacional Metric System should became the norm for electric guitar bodies, and not the trumpland 1940/50s 2inch (45mm). "How much is 2 inches in mm? No one knows. 😆"
After playing a few player 2 strats in a shop, the biggest dislike I have is that the rosewood neck feels and is thinner than on the player 1 pau ferro neck, which is a big minus and turn-off for me and secondly most of the player 2 strats are too heavy otherwise I would've purchased one already because I like the player series guitars in general 😊
My brand new Player Tele direct from Fender had a bad output jack right out of the box. It was damaged beyond repair couldn't even plug in. The jack had to be replaced before the guitar could be played through an amp. I only buy used now. They usually have issues sorted or at least you can get it for the right price and sort issues yourself.
This is a sad statement about Fender's modern efforts when you consider that my 1997 $149 Squier Affinity Strat was outstanding out of the box.
I purchased a 2025 Fender Standard Stratocaster HSS just the other day. Yep, they've gotten so-so reviews so I thought, for $500 (discount at my local store) they must be good. Whenever something gets bad reviews I like to grab one to see what the fuss is all about.
I've been playing guitar semi-pro for about 50 years and have been through every manner of Fender guitar.
Out of the box it needed very little set up. The neck is perfect. A little wide, but frets are rolled and there are no sharp fret ends. Like every Strat ever made it has tuning stability issues. I don't think I've ever bought a Strat that doesn't, and every Strat I've ever bought gets lockers automatically unless it's my JV Modified Tele which comes with excellent lockers. Sound wise the HSS configuration is very cool. That bridge pickup really snarls. The finish is Black and the paint is even and glossy. One thing I really like is the neck being matte finish. That coupled with the profile makes for a really comfortable ride.
Having played it nonstop for the last week I really can't find anything bad about it. It's certainly the same if not slightly better than the Classic Vibe I have, and the thing is, the Player is now priced too high. So it makes sense that Fender brought out a Fender branded Standard that is at a decent price point. I wouldn't pay more, but at $500 ($599) you really can't go wrong. I've owned way worse Strats that are far more expensive. This guitar has some heft to it making it a solid player, and overall feels like a quality Strat. And the fact it's made in Indonesia doesn't bother me at all. Fender does a decent job of QC in all their factories, and the Indonesian plant is no exception. I recommend this, would gig without a backup, but like almost every Strat, you have to take steps to stabilize the tuning if you're going to use the tremolo. Just a fact of Fender life. And $59 for a set of Fender lockers is a better investment than paying $900 for a player and having to put lockers on it anyway.
An honest man on You Tube! How refreshing! Thank you Sir! My Indonesian made Squre 40th Anniversary strat was crap, nut almost cut my hand, frets super sharp, neck needed tweaking, after a day of fixing all that I plugged it in and shazam a tin machine, sounded shit. My Chinese made 2014 60th Anniversary Squire Strat is made flawless, sounds superb and way better guitar all the way around.
In my experience, Fender, Gibson, and Epiphone are hit or miss on quality control and features. Oddly enough, I have never had a problem with Squiers. They play great, sound great, and look great. If you want consistent performance out of the box every time then PRS SE, Gretsch, Yamaha, G&L Tributes, and Guild are for you. Those are the ones that I have tried but I’ve heard good things about Eart, Sire, Jet, Harley Benton, Fesley, and Fojill. Additionally, I have bought a few Firefly’s and they have been pretty good with some occasional minor setup and cosmetic issues.
Dean guitars are decent quality too.
I bought a USA made Pro II and it had horrible fretwork and electronic issues.
The stores that have the original player series are selling them at a discount now ($600) and you can get a used one for even less. Brands like Sire are not going to hold value, and adding aftermarket pickups makes it the same price as an original player series. At $800 Fender Mexico would be a better purchase than an Indonesian PRS.
It depends on what your priorities are. I buy guitars for playing, not for trading.
I am a huge fan of vintage tuning heads. They look so good on Strats!
Harley Benton, Jet, Sire, Ibanez, Schecter - there are so many other brands who make much better instruments for less money. Even Squier is better at this point.
I hate the phrase "for the money", but this is definitely very bad for the money.
I returned my first Player Strat - it could've been made by people under great pressure to rush it out - with a quick and meaningless squiggle on the QC card. I think Fender is over-priced, not just because of the logo, but also because of the cost of poor quality and retailers having to cover that cost as well as make a profit. I now have another Strat, and after a few upgrades kept it.
I have no idea what you talking about. The play ii strat i have is amazing. Perfect smooth fret work and awesome neck. Significantly improved from play 1. You might just get the defeated copy.
I'm glad your piece is fine.
I would like to clarify that I am not saying that all those guitars are bad. It is just that for such money I expect that I am not playing roulette but rather I get a better or worse made INSTRUMENT TO PLAY, not a semi-finished product for further processing. Especially since for 1/3 of the price you can find guitars without such glaring shortcomings.
I just bought a Stadium strat copy for my son and it's plays just as well. I bought an Ibanez gx70qa for myself and it blows away the competition
I've heard of plenty of people doing post purchase mods, tweeks and finish refinements on cheap guitars. But if you find yourself needing to address a whole catalogue of quality issues as well as needing to perform a basic setup out of the box, then I think you'd be rightly wondering if you've been seen off with something counterfeit.
I mean, sharp and unfinished fret ends on a new and Branded guitar? Yes, occasionally it happens, even with expensive guits, sometimes the frets need reseating because the wood has either slightly expanded or contracted. But when it's an obvious QC issue then it puts a whole different meaning on the term "shredding".
well said
I just purchased my first Fender, a player II, in November. Sharpest frets out if the box out of any of my 15 guitars. About a week earlier i picked up my first PRS SE and it was immaculate out if the box, it was even in tune which is a first for me. Fender was a total let down. I just picked up a new Donner strat last week for $70 shipped. The frets were way smoother than the Fender. How is that even possible? I'd buy another PRS. Heck I'd buy another Donner. I won't ever be buying another Fender. I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed this.
It’s winter. The wood probably shrunk in the delivery truck.
@@damienalvarez2957 it's a bad excuse. I have 10 guitars, some very cheap. The Player strat has the worst fret sprout ever.
In the late 90's and early 2000's I recall picking up a lot of MIM Fender Standards that had razor sharp fret ends. They improved but it took awhile. I thought this was going to be about the new Indonesian Standard series, but no.
Good review. Your comment about the nut is interesting. I bought a player series telecaster a few years ago and nut string spacing and heights were terrible.
Congratulation on giving an honest review. There are so many options with low price nowadays that Fender has to do better.
For me... the worst quality/price ratio today is offered by Fender
Thanks for the honest review; a breath of fresh air compared to all the other youtubers shilling for the corporations. You should try an American Vintage II; for over 2 grand they are worse than the player II; the fretboards are splotchy dye jobs and the e-strings fall off the fretboard above the 12th fret. Horrible junk.
What unusual quality control tests. Very original points made.
Good video man. The last Fender I bought was in 2012. I Ordered it MIM Nashville Telecaster. It was junk. The nut was cut so low the strings touched the first fret, the bridge plate didn't cover the cavity, pickups didn't come close to a real Tele sound, the finish was flawed and wrong color. Fender would not honor their warranty, they said it was within specs. I'll never buy another Fender product.
Bought a player II as well. Had to return it.
The QC was pretty bad. I was bummed out. Will not buy another one anytime soon.
Fender instruments are not bad by any means but when you compare the quality of their products with other manufacturers, I can't help but feel 35% to 50% of their prices come from just having the name on the headstock.
Absolutely.
I haven’t tried out any guitars since 2018. No need, since I’ve got a 2001 MIM Fender Nash Deluxe and an Epi 335. No need to get anything else, since both are awesome. (Of course, I have no disposable income anymore either, but that one’s on Biden.)
Shitty musicians blame the gear. Fender is great and has been for a long time.
So you didnt watch the video. Great.
I've never bought a Fender Strat, and my first Strat-like guitars were Yamaha. My friends with Fenders always assured me that I wasn't missing anything.
When I finally had the money to buy a Fender, I went to my local Guitar Center and played many options they had at the store, but none of the Fender Strats they had convinced me. I returned every other month to check the new arrivals for almost a year, but nothing. These guitars weren't worth it.
One day, they had a Sire S7; what a great guitar! The setup was horrible, but you can tell it was a superior guitar, it just needed a good setup. To have this level of quality in a Fender, you'll pay more than a thousand dollars. The guitar had a little dent, and they knocked off 20% of the price! It was a little over $500.
After a while, I swapped the bridge and neck pickups for Seymour Duncan, and it's one of my favorite guitars.
I'm a humbucker guy, but you always need an SSS strat in your arsenal.
So you got one bad guitar which happens in even $2k plus guitars. My player 1 strat was pretty much flawless besides a bit of lacquer on the frets. Stays in tune perfectly wven with heavy tremelo use, no sharp frets at all, nut cut great. After 4 years of owning it all ive done is change the string tree. Ive been playing 20+ years and no problem gigging with mine.
You could purchase a Jet guitar JS300 or JS380 (nicer on many details) and you'll be satisfied on evey point you've mentionned here. I had three Harley Bentons but now I have three Jet guitars (JS400 for 170 euros, JS300 for 205 euros and JS380 for 287 euros stock B with few work to do on the bone nut) and the pleasure to put my hands on these necks is a blast!
For once an honest review. Thank you 👍. Tired of watching gear reviews and being told this sounds great, when you can clearly hear that it actually sounds shit. And €800 for that is a disgrace.
Thank you for this detailed review. You are humorous and also informative.
I got a new Fender player 2 Tele and it had the same Horrible nut and string buzz, somehow both Fender and Sweetwater sold me this. So, they did offer to reimburse me $90 towards the repair. Had to take it to some stranger and he had it for 2 weeks, then I had to pay him and wait for Sweetwater to pay me back. It's a pretty good guitar now, but for the price, this is ridiculous. How it passed 2 inspections is ridiculous. Also, what about my new guitar experience that other people get? I'm paying for that also, not a buzzing guitar. I would go to a physical guitar shop if you want this model, and thoroughly check it out. At the time, I would have rather paid a little more to get one that someone put their heart into/ a company that doesn't let this happen. I wouldn't put my name on something like that. 2 of the 3 guitars I bought from Sweetwater had serious issues.
Your wack dude my player two is awsome
Great to hear that.
I ordered a player II and set it up myself. No fret issues on mine and it sounds good. The current pickups they are using are not my favorite strat pickups but they do sound really clean.
The only painful thing was setting up the bridge so I can whammy up a half step. Reminds me of why I usually bolt them down and go hardtail! 😂
And if anyone thinks im just a Fender stan, its the only Fender i have. My other guitars are a Guild, a Gibson, a Solar, an Ibanez, and a Mr. Frankie (dont ask). Just happened to get a very nice Player II!
Thanks for sharing this
It's really disappointing that they try and narrate peoples reviews of their products. Also disappointing that no one is talking about that down here in the comments. People really have become comfortable with dishonesty.
the only mexican fender i have is a player plus nashville tele and it’s actually pretty damn good. i don’t know how much of a difference there is between the two besides probably locking tuners and the pickups and maybe the neck radius. but it’s good enough i’d gig with it
So I went to local dealer (Serbia) yesterday to buy this guitar. The guy that works at the shop went to basement (shop's warehouse) and brought factory sealed box and opened it in front of me and gave me guitar to try. And it was a DISASTER, guitar was never tuned or set up - pickups were crooked, back cover was severely deformed, intonation, action, everything was total crap. Also switch felt super cheap and broken... Sound of the guitar was really good, but I'm not gonna buy 900 EUR guitar that needs fixing and replacing parts. Really disappointing!
I currently own 7 Fender guitars. 1 is a USA Custom Shop, 2 are Japanese, 1 is Korean and the rest are Made in Mexico. None of them are labeled "Ensenada" like the current iterations are and they're far better this this example. I would have sent it back and said try again. I'd have blue taped marked where all the flaws are. It's ridiculous that this is where Fender is heading.
"The displeasure of working with working with them" 🤣....... You're a fkn legend! Subscribed! To be fair, My US Standard from 2010 and my AV 2 are amazing!
that's great!
sharp edges are not directly their fault in my opinion but have to with wet/dry wood, season changes and air humidity. But of course it's their fault using wood that has grown to fast an dried to fast that makes the wood shrinking different than wood tha has been grown slow and stored for longer time before using.
That's disappointing. I was hopeful they would be a bargain.
Is the nut made of bone or plastic? I don't know why companies try to save money using shit plastic nuts. Schecter and other companies ship mid price guitars with graphtec nuts! Fender probably have bone nuts just lying around their factories in piles.
These days Fender just wants you to buy a custom shop for 5-6-7 grand or even more which is outrageous ( even if it’s one of their so called Master~Builds lol ). I bought an American Professional Telecaster new roughly five years ago and it was nice…..sure. However I just purchase amazing bodies and necks from Warmoth now and they’ll have comfort carves and a plethora of options to customize it any way you like.
Nice, honest video, thanks.
just waiting for you to get your hands on the new „standard" series since all the reviews i've watched are just straight up bs
Just think, if it was stamped squire is would make sense and be no issue. Its just down right offensive and repulsive Fender would degrade their name with this Indonesia fire wood.
I never liked any Fender Strat with a two point bridge, block saddles or a Tele with 6 saddles. All crap to me.
I bought a Jet recently. Similar price to a fender player but the quality is much better.
100% acurate. if you know a little bit about guitars, fenders (besides 5K custom shops) are so bad right now. don't know what they are doing. I tried the new standard series and they are way better set up wise but pick ups are cheap. fenders can't compete anymore. I tested more than 100 guitars last year. If you want to be safe buy a jet guitar. 200 bucks and the only thing you need is tuners and maybe pickups, the rest is on the level of my fender custom shop
fender is just sloppily throwing components together and shipping it out. the QC is a joke, all they care about is production numbers.
I can't wait to see how Fender or other TH-camrs respond. This is a pretty savage takedown. I so much appreciate the honesty.
nobody cares
@@bazokguitar I do. I am trying to decide between a Fender, PRS, and Sire. I may have to buy it online, so I won't get to hold the guitar before I buy it. This was helpful to me.
my point is that Fender for sure doesn't care about us - customers :)
Excellent honest review. The onslaught of glowing reviews for the new Ultra II recently, all released on the same day made me vomit inside. I own a USA standard strat that I saced hard for as a kid and bought in the late 90s, the G tuner had to be changed and the middle pickup was microphonic, I was gutted. So I'd always be alert for anything I buy from Fender.
F Marketing is strong 🤢
I don't really want to agree with you (says the guy - me - with a cheap Strat alternative) but you have made the point very well. There are plenty out there trying to beat Fender and succeeding, but I feel that Fender guitars are generally better than you have experienced with this one.
I would like to clarify that I am not saying that all those guitars are bad. It is just that for such money I expect that I am not playing roulette but rather I get a better or worse made INSTRUMENT TO PLAY, not a semi-finished product for further processing. Especially since for 1/3 of the price you can find guitars without such glaring shortcomings.
Piszę dla zasięgu. Pozdrawiam serdecznie. Też mam fendera z serii player, ale telecastera z humbackerami. Rzeczywiście te progi jakieś milutkie nie są, ale też nie ranią czy coś. Brzmieniowo mi się podoba i też lubię kształt szyi. Pozdro!
The problem with Fender is that they are not consistent, some guitars are good, others not, in my experience mostly are bad, Fenders to me are just junk, playing Suhr guitars now and trust me they are superb.
I sold my Ultra I last week to purchase the new Ultra II but with all the aggressive marketing behind the Player II and the praise online (Some TH-camrs stated that these Players II are like the old American Standards) I though I could go for one, throw some mods at it and have a great guitar whilst saving some money…Yesterday I finally decided to go order the Ultra II and today this video pops up…I feel like I dodged a bullet 😂 Thanks for the honest thoughts!
Following the footsteps of great Poles like Kościuszko or Paderewski, Bazook has now also set out into the world, to conquer the English-speaking YT. Bravo, I am proud and I wish you success in the international arena, saber in hand and on horseback like a soldier of the Hussars. Greetings from such a small country located in CENTRAL EUROPE.... ;)
HUEHUE
Gibson will be following Fender to Southeast Asia soon, and if Gibsons quality control is so crap now imagine what it's gonna be like when they start paying people 95¢ per hour!
I own a Meteora Special Black Edition. Flaws:
- very dirty and ugly maple
- sharp fretends and fretsprout
- Logo half painted with clear coat
- neck angle wrong
. badly cut saddle (sitar effect, to high AND too low slots)
- paint stains on fretboard
- neck screws not tight
- spilt knob failed after a week
- tremolo bar ist the loosest ever, unusable without mods
- cheap strings
- strange brown streaks on back of neck
I tried to buy a Charvel SoCal, had two of them here, on both the same flaws:
- sharp fretends and fretsprout
- Toplocks already shimmed, way to0 much on the left, wrong angle, wood screws already ruined AND loose
- never stayed in tune because of Toplocks
- dings and dongs on top of body and side of head (only 2nd Charvel)
- middle pickup leaning far to the side (only 1st Charvel)
Maple on these was nice.
Seller tried to convince me, that all that is "normal within the price range". Tried to convince me, that 1000,- Euros is cheap now. Told him, maybe it's normal, maybe it's cheap, but it will be cheap and crappy on YOUR wall, not mine.
Fender seriously sucks now, up to 2000,- Euros. Those fretboards are ALL worse than on my 1989 Yamaha RGX112 beginner guitar, even worse than my chinese 2008 B.C.Rich. It's not easy to produce lower quality than a 2008 B.C.Rich...
why if i search issues in fender strat your video doesn't appear? Glad to have clicked your video thank you
It's amazing. Squier has put out classic vibes of better quality than this for a fraction of the price. I don't think you will get a good guitar out of fender unless you get an amercian model and pay the hefty price tag.
Fender Japan
Its not where the guitar is built, but the quality of the workmanship and components
Lots of US built guitars are poorly built, poor quality control and cheap components to maximize profit
I love mine. More than my LP or my PRS. I literally have none of the problems you do.
These $800+ MIM’s make zero sense to me. First of all if you’re in the market for an affordable strat, a Sire or PRE Silver Sky SE is a far better guitar and costs a few hundred bucks less. After tax you’re talking almost $900 for a MIM player II.
If you want a 900$ strat why wouldn’t you just get a lightly used american strat for 800-1000 w/ a hard case and not have to change a thing? These make no sense to me. By the time you get one, take it to a luthier or put time in it yourself to make the frets decent, and then upgrade the pickups etc all the sudden you’re 1300$ into a Mexico strat and you’re spending all your time arguing on the internet trying to tell everyone that your MIM destroys custom shops 😂
If you need a brand new guitar for some reason- a squier classic vibe is way cheaper, so are Sire offerings and silver sky SE. I will never understand why people pay american guitar money for a MIM
I will buy Fender made in Japan, all day long. Owned made in USA and Mexico, but Japan made Fender is way above. Apart from USA Custom Shop, Japan is the best.
Each guitar is individual in every price range. I played a week ago beautyful Gibson Les Paul Custom ebony black, and was full dog.
Before buying play the instrument
Just wondering if its such a bad guitar why did you buy it?
via online, i'm sending it back