Fender Upgrades The Critically Important Player Series! All-New Fender Player II

The Fender Player Series is a critically important series of guitars for Fender. Representing the entry into the world of Fender branded guitars, the player series has long offered killer features on classic models at a price aimed at budding musicians. As prices have continued to creep up over the year Fender has sought to add new features without raising the price and giving players more of what they want, namely fantastic sound, playability and looks. The new Player II series updates these guitars with new neck shapes, rolled edges the return of rosewood and new classic colors. Check out Cooper's full review and preview of more models to come.
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0:00 Intro
1:30 Player II Updates
10:02 Player II Telecaster Demo
11:49 Player II Stratocaster Demo
14:18 Final Thoughts
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[@DaringDan]

This is great. The used market will be even better for buyers now. A Player Series for $500 will be a steal.

[@retiredguyadventures6211]

Not getting rid of my Player strat. I might get a Player II neck for it when they come out thouhg.

[@bengreenbank]

Picked up a brand new player 1 tele for £500 in the UK yesterday. Love that fender is bringing out the player 2 😂😂 Think I’ll grab a strat too if I see one in a nice colour for £400ish

[@philzlz]

ROSEWOOD WELCOME BACK BABY ❤

[@RabindraDahal-ie7sb]

Yeah

[@jojojojojojojojojojojojob]

its a mixed bag. some player 2 rosewood still looks like pau ferro.

[@mr.smithgnrsmith7808]

Meanwhile other companies have been selling GREAT guitars with beautiful Indian rosewood boards the last 5 yrs…EART is one that’s been killing it

[@ClockworkDave]

I think they nailed it, especially that red with rosewood. Going to sell a ton.

[@MervGinsberg-sc8kp]

Every guitar Cooper plays sounds like the best guitar ever made!

[@wikolib6821]

Yeah. Cooper and Jonathan at Casino Guitars could play a homemade box guitar made out of cardboard and we would be going Wow. Hehe.

[@migononet2637]

Birch Green...top color!

[@Merglet]

100% agree! The photos on the Fender site don't even come close to doing it justice, they look terrible! But WHEW it's pretty in person.

[@DIGITAL7Media]

Sold out color on Sweetwater.

[@drlt9241]

I love it! I just don't know why I can't get the aquatone blue strat with rosewood!

[@aerobrain2001]

Yeah that would look awesome!

[@ronmoore1219]

Thank you. That was a great showcase. I like the changes in the II. Especially the rolled fret board edges and the vintage tuners. Every time I change strings on my Am Performer, I appreciate the tuners more. And rosewood fret boards are a very welcome change. Nothing wrong with Pao Ferro. I just haven’t been a fan of its color. Well, I’m interested in the routed mahogany and ash bodies, so I’ll eagerly wait for their introduction. Great video, Cooper, thanks again.

[@jasonswitzer1748]

You knocked “Hiya-Lee-ah” out of the park. It’s an area of Miami. Color name makes sense when you think about the location. Got those South Florida vibes. Also, while I don’t like the look of the modern Tele bridges, that guitar makes all the right Tele sounds. Can’t complain about the pickups. As for the Strat… they aren’t my jam (sounds too thin for what I play), but if I were in the market for a Strat, this would 100% be my jam. Nice color choices, like the aged hardware, vintage tuners, rosewood with rounded fretboard and 2 point trem. Not sure what more you could ask for in terms of a Strat.

[@markkoher3468]

Hi Cooper,... I remember back in the early 2000's when Pau Ferro was a boutique option with a higher price tag... hahaha .... As always y'all do a great job of showing off the gear... well done once again :-)

[@tylerk1013]

​@Bodiddley788 Yeah bro, it's only a thing b/c Suhr started using it. Then Fender and others went to it after there were some export/import/travel restrictions on Rosewood

[@ereimul1444]

time for Fender Roadworn ii with rosewood.

[@telefrk49]

yes!!!

[@chris5375]

I love the birch green Tele ❤

[@josephlerz6889]

same

[@69telecasterplayer]

Glad to see the rosewood come back. I was planning to get an American Prof II strat just to get the rosewood board but now this option is looking good.

[@sharkmanyt4431]

I just got a brand new player ii. So much better

[@Nate-vk7gu]

I own a professional 2 it’s miles above the player I had for a long time I would recommend it’s an instrument that can last a life time

[@BreadandFaxes]

That Birch Green tele is beautiful. Im smelling a backup tele. Drop a wilkinson bridge with brass saddles and locking tuners and she is good to go.

[@sneakerhead6184]

Another awesome review guys 👍👌 i still have my player series tele(first real guitar) and its my favorite guitar to this day. Im a lefty so my options are limited lol

[@mortonwilson795]

Thanks - great sneak peek! Look forward to checking out the Jaguars. Rosewood - yes!

[@bryancollins6796]

You can get chambered ash? Do you mean Fender will now sell you an Ash-hole?

[@astrofire68]

That Tele - Birch green with Rosewood 😍

[@gddion]

I paid $350 for my Standard Tele but that was 25 years ago and the new ones are better guitars with a lot more options. I've actually seen guitars exactly like my old one on Reverb for $600, not sure who's paying that.

[@rexomatic8667]

Nice playing and demo.

[@jamesgretsch4894]

These will be big sellers. I liken it to the California Series by Fender in the mid to late 1990s. They made a big splash and these will too.

[@wikolib6821]

Good move on Fender's part. I'm interested.

[@argento8447]

That's great news, in particular the neck edges improvements, I tried a coulpe of "old" Players and I wasn't really convinced by the feel of the neck, but I absolutely loved the Player Plus series' ones. I really hoped we could choose between maple and rosewood fingerboard without being binded to a specific body colour (I would immediately buy an aquatone blue Tele if it came with maple fingerboard), but I guess we can't get everything.

[@Ringer1982]

Great playing

[@simonmodig]

You just have to fingerpick a red strat :) Very good playing! Beautiful guitars!

[@ivansucha1]

I am interesting in HH Tele Coral Red. Will there be also RW neck version? I can find everywere only MN version. Don't you konw whether coil-split is possible on Player II Telecaster HH? It is not mentioned on Fender website. On Player series it was possible. Thank you for any answer :)

[@nowhereismyhome1458]

Lefty’s inbound too. My first Tele is in production 🙂

[@billybat5790]

i played the red one and tho needed a setup, felt way better! neck feels round and thin but still enough meat to grab

[@JakeL202]

I live in Montreal Canada and the Player II series go for $1150 to over $1200 CDN, of course our Dollar is worth less than the US dollar, so $700 or so is a good price. Seems like Fender has to keep up with Sterling (Music Man) and Sire.

[@wikolib6821]

Yeah, that's tough paying Canadian, makes US prices look great.

[@TheFloridaBikeVlogger]

I love my players strat from 2021 but always tempted when I see new stuff coming out. not sure i can get away with another guitar tho

[@stefpenfield5918]

All my Strats are maple, so the rosewood is sorta calling to me. I have a pao ferro Mustang, but like the darker look.

[@MellowFellow137]

great playing man

[@chefboy6123]

I snagged a brand New FSR Player 1 Fiesta Red ~ with Custom Shop PUPS and Roasted Maple Neck for $500 - I 'm Good!!!!

[@Astronaut_FX]

It's hard to get a good look at the Tele bridge assembly. Anyone know if you could swap out that bridge assembly for a more traditional bridge assembly without the need for drilling, etc.?

[@powbobs]

No

[@TheRealxVincent]

That P bass would match my strat perfectly 🤔

[@efeseymen1015]

i hope that fender player plus rosewood options also would come up 😔

[@williamchamberlain1266]

Will Fender be making any changes to the Player Plus series any time soon? I've got my eye on the tele

[@unitedtomato5444]

iPhone's guitar emoji looks like that coral red strat 🎸

[@stevetunick7501]

It’s pronounced Hi-a-lee-uh, Cooper ! (from a transplanted New Yorker in Pittsburgh) - Hope to visit someday! I’m a fan of you guys-

[@NickMcC]

Nice! Do you think anything is changing with the Player Plus series with this release?

[@sagittated]

It would not surprise me if that series got an upgrade next, but they're not part of this update.

[@syzl___]

The duo sonic is forgotten yet again

[@scke3717]

Nice colors. Worth buying just for a rosewood board?

[@chuck8902]

Nice grooving!

[@pzolsky]

I’m waiting for Player iii

[@jaykelley103]

IV or V for me

[@photonewbie8065]

:Looks like the Player II Mustang will be a hard tail instead of a tremelo. I don't see the Duo Sonic in this new lineup. So is the Player Duo Sonic discontinued?

[@jamesmata4579]

Trying to decide between Player II & Player Plus, any thoughts? I know one of the differences is the noiseless pickups that come with the plus. I just don’t know if it’s worth the extra $200 or so.

[@jasonswitzer1748]

Give it time… I’ll bet you a cheeseburger that this time next year there will be a Player Plus II, with the rolled fingerboard, vintage tuners, etc.

[@daviddenoncourt757]

They both have the rolled edges, I think the main selling point of the Plus is a more refined look with the tortoise shell pickguards and suck, some limited edition also have roasted maple neck if you can grab that too.

[@sagittated]

Big difference is the player plus have the flatter 12" radius. Player II have the standard 9.5.

[@dcamnc1]

I wish they had put tall narrow frets on these. I don't like med jumbos personally.

[@wikolib6821]

Kinda agree with you but I just go with it.

[@ivylotus9991]

I like rosewood. I like rolled fretboards. I am not crazy about the colors or the old style (PITA, IMO) slot-top tuners. These will likely sell very well, though, as I do not think most people care strongly either way about the tuners.

[@mojo6778]

I am not able to access your website, is anyone else reporting this as an issue?

[@KRAZEEIZATION]

It’s good to see rosewood again but I wouldn’t buy one of these models because the Strat has that horrible 2 point bridge and the Tele has a 6 saddle bridge. Cooper is a killer player!

[@anmolatwal]

What's that green cursor flying on the screen???

[@abrahamdavidsmith]

You mean the oscilloscope?

[@RabindraDahal-ie7sb]

Tempted me to buy Player 2 series Telecaster Yellow colour.

[@pgrove]

Aside from that green, those colors are meh. I'm interested to see a demo of the HH tele though.

[@alexstrums]

These Player II strats seem VERY similar to the Vintera II’s… Ok different neck radius and trem bridge. Am I missing something here?

[@user-pf7xy8nz3t]

For the demo part he changed the saddles on the tele. I wonder.

[@MelodyCarroll-rx8tk]

I'd still rather have a Vintera II strat.

[@damham5689]

Why is it even affordable guitars like Harley Benton and even Squier can put binding in guitars, but Fender cant seem to do it unless its over a $1000 guitar ? I personally like binding on my guitars..

[@BadgerBarf]

Telecaster HH video when you get one in please!

[@ayidn.h]

Sounds better than Vintage ||...!! The red one!

[@ayidn.h]

And also affordable!!

[@JC-ee8qm]

Dude didn't look too impressed with these Players did he? 15:47 Fair enough. I'm a lefty and normally could only dream of an acquatone color, but for regular guys, it's hardly the second coming of JC

[@RickFoxx777]

They look nice and sound nice but... as usual, the neck is the same ole neck on every guitar (for the last 5 years or so) under $1000.00 and it is either a modern C or regular C or a deep C (I have played them all and basically they are all the same...nothing special at all). I personally have not purchased a Fender strat for over 5 years because all the soft V necks are either signature strats, or soft V with a 7.5 radius and cheap poplar and Basswood bodies or a custom shop strat which IMO, the price for them is just way to high for most working musicians. Consider this, you can get a FireFly strat with Locking Tuners, Roasted Maple Neck, Bone Nut, Alder Body or Ash, Alnico 5 Pups and Stainless Steel Frets all for under $200.00 and they sound great. Yeah sure, they only have C necks but for the price, I myself bit the bullet and bought two at Christmas for under $300.00 plus shipping. For me it's easier to buy a FireFly and swap out the neck for a soft V ($299.00 for a Fender neck or $169.00 for a Fender knock off at Northwest guitars) and still have a great guitar under $500.00. If Fender ever gets it together again and decides to make a decent (under 900.00) guitar with a soft V neck AND A 9.5 radius with an ALDER or ASH body (at the very least) then I may start buying them again. Just my 2 cents worth. Peace.

[@indigos290]

Smh! Now I gotta get another guitar!

[@keithdavis5464]

What happened to the Player Plus

[@dantedimaano9556]

does it come with a gig bag

[@sagittated]

Nope. Upside is you get to choose which color case you want.

[@martianmurray]

New OFFSETS!

[@quiksilver78]

Good demo and coverage but why do people gloss over the hardware with a simple "upgraded hardware" well, what's upgraded? From here it looks like the same from the Player I series and if all the electronics are the same (why would they change that) same with the body material, the only change I see is all in the neck. So, can I just buy a new neck for my Player I?

[@sleepwalkingman6303]

Rosewood doesn't look rosewood-y enough😏

[@rodnyg7952]

♫....gotta' move these Strat-o-casters, Gotta' move these new colored TeleeEEEEeEEesEs....♫

[@JmSmith751]

So, fender is the new squier killer??

[@DbiPro]

Thanks to all the KZbinrs that complained we didn’t have rosewood

[@viniciuscomacento]

rosewood

[@ThomasBN4G]

So the Player's are guitars made from the old Corona machines after 2016.

[@rigorhead01]

I want to see Cooper as the front man of a wailing, screaming, hollering rock band!! 🤣

[@SiddharthKarunakaran]

🎸I always wanted an emoji guitar.

[@azerbouf]

So the main difference of Player II is just the color? According to the specs from their website, they have exact same specs as for Player I...

[@powbobs]

Vintage tuners and rolled edges. Have you considered actually watching the video?

[@mikeadams4605]

Fender finally doing an ash body again......but it's chambered.....Cmon man

[@andyvitali7510]

Give us a nitro version please

[@josephkeating3597]

The Player Plus at $999.00 and they have locking tunners, noiseless pickups and a push pull pot. So why would I want to buy one of these?? BTW, I bought a player Plus Tele last year. Nice ax!

[@macbeth642]

so then buy the player plus? Who is stopping you? What point is this trying to prove.

[@Mexxx65]

Some cool new colors, and body materials/construction. - still no locking tuners - still no block saddles - still no pickup upgrade from the old models Player Series Alnico 5's - not a real bone nut - still a "black plastic" truss rod cover - made now in Indonesia I've heard

[@wikolib6821]

Sweetwater has Player II Strats and Teles in stock and the photos of the back of the headstocks show MX in front of the serial number and also say "Made in Ensenada".

[@AlamoMusic]

The guitars are made in Ensenada, Mexico. The Player Plus models do have locking tuners and block saddles. A nice thing about the classicgear tuners on the Player II is that they are vintage looking modern mount which means you can drop locking tuners in with no modifictation - Chris

[@wikolib6821]

@@AlamoMusic Thanks Chris. Good to know.

[@ml2054]

You should really research or at the very least think before you make statements lol “They’re made in Indonesia now.” Lol what??

[@Mexxx65]

@@ml2054 Yeah I spent every single hour last night, sifting over every single spec I could find online on the new Fender player II Stratocaster....before I typed my first comment.......are you for real? I had read some of these new player IIs were being manufactured in an Indonesian plant. Its just a comment mate. Do I have to reach your "Bible" commenting status before I type a youtube comment now?

[@robertoabdall]

Kinda hate this iFender marketing (?) What´s next, Vintera and Player Pro Max?

[@simonmodig]

Hawktuah Yellow

[@BreadandFaxes]

Standard mexican strats used to be $500 and came with shitty hardware, and ceramic pickups. They now are like $750-850 and have alnico pickups, better hardware, better tuners, better trems, no more shitty zinc trem block, rolled edges. I mean, and these guitars are workhorses for studio and live. Buy one, get it set up well and it can do anything you need it to.

[@BreadandFaxes]

I bought an American Telecaster and Japanese Tele last year and since have sold them both. My Pacific Peach Tele sounds and plays better than both so I kept it and it's my main Tele.

[@braddietzmusic2429]

You can say it: “…because the American Series is…” Any guess? “…really EXPENSIVE…”

[@airtimedesign]

Hi-Ah-Lee-Ah

[@daynmitchell7543]

Ahh so that’s why the old ones were on sale lol

[@herewegoagain7403]

oh rosewood making a comeback? 10+ years from now, the player strat w pau-ferro fretboard will be sought after.

[@soyborne.bornmadeandundone1342]

I'm too much of a fancy boy guitarist to dig this cheap crap. BUT... That being said they seem like pretty decent guitars for cheap crap. Great guitar to get into for starters : )

[@oliverhenkel376]

The illusion that you could play as good as Cooper if you buy this (or any guitar that he shows us) guitar... Quality of a guitar: 5% Quality of Cooper playing: 95%

[@oliverhenkel376]

and don't get me wrong: If I had the money, I would buy every guitar Cooper presents - just he's such a nice guy!

[@thombat999]

Hialeah = Hi ( as in hello) - uh - lee - uh

[@joesmith8398]

All the videos ive seen for these, the guitars sound very "tinny" and bright, unpleasantly so.

[@VictorBlakerst]

Arthas, My Son...

[@anatol1204]

Pricies are going up AI is caching up.. Ask Beiden to make this a gift to you he s got a lot money

[@shakespeariancopy3053]

So if I want a sunburst now I must get a chambered bodied strat? 🤮🤢what about making strats the way they are supposed to be?

[@javiersilva5409]

I played one. Terrible. Lifeless, and they did the rolled edges half assed, it doesn't feel good at all.

[@pepmasters-999]

Well that rules that one out then.

[@NoName-gz2kk]

No ashtray bridge? No barrel saddles? Fender, why bother? No thanks.

[@karemare6426]

Lol fender been making the SAME boring guitars for 70 years, and it's still the "new fender models" each goddamn year :D

[@javiersilva5409]

I owned two CS, and I'm spoiled, yeah, but I also own 2 roadworns and they're way better than these guitars.

[@tbone2451]

Not a fan of the aged knobs and pickups. Fake looking.

[@mikeschultz8156]

Don’t you think went you buy a Strat or a Tele it should be their flagship guitar ? You should not have buy a player series or a 54 or a custom shop to get their best … Fender didn’t do that in the beginning… so what I get out of it is Fender can’t build a guitar that is as good as a fifties or sixties because they won’t they want all to upgrade to get the quality that was the Fender name … Gibson does it also … shameful

[@zezuntxiduntxi]

I actually agree with you

[@timetraveler_0]

Sometimes people can get nuisanced about minor features, why should fender not capitalize on that? The Player II series is likely better than any guitar you could buy back in the day for the same if not less amount of money (adjusted for inflation). No one is forcing anyone to buy an Ultra Lux.

[@keithferris9574]

​@@timetraveler_0sure but it makes everything high level have to be aspirational. Is there a law that the average earner should never be able to afford high end stuff?

[@tdc_2021]

It’s an amazing time to be a guitar player. If you can’t afford a Fender, you can get a very decent Squire. If you are very well off then you can get something custom shop. Then there are loads of options in between. But ultimately, all of the options are very good and most will be as good as what was made in the 50s.

[@damham5689]

Just buy a G&L, the real leo fender guitar and never worry about it.

[@VictorVectorMusic]

You can buy a player series assembled in Mexico or a US Model assembled by a Mexican in the USA. lol Oh and rolled FBs have nothing to do with fret sprouts FWIW :)