One of the great things about a Fender instrument is that, over time, should you tire of a feature, or are simply looking to soup-up your electric guitaryou can simply switch out a component and upgrade, remix and start afresh.
Today, Fender, the company, has gotten in on the act with the launch of the Player II Modified Series – a range that takes five models from the brand’s blockbuster Player II series and mods them on the shopfloor of its Ensenada, Mexico factory.
Fender’s executive vice-president of product, Justin Norvell, says the range is inspired by and dedicated to the modders.
“From the early days of players hot-rodding their Strat and Tele guitars to today’s musicians pushing sonic boundaries, Fender has always embraced the art of reinvention,” says Norvell. “Leo Fender intentionally designed our instruments with modularity in mind – allowing them to evolve alongside the player and enabling more personalisation than any other brand.
“Player II Modified carries that spirit forward, offering modern upgrades like our new Player II Modified Noiseless pickups and locking tuners for rock-solid stability. It’s about delivering the most in-demand mods straight from the factory while continuing to push the envelope of innovation and support artists in shaping the future of music.”
The Player II Modified Series delivers upgrades across the board in hardware, electric guitar pickups, and electronics – plus there are some new finishes – and it comprises the Telecaster, Tele SH, Stratocaster, HSS Strat, active Precision and Jazz Basses, and there is a Stratocaster HSS that it has kitted out with a Floyd Rose double-locking vibrato for all your Superstrat needs.
This is a big deal, and so Fender enlisted IDLES’ guitarists Mark Bowen and Lee Kiernan, alongside Julia Laws of Ronboy fame on bass guitar, to put them through their paces, performing Gift Horse above. As inveterate modders, Bowen and Kieran are the perfect guinea pigs for this experiment; Bowen says he has modded every guitar he has ever owned.
“Modifications can definitely make a guitar more approachable,” says Kiernan. “Because everything is to your taste, and what it is you want it to do.”
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Quite so. As Norvell notes, we’ve got new Noiseless pickups, there are locking tuners for all three guitars in the series. The fundamentals are much like the Player II Series models we know and love – the Player II Jaguar is a knock-out, the Telecaster and Stratocaster likewise. Alder bodies for all, Modern C profile necks.
The headline spec upgrade saw pau ferro fingerboards walk the plank while slab rosewood came back onboard, and with rolled fingerboard edges for that lived-in luxurious feel.
That we have here too. But let’s quickly run through each of these new Player II Modified models’ special power.
The Telecaster is offered in Olympic Pearl, Electric Blue and Sunshine Yellow, all with a 9.5” maple fingerboard, and 3-Color Sunburst, Dusk and Harvest Green Metallic with rosewood. This features short-post locking tuners, a push/pull on the tone pot two toggle between parallel and series pickup wiring for quote/unquote fatter tones. It looks cool in that Dusk purple finish.
If you want some humbucker action on a Tele then the SH might be your speed. This has a chrome-covered neck Noiseless neck humbucker, with Dusk and 3-Color Sunburst options with the rosewood model, Olympic Pearl and Sunshine Yellow with maple.
As for the Strat, you can get that in Sunshine Yellow and Harvest Green Metallic with a maple ‘board, in Dusk, Electric Blue, and Olympic Pearl with a rosewood ‘board.
Again, the pickup switching offers more options. A push/pull on the second tone pot allows you to add the neck single-coil to positions 1 and 2. And the 2-point tremolo has a chamfered block to allow for more freedom of movement.
You’ll get plenty of whammy bar action on the Stratocaster HSS. It has a Floyd Rose Special. Other big ticket items include that high-output Player II Modified humbucker, which is splittable via a push/pull on the tone pot. It’s hard to think of a musical occasion where this would not be welcome.
This also has a flatter 12” radius rosewood fingerboard radius and is offered in 3-Color Sunburst, Dusk and Olympic Pearl. As for your regular HSS model, the Dusk and 3-Color Sunburst versions have maple fingerboards and you will find rosewood on the Sunshine Yellow, Electric Blue, and Olympic Pearl models. It shares the chamfered tremolo block of the Strat.
Now for the basses. The Player II Modified Precision Bass, Jazz Bass and Jazz Bass V all feature all-new active preamps with passive tone control and EQ, plus Hi-Mass bridges to boost sustain, and tapered-shaft tuners. Finish options match with the guitars.
You can get the P-Bass with a maple fingerboard in 3-Color Sunburst, Dusk and Sunshine Yellow, rosewood on the Olympic Pearl and Harvest Green Metallic.
The Jazz Bass with maple fingerboard comes in 3-Color Sunburst, Olympic Pearl and Electric Blue colourways – Dusk, and Harvest Green Metallic for the rosewood. And finally the Player II Modified Active Jazz Bass V is offered in Dusk and Olympic Pearl with a maple ‘board and 3-Color Sunburst and Electric Blue for the rosewood. Sweet.
The pricing on these comes in just a little steeper than their Player II siblings. The Player II Modified Stratocaster and Telecaster are priced £899/$999. You pay a small premium for a humbucker – the Telecaster SH is £949/$1,029.
Elsewhere, HSS Stratocaster with the 2-point tremolo is priced at £949/$1,029, £999/$1,029 with the Floyd, and the Precision and Jazz Bass will set you back £999/$1,099 while the Jazz Bass V is priced £1,049/$1,149.
For more details, head over to Fender.
This is second refresh of the Player II Series in recent weeks. Last month, Fender launched a limited edition refresh of the Player II Strat, Tele, P-Bass and Jazz Bass in Sparkle 3-Color Sunburst.
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