Fender has launched a pair of hot new electric guitars on the fly, offering a twist on its top-selling Player II series – but you’ll need to be quick, because these FSR models are strictly limited edition and available only through select retailers.
The Player II Advanced series comprises the Telecaster HH and a hard-tail Stratocaster HSS, both loaded with Seymour Duncan electric guitar pickups and featuring a 12” radius ebony fingerboard, and this is one of those deals where the Big F cooks up some special specs (FSR stands for “Fender special run”), and releases them on the Q.T. You’ve got to sniff them out.
But helpfully Andertons has made a demo video for its consignment, which includes the Telecaster HH in Satin Ferrari Yellow and Black, and the Stratocaster HSS hard-tail in Satin Daphne Blue.
In the UK, this Strat is also available in Arctic White via GuitarGuitar, who also stocks the Tele in Black. All are priced £949 street. Thomann is carrying the Strat in Satin Daphne Blue.
In the US, you can find these at Guitar Center, which is carrying all four colourways with each model priced at $1,299. They may well turn up in a few other locations, too.
So what makes these so different; what does “Advanced” mean? Well, the black hardware and the ebony fingerboards and matching three-ply black pickguards are something of a giveaway – these are aimed at the rock and metal player.
Indeed the Strat is a dead-ringer for Jake E Lee’s Charvel signature guitar, which, after a fashion, is a dead-ringer for the Stratocaster. What goes around comes around… Anyway, Fender and Charvel are all part of the FMIC family.
The Strat packs a Seymour Duncan JB humbucker at the bridge – for our money, one of the finest rock/metal pickups ever wound – with a pair of Seymour Duncan Custom Flat Strat SSL-6 single-coils at the middle and neck positions.
These are controlled by a five-way pickup selector, a volume control, and a pair of tone controls, with one controlling the bridge pickup, the other serving both single-coils.
As for the Telecaster HH, it is similarly packing a Seymour Duncan JB at the bridge, which is joined by a ’59 SH-1N at the neck. A classic pairing. These are controlled by master volume and tone knobs and selected by a three-way switch.
A lot of the other specs are shared. With locking tuners and hard-tail bridges, these are built to play hard. Those bridges have a six-saddle string-through-body design, block saddles as standard.
The bodies are alder. Necks are maple, bolted to the body, fashioned into a Modern C profile, and it has been given a coating of satin urethane to make it silky smooth. As per the Player II series refinements, those fingerboards have rolled edges.
These are available now, priced as above. See Andertons, GuitarGuitar, Thomann and Guitar Center for more details. And also keep your eye out for them in your local guitar store.
