Fender Player II Modified

It was time to upgrade my guitar. Every time I played in front of people, it would drop out of tune. I could tune right before the song, and the guitar would drop by the 1st chorus. After a year of music school and many failed performances, I pulled the trigger. I had a $1000 budget and I searched all over the Twin Cities until I found a used 1990s Ultra Stratocaster. I still play it to this day. It has locking tuners, noiseless pickups, and is incredibly easy to play. If you’re in a similar situation, I recommend the Fender Player II Modified series. They are built in a way to give you the best playing experience possible. They have locking tuners, noiseless pickups and a modern C shape neck that plays well. You can get them for as low as $1049.99. It's a fantastic guitar at the same price I paid for mine 8 years ago..

Specs 

The Fender Player II Modified series has the most features available at that price. They come with noiseless pickups, TUSQ nut, locking tuners, and a modern C neck.

The neck is a modern C shape. It has a 9.5-inch radius with rolled edges. The single-coil noiseless pickups are designed for the Player II Modified series. The humbucker pickups are designed for this series as well.  

The guitars come with different pickup configurations. The Strats come in SSS or HSS. These letters stand for where the pickups are located on the guitar. The pickup closest to the bridge starts the name, so the first S in SSS is the pickup closest to the bridge. The S stands for single-coil pickup. The H stands for humbucker. HSS means humbucker near the bridge, then a middle single-coil, and a neck single-coil.

The Fender Player II Modified series guitars come with push-pull knobs. The push-pull switches offer different options. The Strat SSS push-pull knob turns on the neck pickup. This offers players the chance to use all 3 pickups at once. You can also use just the neck and bridge pickups together. This typically isn’t available on Stratocasters. The Strat HSS pickup configuration splits the humbucker. This gives you the ability to switch between SSS and HSS on this guitar. This is the same as the Tele SH option. The push-pull splits the Tele humbucker as well. 

The Tele SS push-pull switches between Series and Parallel. This only affects the Tele in the middle pickup position when both pickups are on. In Parallel, the pickup signals combine independantly, keeping a twangy tone. In Series, the sound from each pickup runs through the other before leaving the guitar. So the sound picked up from the neck pickup runs through the bridge pickup before going to the amp. And the bridge pickup runs through the neck pickup before going to the amp. The series sound is very full. It can change your country Tele into an intense rock guitar with one switch.

The Precision and Jazz Bass Player II Modified guitars do not have locking tuners. They have an active setup with a completely adjustable EQ. The Precision Bass is more a Precision Jazz Bass as it does have two pickups.  

Styles and Colors 

The Player II Modified series comes in Teles, Strats, Jazz Basses, and Precision Basses. They also have a standard set of colors for each guitar. 

The Telecaster has two functional options. The available colors are Sunshine Yellow, Olympic Pearl, 3 Tone Sunburst, Dusk, Harvest Green Metallic (SS Only), and Electric Blue (SS Only). 

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The Strats come in HSS or SSS. The available colors are Sunshine Yellow, Olympic Pearl, 3-Tone Sunburst, Electric Blue, Dusk, and Harvest Green Metallic.

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They also have a Floyd Rose HSS option. This is unique for Stratocasters as they often don’t have a Floyd Rose. This allows players to do all the Van Halen stuff on a Strat. The colors available for the Floyd Rose Strats are 3 Tone Sunburst, Olympic Pearl, and Dusk. 

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The Precision Basses just have a four-string option. The available colors are 3-Tone Sunburst, Dusk, Olympic Pearl, Sunshine Yellow, and Harvest Green Metallic.

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The Jazz Basses come in 4-string or 5-string. So you can play the low B-string and make the room rumble. The available colors are Electric Blue, Olympic Pearl, 3 Tone Sunburst, Dusk, and Harvest Green Metallic (4-String Only). 

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The Fender Player II Series can upgrade your guitar playing experience. They start as low as $1049.99 and have comparable features to the Fender Ultra II at half the price. When I bought my Fender Strat years ago, it helped me practice hours a day. If you’re looking to upgrade your guitar, check out the Player II Modified series here.