Fender Player series

[kevham]

Popped over to my local shop recently and tried out three new lefty Fenders they had in:

Player series Precision

Player series Jazz

Custom Shop Pino Palladio Precision

They were all really well put together and sounded like they should do. With the exception of the Palladio which is ridiculously expensive,  I’d happily buy any of them but the player series Precision was my personal favourite overall. The maple necks are lovely.  

Hardware seemed much better than the Sire V7 I used to own.

Sadly they didn’t have the colour I want so I have to order and wait......

Edited August 11, 2018 by kevham

[rogerstodge]

Very happy with my white Player Kev, apart from a run in the paint finish so check it over thoroughly

[kevham]

On 16/08/2018 at 21:00, rogerstodge said:

Very happy with my white Player Kev, apart from a run in the paint finish so check it over thoroughly

I’m kinda set on a maple neck and they don’t do the lefty P bass in white with maple sadly.

How does the Pau Fero board look in real life?

[rogerstodge]

1 hour ago, kevham said:

I’m kinda set on a maple neck and they don’t do the lefty P bass in white with maple sadly.

How does the Pau Fero board look in real life?

I went for the white as I prefer rosewood boards, yea it looks lovely, maybe a little lighter than rosewood.

[kevham]

15 hours ago, rogerstodge said:

I went for the white as I prefer rosewood boards, yea it looks lovely, maybe a little lighter than rosewood.

Yes - it looks lighter in the photos I’ve seen. I think I’ll get a black one first and then maybe down the line I’ll get a white one. 😉

[EdwardMarlowe]

The Pau Ferro reminds me of the rosewood Fender were using on their American Standard guitars in the early 90s, when I bought my Strat. The maple on the necks then was incredibly pale too - though over the years it has darkened to a nicer hue (I actually ended up preferring rosewood in those days because the maple looked so anaemic!)

I'm very excited by the PLayer series; got my eye on both the Strat and the P bass in Tidepool/maple. I always loved LPB; in the photo in the OP the Tidepool doesn't look as far away from that as I'd feared. The basses look perfect for my requirements. I currently have a Brandoni P (rosewood, burst) and a Squier P Bass Special; the latter will be sold in part to fund the Fender. 

[kevham]

The Tidepool is much more like the photo I posted above than the photos you see online. I quite liked it. The reason I didn’t buy is that I wasn’t sure on the day and by the time I had decided, they were sold out. I think when they are back I might just have to get one although I have bought a Spector since 😉

[Leftbass]

I've got a Player Jazz. I was unimpressed with the pickups so I've swapped them and now it's come to life!

[DGBass]

I decided to go for one of the leftie Player jazz bass versions that were available mid 2019 in the later colour options. I contacted Fender UK directly for the 'Capri Orange' colour option which they said was available for order and mine was one of the very first sent to the UK market.  My bass is stock apart from the Fender high mass bridge and sounds fantastic with the stock pickups.  The Pao Ferro fingerboard has really nice grain and takes a bit of getting used to visually. I also have a 2012 USA Standard Jazz and the fingerboard is rosewood( it's as dark as ebony)and both have great and different overtones. The big difference from the Player and the USA standard is the neck.  the USA standard neck is far and above the Player in terms of stability and tuning and earthy bass tones. I guess its those carbon fibre struts in the USA standard making a difference? Both though play very well and sound great,  like Jazz basses should. The bottom end thump is there but if you want some grind its so easy to dial in from the standard player pickups.