Featuring upgraded specs and vintage colors, with rosewood fretboards, modern necks, and chambered body options.
Julien Baker with Fender Player II Series
Since its inception in 2018, the Player Series has shown nearly 30% consecutive year-over-year growth globally and holds rank as Fender's best-selling range of electric guitars of all time due to its accessible features that both capture the imagination of new players and satisfy the demands of more experienced guitarists alike. Available now, the Player II Series takes the best of its predecessor's features and improves them with upgraded specs like rosewood fingerboards, modern “C” necks with rolled edges, and new vintage colors from the vaults exemplifying the innovation, culture, community, and lifestyle synonymous with Fender Electrics.
All Day and All of the Night: The All New Player II Series | Fender
The 2024 campaign for the Player II Series, “The All New Player II” marks one of Fender's most significant debuts yet. It begins with a film blending four distinctive renditions of The Kinks' timeless hit, "All Day & All of the Night," set in unique environments. For the film, All Day and All of the Night: The All New Player II Series | Fender, Fender has partnered with acclaimed artists Julien Baker, singer-songwriter from Memphis, and 1/3 of boygenius, DIIV, influential indie rock band, content creator, and touring bassist (Fever 333) April Kae and alternative rock trio Wallows.
“The Player II Series represents our continued evolution in design and functionality,” said Justin Norvell, EVP of Product, FMIC. “We listened to the feedback from musicians around the world and incorporated their insights to refine and innovate our instruments. The re-introduction of rosewood fingerboards is a restoration of the ‘original Fender recipe’ and will no doubt be a fan favorite - but we didn’t want to stop there. We’ve also incorporated our rolled fingerboard edges for a broken-in feel, upgraded hardware, and have some new body options as well- which underscores our commitment to providing players and creators with the tools they need to express their unique sound and style. The Player II Series is not just an upgrade, it's a detailed re-imagining of our core silhouettes, highlighting our dedication to quality and the continuous refinement of our instruments.”
Models
Additionally, Player II offers new options for chambered ash and chambered mahogany bodies for the Player II Stratocaster and Telecaster models, which will be available in October. Designed for musicians ready to elevate their craft, the Player II Series sets a new standard for quality and performance in the mid-price range. Series includes:
- Player II Stratocaster
- Player II HSS Stratocaster
- Player II Telecaster
- Player II Jazzmaster
- Player II Jaguar
- Player II Mustang
- Player II LH Stratocaster
- Player II HH Telecaster
- Player II LH Telecaster
- Player II Precision Bass
- Player II Jazz Bass
- Player II Mustang Bass
“Music is about a multisensory experience and the P-Bass provides that. It feels great to wear, it sounds great and it looks incredible. It’s classic but always feels current. It always feels relevant and that’s not something that can be said about any product let alone a guitar.” April Kae.
“This guitar feels like a magic guitar that fell into my hands and it’s perfect. I feel like I’m constantly chasing that one guitar and this is just perfect.” Zachary Cole Smith, DIIV
“The Player II Series Stratocaster feels like a great guitar and I was impressed by how it played very easy and simple. The tones are great. I think people are going to enjoy it.” Braeden Lemasters, Wallows
For more information, please visit fender.com.
Player II Sessions ft. Wallows | Player II Series Stratocaster | Fender
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It’s almost over, but there’s still time to win! Enter Stompboxtober Day 30 for your shot at today’s pedal from SoloDallas!
The Schaffer Replica: Storm
The Schaffer Replica Storm is an all-analog combination of Optical Limiter+Harmonic Clipping Circuit+EQ Expansion+Boost+Line Buffer derived from a 70s wireless unit AC/DC and others used as an effect. Over 50 pros use this unique device to achieve percussive attack, copious harmonics and singing sustain.
Does the guitar’s design encourage sonic exploration more than sight reading?
A popular song between 1910 and 1920 would usually sell millions of copies of sheet music annually. The world population was roughly 25 percent of what it is today, so imagine those sales would be four or five times larger in an alternate-reality 2024. My father is 88, but even with his generation, friends and family would routinely gather around a piano and play and sing their way through a stack of songbooks. (This still happens at my dad’s house every time I’m there.)
Back in their day, recordings of music were a way to promote sheet music. Labels released recordings only after sheet-music sales slowed down on a particular song. That means that until recently, a large section of society not only knew how to read music well, but they did it often—not as often as we stare at our phones, but it was a primary part of home entertainment. By today’s standards, written music feels like a dead language. Music is probably the most common language on Earth, yet I bet it has the highest illiteracy rate.
Developed specifically for Tyler Bryant, the Black Magick Reverb TB is the high-power version of Supro's flagship 1x12 combo amplifier.
At the heart of this all-tube amp is a matched pair of military-grade Sovtek 5881 power tubes configured to deliver 35-Watts of pure Class A power. In addition to the upgraded power section, the Black Magick Reverb TB also features a “bright cap” modification on Channel 1, providing extra sparkle and added versatility when blended with the original Black Magick preamp on Channel 2.
The two complementary channels are summed in parallel and fed into a 2-band EQ followed by tube-driven spring reverb and tremolo effects plus a master volume to tame the output as needed. This unique, signature variant of the Black Magick Reverb is dressed in elegant Black Scandia tolex and comes loaded with a custom-built Supro BD12 speaker made by Celestion.
Price: $1,699.
Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine is one of the loudest guitarists around. And he puts his volume to work creating mythical tones that have captured so many of our imaginations, including our special shoegaze correspondent, guitarist and pedal-maestro Andy Pitcher, who is our guest today.
My Bloody Valentine has a short discography made up of just a few albums and EPs that span decades. Meticulous as he seems to be, Shields creates texture out of his layers of tracks and loops and fuzz throughout, creating a music that needs to be felt as much as it needs to be heard.
We go to the ultimate source as Billy Corgan leaves us a message about how it felt to hear those sounds in the pre-internet days, when rather than pull up a YouTube clip, your imagination would have to guide you toward a tone.
But not everyone is an MBV fan, so this conversation is part superfan hype and part debate. We can all agree Kevin Shields is a guitarists you should know, but we can’t all agree what to do with that information.