This Fender Player Plus Nashville Telecaster in Opal Spark weighs 8 lbs 10 oz. The Brand New Player Plus Series from Fender offers player-centric upgrades. With perhaps the most playable neck to come out of the Fender Ensenada Mexico Factory and new Player Series Noiseless Pickups, the Player Plus Nashville Tele plays as great as it looks!
Let's start with the neck. It is carved from a single piece of
maple into a Modern C Profile and it has a Pau Ferro fingerboard that carries a
12" fingerboard radius. This flatter than average radius is what is commonly found on Gibson Guitars. It feels fantastic on a Fender and allows for easier big bends than a lower radius. 22
Medium Jumbo Frets offer fantastic playability. With a large string to fret contact point, fretting notes is quite easy, allowing for crisp and articulate sounds. 1.685" nut width is slightly wider than vintage and
25.5" scale length keeps the strings taut and snappy.
The body is made from
Alder. This tonewood was introduced in late 1956 and has been the most often used wood for Fender instruments ever since. The guitar is finished in Opal Spark. Somewhere between Lake Placid Blue and Ice Blue Metallic, this is a new addition to the Fender Color Chart but it seems oddly familiar. One final thing to mention about the body is the addition of a tummy cut. This body contour, normally found on a Strat, makes the Player Plus Tele one of the most comfortable Tele's money can buy!
The new Player Series
Noiseless Pickups may have lost the annoying 60 cycle hum but they have not lost that Tele (and Strat, in this guitar's case) mojo! The bridge pickup bites with some snarl and twang with the neck pickup is fat, hollow, and slightly muted in the top-end. The middle Strat pickup adds those quintessential quacky, out-of-phase tones that are so expressive. Finding these tones on a Tele is a little strange at first and then... it's AWESOME! Throw in the Push/Pull control on the tone control that adds the neck pickup to positions 1 and 2 and you have more tones on hand than ever before! A master volume and master tone control off complete control over this stellar array of single-coil pickups.
The New Player Plus Series from Fender is rewriting the script on what a value-packed guitar looks like. Looks, tone, and playability were at the forefront of this redesign and Fender just crushed it! Killer colors, proprietary noiseless pickups, thoughtful neck specs, and classic looks have me wondering what more could you ask for?
