First of all, I ordered this guitar because I was looking for a Fender Stratocaster but the American Professional Series was too expensive for my budget. I was quite lucky, because the moment I decided I wanted a real strat was the moment that the Player Series came out.
The good aspects:
- The sound is amazing. Great pick ups with a nice output.
- Satin finish on the neck makes it comfortable and easy to play.
- Flawless fret job.
- The colour is beautiful!
- Holds tune quite well even when abused by the two point tremolo system.
- Tone configuration for brigde pick up adds a new tone diversity to stratocasters that just was not there in the past.
The bad aspects:
- The Volume and Tone knobs feel a bit cheap in my personal opinion. Not such a tidy construction here.
- The tremolo block is a bit thin for my taste. I would expect a 555 euro guitar to have a solid and thick tremolo block, but sadly this is not the case.
- I would prefer if this guitar had a tortoise shell pickguard to better suit the white colour. But this is a matter of personal preference. I might purchase one eventually.
Nevertheless, the guitar plays great, sounds as you would expect from a Fender guitar and looks absolutely stunning. I am well satisfied with my purchase.
This might not happen in your country, but the delivery of this guitar took a staggering 7 days (week days) which is not a good service at all. The guitar arrived Friday on the 6th of July in the nearest UPS station in my country. But it was only delivered at my house the following tuesday on the 10th. The reason? Thomann misplaced my address and I had to call UPS, thus spending more of my personal income, since they charge you for phone calls, to solve this matter. Not pleased with my service. Thankfully, the guitar arrived in good condition, otherwise I would definitely issue a refund.
But this was the first time that it happened, so I'm positive it will not happen to anyone else.