Fender Player II Telecaster Modified SH – On the Bench Today

00:00 – Introduction
00:15 – What is Modified?
01:50 – Weight
03:16 – Pickup Resistance
03:41 – Pickup Inductance
04:00 – Final Observations
06:08 – Sound Sample 1
06:25 – Sound Sample 2
06:41 – Sound Sample 3
06:58 – Sound Sample 4
07:16 – Sound Sample 5
07:37 – Sound Sample 6

Fender Player II Telecaster Modified SH

On the bench today is the Fender Player II Telecaster Modified.
What does modified mean for this guitar?
Well, take a Fender Player II telecaster as the base guitar and add the following upgrades:
Player II Modified Humbucker and Noiseless™ Tele® Pickups. The Fender Player II Telecaster HH comes with Player Alnico 2 Humbuckers.
Upgraded Electronics which means a Push Pull Coil Split on the Tone Control.
Modern Tele® Bridge with 6 Block Brass Saddles. The Player II has Block Steel Saddles.
Short Post Fender Locking Tuning Machines. The Player II Telecaster HH comes with ClassicGear™ tuners.
TUSQ® Nut and a Modern String Tree. The Player II Telecasters come with Synthetic Bone (Plastic).
Last but not least – IT COMES WITH A PADDED FENDER GIG BAG!!!!!
All this for $1029 or less if you click on the heart of a few on Reverb and wait for the deals to come. Mine was $999. The Player II Telecasters new go for $799. In my opinion for $200 more to get all of the upgrades (including the cost of the parts plus the labor to install them) is not a bad deal at all.
I have heard the premise for the guitar being referred to as Fender incorporating in all of the modifications or upgrades a player would make to their Player II guitar over a period of time but done by Fender.
My guitar weighs in at 8 pounds and 2 ounces or 3.71 kilos.
The rosewood fretboard was a little dry and needed some oil. Otherwise, the rosewood is beautiful. Someone recently called me in the comments “the king of rosewood.” The Player II series of guitars and their after-market parts has made having rosewood on guitars and builds affordable.
My favorite Telecaster model are the 60s guitars with rosewood fretboards and some with binding. I also love a 50s style blonde telecaster with a black guard and maple neck. That is just classic. Period. But the evolution of the guitar from the 50s to 60s is amazing to me. The guitar is still the same but a little more refined. Plus, I also prefer the pickups.
I found no rough edges on the edges of the fretboard. The rounded edges are a nice feature.
I found three places on the fretboard that some raised frets. Very minor and always on the treble side of the fretboard. Fret 4, 15, 18 all had a minor but noticeable amount of rocking.
I really like the locking tuners and as always, the Tusq XL nut slots are cut properly.
The look of the gloss front of the head stock and the satin back of the neck are well done.
The overall feel of the neck for playability is it is a standard Modern C with a 9.5 inch radius.
The electronic cavities all have conductive paint for shielding.
The electronics are well assembled and consist of a CTS pot for the volume, Oak Grigsby 3-way switch, and a Bourns Push Pull pot. There is a small circuit board on the volume pot that is a treble bleed circuit. It looks like it gives the ability to turn it off or on.
Measuring resistance on the pickups. The bridge pickup measures 13.1 k ohms, both pickups together measure 4.97 k ohms, and the neck pickup measures 7.85 k ohms in humbucking mode and with the push pull pulled and in split mode it measures 4.074 k ohms.
Measuring inductance, the bridge measures 4.948 Henries, both pickups together measure 2.516 Henries, the neck position in humbucking mode the pickup measures 4.765 Henries, and in split mode 1.989 Henries.
Neck relief was adjusted, string height was adjusted. I found on the guitar was the A and G strings were not intonated properly.
String height for the bridge pickup was set too low.
All in all – all of the things that I found were easily remediated.
The finish on the guitar on my guitar is difficult to take video or photos of. It is called dusk. It is not black but a very dark purple. I really like it and think it is vey unique.
With the saddles, nut, and tuners the guitar really stays in tune which is really nice.
I was surprised by what I liked and did not like with the pickups. I do not like the neck pickup clean in humbucking mode. It is all low end and muffled. I had the tone pot full at 10. I adjusted the amp. Was the same no matter what. I liked the coil spilt of this pickup and found it was useful clean. The middle position of both pickups with the neck in humbucking is very useable and has great lows, mids, and highs. I was surprised I like the bridge noiseless pickup. Very clean and responsive with great lows, mids, and highs.
Distorted the neck humbucker is great with a Boss DS-1 and so is also the bridge.
I like the guitar. I may eventually replace the neck humbucker though. I am now interested in hearing how the pickups on the other Player II Telecaster modified sound.