I just got the best email from a manufacturer...

[Pineweasel]

They have appeared on the Thomann site in Europe now: https://www.thomann.de/gb/fender_player ... tpl_lh.htm

[donahue]

Guys, is this significant because up until this point there has been no lefty MIM P basses? I'm not being sarcastic or anything just curious about the significance? And if so, will there be a MIM PJ model?

[Matt R.]

Maple boards & apparently new/different colors too.

[Jeroen]

And the first mid-priced Fender P outside of Japan in ages.

[Matt R.]

Well. The colors are wack. But yay for maple necks and lefty Mexi-P’s. Ironically, the black Jazz w/maple board turns out to be my favorite.

[Pineweasel]

Guys, is this significant because up until this point there has been no lefty MIM P basses? I'm not being sarcastic or anything just curious about the significance? And if so, will there be a MIM PJ model?

That's correct, there's been no MIM Precision for some time. Also, a choice of 4 colours each for the Player Precision or Jazz, and some of them have maple boards, which Fender haven't offered on lefty basses since 1980, I think. So quite exciting, all in all.

No sign of a new PJ though, either left or right handed.

[pjmuck]

Is the fretboard choice an option on all lefty finishes, or is what you see what you get? (i.e. can I get any finish with a maple fretboard or only in the colors currently being advertised?).

[pjmuck]

Correction: It looks like maple is only offered on the black and Tidepool finishes for the P. Pau Ferro on the SB and white ones. As for the J, maple's offered on the black and white models. Pau Ferro Sonic Red and SB.

[Jeroen]

A fellow lefty just shared this Reddit post on Basschat.co.uk:

[DISCUSSION] Do NOT order the new Fender Player Series guitars, especially not online.
EDIT: By popular request, I took pictures of the nut slots of the remaining 6 guitars we have with issues. We have 22 total after sending 12 on their way back to Fender. Check the album here: https://imgur.com/a/MYiboYV

Let me introduce myself. I work in one of the largest guitar stores in the Southeast, and so I have access to a lot of products before they're officially slated to be released. Nothing was different about the new Fender Player series, slated to launch tomorrow 6/19, which I got a week and a half early. I feel the need to put out a PSA advising everyone to not order one at all or at least go to a store if you're dead set on it, but there are reasons why you shouldn't buy one, even if you like it. I'll go over them below.

Preface

The Fender Player series is the successor to the Mexican Standard series. Fender got tired of people asking about the difference between the American and Mexican Standards, so Fender abolished the former in favor of the American Professional series and the latter in favor of the new Player series. Keep that in mind as you read this.

Nut slots

You know how everyone has been ragging on Gibson for not cutting their nut slots right sometimes? Well, the Player series is making Gibson look like saints. We have 34 guitars out of that series, and 18 of them have incorrectly slotted nuts. String spacing seems to be the most common issue - strings too far apart (causing another pair of strings to be too close together).

Fret ends

Every single one of the 34 we have has sharp fret ends. One of our techs actually cut his finger a bit while moving up the fretboard. We're currently in talks with Fender to have them pay us in credit to fix that issue on all of them. When you pick up a new Player series, be sure to check that out. It seems like they rushed QC to get these guitars out fast.

Downgraded electronics

The new pickups are alright, but the problem is that Fender switched to cheap Chinese pots instead of the CTS pots they were using before. It's noticeable, too - the volume taper isn't as smooth, and a few of them out of our 34 plainly refused to work. This makes the new pickups they designed almost inconsequential.

Price

The real kicker in all of this is the price. Player series Strats and Teles are more expensive than the Mexican Standards they replaced - the new ones are $675 street versus $600 street on the old Standards, even with the downgraded electronics.

Conclusion

I'm not ordering you to not buy them, but I'm advising you to explore other, more economical options instead of these. The problems these have been having and the scale on which they've been happening make them a risky buy, especially if you're ordering online. You're pretty much guaranteed to get sharp fret ends, a 50/50 coin flip on the nut slots being cut correctly, and a slight but still possible chance that some of the electronics won't work when you receive it.

If you have to, please try one out in a store. You might find a good one. But there are too many bad ones to take a risk, in my opinion.

Thanks for reading.

[tim]

Wow. That's some frightening honesty.

[bobjones2260]

Great information and thanks for sharing! I always felt the same about MIM Fender Products, some Fender MIM strats were amazing and on par with Japan and US however some MIM strats were very poorly constructed. So you really had to play a MIM first to really determine what you are getting. Fender Japan seems to be very consistent (as with most products manufactured in Japan).

[AzWhoFan]

Wow! just wow

[pjmuck]

I've encountered similar issues with the new G&L L2000 Tribute (Bought a tobacco burst one a few months ago when they weren't easy to find, and now you're seeing them popping up regularly): really sharp frets and a general overall feel and QC that seems sub-standard to the older natural finished one I had years ago. The new one doesn't even come with a gig bag anymore.

I'll pass on these new Fenders as well.

[andrew]

Disappointing news if the quality control on these is questionable. Hopefully Fender fixes that. There's a couple of these I wouldn't mind having.

[Matt R.]

As spotty as their quality is on their high end gear, this disappoints but does not shock me. But I haven’t put my hands on one so...

[bigevilrobot]

I've had my hands on a few now including what was shown to dealers earlier in June at the meeting (those were obviously polished up pretty nicely).

What's come through for stock so far has been really good. We had a FR loaded strat show up yesterday that plays like a dream.

I've seen that copy and paste reddit post in a few places and really question it's validity. It looks more like a long-form attempt at trolling, and it's definitely working.
You should definitely "PLAY" a player series first, then judge.

In regard to the Tribute G&L's, I know it's been brought up to them and they are working on improving that QC actively. Those guys care a lot about their product arriving in good playing condition.

[Matt R.]

I've had my hands on a few now including what was shown to dealers earlier in June at the meeting (those were obviously polished up pretty nicely).

What's come through for stock so far has been really good. We had a FR loaded strat show up yesterday that plays like a dream.

I've seen that copy and paste reddit post in a few places and really question it's validity. It looks more like a long-form attempt at trolling, and it's definitely working.
You should definitely "PLAY" a player series first, then judge.

In regard to the Tribute G&L's, I know it's been brought up to them and they are working on improving that QC actively. Those guys care a lot about their product arriving in good playing condition.

That’s good to know! Grains of salt, always.

[Jeroen]

The Reddit post and the user account have since been deleted.

[paulo]

Besides that post all reviews are positive.

[bigevilrobot]

I played a Tidepool P-bass a bunch yesterday, it was pretty good. Unfortunately it's not mine

I think that P-bass purists may not like the neck profile, it's fairly modern feeling. As a guy that mostly plays Jazz basses and more modern necks, I like it.

The fretwork was fine, it certainly wasn't Ibanez Japan quality and I can see where it would need some tweaks by the winter months.

The out of the box setup was fair, the pickups were as usual much too close to the strings.