Ash and maple — back to Fender’s roots

The Player II Telecaster has a revered solid maple neck and a rosewood fingerboard, supplying you with bell-like note clarity and snappy touch-sensitive attack to fingerstyle or plectrum play. In keeping with contemporary tastes, the neck offers speed-friendly agility with a modern C-shaped profile suitable for virtually any player. This Player II Telecaster’s chambered ash body is a rare throwback to the first Telecasters; those guitar bodies were made of ash. They sounded similar to alder Teles, but if you listen closely, you’ll likely hear bolder sustain and thicker midrange power. Ash pairs nicely with big open chord strums, fingerpicking, leads, and even high-gain riffs.

But if ash is so good, why did Fender abandon it? It was the economics of scale that prompted a switch. Fender had to rethink its materials as the company grew. Ash trees vary in weight more than alder trees, making ash more challenging to work into a consistent, affordable guitar. Building such a guitar was a guiding principle behind the Telecaster’s creation. This Tele’s ash body is chambered to help ensure consistent weight ranges with the balance, approximate weight, and feel that Telecaster fans love. No Fender fan’s journey is complete without revisiting the original tonewood formula found on this guitar!

Famous pickups with a twist

You’re sure to cut through the mix, thanks to the Player II series Telecaster’s Alnico V pickups. These single-coil pickups deliver classic sounds that have been with us since the dawn of the Tele, but with increased punch and output. The extra brawn of Alnico V pickups brings firepower and sizzle to chicken pickin’ and leads. But the added oomph is also suitable for driving effects pedals or for getting stadium-size tones when plugging into low-wattage combos, amp sims, and recording interfaces. Need less twang? The neck pickup smooths the cadence and body of clean jazz, country lines, and mellow riffs. Full-on amp distortion sounds great in either position, yielding tight lows and stinging highs. Aggressive twang, smoky jazz, saturated high gain — everything sounds great through these pickups.