My first guitar is a 1999 Chinese squire strat. I’ve played it to death and it still sounds alright, but you have to mess around to get the best out of it. Many hours have been played and I thought that this is how a guitar feels.
Since then I have gone through a couple of SG’s, an Gibson Les Paul and a Harley Benton Tele. All play differently of course but my base is a strat.
I got a Harley Benton Strat, seafoam green with a roasted neck and already with this, I could tell that my beloved squire (as good as it is) needed some tlc to get it back to playing like a guitar should. In 20 years on, construction and quality is even better that it used to be, so I was quite happy with this new upgrade.
But when the player II series was released, something told me that this was the right time to go for a fender. I am so glad I did. This guitar is awesome. I haven’t adjusted anything since it came delivered (except tuning of course). But even tuning, it stays consistent even with big bends and hard playing. It’s easily become my favourite guitar and can handle a variety of styles.
I used to think that quality of guitars didn’t matter and that I could make up for the difference or I wasn’t worthy or a “better guitar”. While this is probably true of expert guitarists (which I am not) I have to say, for me this is the perfect balance between price and quality. I don’t warrant a 2 grand guitar, but equally, I can see the difference between the 100-200 price range at 500-700.
For me, it will be player series from now on!