Musician's Friend has the Fender Player Stratocaster HSS Plus Top Limited-Edition Electric Guitar in Blue Burst for $599.99, with free shipping and 8% Musician's Friend rewards.
This is slightly higher than a previous deal from 9 weeks ago, but these are new not open box. (At least they're supposed to be. This is Musician's Friend we're talking about.)
Great option for a really attractive Strat with more versatility thanks to the bridge humbucker. The lower tone control also applies to the bridge pickup.
Finally, this is a Player Strat, not a Player Plus. The "Plus" goes with "Top".
Body
Body shape: Double cutaway
Body type: Solidbody
Body material: Solid wood
Top wood: Flame Maple
Body wood: Alder
Body finish: Gloss
Orientation: Right handed
Neck
Neck shape: C modern
Neck wood: Maple
Joint: Bolt-on
Scale length: 25.5"
Truss rod: Dual-action
Neck finish: Gloss
Fingerboard
Material: Maple
Radius: 9.5"
Fret size: Medium-jumbo
Number of frets: 2
Inlays: Dot
Nut width/material 1.69" (43 mm) Synthetic Bone
Pickups
Configuration: HSS
Neck: Player Series Stratocaster single coil
Middle: Player Series Stratocaster single coil
Bridge: Player Series Stratocaster humbucker
Brand: Fender
Active or passive pickups: Passive
Series or parallel: Parallel
Piezo: No
Active EQ: No
Controls
Control layout: Master volume, tone 1, tone 2
Pickup switch: 5-way
Coil tap or split:
Kill switch: No
Hardware
Bridge type: Tremolo/Vibrato
Bridge design: 2-point Fulcrum tremolo bent steel saddles
There's nothing wrong with the guitar in this OP or the SSS model. Pick whichever you'd like.
Where I disagree is that one should buy a guitar EXPECTING to replace/upgrade significant components. Some people just love doing that, and that's fine. For myself, I don't really want the hassle of buying a new guitar, buying a new pickguard (cut for a humbucker in the bridge position), finding and buying a decent sounding humbucker with mounting screws compatible with the new pickguard, and then the subsequent expense or effort of unmounting, unsoldering, soldering, re-mounting, re-installing, while making sure you keep polarity and windings straight, get the tone control the way you want, etc. If you pay for this work, it's going to be a good $200 plus the pickup with anyone you'd trust to do it, less whatever you could sell a Fat 50's bridge pickup for by itself. A friend had his $2k Kiesel utterly ruined by a local guitar store technician who was changing a pickup.
The Player series pickups are perfectly usable mainstream pickups. I've heard what good players get out of them. Are the Fat 50's pickups better? Very possibly, but much of their sound is going to depend on the player.
I wouldn't do that, I would sell the whole loaded pick guard and find another one. The roasted maple neck is also a huge upgrade. That's a $400 neck.
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edit: i guess most people think of a super strat with at least 1 humbucker and a fully floating tremolo. Oh well
Where I disagree is that one should buy a guitar EXPECTING to replace/upgrade significant components. Some people just love doing that, and that's fine. For myself, I don't really want the hassle of buying a new guitar, buying a new pickguard (cut for a humbucker in the bridge position), finding and buying a decent sounding humbucker with mounting screws compatible with the new pickguard, and then the subsequent expense or effort of unmounting, unsoldering, soldering, re-mounting, re-installing, while making sure you keep polarity and windings straight, get the tone control the way you want, etc. If you pay for this work, it's going to be a good $200 plus the pickup with anyone you'd trust to do it, less whatever you could sell a Fat 50's bridge pickup for by itself. A friend had his $2k Kiesel utterly ruined by a local guitar store technician who was changing a pickup.
The Player series pickups are perfectly usable mainstream pickups. I've heard what good players get out of them. Are the Fat 50's pickups better? Very possibly, but much of their sound is going to depend on the player.