As the world’s first mass-production solidbody electric guitar fast approaches its 75th birthday, Fender continues to offer variations on the theme. But the biggest takeaway from the design’s diamond anniversary might be that variations straying relatively little from the original concept still fare best with players.

The Mexican-made Player II Series Telecaster checks many of these boxes with classic looks plus two single-coil pickups with Alnico V magnets, traditional controls, and four-screw neck attachment with iconic headstock shape and “spaghetti” logo. The maple neck with rosewood fretboard and solid alder body also align with many vintage versions (other options are chambered ash and chambered mahogany). Look more closely, though, and you’ll find several modifications that separate the Player II from a vintage reissue.

The fretboard has 22 medium-jumbo frets enabled by a slight extension, with a headstock-accessible truss nut; the bridge plate has no sidewalls and carries six individually adjustable die-cast saddles; the neck pickup’s height-adjustment screws are through the pickguard rather than into the body beneath it, and the vintage-look tuners have threaded ferrules rather than screws through the back. Eleven gloss-polyester finish colors are available (with satin polyurethane on the neck), some assigned maple fretboards and others rosewood, like our Birch Green review model – a color close to a rich foam green that is much more appealing in person than the pea-green impression it makes online.

The Player II Tele played very well right out of the box; its comfortable “modern C” neck profile will appeal to any player who’s not hooked on girthy ’50s shapes. Tested through a British-voiced dual-EL84 head with 2×12 cab and a tweed Deluxe-style 1×12 combo, it was certifiably Telecaster through and through, from clean to mean and everywhere between. Even at what we’d consider a reasonable price for a genuine Fender model, the Player II delivered the essential elements that have made the Telecaster arguably the most-versatile electric guitar available for three quarters of a century – spanky and chimey, yet meaty into clean tones, twangy and trenchant into edge-of-breakup settings, and inspiringly raw and expressive into overdrive. It’s simply another great Telecaster from the company that invented the form.

This article originally appeared in VG’s October 2024 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.