“An all around versatile guitar. It’ll only get better after I spend some time with it”: Fender has quietly rolled out a hardtail Player Plus Strat – and Jim Root has already taken one for a test drive

Fender has quietly released a limited edition hardtail Player Plus HSS Stratocaster, and Slipknot’s Jim Root has already taken one for a spin. 

Posting on Instagram, the Fender signature artist gave his initial reaction to the trem-less electric guitar, saying it was “pretty much an all-around versatile guitar outta the box”. 

The model, which has arrived in a rather stealthy fashion without any fanfare from Fender, is most notable for its hardware. After all, hardtail Strats don’t come around too often, and the recent 70th Anniversary Antigua model is definitely an exception. 

It also comes packing with a Fireball neck humbucker. Fender says this delivers a “powerful balance of gain and definition”. For Root, it helps things get “Iron Maiden-y”. 

Root also singled out the Player Plus Noiseless single-coils, saying they provide “that saucy bluesy stuff” and adding, “It’ll only get better after I spend some time with it.”  

Elsewhere, the Web Exclusive Fender model – which joins the Player Plus line that first debuted in 2021 – features an alder body and maple C-profile neck, with a 12″ radius pau ferro fretboard. It offers a 25.5″ scale length, 22 medium jumbo frets, and classic white pearloid dot inlays. 

A push/pull control activates the Fireball humbucker’s coil splitting to maximize the guitar’s versatility – but, again, it’s the appointment of a hardtail bridge that particularly catches the eye. 

It’s a six-saddle, string-through-body bridge with block saddles that sees the guitar step away from the Stratocaster’s whammy-laden lineage. The contemporary spec is also far more in keeping with the tastes of Root, whose own signature Fender models all have hardtail bridges.

The Slipknot-approved hardtail Player Plus Strat is priced at $1,229 and available exclusively from Fender.

In other news, Root recently revealed he used a Neural DSP Quad Cortex for some Slipknot shows, even after saying he’d never use modeling amps