“Icons reimagined”: Fender gives four Player II classics a stunning Shell Pink refresh – and this web-exclusive drop might be sweetest we’ve seen

(Image credit: Fender)

Four of Fender’s Player II electric guitars have been given a web-exclusive Shell Pink finish, making the cult-classic colorway available at a more affordable price point.

Launched in June 2024 as a “detailed re-imagining” of the firm’s wildly popular, and fairly priced Player series, the sequel has been nothing short of a success.

It brought never-before-seen body options and rosewood fingerboards to the series for the first time, and now four axes – taking in its Stratocaster, Telecaster, Jazzmaster, and Precision Bass guitar designs – have now been given a chic glow-up.

Coming in just shy of $1k apiece – that’s $999 for the Strat, $944 for the rest – the US-exclusive models are well-specced for their price tags.

With a chambered ash body, modern C-shaped neck profile and a 9.5“ radius rosewood fingerboard with rolled edges, the Strat sticks closely to the Player II recipe. And it’s repeated across the other two six-strings, only here we have contoured alder bodies.

Fender has gone for classically voiced electronics here. The Shell Pink Strat has a trio of Pure Vintage ’65 Single Coil Strat Pickups, the Jazzmaster a pair of Pure Vintage ’65 Single-Coil Jazzmaster pups, while the Tele packs two Pure Vintage ’64 single coils.

There’s a two-point synchronized tremolo with bent steel saddles on the Strat, a Jazzmaster bridge with Mustang saddles and vintage-style “floating” tailpiece on the Jazzmaster, and a six-saddle string-through-body bridge with block steel saddles on the Tele. They are all bestowed with ClassicGear tuners.

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As for the Precision bass, it takes a leaf out of the Strat’s book. See its contoured ash body, modern C-profile maple neck, and 9.5″ radius fingerboard with 20 frets. Again, the fingerboard has rolled edges for comfort. The 34″ build is capped with a four-saddle standard bridge, Pure Vintage ’60 Split-Coil Precision pickups, and Standard Open-Gear tuners.

(Image credit: Fender)The Player II series, Fender says, presents “stage-ready guitars with contemporary updates to power your performance and inspire your playing.”

Meanwhile, the Shell Pink colorway – an underrated look in my eyes – sees “Fender icons reimagined in a bold, web-exclusive finish.”

The Shell Pink guitars are, sadly, only available on the US website. I, for one, am heartbroken.

Head to Fender for more.

Back in April, Fender brought in-demand mods to the Player II line, after new tonewoods and forgotten finishes were revived in a series expansion last October.

The Fender Player Telecaster was Reverb’s best-selling electric guitar in 2024, toppling the PRS SE Silver Sky after the John Mayer signature guitar spent several years at the top of the charts.

A freelance writer with a penchant for music that gets weird, Phil is a regular contributor to Prog, Guitar World, and Total Guitar magazines and is especially keen on shining a light on unknown artists. Outside of the journalism realm, you can find him writing angular riffs in progressive metal band, Prognosis, in which he slings an 8-string Strandberg Boden Original, churning that low string through a variety of tunings. He’s also a published author and is currently penning his debut novel which chucks fantasy, mythology and humanity into a great big melting pot.