Fender Stratocaster Yngwie Malmsteen Signature Guitar

Yngwie Malmsteen is sort of in a genre of his own. To call his music metal is sort of a stretch by today’s standards. Regardless, the guy can shred better than 90 percent of the players today, and without him, shredding wouldn’t be the same.

Inspired by to pick up guitar by powerful footage of Jimi Hendrix sacrificing his axe, Yngwie (Ing-vay) started playing with Hendrix and Deep Purple as his influences. Later he would become interested in classical composers like Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, and Vivaldi. Studying classical music, Malmsteen developed his own style of neo-classical metal.

The Yngwie Malmsteen Signature Strat was designed by the man himself and had a lot to do with his signature sound. The guitar has an alder body, a maple neck, and a scalloped rosewood fingerboard lined with 21 super-jumbo frets. For sound the guitar houses two DiMarzio YJM Signature Pickups in the neck and middle positions and 1 DiMarzio HS-3 Stack at the bridge. The tone is controlled by 1 knob for the neck pickup, and 1 knob for the bridge and middle pickups. For pickup selection there is a three way switch, one position for each pickup.

The bridge is an American Vintage Synchronized Tremolo and the headstock has a brass nut, which gives the sharp tone Yngwie is known for. The guitar comes in three finishes, Candy Apple Red, Vintage White, and Sonic Blue, and has aged plastic parts and pickup covers.

Although I have never played a YJM Strat myself, I have heard one played. Let me tell you, even if you cant play like Yngwie, you can sound like him with this guitar. I did play a guitar once with a scalloped frettboard, and I have played jumbo fret fenders before, but never one with both. Both jumbo frets and scalloped fretboards I find strange to play on. It may also be the way the action was set on the guitars I played but I couldn’t get used to it in the short time I had. I found myself having to consciously remind myself that my fingers don’t have to touch the fretboard, so long as the string touches the fret.

Feature Summary

• Alder Body/Maple Neck/Rosewood or Maple Fingerboard
• 21 Dunlop 6000 Super-Jumbo Frets
• 2 DiMarzio YJM Pickups (Neck/Middle)
• 1 DiMarzio HS-3 Stack (Bridge)
• 1 Master Volume/1 Tone (Neck)/1 Tone (Bridge/Middle)
• 3-way Switch
• American Vintage Synchronized Tremolo
• Chrome Hardware
• Brass Nut
• 3 Finishes and Aged trim/pickup covers

Read the other posts in this series:

1. Guitar Reviews: March Metal Madness
2. Fender Stratocaster Yngwie Malmsteen Signature Guitar
3. ESP KH-2 Kirk Hammett Signature Guitar
4. ESP Ninja 600 Michael Amott Signature Guitar
5. Gibson Les Paul Zakk Wylde CAMO Signature Guitar
6. Jackson RR1 Randy Rhoads Signature Guitar
7. Dean USA Razorback Tribute Dimebag Darrell Signature Guitar
8. ESP Alexi Laiho Signature Guitar

Posted Saturday, March 25th, 2006 at 6:02 am under Guitar Reviews.

Tags: buy-guitar, guitar, metal, review

Related Posts

• Guitar Reviews: March Metal Madness
• ESP Alexi Laiho Signature Guitar
• ESP KH-2 Kirk Hammett Signature Guitar
• ESP Ninja 600 Michael Amott Signature Guitar Review

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