I bought an Yngwie Malmsteen strat on Ebay and it's a great guitar

[Nitro Express]

I purchased a Yngwie Malmsteen Strat on Ebay on impulse and have been playing it for awhile. It's got the scalloped fretboard. What's cool is the fretwork is beautifuly done. The guitar is a basically a late 60's Strat with the large headstock and tuners correct for that era. Non-hum Dimarzio pickups and a brass nut.

It takes a while to get used to it but once you do, man, I think this is one of the best guitars I've ever owned. The frets are huge. She seems to stay in tune quite well for a standard vibrato.

What's cool is the scalloping allows you to relax your hand more and you can play faster. Hammer ons are easier and you can bend full chords by pressing down harder. It's like a whole different instrument and the single coil pickups seem to work really well with the setup. I like the sound of the guitar.

What I love is it is a radicle take on a classic gutar design. It would be interesting to make one with pickups out of a Wolfgang and see what happens.

[UGS]

That's awesome man!

How's the scalloping work? Is it all the all the way down the neck, or just the higher frets?

[BrownSound1]

Yngwie models are scalloped all the way down the neck. I can't play on those damn things...everything I play goes SHARP as hell.

[Nitro Express]

You will go sharp at first but you will get a feel for it. It's amazing how much friction is on regular guitars when you get used to playing on a scalloped neck. I never appreciated Yngwie until now. Now I'm into him big time. Too bad he's limited in his songwriting because he really is a great player and does it his way.

Anyways, I've had so many Strats and this one is really different. The previouse owner didn't play it much but it's all aged and broken in. I wouldn't change a thing on it, it's perfect. Man I wish I would have boughten one years ago.

[Matt White]

"LET THE SHREDDING COMMENCE!!!":)

[Hardrock69]

UNLEASH THE FOOKIN' FURY!!!!!!!!!

[Panamark]

Never had the chance to play one, but would love to (Out of sheer curiousty !)

[Nitro Express]

I really consider myself a Les Paul type guy but I always had to have a Strat because only a Strat can do certain things. I never really owned any Strat that gave me a hard-on. This one does. You really have to handle one of these in person to appreciate it. How can you go wrong with a maple strat neck with scooped out wood between the frets and the frets are like major jumbos. It's some cool shit and it works. Then there's the good taste that all classic Strats have. There's nothing cooler than a well worn vintage looking Strat.

I never could figure out why Yngwie never used humbuckers but I'm not sure if they would work as good with a scalloped neck. A good Marshall thickens the tone and it all seems to match. It's actually pretty versitile. I mean I think Yngwie sounded as good if not better than Steve Vai and Joe Satriani using a good ol strat and Marshalls.

[saint]

I played a squire once back in late 80, early 90 with scalloped fretboard, the only bad thing about it was that I did the scallopeing, totally ruined the guitar.

Was a big Yngwie fan then and still is but I wont do that mistake again with recently bought 84 Japan Strat.

[UGS]

Anyone know if any other Strats (or other guitars) come with a scalloped fretboard?

[saint]

Ibanez JEM2KDNA

I believe Steve Vai had something to do whit that

[saint]

Found a pic.

[UGS]

Thanks saint. . .I was hoping for something maybe cheaper, but oh well.

[Nitro Express]

Yeah, I do a little bit of woodworking and scalloping a neck looks like a lot of work to do it propperly. All Parts sells scalloped necks that fit strats and Warmoth will scallop a neck for you. It's not cheap. I figure a nice scalloped neck will run you around $300-$500. If you get a good deal on a Ynqwie Signature Strat, you can get one for around $800. Maybe less if it's dinged a bit. I think these are made in the Fender Custom Shop, the mail order price is $1,300.

[Panamark]

That Ibanez looks interesting, scalloped only above the 12th ??
That looks pretty cool !

[saint]

My guitar player had one of those with monkey grip and all,
he wouldn’t let me play it though...

what an asshole :p

[Panamark]

Actually is that scalloped only above the 17th ????

Ive never seen that before..

[saint]

Fret 21-24 Scalloped
I think there where only 300 made worldwide

[Panamark]

Originally posted by saint
Fret 21-24 Scalloped
I think there where only 300 made worldwide

Fark !! Thats Radical.... I would love to try one of these !

[saint]

He was pretty proud of it and it had a killer sound though I think they are ugly as hell

[saint]

Now I found a pic. of it. It was a JEM777VSK Shocking Pink They where only made in 1989, not sure it was only 300 made though

[saint]

Forgot to attach :)

[Nitro Express]

I played a JEM once and they are nice playable guitars but for some reason they aren't my cup of tea. They are nicer looking than the Joe Satriani model which I think looks like a boring blob.

The only super strats that gave me a hard on were the Jackson USA Solist and a USA made Kramer Baretta.

Come to think of it, I have no super strats currently in my guitar collection. I've sold and traded them all off. I have traditional Stratocasters of variouse sorts. I know some guitars are cut away more to give you easier access to the upper frets and the heal of the neck joint is shaped to be more comfortable, but I still like the strat Leo Fender came up with. A Floyd Rose is nice sometimes but I can get along fine with the good ol Fender trem.

[GAR]

Originally posted by UGS
How's the scalloping work?

Oh we'll do a layout on how to scallop by this summer when I dig all my tools and crappy projects out of storage, trust me.

The only thing I don't like about the Malmsteen strat besides that ALL the pickups are DiMarzio HS3's is that the scalloping is done too deep and for me that kinda ruins it.

- and of course, the paint. I don't dig polyester paint ::coughbowlingballfinishcough::

[Nitro Express]

Yup, the Ynqwie model I have is basically a 70's Strat with the thick polyester all over the thing, the bullet truss rod, and the big ass head stock. The scalloping is major like GAR mentioned and the frets are huge and I love the thing! It doesn't have the three bolt neck joint though.

What's cool about Strats is everyone has their own deffinition of what the perfect one is. I always liked the 70's strats if it was a good one but so many people hated them with a passion. The only strats I don't like are the late 50's ones with the V neck. I hate those.

I amazed my Yngwie Strat stays in tune as well as it does because there is some major wood missing between the frets. I wonder if there is a double expanding truss rod in the thing because a standard truss rod might not work since the wood it pushes agains has been thinned. You would expect some major neck warpage or flexing but she's a rock!

[GAR]

Originally posted by Nitro Express
I never could figure out why Yngwie never used humbuckers

Because a strat pickup has only 1 row of polepieces and a very narrow flux gap from string to polepiece, it senses only THAT portion of the string which is limited in harmonic overtones.

Humbuckers sense the string along a much wider path giving a warmer sound because the flux gap senses the string across a very wide portion which is much richer in harmonic overtones than the strat.

This is why getting a Roger Mayer Octavia to work well with a Paul or a humbucker-loaded guitar is very difficult. Harmonizers and octavers work on the principle of doubling the frequency of the strings' note you feed into it from the guitar output: if the output is something sensed across a wide length of the string you'll have a hard time getting that Voodoo Chile or Star Spangled Banner fuzztone going.

Hendrix had it easier in the fuzz arena for that reason.

[Nitro Express]

Strat pickups either sound awful or wonderful and you certainly have to use the right amp and effects with them. I tottaly hated Strats with a passion until I got the right pickups and learned how to use the thing.

[scottd1984]

The Ritchie Blackmore Strat(s) have them also. the American Custom shop one has the set neck and 2 Lace Sensor p/u's The Japanese has 2 Duncan Quarter Pound Strat p/u's and a bolt on neck

[jojo2371]

Originally posted by saint
Forgot to attach :)

man is it just me or did it seem like every kid on the block in 1987 had a neon pink guitar(prolly a cheap kramer) or wanted a dweezil green guitar !!!!!! the good ole days when we all swore "no seriously dude i really can play eruption !!!!!! "

[jojo2371]

lol was supposed to have grabbed the pic of the pink jem !!!!

[Nitro Express]

I'm still kicking myself for trading a nice early 70's Les Paul Custom for one of those Kramers in the 80's.

[jojo2371]

are u serious nitro ? man dont feel to bad those kramers were huge back then ,people tend to forget it was the guitar to have !!!!