EKO Y Malmsteen Model

I painted the body hollow black a while ago. Basicly this thing is a strat with scalloped frets. Pickups could be better. For the price this is a bargain since I got it with a pod xt which was cheap. I would pay 300 for this without hesitating.

I play Metal, Hardcore, Rock, Sabbath, Blues, RHCP, Pink Floyd and lots of everything else.
This guitar haldels the softer side of my music. Sound is good and would be great if I got pick ups changed. Versatile and working.

Finish is changed to black so I quess I may forget that but action is great. One flaw is that high e string occasionally gets stuck between neck and fret. Pain in the....

Great guitar with pretty good soung, great action. If this was stolen I might buy a real strat of tele. No offence Eko.

2003 Made In Italy
21 Frets
1 Volume Control, Two Tone
Maple Neck with scalloped fingerboard
3 Single Coil pickups
Tremelo
70's large strat headstock style
All the features of a Fender Malmsteen Strat (although cheaper)

Sounds very good. Pickups are a bit noisy (but I expected that. You get a very nice Fender tone

The action is definitely high for my taste. So high, in fact, that I will have to put a shim in the neck joint since I cannot lower the bridge saddles enough to bring the action down to where it needs to be. I will also replace the nut with one of higher quality. The intonation set up at the factory was not very good. The scalloped fingerboard takes a bit of getting used to but not overly difficult. I like the clarity and distinctness of the fretted notes and also the enhanced vibrato, light touch and ease of string bending that the scalloped neck allows.

Seems very solid. I do not play outside the studio very much so it's not likely to get banged around too much. I wouldn't worry too much about it since the price is right.

No opinion. No warranty.

I have been playing for over 35 years
I would probably buy it again if lost or stolen because it is such a good value
The best feature is the scalloped fingerboard. I bought it primarily for this reason.

Made in Italy. 2002 21 scalloped frets. Got it from Michael at www.myrareguitars.com for $269 + shipping. The scallops are shallower than my 2003 Fender Malmsteen. The neck is made of 2 maple slabs glued together. I am sure that this saved money in the manufacturing process if there were any scalloping mistakes. My Fender is a one piece maple neck.

Tuners are sealed and seem ok.

The Body color is more of a yellow mustard than the "Butter Yellow" Vintage White of the Fender Malmsteen

The pick ups are actually hotter than the Dimarzio HS-3.
Sounds very nice. It does have the typical single coil noise.
The intonation was out of whack. My advice it have the guitar set up by a pro and you will enjoy it more.

High action from the factory. I took the neck off and found a wooden shim and half of a fender guitar pick. I think McGuyver was my builder. Once I put my own shim in it significantly improved the action.

The saddles can easily scratch away the chrome plating of the bridge.
The nut seems cheap and pinches the higher strings. I put some graphite on it (pencil lead) and it seems to have helped. The paint seems nice. I would bet it is not nitro cellulose laquer however.

The guitar body is routed to accomodate a humbucker in the neck and brigde position. I have been thinking about converting mine to a fat strat.

Seems solid. It is heavier than the Fender Yngwie Stratocaster.
The finish seems thick. The neck has a thick clear coat on it. The chrome on the bridge is wearing off from adjusting the saddles.
It seems dependible.

I don't think these are covered by any warranty.
Eko probably is being sued from Fender for building these.

I have been playing 20 years. I now own a 2003 Malmsteen Stratocaster. The Eko ST-YM was stop gap until I got the Fender. I would recommend the Eko for the money. It cost about a quarter of what I paid for the Fender Malmsteen.
I love the fact that I can play this guitar and not worry about dings since it was so inexpensive. I wish it had a better bridge.

2002 Italy
21 frets
Standard Strat configuration
regular tuners- Replace with Grover locking tuners.
Scaloped fretboard
Demo guitar from www.myrareguitars.com purchased at a nice discount.
This guitar is a strat copy with a scalloped fret board.

I'm giving this catagory a 9 because of the price I paid.

It sounds like a slightly noisy Mexican strat. The pickups on this guitar are not very good. They have inconsistent volume across the strings. Pickups were adjusted to fix the problem. The guitar sounds decent enough to me so I'm not planning a pickup swap out. If you have a decent amp or effects unit, you can dialup a decent sound.

Here's were the problems begin on this guitar. The guitar was built out of alignment. The string holes in the tremolo don't match up with the holes in the back coverplate. The tremolo routing was obviously redone by EKO so that it would move freely in the cavity. I decided to adjust the relief on the neck and found that the missed alignment caused other problems. One of the screw holes on the neck is too close to the edge so it cracked the wood. It's a small crack that will never be seen; however, this is statement for its lack of quality. Another oddity that this guitar possesses is, if it has been sitting a little while, the neck gives an internal pressure release. Sort of a pop when the neck grabbed.

The nut needs to be replaced with a graphite or slip-stone type nut. It causes the guitar to have major tuning problems. So far I have been putting graphite on the nut which takes care of the problem for about an hour. Then it starts having problems again. Cheap plastic nut.

While the scalloped fret board is nice, it also has some quality control issues. Apparently when EKO was doing the scallop, they screwed up. To fix this, they used some nasty looking glue to fill in the carved out wood.

With all of these manufacturing problems, it still plays well. Or lets say, not any worse than any other strat I've played. I would have sent it back; however, I like the scalloped neck and it would have been hard to find another scalloped neck guitar for $269.

Because of all the quality issues, I have to give this guitar a 2.

It will probably hold up well to years of abuse; however, the small internal pop that I described in the setup portion, give me reason to think the neck may have troubles in the future.

http://www.ekoguitars.com/ There was no warranty information given on the site. Plus it's in Italy. It would cost to much to warrant sending them the guitar for repair.

The only place I know of to buy this guitar is www.myrareguitars.com. My experience with the purchase was very positive. Since the ST-YM isn't listed as a model on EKO's website, I assume that it isn't being made anymore. In this case, I got what I paid for...A cheap Malmsteen copy. If I had the opportunity to purchase the guitar again, I would probably save my money and put it on a Carvin Bolt-T kit. A much better purchase for the money.

All the specs are the same as the other reviewer says.

To me the guitars electrics and single coil pickups sound a bit cheap (i'm used to good fender pickups)but i didn't expect any better as it was quite a cheap guitar,i just bought it for the neck really.

The model i have detunes a bit but this may be due to me only having played a guitar with a floyd rose trem for the past 4 years and developing a liking for bending strings really high due to that.


I plan to have a decent (locking)nut fitted to stop it going out of tune.
I wouldn't do that myself though as i think it's too risky.


The headstock looks cool,only a u.s strat can beat the look of it for me.

The neck looks very nice,you can see all the wood grain and it's nice and shiny.

The guitar is cheap compared to the fender scallopped necker,it's a BARGAIN as all it takes are a few modifications (electrics/pickups and maybe the nut)to turn it into a great guitar.

I'm into yngwie malmsteen and most hard rock,shred,blues,metal,etc.
Won't sound like yngwie whatsoever as the electrics and pickups that it comes with aren't too good and are fairly noisy- FIT SOME DECENT FENDER PICKUPS AND ELECTRICS TO SOLVE THIS.

The scallopped neck is easy to get used to(takes about 20 minutes),much easier than i expected and noticably faster for sweeps and legato.
When i got it it was fitted with 11's and i could still tell the differance in speed,i'm going to fit it with strings that are 8's to make it even faster.

The pickups it arrives with are single coil but aren't very good with overdrive they sound too "humbucker" then.

This guitar is great,far cheaper than the fender model and easy to upgrade to the same sound.

The only problems are....
The pickups not being fender (what do expect for the price!)

The detuning, and the nut on my model looks a bit wonky to me,these 2 problems will be solved just by fitting a new nut.

It's wise to remember that it's not the fender model and to make allowances for that.
FIT FENDER INSIDES AND PICKUPS.

FIT A LOCKING NUT(if yours has tuning problems).

I prefer this guitar to my fender strat and will be selling my strat now.
This will be my only guitar then and i think that'll be o.k as there's not much to go wrong.
Put it in a case and look after it but it's as sturdy as any guitar i've met.

Not had to deal with them(wouldn't understand them if i did ,i don't speak italian lol)

I've been playing for 7 years.
I own a fender strat with a floyd rose.

Marshall g80rcd amp (i have a jcm800 combo in the post muhahahah).

Don't use effects as i try ang get all i need from my amp.

this scallopped neck guitar is alot faster for sweeping,legato and tapping and allows a far better grip on the strings.

The neck is very easy to get used to playing(despite what i have seen yngwie say in a tuition video!!)

It looks cool,beats any strat copy i've seen and even a mexican strat due to the headstock looking so good.

I would certainly buy it again even at a higher price!!!!

I can't fault it really as it's so cheap compared to the fender yngwie signature strat.If you want a scallop neck guitar and get the chance to buy an EKO ST-YM ,GET IT!!!!
Best guitar i've bought and played it'd beat the fender scallop neck model in my mind too due to the price.
(yes ,i know i've said to change the pickups/insides alot -but it will really improve the guitar drastically).

Italian made Stratocaster copy with cream-white finish. 21 frets. 1 volume, 2 tone knobs + 5-way selector. 3 single coils. Strat-style vibrato bridge. Scalloped frets for superfast solos. Requires very little pushing.

I play Clapton, Pink Floyd, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Iron Maiden, Malmseen, ect. Huge fan of Stratocaster-sound. This beats every strat except the original ones. Killer strat-sound (for the money). Rich, bright sound nothing to complain about.

You just don't except finish as good as this from a strat-copy. Action is great, but the scalloped frets needed an hour of getting used to.

Solid as a rock. Stays in tune also.

I,ve been playing 15 years. If this were stolen I'd try to find another. Only problem is that you won't probably find one of these in the local music store. This guitar is so easy and comfortable to play that's why I bought it in the first place. Price made me choose this over fender. Still no days of regret.