Fender Yngwie Malmsteen Signature Stratocaster

1998 Made in USA
Di-marzio p/u
Alder Body
Rosewood neck
Scalloped neck
Brass nut
3 way selector switch
Large headstock

I play it using my Carvin Legacy (Steve Vai Signature) combo amp (all valves) and I have a zoom hyper lead HL-01. It really sounds great for progressive & hard rock - especially the neck pickup (di-marzio YJM) sounds almost like a violin when soloing. The pickups are not noisey but they are of a very low output (90mv)- so for solos you need an extra boost stompbox. I have been trying to get this sound for ages - I also have a Kramer Focus 3000 (Made in Japan - Alder body) which I have experimented a lot with different pickups (I just installed an EMG 81 with tons of output) but when I play with my band it just cannot cut through the mix like the YJM Strat. It however did not sound good with a Johnson JT-50 combo so I guess if you intend to buy one of these make sure that you have a good valve amp. I tried loads of different amps until I settled for the Legacy which, in my opinion, is the best sounding amp ever.

It was not set up properly from the factory. It had some fret buzz especially when bending but I had it set properly and now it is great. The action is quite high but I like it that way.
The scalloped neck is why I bought this guitar in the first place - you really get a good grip on the notes and it is great for vibrato/bending. I actually wanted to buy the Blackmore Custom Shop USA Stratocaster but it was not avalable locally and it is much more expensive.

Rock solid

The shop where I bought it from is very helpfull

I have been playing guitar for 24 years. If it were stolen (how could you loose a guitar?) I will consider buying the Blackmore Strat from the Fender custom shop- if I have enough money. Otherwise I will be glad to purchase another one. If I find a used one with maple fingerboard at a decent price I will also go for it ( anyone wants to sell his/hers please contact me)

the YJM strat is a vintage looking fender strat. 21 frets, vintage bridge, tuners... the neck is very round, making for the scalloped neck. Dimarzio HS-3 on the neck, and YJM on the bridge. average strat features...and the fretboard is scalloped of course... enough features for most occasions. gorgeous guitar...

This guitar is for shred definitely. can be used for any style actually, but the scalloped neck might feel weird for some guitar players. Its harder to play van halen, steve vai or paul gilbert on the guitar coz their guitars are not scalloped. the pickups are very good though. very clear sounding. no noise... its a very musical sounding guitar.the bends are sweet. nothing surprising about that!...

great playability off the rack... it was cool... action and everything was low and just perfect...

I've been playing for 10 years and have alot of experience with guitars. i know a good guitar the first few minutes i pick it up. Its a great guitar. a true musical insturment.

Features are vintage strat with DiMarzio HS3 bridge and YJM in the mid and neck (stacked single coils designed in the early 80's that only sound good overdriven). It has a scalloped neck and HUGE frets.

How do you rate a Strat for features? Its the best electric guitar ever made and also one of the simplest in terms of functionality. I'll give it six as it doesn't have "tons of features".

Overdriven through vintage Marshalls and the DOD preamp it sounds like Yngwie f**king Malmsteen! Like his tone? No - then don't buy his guitar. I obviously think its great which is why I bought this sucker.

Clean it sounds thin, strangled, unexpressive, choked, oddly synthetic and pretty much useless. That's why Chris Kinman is a millionnaire. This guitar is very much a one trick poney, but then YJM plays his clean stuff on acoustics/classicals so it isn't designed for the purpose.

The scalloped neck is fantastic especially with those enormous frets. You really get to grips with the string and have more overall tonal control. Its more easy to play out of tune though so it takes some getting used to and the absence of a 22nd fret is a pain in the ass.

Yngwie plays really light strings (8 - 48) with a relatively high action and that is the best way to go to duplicate his sound. That and practise every hour of every day for the rest of your life!

It'll outlive anyone reading this unless I choose to have it cremated along with my decomposing corpse.

Fender will put you in touch with your dealer. How's the shop where you bought it?

This is a great guitar for duplicating the YJM overdriven sound (listen to Black Star on Rising Force and decide if you like it). The pickups are not good for clean stuff as their noiseless design is about 20 years out of date and has been bettered by Kinman. The reason YJM uses these pickups is because they were the best solution to getting a single coil lead sound with NO HUM back when he started out. When you can play as well as him (which none of US can) noone will notice that your tone is always the same.

The neck is wonderful for some, horrible for others. You could indeed buy it just for the neck and swap out the electronics but then why not just order a scalloped neck on its own? Try it out for yourself and see what you think.

Stock, its really only good for one sound.

2001 usa. 21 frets. alder body. sonic blue. dimarzio pickups tbx tone control aged parts, scalloped neck, large headstock.

I think it's funny and ironic to play a yngvie malsteen guitar. If you take this guitar seriously please disregard my review. He's so dark and serious, yet his guitar is so girly and pretty. He must really be sensitive and kind on the inside if he plays a baby blue guitar!

HARSH THIN. I had never even heard yngvie's music before i bought this. I bought this guitar for the neck, so i could bend chords. at three bones i thought it was a steal for the neck alone. I play mainly rythme and arpegiated parts. the stock pickups only work for THAT single note lead sound. Oh, you can move the knobs and flip the three way switch but that all yer' gonna get. I put '57 reissue pickups in it still doesn't sound great. I can't figure it out. It's still a little thin. Maybe the alder is to dense, or the missing neck wood robs some tone, I dunno.

awsome finish. i love the way this guitar looks.

very durable!

lot o' plonkers an' this ain't the best but it aint the worst. It really can make you sound like yngvie malmsteen, but why, lord why would you want to?

Coolest Guitar I have ever played. I will never go back to a non-scalloped neck. Yngwie is a dork, but he sure does know how to design a guitar!! (I love him, but he does get old after a while)

Mine is the "duck" Replica so to speak...

Through my friend (Bob Trostle's) 16w SOLDANO with only a compressor; The sound is truly stunning!(neck pickup)

This guitar is the ultimate blues machine....with the clean tone, this thing rules the world.
Too bad there are so many close minded dorks out there who wont give it a chance.

Factory action is medium high...get it set up, and rock on...

It is a tank...enought said.

Hopefully this will not be concern

I am going to buy another one, just to install a DP-100 into it.

Read this as the gosphell, you can not go wrong.

2002 USA Malmsteen Strat,21 dunlap 6000 super jumbo frets, alder body/hard rock maple neck and fretboard, vol. tone. tone. conrols, 3 dimarzio stackded (humbucker) single coils (YJM, YJM, HS-3),off white/cream paint, vintage strat tremelo, fender vintage tuners, tweed case , brass nut, AND A SCALLOPED NECK!!!

My favorite guitar players are Micheal Angelo, Steve Morse, Greg Howe, Yngwie Malmsteen, and Vinnie Moore, so I play mostly fusion and progressive metal. From the Dixie Dregs to Dream Theater. For that I only nedd a fast, clear and distinct sounding guitar, and this does it. I play a fender vibrolux reverb combo and a mesa boogie mark II head through carvin legacy cabs. The guitar sounds great. The notes ring through true and clear, almost like emg's. I was extremely surprised with how smooth it sounds. The bridge pickup is bright and relatively hot, great for distortion, while the neck pickup is smooth and violin like--great for blues and jazz, and of course neo-classical shred. Believe it or not it is a very versitile guitar, though much of this versitility comes from your amp and your effects. The middle pickup is worthless. (I guess thats why Yngwie's disconnects it on all of his custom strats.) The best part about this guitar is that it sounds so good. A total surprise to me since yngwie has the worst tone in shred metal today.

Heres where I get critical. It seems that no-one can make good guitars anymore unless they are hand-made, and fender is the worst out there. Fender doesn't give a damn if there guitars play good anymore. I guess they figure only terrible guitarists buy them now-a-days. The fret work on this guitar was terrible. The frets were simply flattened by a file and not re-rounded, leveled or polished at all. I got this guitar brand new, still wrapped in plastic so I guess that's how all fender's come now.)It may be the worst fret-work ever. The action was unplayably high when I got it, which I suspected, but when I lowered it, it buzzed like mad and even had dead frets. I had to take it to guitar center and have it fretleveled and professionally set up (straighten the neck out, lock down the trem, intonate it properly, etc.) It still buzzes a little, but the action is at least decent now. The pickups were adjusted fine. The finish is also second rate for a $1400 guitar. In the light you can see thick spots, and thin lines in the paint. It's not too apparent but it is still there. This top-of-the-line USA strat looks like it was made in mexico, and at first played like it was too. After about $120 of repairs, a set of 9.5 D'Addario strings, and a little action tweaking, I got this thing playing pretty damn good. Don't expect it to play well out of the box though, believe me.

This is a USA strat with the best components and the biggest fretwire you can get. You couln't hurt this guitar with a hammer, it would just make it look cooler, more like "the Duck" (Malmsteen's favorite guitar). This guitar will last a long time, unless the frets wear out, which in case you will have to buy a new neck. No-one will refret a scalloped guitar. Don't worry though. Warmoth makes way better scalloped necks that be put on if your frets wear out.

Haven't called to complain about the frets and action. I don't think talking to fender will ever get you anywhere, so I will never try to get in touch with them.

I have been playing for 8 years, and i practice all of the time. My other guitars include a customized 1973 Fender tele with a warmoth scalloped neck and dimazio pick-ups, a Vinnie Moore model Ibanez, and a Suhr carved top standard. My amps are Fender and Mesa Boogie, with mesa and rocktron effects processors. If it were lost or stolen I would definitely not but another. The thing is way too overpriced. I could get a used Suhr or Tom Anderson off E-Bay in at guitarcenter for almost the same price--a way better guitar. But it is cool as shit. I mean it looks like Yngwie's guitars and he is the freaking man. I love it when people ask me what guitars I play and I always say a strat, but then I smirk a little knowing they probably have no idea how cool of a strat it is. I bought this guitar because my favorite/main guitar is a scalloped tele, and I needed a back up guitar with a scalloped neck. Buying this guitar was much easier than ordering parts form Warmoth and then having someone put it together. My advice for someone thinking about buying this guitar is save your money. Buy a John Suhr or a Zion, or even a music man. That way you will know the frets are leveled, polished and smooth, that the action is low as it can possiply be, and that the guitar will be flawless. For those who love Yngwie or scalloped necked guitars and don't mind the price tag, then buy it. With a fret level and a set-up the guitar will be pretty decent, and will look cooler than any fender in the world.

First off everyone should know that I'm reviewing the YJM on a tough scale, with 5 being an average every day sort of attribute (not crappy; a 1 would be crappy). Too many reviews slam a product, and then give it a 6 or 7, leaving little room to really praise or criticize something. Second, I'm VERY critical, and am judging the quality of the YJM relative to the best of the best guitars I've had the pleasure of playing. I expect alot of things from a guitar in this price range, many of which most people seem to either be oblivious to or have low standards for.

Anyway.............I think it's a year 2000 USA YJM, and you probably know the story on how the guitar is equipped. The options are it's vintage white with a maple fretboard. This is the current USA model, with large headstock, vintage style bridge, etc. It came with a tweed case with pink interior.

I didn't buy the YJM because Yngwie's my hero (he's not, although I do like his music) or anythng like that. I was after the neck, and I also have always loved a really clear yet heavy tone, and that's what this guitar was supposed to be all about. I do like Yngwie's tone, but I don't play anythng like him, or try to.

I love the scalloped neck and large frets, it's a blast. I never had any trouble at all adjusting to the scalloping, and I love being able to get that incredible grip on the strings for bending and vibrato. The neck down towards the lower frets is kind of fat for my taste, definately fatter than most "shred" necks, but not too clubby. I totally wish they made this neck with 22 frets though; I use the 22nd fret quite often and not having it really is an inconvenience. All in all I always looks forward to playing this neck.

The vintage style tuners are ok, but that's all. They're not as smooth as they could be (like Schallers or Grovers), and they don't have tension adjustment. Fender could have made vintage looking tuners with the guts of better quality; this isn't a budget guitar after all. But they do hold tuning, no problem.

The bridge is great, simple yet effective, as are the pots and switches. Nice and smooth and quiet. I happen to love the fact that the pickup selector is only 3 position rather than 5; it's easier to flick around with more confidence and in the off occasion when I need that out of phase sound it's easy enough to balance the switch in the in between position.

The YJM and HS3 pickups are definately low output, which is not by accident. I already happened to like low output pickups (they avoid the fizzy buzzy symdrom), but even I was surprised how low they really were. I don't know how loud real vintage Strat pickups are, but I have a guitar with Duncan Vintage Staggered pickups and even those are a bit slightly louder than the ones in the YJM. That's fine with me, but I can totally see the average metal head plugging the YJM straight into his familar amp settings and absolutely hating the guitar because there's not the volume he's used to. It's all about knowing the philosphy of these pickups, and they're not for everyone. I'll say more about the sound later, but for now I'll just say the pickups are great. I could probably live without the staggered magnets though.

Having 3 pickups gives alot of options, but I find I use either the bridge or the neck by itself 95% of the time. The tones I like live there, and I've not need to go much further.

I'd give it a 10 if it had 22 frets and state of the art tuners. As it is, an 8, which like I said above is actually very good.

I play mostly rock, some blues on occasion, not much new metal. I'll normally run the YJM into an Ibanez Tube King overdrive (on a low OD setting), and/or a DOD Bi-FET preamp for a clean boost, and then into either an old Carvin X100B (these things just plain smoke), Marshall SLP reissue, Marhshall JCM800, or a Lee Jackson XLA500. Always into a 4x12 cabinet. With the Marshalls, I use a Hotplate. Unlike my other guitar which all have humbuckers, I leave either the overdrive or preamp boost pedal on all the time with the YJM; it needs that kick into the front of the amp.
To cut to the chase, the YJM sounds fantastic. I wanted a tone that you could use alot of distortion with and still maintain clarity. I hate that fizzy buzzy stuff that happens so often when you start using distortion, especially on the neck pickup. With the YJM I can jam my signal through an overdrive pedal and into a loud amp, it it really does the trick. You won't find the thunk thunka metal tones so much in there, but that's perfect for me; I like a nice even EQ curve. The bridge pickup has a nice succinct tone and attack, harmonics and sustain aplenty. The neck pickup is an absolute joy with it's clarity and smoothness. I'm serious, the sound this thing is off the scale on sheer pleasure to the ear. Even with the amp smoking with overdrive you can use it on any string on any fret, and it never gets mushy or fuzzy. Just perfect.

Also, the pickups are perfectly balanced in terms of volume. I switch between pickups all the time when soloing, and there's no volume change between them, just tone. Again, perfect.

Oh yeah, and equally important is that even with heavy overdrive the pickups are as quiet as it gets. I'm always skeptical of marketing jargin, but these things truly have the vintage single coil tone without any hum. I would have bet there was a trade off there, but not that I can hear.

The bluesy tone is great as well, no problem, as is the clean tone. Kind of goes without saying when using a single coil format.

Oddly enough, unplugged the guitar doesn't have the acoustic "zing" I expected. It's sounds pretty round to me. Maybe that's by design in order to get the high end from getting excessive when plugged in. Just a curiosity more than anything else.

In the beginning I spent quite a bit of time experimenting with this guitar to find the recipe, but once I stumbled across it everything came into focus. I wasn't used to using such a front end clean boost so it was a mental adjustment. Again, I can totally see the average metal head trying to use this guitar just like he uses his Invader equipped guitar through his Duel Rectifier, and playing Godsmack tunes and thinking this guitar sounds whimpy


Obviosly I'm totally impressed by the sound if this guitar, they hit the bullseye. I love it. It's the kind of thing where you just go to play for a few minutes, and find it hard to put it down 2 hours later. that's what it's all about. I'd love to know if that same overall tone could be had with a little more output, but I can't ding them on that point.

Here's where the real tough comparison starts; I have an '86 Jackson and an EBMM Axis that are just unbelievable in terms of workmanship (to the point where I can't even find a single flaw).

The YJM came set up pretty well from the factory, and very evenly. The truss rod, bridge, and pickups were right on, although the nut was a little high for my tatstes (but at least it was even, and it was nicely rounded where it should be). It's a preferance thing. The frets were dressed great with no rough edges, but Fender slopes the edges a little too much, to the point where they waste alot of fretboard width; I like more room before you go sliding off the edge of the fretboard. I got used to it though.

The finsh was great except for a spot behind the bridge where there was a ridge of some sort, about 2 inches long. Not a huge deal, but not perfect.

The biggest flaw I found was in the neck pocket; that's where most factories will show their attention to detail or not. Either the body or the neck isn't completely flat where they connect, because you can see there's a very slight gap there. It's looks to be that the body has a bit of finish build up in the cavity thats make it ever so un-flat. ALso, the sides of the neck pocket don't meet perfectly 100% or the way around the pocket. It's close but not perfect. It doesn't effect stablility or anything. I bet most people would pass it off as expected, but to me that's part of Fender's job.

By contrast, both my Jackson and Axis are perfect in the neck joint, and in the finishing department. The necks mate perfectly with the body, 100%. I don't even know how you get that accurate in routing, but they did. Fender didn't.

Fender did do a good job scalloping the neck; it's just beautiful.

All in all the overall workmanship is better than average, but Fender still has something to be desrired in their quaility control. They say their artist series such as the YJM gets more attention than their standard instruments, which shows in the action setup and all. But they're still no contest for the companies that are truly more dedicated to musicians and workmanship. I'm not sure you can expect much more from such a "corporate" entity.

So all in all it's definately done pretty well, but not the best I've seen by any strech. One thing I will say is it is a striking guitar to look at; at gigs people are always asking about it. Whenever I end up taking the guitar in for a refret some day, I'll probably have that un-flat neck joint area fixed.

I gig with this guitar all the time, so no problem there. I see no reason why it wouldn't be durable 30 years from now. I even use the stock strap buttons with no problems ever.

I'd never own a guitar that I felt would break down on a gig, and this is no exception. Aside from strings, there shouldn't be much to go wrong.

I'll give it a 10 just because it's not like there's any unproven technology here.

I have no opinion here. I have a hunch that if I needed some real customer support that I'd quickly see that "corporate" attitude come out, but I could be wrong.

I've been playing for lets see...........over 20 years. My current other guitars are an '86 custom Jackson (Sam Dimas), an EBMM Axis, a Gibson V, a Gibson L6S, and a custom strat copy. I've played just about everything over the years.

I've really come to love the YJM strat, and I'm not even a Fender guy. It's not for everyone, but I'm really into what this guitar is all about. It's looks great, sounds great, and just makes me look forward to getting home to play, and I frequently find myself playing better than I thought I would. That pretty much says it all.

I don't expect and wouldn't want all my guitar to do the same thing. The YJM certainly occupies it's own place, and for what it's supposed to do it's the bomb. I like it so much that I'm not all that bothered by it's something to be desired fit and finish.

I'd by it again, definately. Shoot, I'd buy another tomorrow if they offered a 22 fret neck!

Got the 1996 one, it's got :

-21 Fender medium/big (really feels big, but many people say it's medium) frets
-Scalloped fretboard
- Two Dimarzio HS3's (bridge and neck) and one stock pickup in the middle
- Maple neck
- Yellow/Cream body with white naturally aged (bought this one very very used)
-Brass nut
-Synchronized Tremolo

-The rest is fender regular stock stuff...

This guitar fucking KICKS ASS ! It has THE tone... I plug it into my Laney LC30 Mark II all tube combo loaded with some EL84's.

Just turn the volume near two, adjust the amp a little and Yngwie's Trademark sound starts to appear :).When the tubes get hot, you know you've nailed it.

The scalloped neck is really good, it adds very much to hammer ons, pull offs, two handed tapping, etc... arpeggios get easy and when you get used to it, you can apply much more feeling to your playing. Very nice...

People not used with playing fast in low gain situations WON'T get anywhere playing this guitar like Yngwie at first. But when you get used to the HS3's feel (they're stacked wingle coils that produce the original fender sound, but with more bass and overall response. the sound has more balls than the traditional fender ones...) you'll achieve any sound you want. I plug mine directly into the amp with the gain on 6. Can play anything from the maestro :)

This guitar stays UNBELIEAVABLY in tune ! It never get's out of tune ! No matter what I do when I'm playing. Very nice !

This guitar fucking rocks ! Can give you any metal sound you want.

I also play a lot of SRV and other blues stuff on it, and it's very nice !

everything was made to sound and look perfect here.. this guitar has a totally amazing building.... nothing to complain

Very reliable.... very solid.. with new (1day old) strings I would use it with no back up. One year with it... the only checkup it needed was to adjust the truss rod in order to use 009 strings

This guitar is simply the best I've ever played with. Very nice tones, very cool lead tones. It's my dream guitar and I like to play it for 4-5 hours without stop :)

2002 US made Yngwie signature model. Straight outta Fender. No changes from what is described on their website. Vintage with Maple board. Came with Tweed case, cord, etc..

Set up was great other than the high e string needed to be raised a little bit. I lowered the middle p/u for picking and the trem was set floating perfectly.

Like other reviewers I would think this guitar is solid for many hours with no maintenance issues. Very solid and dependable. No backup? Are you kidding?

n/a

I gave up on Fender years ago and this model has renewed my love of real strats. The scalloped fretboard only seemed to take time to adjust to for appregiated chord progressions. As far as doing runs and scales, you can haul ass. Neck p/u is great to solo with - you don't want to stop. If you're used to a humbucking p/u this will require time to adjust to or you can add more gain from your amp.

New 2002 US-made YJM Strat. This one's the vintage white with maple neck (because any other just wouldn't be Yngwie).

Check Fender.com for specs, or read the other reviews. The only error in some reviews is in the location of the pickups. The YJM's are in the neck and middle, while the HS-3 is in the bridge. And I think someone says the fretwire is Dunlop 6100, when in fact it's 6000 (extra super behemoth size).

The guitar comes with a nice tweed case, lame Fender strap, Fender guitar cable, Fender polishing cloth, and tools. Dealer threw in a couple sets of strings. The guitar comes from the factory with Fender Super Bullets (9-42).

Oh, and let's not forget the mint green pickguard (not sure how I feel about that, yet) and the AGED PLASTIC PARTS. Yeah, because you know, what you need are parts that are ALREADY old! I know, I know...it's modeled after vintage strats.

Headstock is the large CBS style, bearing Yngwie's $500 signature stamp.

I'm giving it a 9 because the only way it would get a 10 is if the guitar included Yngwie.

I play hard rock/metal (and sadly, nu-metal with the band I'm in), and obviously a Strat is NOT a metal guitar, at least not straight into an amp. For recording purposes, I use it for leads, because the lead sound this thing produces just plain rules.

My setup is whichever guitar I'm using into a DOD YJM-308 overdrive (which I don't use unless I'm playing the YJM strat), into a Peavey Triple XXX head with a Boss RV-3 Reverb/Delay unit in the effects loop, into a Marshall 1960 cabinet.

Unlike other Strats, this guitar is not noisy at all (unless the OD pedal is on, of course). The brass nut definitely adds to the sound when playing chords, in particular. The guitar sounds VERY nice, even without the overdrive pedal. If you want Yngwie's sound, this guitar will bring you closer to it.

The scalloped fretboard takes some getting used to, but once you do get the hang of it, it feels great. Switching back to a guitar without scallops feels very odd after playing the YJM for a while.

I don't know how well the guitar was set up by Fender, as the dealer set it up for me the way I asked them to, prior to shipping it to me. Everything arrived very well set-up, and I have no complaints.

As for fit and finish, this guitar looks absolutely incredible. I spend a long time inspecting guitars before I buy them and after I bring them home, and I can't find a flaw. For this kind of money, there better not be any!

As Yngwie says, this guitar is a workhorse. It is, under all the modifications, a Fender Strat, after all. Though I am not a big fan of Fender Strats, they are quality instruments, and should withstand normal use (don't set it on fire, idiot!) I tend to leave it in its case, and only open it to gaze lovingly at it, however.

I am kind of disappointed that the strap buttons are standard, but I'll most likely end up putting Strap-Loks on.

Once again, DON'T GIG WITHOUT A BACKUP!

Haven't dealt with Fender.

It has a limited lifetime warranty.

I've been playing for 15 years and have owned alot of gear. Though I have three other guitars, my favorite and most-used guitar is a Schecter C1-Plus. That guitar was made for shred, dammit!

I've had my heart set on a YJM Strat for a LONG time, so there was nothing to compare it to...just a matter of when I bought one.

If it were stolen, well...that would suck. Would I buy it again? Uh, YEAH!

The best thing about this guitar is just the overall sound of it. If you like Yngwie's lead sound, this nails it. I was never big on his rhythm sound, but as I said before, Strats are NOT metal guitars.

Obviously, this guitar is way overpriced, but it's a signature model, so that's to be expected. For someone who worships the Yng like I do, that's not an issue anyway.

If you're into Yngwie, this is a guitar for you. If you're not, you're probably better off with something else.

It'd get a 10 if the bridge pickup had more balls.