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tjon901 « Setup for Yngwe »
Published on 11/20/11 at 07:36Every guitar player knows who Yngwie Malmsteen is. He is one of the most popular neoclassical shredders of all time. He is known for his vintage white stratocaster which is he is rarely seen without. This has been a signature model from Fender for a few years now. I am testing a newer and an older model to compare the Dimarzio Yngwie pickups with the new Seymour Duncan Yngwie pickups. The guitars are identical apart from the pickups so I will just do a single guitar review. What you get is a typical 70s style strat with the Yngwie mods. The body is made from alder and the neck is maple with a maple fretboard. The neck has 21 SUPER jumbo frets with a 9.5 inch radius. The fretboard is heavily scalloped. Up top you get the big 70s headstock with the bullet truss rod. The pickups will either be a set of the old Dimarzio Yngwie pickups or the new Seymour Duncan Fury pickups. Since the guitar currently comes with Duncans thats what ill talk about in this review. The pickup selector is a 3 way blade. The controls are a master volume and two no load tone units.
UTILIZATION
You need to have a certain style to play this guitar properly. Overall it is a hard guitar to play if you are not use to it. The neck has a unique feel. You need a very light touch to play this guitar and sound good. I am use to playing with heavy strings so this guitar is another world for me. With the huge frets and scalloping the strings bend without any effort. It is very easy to push a note or a chord out of tune without thinking about it. With these super low output Yngwie pickups it is hard to play clearly as well. You need to be pinpoint accurate with your playing to sound like you know what you are doing. This is a guitar that takes some time to get use to.
SOUNDS
The Seymour Duncan Fury pickups in this guitar sound very similar to the old Yngwie Dimarzio signature pickups. Apparently Yngwie went through 20 sets of Seymour Duncan pickups before he found the one he wanted. They should have just gave him the set that sounded the most like his old Dimarzios and saved time. These are stacked single coils just like the older models but unlike most stacked noise cancelling single coils they are super low output. Usually people getting aftermarket single coils want more heat on them but not Yngwie. I am not the biggest strat single coil fan but these pickups are pretty vintage by even those standards. The bridge and the middle pickup sound pretty thin by themselves. The inbetween positions sound the best on this guitar. When playing with gain you will find yourself picking harder because these pickups are so low output but when you play harder you start sounding out of tune because of the scalloped fretboard. Playing this guitar is a balancing act between getting a good sound and sounding in tune. For slower lead stuff the scalloped fretboard is great. You can get a super vibrato with it because there is no resistance from the wood because its not there.
OVERALL OPINION
Only get this guitar if you know what you are doing. This guitar will not make you play like Yngwie, in fact it will probably make you worse. You have to really have good skills if you want to sound like you know what you are doing on this guitar. If you are a good player and have the skills by all means get this guitar. If you are just looking for a nice strat there are plenty of nicer strats that are much easier to play that this guitar.
UTILIZATION
You need to have a certain style to play this guitar properly. Overall it is a hard guitar to play if you are not use to it. The neck has a unique feel. You need a very light touch to play this guitar and sound good. I am use to playing with heavy strings so this guitar is another world for me. With the huge frets and scalloping the strings bend without any effort. It is very easy to push a note or a chord out of tune without thinking about it. With these super low output Yngwie pickups it is hard to play clearly as well. You need to be pinpoint accurate with your playing to sound like you know what you are doing. This is a guitar that takes some time to get use to.
SOUNDS
The Seymour Duncan Fury pickups in this guitar sound very similar to the old Yngwie Dimarzio signature pickups. Apparently Yngwie went through 20 sets of Seymour Duncan pickups before he found the one he wanted. They should have just gave him the set that sounded the most like his old Dimarzios and saved time. These are stacked single coils just like the older models but unlike most stacked noise cancelling single coils they are super low output. Usually people getting aftermarket single coils want more heat on them but not Yngwie. I am not the biggest strat single coil fan but these pickups are pretty vintage by even those standards. The bridge and the middle pickup sound pretty thin by themselves. The inbetween positions sound the best on this guitar. When playing with gain you will find yourself picking harder because these pickups are so low output but when you play harder you start sounding out of tune because of the scalloped fretboard. Playing this guitar is a balancing act between getting a good sound and sounding in tune. For slower lead stuff the scalloped fretboard is great. You can get a super vibrato with it because there is no resistance from the wood because its not there.
OVERALL OPINION
Only get this guitar if you know what you are doing. This guitar will not make you play like Yngwie, in fact it will probably make you worse. You have to really have good skills if you want to sound like you know what you are doing on this guitar. If you are a good player and have the skills by all means get this guitar. If you are just looking for a nice strat there are plenty of nicer strats that are much easier to play that this guitar.