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King Loudness « Yngwie, refined! »
Published on 04/18/11 at 18:22(This is sort of a continuation of my DiMarzio HS-3 review...)
After messing around with a project Strat with dual HS-3s and then selling that rig off, I got the itch for that Yngwie tone again. Circa June 2009, I got a DiStefano custom Strat that was loaded with, surprise surprise, the YJM/YJM/HS-3 combo of pickups! I was anxious to give it a whirl, because up to this point I hadn't messed with the YJM pickups as much, moreso the HS-3s.
Well, I can say without question that, for the Yngwie tone, they are the missing piece of the puzzle! As I stated in my HS-3 review, that pickup is great for the bridge position, but I found it to be a bit too bright and harsh in the neck position. The YJM is the answer to this problem. It smooths out the abundant high end and adds more bass and low midrange to act as a balance against the bright and cutting HS-3. This combination works very well for Yngwie esque toggle flicking. The YJM is a great solo voiced pickup for the archetypal Yngwie lead tone (very smooth and even with no jagged edges). It contrasts amazingly with the HS-3 as I've said and the two pickups work very well in tandem.
However, it is my opinion that this is not a pickup that only does Yngwie tones. I have used them for Jimi Hendrix tones, Eric Johnson tones, or many other classic Strat tones. Though they have a bit of a different character to the vintage Strat pickups of yore, they still retain a lot of that glassy shimmer that makes a classic Strat sound so good. What's not known as much about the YJM is that they also work very well in the middle position. I often found myself using the middle YJM in conjunction with the bridge HS-3 for a very Dire Straits type of sound, or rolling the tone back and adding some mild overdrive to get a really nice tone like Jeff Beck uses.
All in all I feel that the YJM is a great pickup that does more than the name implies. Yngwie has now moved on to Seymour Duncan pickups, so the YJM is now called the HS-4, so fear not if you wish to get that same great pickup by DiMarzio!
After messing around with a project Strat with dual HS-3s and then selling that rig off, I got the itch for that Yngwie tone again. Circa June 2009, I got a DiStefano custom Strat that was loaded with, surprise surprise, the YJM/YJM/HS-3 combo of pickups! I was anxious to give it a whirl, because up to this point I hadn't messed with the YJM pickups as much, moreso the HS-3s.
Well, I can say without question that, for the Yngwie tone, they are the missing piece of the puzzle! As I stated in my HS-3 review, that pickup is great for the bridge position, but I found it to be a bit too bright and harsh in the neck position. The YJM is the answer to this problem. It smooths out the abundant high end and adds more bass and low midrange to act as a balance against the bright and cutting HS-3. This combination works very well for Yngwie esque toggle flicking. The YJM is a great solo voiced pickup for the archetypal Yngwie lead tone (very smooth and even with no jagged edges). It contrasts amazingly with the HS-3 as I've said and the two pickups work very well in tandem.
However, it is my opinion that this is not a pickup that only does Yngwie tones. I have used them for Jimi Hendrix tones, Eric Johnson tones, or many other classic Strat tones. Though they have a bit of a different character to the vintage Strat pickups of yore, they still retain a lot of that glassy shimmer that makes a classic Strat sound so good. What's not known as much about the YJM is that they also work very well in the middle position. I often found myself using the middle YJM in conjunction with the bridge HS-3 for a very Dire Straits type of sound, or rolling the tone back and adding some mild overdrive to get a really nice tone like Jeff Beck uses.
All in all I feel that the YJM is a great pickup that does more than the name implies. Yngwie has now moved on to Seymour Duncan pickups, so the YJM is now called the HS-4, so fear not if you wish to get that same great pickup by DiMarzio!