I had a chance to play one of these last night and I just have to say for the record that this is an amazing instrument! 70's classic styling, a proper Strat bridge and screaming tone. I am seriously considering one so that I can expand my 'hired gun guitar player' services into more hard rock categories (got to make a living!).

The scalloped fretboard only took about ten minutes to get used to- I didn't even attempt any shred type 'guitar playing'- I mainly just played a bunch of Robin Trower style lead and rhythm parts and they sounded fantastic!

Those pickups.. Wow. I have never heard a passive single coil with so much versatility before. Their 60's chime isn't quite as good as my CS 69's but almost. And the fact that with a couple of minute adjustments they can go to full on screamers more than makes up for that fact. I think that the brass nut is really cool too, gives it a very distinctive sound.

I apologize if this info is redundant or like 20 years too late but I figure one more opinion can't hurt. If you haven't had a chance to play one, go do it! Even if you are not a fan of it's namesake (I am definitely not) this guitar is not a one trick pony, it is sure to delight anyone who picks it up.

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Custom Shop '59 Strat with John Cruz Master Design Pickups
Vibro King
Fulltone Clyde>Deja-Vibe>TS-808>TS-9>Boss Tuner

That's cool that you liked it.

This afternoon I transferred the YJM "Rising Force Live '85" video to DVD-R. The "Play Loud" Strat looked almost new! Well, not really, but it had a lot less wear than it currently has (no duh!). It still had it's 3-bolt neck plate set up (somewhere along the line he converted it to a 4 bolt neck plate set up).

Yngwie had 5 dual-head stacks behind him; that's 10 cabinets and 10 heads. It was hard to tell how many were actually in use.

This was classic Yngwie ...

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

I've owned three Malmsteen Strats. Like a dummy I sold them all and bought a Les Paul. I really wanted a Les Paul Standard and was in that frame of mind but my heart belongs to the Strat. It's a superior instrument.

I currently am playing a Classic 50's body with a Malmsteen maple neck on it. It's even got a 3-way switch too just like Malmsteen uses so it's basically a Malmsteen Strat.

I however think the pickups that come with the Malmsteen Strat are pretty bad. They are way too bassy. They rolled off too much high end. Very mushy when you use a lot of gain like I do and it's harder to sweep pick on them. But Yngwie obviously works wonders on his so...

But the Malmsteen Strat is fabulous. There is no better neck in the world than a scalloped one.