Sorry to hear about your tinnitus probs, ConEGIB!
Speedy recovery, that can be really annoying!

Try to play as many strats possible!
Do you have a Strat already?

If so, try to get close to that sound, as close as possible. That'll give you a base to start with when you test other strats with your amp.

Yes, WITH YOUR AMP!!

I'm not kidding! Drag that sucker to the store and play the guitars via YOUR AMP! Best advice I can give you! Take a laptop or a iPad with you, including headphones and you can listen to the video or a MP3 file at the store to compare sounds.

Use the long and slow played notes to compare the sound, NOT the stakkato licks! A lot of sound comes from Yngwie's fingers. So if you want to objectively compare the sounds, you should use slow chords and slow single notes.

I know, that's quite some effort to drag all that sh*** to the store but I promise it'll be worth it!!! As long as you don't say "Jeez, that's it!!", don't buy the guitar! Go to another store and check out some others.

If you want to go the easy way: buy'em used off the *bay and sell them again if they don't please you. That's the very expensive way to do it (I've done that before and cannot recommend it if you don't have spare money for at least 5 Strats!

So, here's your options from my point of view, if you're after a CERTAIN sound/tone:

- Hard work (carry all that stuff to the store or even several stores.
- Expensive but easy: buy second hand (several guitars with basic features, I recommend mid 80s used Strats)
- buy a signature Strat, that'll bring you pretty close (maybe!!). I have a split opinion about signature guitars. I had the Iron Maiden signature and I have the Buddy Guy signature. They both sound great but not even close to the originals. But maybe that's just me!?!?!?

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Kindest regards from Germany, Dee
My recordings --> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_mu ... dID=564337
STRATS ROCK!!! but Teles and Firebirds, too!

Thanks for the reply! I don't have a strat, but an ESP LTD (quite the opposite style of guitars). I played a bunch of them, my cousin recently got an American Standard I believe, and it played WONDERFULLY! It was a beauty, the color was blizzard pearl or something, I can't remember.

I also played my friends '69 model which was made in '77. Yeah, 35 years old! You can smell the age, and it's beautiful! A bit stiffer to play, but I liked it. I tried it on my amp, but couldn't hear the distortion from the hum the single coils made. The clean sound was beautiful.

I'll try to try as many of them as I can on my amp!

And unfortunately I don't have a few days of tinnitus, it's been like this for a year or so already, so it'll pretty much accompany me for the rest of my life. I've read that they found a treatment or something a few days ago, so I'm always optimistic about it!

Tone is in your fingers.

Not at all directed to you, I was actually referring to recent past threads where it became out of hand and I think the moderators had to step in..
It wasn't about Malmsteen's music but rather on what the posters thought of him and what not. Absurd, since none had ever met Malmsteen and were basing their completely negative statements on media reports ( I have never met him either, but regardless of whatever his true personality is I enjoy quite a bit of his music ) as much of it is not within my playing realm to pull of and I would say the great majority of players do not even come close.
No Deitification here I just feel the same about any great player, Hendrix is a prime example, Frank Marino came the closest but after a while it's like why..
Why would you base your entire playing on someone else's larger than life's identity.
On that note I think I'll just go and sell my M.C. Escher renderings....

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

OK, thank you, I'm relieved.
I was worried that I might have offended somebody.
You know, I consider myself as being pretty good in English but it still can happen that due to language issues I might be understood as being harsh, which certainly is not my intention.

That's why I asked.

_________________
Kindest regards from Germany, Dee
My recordings --> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_mu ... dID=564337
STRATS ROCK!!! but Teles and Firebirds, too!

Nein...Auf Wediersehen.....

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "