The Yngwie Malmsteen Strat

A 21 fret would be even better as the neck pup will be in the right place for that tone.

Very true, the SD fury neck pup is a thing of beauty too, love it. Bet the Dimarzio set was stellar as well.

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Ok, got it. My Ibanez premium is very similar to the MM1.

How does a 24 fret guitar affect tone? Playability?

I will play that yngwie strat. …hopefully

There’s certain harmonic content that you will only have access to when a pickup is at the 24th fret position. It’s a G spot :wink:

See the picture I posted above of the two guitars superimpozed the red line!

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In theory, the neck pickup position shouldn’t have anything to do with harmonic content, since that all goes right out the window once you start fretting and the various hamronic nodes move in relation to the pickups.

In practice, I tend to REALLY like the neck pickup of 22-fret guitars. I don’t know if there’s something going on with the harmonics after all, or just getting it maybe another 2cm down the body away from the bridge makes it even rounder or what.

I’m not picky - my main 7 is 24 frets and I’ve got another Suhr Modern 6 with 24 frets on order - but I do have a slight preference for 22 fret necks even if I can’t for the life of me figure out why it SHOULD matter.

The harmonics of interest here are the fundamental and first overtone. The closer the pickup is to the center of the speaking length of the string, the more fundamental (i.e. bass) you get. For most notes, fretted or not, moving the pickup toward the headstock puts it closer to the center of the speaking length. In most cases, the first overtone (and even the second) is also enhanced this way.

On average, lower harmonics are preferentially enhanced by moving the pickup toward the center of the speaking length, and higher harmonics are not. Also, on average, the center of the speaking length is closer to the higher frets than to the bridge. While the precise positions of the harmonic nodes will depend on which fret you’re on, this general pattern holds true nonetheless.

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I think your right; it’s more about being “closer” to the center of the strings that give it something more. Given that center is a moving target, even that shouldn’t matter as you rightly said. I did have a vigier with a burstbucker that sounded killer in the neck. You just helped me get over a silly blockage, that MM1 looks even more enticing now :smiley:
Thanks!

21 fret guitars are fun because I love doing 3 step bends on the high e.

Moving a pickup changes the sound because the string above it behaves differently. That said, not having two octaves makes me sad. I tend to use HH but the best thing is probably HSH with Ibanez-like switching, that can place pickups at lots of locations.

2nd position on HSH sounds similar to the modern Yngwie neck pickup.

So, in plain English… the impact really is mostly in moving the pickup further away from the bridge, than any supposed magic from being right under a harmonic node on the open string?

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That’s correct. Any such magic nodes would only be magic for specific frets, but the tonal effect of pickup placement can be heard on any note. It’s more about getting a good balance than maximizing the response for one particular note.

Ok, your original response kind of confused me, since that’s pretty much where I started off, and I couldn’t quite tell if you were telling me I was wrong for some reason I couldn’t quite follow, or you were agreeing and providing more information to support something I suspected, that I also couldn’t quite follow. :smile:

Sorry for being unclear. I was agreeing with your conclusion that pickup position does have an effect, and disagreeing with the statement that it shouldn’t.

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Has anyone who owns the yngwie strat, changed the strings to a heavier gauge, say 9 or 10s?

If so, what were the results ?

I currently play 10s, and im wondering if this will be a fit?

Sure you can play a Yngwie Strat with 10s if you want. No problem with that.

But is sooooo funny to play it with the Yngwie strings and detuned to Eb… You can literally make two whole steps bendings with just one finger.

Ha, dont get me wrong i know i can put any gauge on it, but is the guitar optimized for yngwies custom string gauge?

If the guitar was made especially for this light gauge, i may not have the intended playing performance with a higher standard gauge…

No, it is a normal guitar and it is not optimized for any particular gauge.

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Thanks, i appreciate the info!!

I’ve given it a lot of thought. … I’ve made up my mind fully. It’s time to unleash the fury! I’m going for the Yngwie strat!

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It seems the most recent version of the guitar, has addressed the bridge/neck disparity. …
At least it sounds like they have…

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