The Yngwie Malmsteen Strat

Gear
#162

The boost is in the loop of his noise supressor, not the amp - you always want overdrive/boost/gain effects in front of the amp. I guess never say never, but almost without exception you want your gain effects hitting the front of the amp.

Singlecoils don’t sound as “fat” as humbuckers. They’re not supposed to, they have a much more pronounced attack to them, and that’s a large part of their vibe. You may need to tweak your amp settings a little bit but generally I don’t have to touch much when I go from a humbucker guitar to a singlecoil guitar. Try maybe janmming along with a backing track rather than judging them in isolation; it’s just a very different sound that sits in a very different place, but the extremely open dynamics can make them sound “big” in different ways. Ironically, the lower gain is really helpful here too.

You can probably do the saddle swap on your own, if you’re careful and even remotely handy - just measure very carefully (mark, if you can, maybe put some tape down under the saddles and mark the very front of the saddles), then unscrew the old ones from the back and rescrew the new ones back in and just make sure you get them to exactly the same position as the old ones. That said, just because a particular setup worked for Yngwie doesn’t mean you’ll find it’s right for you - you’re used to humbuckers and play through a 5150, Yngwie played singlecoils his whole career and played through old marshalls wound way up.

But, singlecoils sound “fat” in very different ways than humbuckers. You’ll never get that thick low end and darker rounder attack out of them, but the really explosive attack can import its own punchiness, and it’s something I personally really love about singlecoils.

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#163

Thx Drew, really appreciate it.

You wrote:

" The boost is in the loop of his noise supressor , not the amp - you always want overdrive/boost/gain effects in front of the amp. …

So, currently I have my effects processor in my amps effects loop, I’m going from my Boss OD straight in front of the amp.

What am I missing?

Thanks!!!:+1::+1:

#164

If you’re using the effects processor for non-gain effects, and the boost as a volume boost or mild overdrive, then you’re in good shape. Though, with a 5150 combo, I’m not sure if you really need a boost for extra gain, lol.

When you describe the singlecoils as missing “fatness”… what exactly do you mean? Less gain? Less low end? A sharper attack? Something else?

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#165

That’s what I thought, but when I plugged into my blue channel ( which I typically use with my HB guitars) it sounded thin, and weak.

Following day, I set up my effects processor in the loop with some EQ, my OD in front and it was noticablely better.

I guess I mean more saturated, harmonically rich. I judge alot on what sounds good to me, by my ability to hit pinch harmonics… how easily that is…

Thx

#166

I could consider utilizing the red channel more, which has insane gain, but is very noisy…

#167

Singlecoils are a lot lower gain and less saturated than humbuckers. You can definitely still get pinch harmonics out of them but it takes a little more work, and it’s going to be less Dimebag-like squealing than it will be harmonic overtones. You can make up the gain, but I’d embrace them for what they are, as a cool alternative to humbuckers.

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#168

Hi! I’ve been travelling again. Finally got hands on my RR100, thing is a monster. How are you getting on with the YJM?

Drew made good points and knows a lot more about amps than I do. I’ve basically wrangled some decent tones out of what I had; my approach is still evolving.

Yes every time you change gauge or brands (even if they’re the same gauge) you will need to tweak the setup. I’d recommend you teach yourself how to do it, lots a vids online, I’ve been setting up guitars since I was a kid so if you run into any issues PM me.

edit: it’s tempting to raise the pups to get more gain, I don’t know if I was imagining things but when I raised the middle pup to normal heights I found the string get more floppy, put it right back down where Malmsteen has it. Also realised the super lead clone really exposed the pup height effects on volume changes while switching from neck to bridge. I’m guessing these amps respond very differently at gig and bedroom volumes. By that guess one’s setup would change as to where one spends most of their time playing, I mean no point setting up for gig levels when ones mostly playing at home as in my case these days.

#169

Not sure if it makes strings feel more floppy, but past a point it does start to impact the magnetic pull on the strings and creates odd overtones (in Yngwie’s case, the middle pickup is lowered to get it out of the way of his picking hand, as I recall, he and Blackmore both). If you want to maximize output without getting into trouble, I’d start by fretting the last or second to last fret (I usually do the latter, the last fret always seems to have weird overtones for some reason anyway on my guitars, probably related to how tight a space that is) and then on the neck pickup slowly raise the pickup until you start to hear weird wobbling overtones in the note, then back it off a quarter turn below where you first hear them - that’s as high as you can really get the pickup. Do that for the low and high E, then balance the middle and bridge pickup so they all have the same perceived output, and then give it one last check on all three pickups to make sure your second-to-last note isn’t causing overtones on any of them. That height or lower is fine.

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#170

Thanks Drew! I did do that on my last strat; I’ll try this today on the YJM; not sure why I didn’t do it on this guitar.

#171

I have a 2008 YJM, maple neck. love it.

Three mods, Callaham steel trem block

Seymour Duncan (true single coil) Texas Antiquity Hot (something like that !) pickups

a Callaham aluminium pick guard shield (because of the vintage pickups)

Oh, and a tone control on the bridge pickup because then its more useable (for me)

I only occasionally fall off the high e, if I play it lots I don’t have a problem.

now to annoy the true die hard YJM fans :grin:

I HATED the HS3’s.on mine (never tried the Duncan YJM, wasn’t bothered) here’s why

1- vintage stagger (REALLY staggered)
G magnet was really high, sucking on the G string, B was very low causing drop out in volume when bending. Couldn’t find a happy medium.

2- low low output, only good for a YJM sound with loads of gain ( if I could stand the previous points)

This guitar blows minds at gigs and Jams, nobody has seen a YJM neck !

Play Loud !

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#172

This is one of my biggest singlecoil pet peeves. You can kinda get around it by angling the pickup and setting the bass side lower, but there’s zero reason for a singlecoil to come with a “vintage stagger” magnet height these days, since no one’s used a wound G in rock since the 60s.

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#173

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#174

I wasn’t lying I did get it… but just saw too many obstacles, tone, scallops, string spacing and the 2-3 hundred more dollars it was going to cost me… decided to go with an Ibanez prestige

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#175

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#176

:rofl:

Hey, I’ll be the first to agree, if you’re not used to a Stratocaster, a Yngwie strat is a tough first one to start on.

If you ever want to give it another go, a used American Standard or Professional (main selling point here being the multi-radius neck) is pretty good bang for your buck - the medium jumbo frets are going to be a little smaller than you’re used to (and than my preference, FWIW), but it’s a LOT of guitar for the money and you won’t havve to worry about getting used to the scalloped neck, or feel back about swapping out pickups or, worst case, dropping the three singlecoils for a SSH or even a HSH or H-H pickguard, if you just can’t get on with the lower output of singlecoils.

I personally love a neck singlecoil and think the touch sensitivity and responsiveness can make for an amazingly expressive lead voice… but I’ve played singlecoils in some form or another at least on occasion for most of my time as a guitarist (barring a brief stint where I was playing almost entirely seven string - now I split time between sizes and sevens pretty evenly). If you’re not used to them, then yeah, they’re gonna feel weird.

Heck, you can probably grab a used Mexican Strat for a couple hundred, which might be a fun guitar to experiment with.

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#177

Thanks Drew, and I really appreciate the advice and support. I dont take it for granted.

I’ve done alot of guitar soul searching since spring. I tried some Esps, but they weren’t a good fit. The YJM strat is beautiful, just something about the purity of the tone, and holding the signature guitar of one of my greatest influences.

I had all the replacement bridges, etc. Ready to go, it was a hard decision…

I will most likely stick with a SS. I have one of my Ibanez and a Charvel posted on Reverb.

Might go with the Charvel Satchel Bengal and or the Gus G X star

#178

The Ibanez prestige is tremendous guitar.
Stunning looks and plays fantastic.

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#179

Those fluence pickups must be fantastic!

I’ll have too agree with Drew too, a YJM is a very specialised guitar for a first strat. Strat’s aren’t easy to get the best out of them and a YJM is perhaps a little much to be your first strat.

But please don’t write off Strats altogether, there’s something to be had with single coils on them.

IMHO humbuckers mask a lot of picking dynamics. For me I find them to inarticulate and under a lot of drive much like old FM video game, low action doesn’t help either. All those vids of kids playing crazy shredding material is just lost on me due to the wooly articulation and low action, incredible players though they may be.

Initially I never liked the sound of the bridge single coil in a strat, hardly ever used it for year. Then out of the blue I got into country ala Brent Mason, Gatton and Pasley. I learned some hot country picking for years, this really helped me embrace the icepick bridge and tame the beast. Now I’m at that stage where I need that bright attack to articulate, depending on how far you pick from the bridge and mute, can give you tremendous control over dynamics and other effects, just by manipulating your attack, position and muting.

I don’t mean to offend humbucker players, better players than me sound incredible too, I love Zak wilds’s tones amongst many. They are a lot of fun too, I have a set of SD JB and Jazz on a strat that I love to play, but SSS is where it’s at for me.

#180

Not offended. There are alot of players who use HBs that dont sound VG. There are alot of HB pickups that are muddy and undefined.

There have been advancements in PU design with Fishman, and other boutique PU manufacturers like bareknuckle…

The Fishman moderns are extremely articulate and refined wo low end muddiness.

Admittedly you and Drew have different tonal requirements (yours is a county background, Drew’s is new age), so you prefer a thinner sound.

I think HBs have come long way these days

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#181

Never heard a bad demo of the these new fisherman pickups.