The Definitive Yngwie Malmsteen Strat Thread, Pix & Video

[Brandon Breeze]

Yea the regular USA ones have those features but not the FCS ones... I wanted a higher quality YJM guitar than the regular USA and cheaper than the Duck tribute. The FCS version is a natural choice but the lack of bullet truss rod is a dealbreaker for me... the 5 way switch and electronics are ok, but I don't think Yngwie himself uses that configuration? I usually see his guitars with mid pickup all the way down, and also from instagram pics, his guitars all have bullet truss rods. Maybe he's just using the regular USA versions?

Yup, see I wasn't following FCS is Fender Custom Shop. They made the CS version after the 68' Fender Strats that Yngwie also loves. I'd assume they wanted to make them differ from the standard production models to make them more "special".

The necks are pretty stable for me, I adjust once and can pretty much forget it. I live in Northern CA, so we have super hot weather, not incredibly cold and humidity ranges all over, so take that for what it's worth.

Can you believe I passed on a Play Loud CS for $8.5k, obviously years ago, but I never thought they would bring the money that they do now.

 

[abangabang]

Yup, see I wasn't following FCS is Fender Custom Shop. They made the CS version after the 68' Fender Strats that Yngwie also loves. I'd assume they wanted to make them differ from the standard production models to make them more "special".

The necks are pretty stable for me, I adjust once and can pretty much forget it. I live in Northern CA, so we have super hot weather, not incredibly cold and humidity ranges all over, so take that for what it's worth.

Can you believe I passed on a Play Loud CS for $8.5k, obviously years ago, but I never thought they would bring the money that they do now.

Someone was selling the Play Loud CS for $5.5k just 3 years ago, idk if it was real or not

 

[Brandon Breeze]

Someone was selling the Play Loud CS for $5.5k just 3 years ago, idk if it was real or not

Definitely would have snagged that one!

 

[abangabang]

Definitely would have snagged that one!

I think I found a sold listing with the specs that I wanted from FCS: https://www.themusiczoo.com/product...aster-masterbuilt-john-cruz-nos-vintage-white. Looks like this is a one-off order.. I'll ask around some dealers

 

[Jakem]

Coming to NYC in early January so checking all the available YJM Strats available in USA and their weights. There’s one shop in Brooklyn that has 2xRW and 1xMaple fretboard ones in stock. Would prefer CAR color with maple fretboard but not too many of those around.

 

[Jakem]

Someone was selling the Play Loud CS for $5.5k just 3 years ago, idk if it was real or not

Would’ve bought that.

 

[Jakem]

Yup, see I wasn't following FCS is Fender Custom Shop. They made the CS version after the 68' Fender Strats that Yngwie also loves. I'd assume they wanted to make them differ from the standard production models to make them more "special".

The necks are pretty stable for me, I adjust once and can pretty much forget it. I live in Northern CA, so we have super hot weather, not incredibly cold and humidity ranges all over, so take that for what it's worth.

Can you believe I passed on a Play Loud CS for $8.5k, obviously years ago, but I never thought they would bring the money that they do now.

I need to adjust the truss rod twice per year on my YJM strat; Annual temperature range here is anything between -35*F - 90*F so the humidity changes quite a bit.

 

[Brandon Breeze]

Coming to NYC in early January so checking all the available YJM Strats available in USA and their weights. There’s one shop in Brooklyn that has 2xRW and 1xMaple fretboard ones in stock. Would prefer CAR color with maple fretboard but not too many of those around.

I have two of those, just sayin

 

[Jakem]

I have two of those, just sayin

The price is too high for the current market, IMO. My view of the ´06 is too different so I won’t even offer. Is the ´06 heavy?

 

[Dunkirkk]

Hey all - brand new to the forum. Found this place when doing research on the YJM models and this thread in particular was super helpful so thank you to everyone (particularly Mr. Breeze) for all the info. I have wanted a YJM since I was 15, and when a 2002 in Sonic Blue (maple neck) came up for a steal about a month ago I figured it was time.

I thought I was done with Fender after buying a Schecter NJ USA a few years back and selling off all my Strats that fell to the wayside, but man am I LOVING the YJM. The fretboard was super easy to adjust to (I may even prefer the scalloped at this point) and the Dimarzio pickups in this thing are killer when you bring the gain in.

I am a pretty mod happy guy, so I have a lot planned for this YJM to get it exactly to my liking. The way I see it is all the most famous strats you know have been modded, including the namesake of this thread - sorry traditionalists!

I will post some pictures when I get around to the mods, but the plan is to not do anything permanent if I can help it. I have a Vegatrem VT1 coming in the mail shortly so we will start there.

Cheers!

 

[Dunkirkk]

Oh and as a follow up, I figured I would post this here for any folks in the future who are looking for replacement trems due to the string spacing issue. I already had a fairly light touch so it wasn't hard to adjust my technique and haven't suffered from it too badly. I did however do a lot of research but also used ChatGPT to put together a table of some of the most common trem systems and their respective string spacing to make things a little easier for people who may be exploring this option.

Order (Widest → Narrowest)	Bridge	Approx E–E Spacing (mm)	Approx E–E Spacing (inches)	Spacing Type / Notes
1 (Widest)	Fender Vintage‑Style Standard 6‑screw	~56 mm	2 3/16″	Classic Fender vintage “wide” Stock on YJM models
2	Callaham Vintage 6‑screw tremolo	~56.4 mm	2 3/16″	True vintage spec
3	Babicz FCH Wide 6‑screw tremolo	~56.4 mm	2 3/16″	Babicz wide 6‑screw
4	Hipshot 6‑Screw Tremolo (wide .441 / ~2‑7/32″)	~56.2 mm	2 3/16″	Hipshot wide variant
5	Wilkinson VSVG 6‑screw tremolo	~54 mm	2 1/8″	Wilkinson VSVG bent‑steel saddle vintage trem
6	Standard Gotoh 510T 6‑screw	~54 mm	2 1/8″	Standard modern spacing
7	VegaTrem VT1	~53.5 mm	2 1/16″	Mid‑width reference
8	Fender Vintage/Narrow 6‑screw	~52.2 mm	2 1/16″	Fender “Vintage‑Narrow”
9	Callaham V/N 6‑screw tremolo	~52.4 mm	2 1/16″	Precision narrow
10	Wilkinson M Series / similar narrow	~52.5 mm	2 1/16″	Wilkinson narrow 6‑screw
11	Hipshot 6‑Screw Tremolo (narrow .416 / ~2‑1/16″)	~52.8 mm	2 1/16″	Hipshot narrow
12 (Most Narrow)	Babicz FCH Narrow 6‑screw tremolo	~52 mm	2 1/16″	Babicz most inward spacing

 

[Monkey Man]

Welcome to the forum @Dunkirkk

 

[Jakem]

Hey all - brand new to the forum. Found this place when doing research on the YJM models and this thread in particular was super helpful so thank you to everyone (particularly Mr. Breeze) for all the info. I have wanted a YJM since I was 15, and when a 2002 in Sonic Blue (maple neck) came up for a steal about a month ago I figured it was time.

I thought I was done with Fender after buying a Schecter NJ USA a few years back and selling off all my Strats that fell to the wayside, but man am I LOVING the YJM. The fretboard was super easy to adjust to (I may even prefer the scalloped at this point) and the Dimarzio pickups in this thing are killer when you bring the gain in.

I am a pretty mod happy guy, so I have a lot planned for this YJM to get it exactly to my liking. The way I see it is all the most famous strats you know have been modded, including the namesake of this thread - sorry traditionalists!

I will post some pictures when I get around to the mods, but the plan is to not do anything permanent if I can help it. I have a Vegatrem VT1 coming in the mail shortly so we will start there.

Cheers!

Welcome to the forum! I swapped the stock trem to a Fender narrow one and it has been working perfectly. Once more shout out to Brandon for all his efforts in collecting all this info and putting this all together, this is an incredible source of info regarding YJM Strats!

 

[Tateanium]

Just ordered a new YJM Singnature model in Canada. Shipping from the Fender store. Cost 3960$

What can I expect in terms of setup etc.
Also are the guitars that are being shipped out now models made in 2025?
Very excited to say the least.

 

[Aidanspaghetti]

I recently bought a YJM st 71 from japan sight unseen. Delighted to finally open it and find a sea foam green YJM.. Fairly sure it's not faded sonic blue as I've had the guard off...Cool guitar... lo e the scalloped board!

 

[Brandon Breeze]

I recently bought a YJM st 71 from japan sight unseen. Delighted to finally open it and find a sea foam green YJM.. Fairly sure it's not faded sonic blue as I've had the guard off...Cool guitar... lo e the scalloped board!

Congrats! The only color code I've seen referenced has been aged sonic blue, which appears surf of seafoam green, enjoy!

 

[Dunkirkk]

Back with some pics after the first round of tune ups on a well loved 2002 model I picked up a few months back. I tried to capture some areas where you can see the blue fading into a greenish hue which I think looks pretty cool!

Tuners - The previous owner had added some vintage style Kluson locking tuners so that was already taken care of.

Pickguard - Swapped out the Mint for a Vintage Pearl pickguard. I knew from previous Strat ownership I wanted to rewire it to have a single tone and move the volume back, but you can imagine my horror when I popped the guard off to reveal this nightmare of a wiring job. I decided to leave that for a rainy day (possibly a biblical flood) and for the time being, have the middle tone pot stuffed back into the cavity under the guard. Pickup tubing was swapped for springs as the tubing had shrunk over the years. The volume hole was plugged with a cheap plug from the hardware store that matched the colour of the knobs close enough.

Bridge - The VegaTrem caught my eye as a big fan of double locking set ups. This may be worthy of a separate thread entirely, but I can't help but feel a little let down. The quality of the machining on this thing was incredibly poor for something that is priced as a premium component. It was covered in tons of dings, scratches, and tooling marks. Getting it to intonate was one of the more challenging things I have had to do in 20 years of working on my own guitars. I reached out to the retailer who were willing to accept it back on a full refund, but since I already spent hours trying to get it intonated I has happy with a partial credit to my account. I do feel I lost a tiny bit of sustain compared to the original bridge, but that might be apples/oranges because the 6 point bridge couldn't float as freely as the VegaTrem. All that said, the action and response on this trem really is unmatched and I plan to keep it on, but I am not sure I would purchase another.

Fretwork - Level/Crown/Polish was interesting on a scalloped board, but all in all it went pretty smoothly. I may actually prefer it to a flat board because I wasn't as worried about catching the wood with a file.

Had this not have already had the tuners, I was putting a lot of thought to converting all the hardware to gold to give it a bit of a different look. But as it stands I absolutely love this guitar. Next up I have been planning out a 22nd fret mod so stay posted for that

 

[Brandon Breeze]

Beautiful piece!

My mind is always boggled when people swap locking tuners on these. If YJM himself is not in need of locking tuners with how wild his playing is, no one needs them. I think they are a crutch for someone who doesn't know how to set up a guitar properly.

 

[Jakem]

Back with some pics after the first round of tune ups on a well loved 2002 model I picked up a few months back. I tried to capture some areas where you can see the blue fading into a greenish hue which I think looks pretty cool!

Tuners - The previous owner had added some vintage style Kluson locking tuners so that was already taken care of.

Pickguard - Swapped out the Mint for a Vintage Pearl pickguard. I knew from previous Strat ownership I wanted to rewire it to have a single tone and move the volume back, but you can imagine my horror when I popped the guard off to reveal this nightmare of a wiring job. I decided to leave that for a rainy day (possibly a biblical flood) and for the time being, have the middle tone pot stuffed back into the cavity under the guard. The hole was plugged with a cheap plug from the hardware store that matched the colour of the knobs close enough.

Bridge - The VegaTrem caught my eye as a big fan of double locking set ups. This may be worthy of a separate thread entirely, but I can't help but feel a little let down. The quality of the machining on this thing was incredibly poor for something that is priced as a premium component. It was covered in tons of dings, scratches, and tooling marks. Getting it to intonate was one of the more challenging things I have had to do in 20 years of working on my own guitars. I reached out to the retailer who were willing to accept it back on a full refund, but since I already spent hours trying to get it intonated I has happy with a partial credit to my account. I do feel a lost a tiny bit of sustain compared to the original bridge, but that might be apples/oranges because the 6 point bridge couldn't float as freely as the VegaTrem. All that said, the action and response on this trem really is unmatched and I plan to keep it on, but I am not sure I would purchase another.

Fretwork - Level/Crown/Polish was interesting on a scalloped board, but all in all it went pretty smoothly. I may actually prefer it to a flat board because I wasn't as worried about catching the wood with a file.

Had this not have already had the tuners, I was putting a lot of thought to converting all the hardware to gold to give it a bit of a different look. But as it stands I absolutely love this guitar. Next up I have been planning out a 22nd fret mod so stay posted for that

Nice work! The VegaTrem quality seems bad and the wiring seems to be rather interesting as well…

 

[Dunkirkk]

Beautiful piece!

My mind is always boggled when people swap locking tuners on these. If YJM himself is not in need of locking tuners with how wild his playing is, no one needs them. I think they are a crutch for someone who doesn't know how to set up a guitar properly.

I see it both ways. My favourite non locking guitars all have them and stay in tune great but you can't point to the tuners as the only factor there. I do like them for string changes but I find myself wrapping a few times around the post out of habit