Malmsteen Strat and Axe FX II XL tests

[Horganovski]

Kinda surprised myself buying this guitar as I'm not a huge Yngwie fan by any means, but I was looking for a strat with less noise and big frets (all of my other guitars have extra jumbos) and was curious about trying a scalloped neck. Turns out I love it Not finding it difficult to play chords either even though I've seen reports that that can be a thing, maybe it's because I'm used to pressing lightly with the jumbos.

Strat purists might argue that these pickups don't sound exactly like a classic strat but they seem close enough to me and I can really crank the gain (last part is with the AFD model) with no noise and they have a great bite to them. Just what I was looking for! The first part is the 'Run like heck' preset completely stock, the other cleans are my own patch which mixes a USA Clean and a JTM.

 

[EdgE]

:encouragement:Sounds great ,I have a guitar with scalloped neck, could never bond with it.Fun to play thought

 

[Horganovski]

Thanks! I took a gamble on the scalloped neck as I couldn't find one in a store here and bought this online. I do love big frets though (so much so that I had a brand new PRS refretted a good few years ago) and I've played some Ibanez guitars that had the high frets scalloped. It is weird at first but I love the grip and lack of friction. Delighted with the tone of the guitar too. Only negative with this guitar for me is the string spacing with the vintage bridge/modern slim neck, the Es are really close to the edge and I keep pulling the high one off the edge when doing pull-offs, I'm going to try a Callaham V/N bridge as I've seen a few reports that that can resolve this. Not too impressed with the stock bridge in any case as the trem arm is really loose in the socket. Everything else on the guitar is a keeper though for me. Love the pickups.