Fender Yngwie Malmsteen RW VW

Close to perfect.

The setup right out of the box, could have been better. The intonation was off, quite a bit.
A new set of strings and a setup made it play like butter.

The fretwork is excellent. Huge wide jumbo frets, built for speed.
It has a vintage wide spaced tremolo. So control your vibrato, its easy to slip right of the fretboard, on the light E string above the 12th fret. I got used to it quickly and it does not bother me at all.

Some cracks in the paintjob under the tremolo unit, and also a small crack in the paint in the neck joint on the lower horn.

The pickups sound great. The neck is really stratty, and the brigde is also on when the toneknob is on 10. Turn the tone knob to 5, and your in low output humbucker territory. You can hammer it with distortion, and it still has amazing clarity.

It comes with a beatiful tweed case, COA, leopard strap with straplocks, and some case candy.

It`s not a custom shop, but it is damn close.

The first day I absolutely hated this guitar. The high-E kept sliding off and the action was way too high (even after adjustment), nearly unplayable. Everything came out sounding bad and awkward so I naturally blamed the guitar of course :)

Then I packed it up for return and left it there. After 2-3 days I gave it another try and realised what should have been evident from the very beginning: my technique was just not good enough for this, and the high-E string was sliding off because I was inadvertently pulling slightly sideways, i.e. something I never noticed on other guitars but that I needed to address.

As for string action, I realised that if Yngwie manages to play that fast and clean with high action it means it IS possible, it’a once again a matter of getting the technique good enough to do it. So I kept practicing until I got that sorted.

Eventually I kept this guitar with the intention of improving my technique to be able to play it correctly it and it has helped me loads. Sometimes having a “difficult” instrument is what you need to highlight flaws and start working on them. Had the same on some 58’ Gibsons which had a “baseball bat” neck which initially gave me cramps while playing fast but that was what I needed to finally loosen up my grip.

So, this is not an “easy” guitar and not really intended for beginners but if you want to have something more challenging that can really highlight your flaws and improve your technique, this is it. Personally, I love it.