ADA Depot - A Forum To Support Users of ADA Amplification Gear
Non ADA Gear => Guitars => Topic started by: Batsinthebelltower on October 14, 2015, 06:45:17 PM
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hey guys
just wondering if anyone here has owned or played the fender YJM signature strat ? Ive always wanted one , but never played a scalloped neck , what are your opinions ? :banana-guitar:
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Ok I have never owned one and I also have never played one. But I guy I toured with played a strat copy with a scalloped board and he oved it. Personally I think he only used it as he was an Yngwie fan and I don't honestly think he played it because he liked it particularly. He would deny this of course.
I often wondered about it myself. I don't think it would improve my playing or make things better. I actually like to feel the fretboard beneath me particularly for tapping so I know I wouldn't like it as similarly to extreme hi fret guitar you can't always feel the board benetah your fingers with a scalloped. I also heard a luthier tell me he would advise against a scalloped board due to mass and loss of sustain and all that. Then again I doubt Yngwie would play a guitar if it didn't sustain so you can throw that out the window.
You might need to try it Bats :dunno:
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I haven't played the YJM (don't even know what it is.. But I do know about scalloped FBs a bit). I scalloped my Jap Anson strat (my 3rd ever guitar and still have it) in one of it's various mods and incarnations, overall, bad idea for me (it turned out). I was copying Blackmore (typically he just had above 12th fret scalloped in the earlier days IIRC), but he did do the whole neck at one point, and that's what I did. If you don't need/want (like Blackmore) to play chords it's fine for lead (proviso her is you have very good sensitive feel or you'll be f&&ked). When you scallop frets, when you press harder (obviously) you'll raise pitch, rock is about pressing hard (when you need to) to create the energy, so staying in tune becomes an issue !! E.g. playing ACDC style open chords (which you have to hold down with enough alacrity to make them sound right) tend to go out of tune... Fine for lead, not great for rhythm stuff. Well that's been my experience with it, I wouldn't bother with it. However, if your a really sensitive player, with a really good ear, and you want a bit more out of your left hand (to change pitch just by LH pressure, and hey I enjoyed the scallops for lead playing), then go for it...
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Havent played one either but since rnolan mentioned Blackmore I want to point out this, his scallop job is different than the one Yngwie uses, look at the picture.
(http://www.edroman.com/guitars/fender/images/fender_blackmoor_287fb.jpg)
He sacallopes more toreward the body and is supposed to hel with chores since on the early frets is not much scalloped there only really close to the frets.
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Hey El, thanks and wow, that's very edifying !! Again, scalloped frets are suited to (generally) very accomplished players, who don't play many chords! But hey, you get used to whatever you have and adjust, while I had my strat scalloped, I got used to it and it was fine (I enjoyed it for lead and riff work (like I like the way the Mullard Long plates track my playing so accurately)), it just didn't add enough value for what I was doing in the end, and I don't have John Lord to play the rhythm on the keyboard like Blackmore did so I have to play both bits....
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personally that looks like a f**king nightmare to me that scalloped board.
YJP is Yngwie Malmsteen. He is not new Richard so I'm surprised you haven't heard of him. I bet you'd hate him though lol
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Thanks RG, yeah I've heard of Malmsteen, I haven't listened to him much (if at all) but as you say he's been around and reasonably famous for quite a while, I just didn't get the acronym :facepalm:
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Thanks RG, yeah I've heard of Malmsteen, I haven't listened to him much (if at all) but as you say he's been around and reasonably famous for quite a while, I just didn't get the acronym :facepalm:
It's ok I was just mentioning his name. He's Ritchie Blackmores most famous fan and a lot of Ritchie rubbed off on Yngwie, but then he took the ball and ran with it. So many people hate him because.............well he's f**king brilliant. So many also hate him and say he cannot write songs. Well I have 4 or 5 of his albums and IO beg to differ.
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Completely agree ... absolutely brilliant guitar work (compositions/arrangements), especially the early half a dozen or so albums. He did an instructional video many years ago, I found it really useful to see what he was doing close up.
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I have a YJM Strat, the current edition (bullet truss, large headstock, SD Fury pickups, deeper scallop profile, brass nut). I love it, but I realize it's one of those things you'll either love or hate. To me the most awesome thing about it also happens to be the very thing that a lot of people hate about it. The scallops are DEEP. Deeper than the previous edition. Because of this, it takes a light touch with the left hand, or your notes will be sharp. If you can get over that, bending and WIDE, manly vibrato are ridiculously easy, and feels like sex for the fingers.
As an over-zealous teen, I scalloped my first guitar (Kramer Focus). Basically learned to play with a scalloped fretboard on electric. It's like learning to drive a car with manual stick, then later you can easily switch between stick & automatic. So for me the scallops were like returning to an old friend. Currently I have only 2 scalloped guitars, the rest have regular necks. Played back to back, I notice I have less fatigue playing the scalloped guitars because it takes no effort on bends and vibrato, which I do a lot. I never had problem with chords, but that might be because I "grew up" with scallops lol.
The pickups look like single coils, but they are actually two coils stacked on top of each other in opposite directions. So they are quiet like regular humbuckers, but with lower output. I can't find the article, but when the Fury pickups first came out, I remember the concept behind it was so YJM could have a fairly clean palette that he could shape with his DOD 250/308 in front of his gain channel. Not the best if you want all out gain, but I use a TS9 in front of my preamp anyway, so it's all good. A nice side effect is that it sounds very nice clean.
Regarding how scalloping reduces sustain--based on the laws of physics, yes that makes sense. But in the real world, we're only talking like a 0.0002% difference (made that number up, BTW). But you get the idea. There are many other factors that affect sustain to a greater degree. I notice no difference in sustain between my American Standard and my YJM.
The thing I like least about it is the nitro finish on the neck. It "grips" your hand a lot.
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I recently got a MIM Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster which is in essence the same as the YJM model.
Different pick-ups and no brass nut, but same axe.
They obviously make both guitars (The Blackmore and the YJM) at the same time, the same way and
just separate a batch from another at assembly.
Only a few parts make both models different. Mostly the sticker on the headstock. ::)
I must say I am an Yngwie fanatic in every manner.
The guy plays insanely well, has tremendous control, his playing is soulful even though he plays
most of the time at breakneck speed (Which is one of the most staggering things about him) and he is
certainly an inspired and capable composer.
I don't revere everything he writes, but one has to admit he is a force of nature music-wise.
Back to the guitar:
I always wanted to own a scalloped guitar and only rarely had a chance to try one here and there too briefly.
I never has the heart to actually modify one of my guitars that way...
I finally had a chance to swap an amp against this guitar.
I can say that it feels very natural to me. No issues at all playing a scalloped fingerboard.
I guess that my technique is already balanced enough and don't press hard like I used to do in my first years of playing.
Of course, if you press hard, you will throw the pitch sharp...
...And if you press hard on a regular neck, it will only make it harder to play faster.
The actual benefits reside mostly on the easier bending and vibrato with such a neck.
I like the feel it has. It does make your fingers feel free...
But I'm so used to play regular necks, I cannot say that I play better or faster with a scalloped one.
I wouldn't go as far I scalloping other axes I own, but I do enjoy having this guitar.
On that subject though, I always wondered what was the point to only have the last 4 frets scalloped
on the Vai's guitars as he does...
Since the space between these frets is so small anyhow, your fingers cannot touch the wood.
Seems just to me a quirky feature just so you can add to the list without going through the work of scalloping whole necks. :crazy:
(http://i.imgur.com/1qFaEqB.jpg) (http://www.freeimagehosting.net/commercial-photography/california/palm-springs/)
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I don't think I'd want my current guitars' fretboards scalloped, but I would very much like to test drive one of those Blackmore or YJM Strats someday. No shop near me has one to try though.
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Hey Gang,
I believe I can shed some light on the scalloped frets on the Vai guitars, having owned 3 of them in the past. The reason the last few frets of the guitar are scalloped is because the frets are so close together, that the tips of your fingers are usually too wide to get in between them. The scalloping helps you articulate the notes in the upper registers easier.
Personally, I wouldn't use a guitar with the entire fretboard scalloped because of the intonation issues mentioned above. There are many instances when I'm playing, that I press hard on the fretboard, one in particular is when I am putting more emphasis on my vibrato. I have to press harder when I am pushing my vibrato to the extreme so the string doesn't get out from under my finger. ( I'm a huge fan of Robin Trower's Vibrato technique).
Speaking strictly from my own personal tastes, When it comes to scalloped fretboards, I would only have a fretboard scalloped from the 19th fret to the 24th. I wouldn't go below that. This actually gives your notes more clarity, and it seems a bit more volume for fast runs in those upper registers. IMHO
FWIW Harley 8)
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Hey Gang,
I believe I can shed some light on the scalloped frets on the Vai guitars, having owned 3 of them in the past. The reason the last few frets of the guitar are scalloped is because the frets are so close together, that the tips of your fingers are usually too wide to get in between them. The scalloping helps you articulate the notes in the upper registers easier.
Personally, I wouldn't use a guitar with the entire fretboard scalloped because of the intonation issues mentioned above. There are many instances when I'm playing, that I press hard on the fretboard, one in particular is when I am putting more emphasis on my vibrato. I have to press harder when I am pushing my vibrato to the extreme so the string doesn't get out from under my finger. ( I'm a huge fan of Robin Trower's Vibrato technique).
Speaking strictly from my own personal tastes, When it comes to scalloped fretboards, I would only have a fretboard scalloped from the 19th fret to the 24th. I wouldn't go below that. This actually gives your notes more clarity, and it seems a bit more volume for fast runs in those upper registers. IMHO
FWIW Harley 8)
Well I find that it is useless over the 20th fret exactly because there is no room for the finger to get in between these frets, thus removing wood from under the string doesn't change anything since your fingers cannot access that area anyhow.
Having a scalloped board wouldn't impair your vibrato technique, it would actually make it even easier to achieve. Since the note's pitch gets all warped up anyhow during vibrato, pressing even harder wouldn't harm anything intonation wise.
Although intonation issues will be very apparent if you keep pressing hard while playing normal lines or chords.
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Hi ererybody,
A friend o' mine just purchased a YJM strat couple month ago, pickups don't have so much high end, the neck is the good part ; mapple,
scalloped from the first to the last fret. he told me "it's not so good for shredding 'cause your fingers can go to far on the fretboard when you play up the 12 fret, he found a real interest on the lower part of the neck because when when you want to bend strings you don't even touch the fretboard " (make sense ???)
this is HIS opinion... you have to make yours of course
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Scalloping a neck being an irreversible process, I kinda did it the reversible way.
Re-fretted an 87 Pacer using Dunlop 6000, similar playing feel to that of a scalloped neck ... and to be honest, if my fingertips touch the fretboard wood I know I must be doing something seriously wrong.
I like it, feels nice to me ... I've got another neck put to one side that I have the intention of scalloping next time around.
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Hey Chucky,
That was the reason given about the scalloped frets, past the 20th fret. The fact that you can't get your fingers in between them is why they were scalloped there.
Harley 8)