Fender '57 Reissue Strat, made in Japan 1987, vintage white. What's more Yngwie: playing a legit Yngwie Malmsteen signature model, or playing a heavily yellowed vintage white Strat with a scalloped maple board hailing from the middle of Yngwie's golden era? It's actually tough to call! The scalloped board on this opens up some amazing possibilities: you can bend notes more cleanly and further without issues, easily bending two whole tones; plus the possibility for vibrato is greatly increased... you can apply vibrato to whole chords or single notes within chords with a squeeze of the fingers. It also cleans up your attack and allows for cleaner sliding around the neck. It's unclear whether the scalloping was done at the factory or done later as a mod; looking at how tidy it is and state of the inlays, we suspect it was a factory job but can't be sure. The heavily yellowed white finish and aged plastics add to the appeal; this has that Malmsteen look about it without having to fork out the insane cash the rare signature models are fetching. This is heaps of fun to play, and it really does sound terrific too; classic Strat-spank all around. Different, but the good kind of different.

Model: Fender Stratocaster '57 Reissue  (ST57-70, may be a -55)
Made: Japan, Fujigen Plant, neck date 9 Feb 1987 (MIJ, serial E736909)
Finish: vintage white (VWH), 1-ply white guard
Body: alder
Neck: maple with maple board, dot inlays
Weight: 3.4kg
Mods: none
Pickups: original Fender Japan ST Vintage singles
Case: vintage faux-leather gig bag

Cosmetic condition notes: moderate finish wear. There's a bit of tasty play-wear on the board, it's aged beautifully. The finish has some 'mottling' around the place, it's evenly spread around the body. There's some dings in the body-carve area, including one that's been patched up. There's a bunch of minor scratches in the buckle-rash zone, nothin major. There's some discolouration on the plastics and some minor pitting on some of the metal parts, but everything works fine. Overall: good condition (7/10).

Playing condition notes: Action is low, neck is straight, intonation is good, truss rod works. All electrics tested and working properly. Frets have some minor wear but are fairly even, 8/10 for life left. Wearing fresh 10/46s and ready to shred til your dead.

Note: there's a handy article about scalloped boards here if you want some more info.