Mystery Yngwie Malmsteen/Fender collaboration – duh – it’s his Strat replica…

Gasp! The Harmony Central site caught my attention with the hook that the “Yng” will be appearing at a Fender clinic in Dallas. Ho hum – I live in Singapore so not much use to me, but it did have a link towards a special ‘secret’ page on the Fender website here: http://www.fender.com/yngwie/

The main page shows alternating pictures between the Swedish Shredmeister himself and one of his heroes – Niccolo Paganini with big letters proclaiming that “THE FENDER CUSTOM SHOP IS WORKING WITH YNGWIE MALMSTEEN ON A VERY SPECIAL PROJECT THAT WILL BE ANNOUNCED LATER THIS YEAR.”

Well, I don’t think it takes a genius (although I am one, so that helps) to work out that it will be another in a long line of reliced and replicated famous guitars such as EVH’s Frankenstrat, or EC’s Blackie, or JP’s #1 Lezza. in this case it will be Yng’s ’72 Duck Strat no doubt ( a dead giveaway since there is a series of photos of who looks like Fender Custom Shop Master Builder John Cruz taking apart the original guitar while it is measured and photographed).

So there you have it – my prediction:

Limited run of 50 guitars, Yngwie Malmsteen Tribute ’72 Stratocaster ‘The Duck’. Has ‘play loud’ sticker on it, Ferrari decal and Donald Duck sticker on the headstock. Comes with piece of A4 paper certifying that it’s genuine, and a DVD featuring Yngwie saying ‘Check me out – I am amazing’ as he plays ascending diminished seventh arpeggios up and down the neck. A snip at USD $12000, since it’s signed by Yngwie himself. Further there will be a revamp of his production signature Strat (contains one extra screw in scratchplate) and they’ll jack up the price by 50 bucks.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you, but I’m getting a red one!

P.S. If I’m wrong and it turns out to be a scalloped Fender coffee table with ‘drink loud’ on it, then you may spank my monkey buttocks with some burning joss sticks and call me Johann.