Yngwie Malmsteen recently shared the story behind his signature Fender Stratocaster in an interview with Planet Guitar. The Swedish guitar virtuoso recounted how he became the first musician to receive a signature model from Fender, insisting the deal came before similar offers were made to Eric Clapton or Jeff Beck.
Malmsteen explained how Fender executives approached him during a show in the mid-80s, a moment that defied the company’s long-standing policies.
“It’s another funny thing, too. I was playing Long Beach Arena in California, 1986, Trivia Tour, and all of a sudden Dan Smith and all these guys from Fender, they come into my dressing room and say, ‘We got to make you a senior model,'” Malmsteen said. “Before then, no one ever even got this Strat for free.”
He went on to describe how Fender had previously refused to endorse its most famous players.
“Fender wouldn’t even endorse Jeff Beck, Blackmore, Hendrix, they had to buy them, period. But what happened was when Eddie Van Halen came out, Father Strats got out of fashion. They nobody wanted him anymore,” Malmsteen said.
The guitarist noted that Fender’s sales reportedly rebounded thanks to his own success.
“And Dan Smith told me later when he when I did my first sold album with the guitar out of the fire. He said they started selling again. He said, ‘Well, this kid sold to something,'” Malmsteen recalled.
Negotiations over the design of the guitar also took a humorous turn, particularly regarding the scalloped fretboard he is known for.
“So they said they want to give me a ball which was crazy because never they did that before Clapton before Beck. God bless those two. Anyway, so they said, ‘Oh, I don’t think we can have scalp.’ Well, f*ck it then. They said, ‘Okay, we scallop it and free. We put the name here.’ No, I don’t want it here. I weren’t here. I was joking and they said, ‘Okay.’ So, I was very happy about that, of course,” Malmsteen concluded.
The signature Stratocaster was officially released in late 1988 and marked a major turning point in Fender’s relationship with its artists. Prior to this, the company had never produced a signature model for any of its legendary players.
Malmsteen and Eric Clapton were the first two artists Fender ever honored with signature instruments. This placed Malmsteen in an elite category alongside Clapton, while guitar icons like Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix had to purchase their Fenders off the shelf like any other customer.
The signature model was built to reflect Malmsteen’s own heavily modified 1970s Stratocaster, nicknamed “The Duck.” It featured a scalloped fingerboard — a defining element of his playing style — along with custom pickups designed to produce his signature neo-classical shred tone.
The release of the Malmsteen signature model helped revive Fender’s flagging sales during an era when superstrats and pointy-headed guitars from competitors dominated the market. Malmsteen’s success with the instrument proved that the classic Stratocaster design could still compete in the hard rock and metal landscape.
