A solution to the trem issue: get the Fender Yngwie brass nut. It's a direct fit because the neck on the Yngwie Strat has the same dimensions, and it stays in tune incredibly well! You literally can't make the Yngwie Strat go out of tune because of it
Thank You for taking the time to tell us guitarist the details and how it feels to hold and play the guitar, instead of ripping and shredding on through. Much appreciated. 👍👍 🎸🎶 .
Arnold you can really really play well, intro was awesome. I am glad I waited to make a comment because you ended up saying what I thought. It’s cool to see a a guy do a fair assessment and be honest about the instrument.
I have the same Strat in the same finish, and I've owned literally dozens of Strats over the last several decades, and this is the best Strat that I've ever owned
I think a lot of two guitar metal bands would do well to have one person play a single coil , or P90 equipped guitar. There is sometimes a lack of texture in modern metal where you wonder why there are two guitarists at all.
Paired with the Marshall, I think it sounds amazing. I have an HSS because I knew just single coils wouldn't do it for me. Was thinking of SD quarter pounders for the neck and middle positions though. Great demo!! Thanks for sharing!!
Great review! Thank you for these thorough breakdowns. I bought the Esp ltd m7 ht baritone black metal after your review. It's a great axe! Cheers Arnold!
Awesome guitar and review. American Fenders are great instruments and I've really grown to love them, especially in the last while. Yeah, the Yosemite pickups seem to be brighter and spankier than their other USA pickup lines. I find the V-Mods and V-Mod II's are more 'balanced' and punchy. Fender USA Performer's are great instruments from what I've seen, and I own a couple American Professionals myself, which are fantastic. The vintage trems on these Performer's are okay but not as good as the 2-point bridges that you get on the American Pro's or Ultras.
Nice tone with the single coils! I’m slowly finding my tone moving towards natural break-up of my amps rather than lots of distortion. I love the tone you’re using but I can appreciate that you won’t get brutal metal tones on a SSS Strat.
Awesome review. I’ve been on the fender with the performer VS professional because I prefer the big headstock, but those Yosemite Pickups seem to be the weak point from multiple opinions from what I’ve heard. You’re the first metal oriented player I’ve seen on here to share that sentiment so def helped my decision on my purchase c: great playing as always
The yosemites are fantastic, maybe they're just designed for something else. I wouldn't play high gain stuff on a strat period but clean/od stuff on these performer series strats is glorious.
Say what you want. Coming from watching MANY of your reviews over the years. You sound awesome playing that guitarArnold. The opening demo was killer and so different than your extended range downturned stuff - which is always great as well. You should keep it around just to have a completely different sound around the studio. Or sell it. Those things are pain to play and the bridges are a tough sell compared to modern stuff.
I can't do single coils. I have my eye on a shell pink charvel though with a white pick guard. I have a few squires when I first started and they played pretty good
i feel like a strat with a single coil bridge is a guitar that just needs to be played with another guitarist with a guitar with a humbucker to fill out that full tonal spectrum, and when you actually do that, it sounds insane. That's probably a thing most of y'all already know though.
I know you don't like Bare Knuckle but you should definitely check the Trilogy Suite set. With the stock Fender pots it's gonna sound really fat and really mid pushing, but you'd probably already know that if you read the name enough times :D
I thought the tone you were using was AWESOME. I think most Strat players do not go for the METAL Ahhhhhhhh!!! 🤪 sound. But what you showed works for me anyway and thank you for the demo. Really appreciate it.
Thanks for a really complete review on the performer! I got one myself about a month ago (olympic white) I love it and the feeling of the neck and those jumbo frets are really awesome. I am a classical guitarist but when it comes to electric guitar it is all about rock and metal. I ordered a set of YJM fury pickups to get the sound the guitar deserves, the yosemite pickups are way to thin and spanky for metal, we will see how it works out. Would be interesting to hear what you did to the pickup problem :)
I have the Arctic white and the trem works perfectly. All I have to do is widen the G and B string nut slots and tighten down one of the string trees. 99% of the time it's nut.
I´ve also tried a Fender Strat for metal a couple of years ago. To be honest it didn't work out that well. It seems to have good reason that almost all of the metal players prefer humbuckers.
How is it compared to the previous generation American specials ? I have found one with the local dealer for a good deal but I'm kind of at the edge between that American special start and fender player (SSS, polar white) which one to go for. Can you advice ? Special has some kind of Texas pickup's not these Yosemite's.
Nothing plays as comfortable as a Fender Strat in my opinion. I own a Jimmy Vaughn Model myself and it’s the best. I wished Fender made more models geared towards the heavier music genre. A Trevor Peres ( Obituary) signature model would be dope. The Jim Root model is stupid expensive.
Strongly disagree, the Yosemite set is up there with my favorite Strat pups of all time. They can do everything short of 90s death metal tones, and can absolutely nail thrash, 70s proto-metal, and even djent. Edit: the worst part of this guitar is that awful CBS headstock lmao
Single coil Strats are not made for heavy metal. They are awesome for clean to crunch and light overdriven tones. High gain playing needs stronger output pickups. You are playing with way too much gain for a Strat, bro. Cheers!
I have both the American Performer and American Professional, same era, and to me the choice is clear so pay an extra 2 to 3 hundred more and get the Professional. The tone is fuller and the performer just sounds tinnier, but the difference is in the pickups so obviously you can change that; however, no fender case with the performer seems like a cheap thing to do when you're buying a guitar in this price range, also the headstock and logo stand out to me as ugly and out of place. Just my preference, but I get it though some prefer the vintage look. Finally maybe I got a rushed job so the frets on the performer aren't as polished on the fret edges. The frets are just nicer on the Professional. Honestly I may try to sell the performer in the future because I don't play it as much as the Professional. Spend the extra money, you'll be glad you did.
fantastic review thank you. I have this guitar and its shit. Crap broken tuners/plastic nut/awful pickups/awful bridge...over priced garbage.... but what a lovely finish.
A solution to the trem issue: get the Fender Yngwie brass nut.
It's a direct fit because the neck on the Yngwie Strat has the same dimensions, and it stays in tune incredibly well! You literally can't make the Yngwie Strat go out of tune because of it
Personally I think heavier music on a Strat sounds amazing. Wish more bands would go the single coil route with heavier music. It's so clear.
Thank You for taking the time to tell us guitarist the details and how it feels to hold and play the guitar, instead of ripping and shredding on through. Much appreciated. 👍👍 🎸🎶 .
Great playing, Arnold!
Awesome tune! Your reviews are what got me here and what makes me come back! Pls keep doing this!!
Arnold you can really really play well, intro was awesome. I am glad I waited to make a comment because you ended up saying what I thought. It’s cool to see a a guy do a fair assessment and be honest about the instrument.
I have the same Strat in the same finish, and I've owned literally dozens of Strats over the last several decades, and this is the best Strat that I've ever owned
Thank You. Much appreciated. I love strats. 👍😎
Ditto !!
Dude, you made that performer sound awesome!
The Performer sound awesome... I've got the HSS though... And I love it..!! 👍
Great riffs on that intro jam.
I think a lot of two guitar metal bands would do well to have one person play a single coil , or P90 equipped guitar. There is sometimes a lack of texture in modern metal where you wonder why there are two guitarists at all.
I have a single coil Tele and it’s surprisingly good to play metal with.
Was looking for a review like this, thank you
Paired with the Marshall, I think it sounds amazing. I have an HSS because I knew just single coils wouldn't do it for me. Was thinking of SD quarter pounders for the neck and middle positions though. Great demo!! Thanks for sharing!!
Great review! Thank you for these thorough breakdowns. I bought the Esp ltd m7 ht baritone black metal after your review. It's a great axe! Cheers Arnold!
Awesome guitar and review. American Fenders are great instruments and I've really grown to love them, especially in the last while. Yeah, the Yosemite pickups seem to be brighter and spankier than their other USA pickup lines. I find the V-Mods and V-Mod II's are more 'balanced' and punchy. Fender USA Performer's are great instruments from what I've seen, and I own a couple American Professionals myself, which are fantastic. The vintage trems on these Performer's are okay but not as good as the 2-point bridges that you get on the American Pro's or Ultras.
Thanks for the review! I also really like that finish
Nice tone with the single coils! I’m slowly finding my tone moving towards natural break-up of my amps rather than lots of distortion. I love the tone you’re using but I can appreciate that you won’t get brutal metal tones on a SSS Strat.
Awesome review. I’ve been on the fender with the performer VS professional because I prefer the big headstock, but those Yosemite Pickups seem to be the weak point from multiple opinions from what I’ve heard. You’re the first metal oriented player I’ve seen on here to share that sentiment so def helped my decision on my purchase c: great playing as always
The yosemites are fantastic, maybe they're just designed for something else. I wouldn't play high gain stuff on a strat period but clean/od stuff on these performer series strats is glorious.
Sick playing in the intro. Sounds very power metal
Say what you want. Coming from watching MANY of your reviews over the years. You sound awesome playing that guitarArnold. The opening demo was killer and so different than your extended range downturned stuff - which is always great as well.
You should keep it around just to have a completely different sound around the studio.
Or sell it. Those things are pain to play and the bridges are a tough sell compared to modern stuff.
I can't do single coils. I have my eye on a shell pink charvel though with a white pick guard. I have a few squires when I first started and they played pretty good
100% CBS headstock, sexiest of all Fender headstocks!
strat neck pickups are usually pretty awesome, imo.
i feel like a strat with a single coil bridge is a guitar that just needs to be played with another guitarist with a guitar with a humbucker to fill out that full tonal spectrum, and when you actually do that, it sounds insane. That's probably a thing most of y'all already know though.
that said, i thought the bridge tones you got, while not extremely hot signal-wise, were dope.
Man you're loving that Better Than Raw tone that Roland Grapow had! Love it! \m/
Love strats, but always find myself cutting my hand with the vintage style sadles. Late '90 to mid 2000's strats are really awesome though!
Shorten the 12 tiny screws about 1 mm at the button and you will love the sadel again..!! 😊👍
I know you don't like Bare Knuckle but you should definitely check the Trilogy Suite set. With the stock Fender pots it's gonna sound really fat and really mid pushing, but you'd probably already know that if you read the name enough times :D
I thought the tone you were using was AWESOME. I think most Strat players do not go for the METAL Ahhhhhhhh!!! 🤪 sound. But what you showed works for me anyway and thank you for the demo. Really appreciate it.
I changed the pickups in mine. Raw Vintage 60 in the neck. Ssl2 in the middle. And ssl-6 in the bridge. Mine also needed fretwork in the high frets
Could be mistaken but I believe it’s routed for hsh underneath. I had one for a year, quite the instrument for the money.
Thanks for a really complete review on the performer! I got one myself about a month ago (olympic white) I love it and the feeling of the neck and those jumbo frets are really awesome. I am a classical guitarist but when it comes to electric guitar it is all about rock and metal. I ordered a set of YJM fury pickups to get the sound the guitar deserves, the yosemite pickups are way to thin and spanky for metal, we will see how it works out. Would be interesting to hear what you did to the pickup problem :)
I have the Arctic white and the trem works perfectly. All I have to do is widen the G and B string nut slots and tighten down one of the string trees. 99% of the time it's nut.
Amen to the headstock brother
Great stout & great guitar !! Nice playing and review Arnold. You gonna snort that beer or drink it 😊 peace out !
You need to run a Strat (with single coils) through a good OD pedal, it adds mids and fattens it up. Just ask Yngwie Malmsteen 🎸💪
I´ve also tried a Fender Strat for metal a couple of years ago.
To be honest it didn't work out that well.
It seems to have good reason that almost all of the metal players prefer humbuckers.
Yeah, Metal definitely needs humbuckers in my opinion.
Hey Arnold, how about replacing tone pot 4 swiching from parallel to series?as Ola's telly...
The body and as a standard?
How is it compared to the previous generation American specials ? I have found one with the local dealer for a good deal but I'm kind of at the edge between that American special start and fender player (SSS, polar white) which one to go for. Can you advice ? Special has some kind of Texas pickup's not these Yosemite's.
Nothing plays as comfortable as a Fender Strat in my opinion. I own a Jimmy Vaughn Model myself and it’s the best. I wished Fender made more models geared towards the heavier music genre. A Trevor Peres ( Obituary) signature model would be dope. The Jim Root model is stupid expensive.
Thanks for this video 🎸
Do you still have your Henrik charvel?
Who does the intro music for your videos? It's a great riff
two words: hot rails
Those are shite
Nice review!
I want to see you review an Ibanez Q ☺️
That guitar sounds like it would be great if you wanted to play millencolin-no cigar
Nice 🎸
Strongly disagree, the Yosemite set is up there with my favorite Strat pups of all time. They can do everything short of 90s death metal tones, and can absolutely nail thrash, 70s proto-metal, and even djent. Edit: the worst part of this guitar is that awful CBS headstock lmao
Fender has stepped up a lot since like 2014. They're truly quality product these days.
Dude!? Get a telecaster. They are the best guitars for metal.
I have a Dave Murray Fender Strat MIM, Surprisingly it kicks ass and sounds good for some chunky Death Metal riffs.
Single coil Strats are not made for heavy metal. They are awesome for clean to crunch and light overdriven tones. High gain playing needs stronger output pickups. You are playing with way too much gain for a Strat, bro. Cheers!
Fat strats are what ya need for that really heavy metal tone.
I have both the American Performer and American Professional, same era, and to me the choice is clear so pay an extra 2 to 3 hundred more and get the Professional. The tone is fuller and the performer just sounds tinnier, but the difference is in the pickups so obviously you can change that; however, no fender case with the performer seems like a cheap thing to do when you're buying a guitar in this price range, also the headstock and logo stand out to me as ugly and out of place. Just my preference, but I get it though some prefer the vintage look. Finally maybe I got a rushed job so the frets on the performer aren't as polished on the fret edges. The frets are just nicer on the Professional. Honestly I may try to sell the performer in the future because I don't play it as much as the Professional. Spend the extra money, you'll be glad you did.
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14:48
fantastic review thank you. I have this guitar and its shit. Crap broken tuners/plastic nut/awful pickups/awful bridge...over priced garbage.... but what a lovely finish.
Not the right type of guitar for your music style😅