I first heard the debut Yngwie solo effort not too long after it came out around late 1984 - a guitar-playing friend played it for me on cassette. Oh, how I begged him for a dub - and he delivered. On the same tape he included the Attitude Song, by Vai, and some Michael Hedges stuff too - he was a pretty good player, and adored the Hedges stuff, was getting some of it down - but he was fooling with Vai adn Malmsteen.
He had one of those Koa Carvin DC 200s you used to see in all the guitar mags at the time. A beautiful guitar, let me jam on it a bit... It was a sweet, sweet player. Maybe have played only one or two similarly easy playing instruments since, but I was just barely learning my box positions back then - I recall licks just jumping out of that thing.
Wearing a walkman blasting Black Star, Icarus Dream Suite and others walking University halls at the time. It just made you feel like you could conquer anything.
Then around '86 or '87, I had the chance to see Yngwie and Rising Force open for Dio. It was something else! The sheer attitude the guy had, just an in-your-face performance that was loud, musical and heavy in a way that no others at the time dared deliver.
My little brother took up Malmsteen and Wolf Hoffman as his personal guitar heroes at age 13 - I purchased his first guitar for him while at university and brought it home for him. A jet black Takamine GX-200, which was a phenomenal guitar, almost as smooth at the Carvin, for $269. Dual bucker superstrat, it had a contoured neck-heel, and a beautiful strangely wide neck with a low radius. It was a great guitar for him to learn on. He eventually learned several Yngwie songs note for note, and went on to lead a cover band for thirty years, playing as much country as rock. This is what his Tak looked like, his was in black - he kind of wishes he would have kept it... Takamine veered away from electrics shortly after for whatever reason, but it was a pretty fine guitar.
Anyway, all that aside, the latest strap moving to Reverb was completed this weekend. As over the top as Yngwie, it features leopard plush, with a pseudo-heavy-metal studded belt mounted to it for anyone who is ready to unleash the fooking fury. Famous for scoffing at the idea that "Less is more" Yngvie has always maintained that MORE is more, and that is how this strap got it's name.
Fresh in the No Prisoners Series, I present "More is More"
Also got a cool pic back from a recent customer... Big Sun Concho was from the "If Life Gives You Lemons" series about three years back.
This on a gorgeous SG Junior
Long story, but years ago I ended up buying a hide for a collector who is fairly well known in the Les Paul community, to make him a custom strap. When it arrived at my shop, he didn't dig it because it was a little too red. Sending it back was not really option so I ended up cutting out ten straps from that hide, each with a different metal feature on the front. This is the last to finally sell. I rarely put
real suede on the insides of straps anymore, but he loves it...
"This leather strap is of the highest quality, which is par for the course with everything that I’ve purchased from Well-Hung Guitar Accessories. The leather is top-notch, as is the workmanship. It is truly a hand-made work of art, created by one person, as opposed to some mass-produced assembly line product. By purchasing a Well-Hung strap you will be helping a true artisan continue his pursuit of creating masterpieces." Gavan
Now I don't know about the "masterpiece" bit, but he seems to be enjoying it. I had sent a bonus set of pro-pins in with the strap as a bonus and somehow one got loose and kind of scratched up the strap on top a bit. Being oil-tanned leather, it can self-repair pretty good sometimes if you simply just rub the heck out of it. He also used some magic leather conditioner on it and it now it looks like new. Very cool of him to take the time and put in the effort. But, I will have to review my packing process after that for sure. Nobody wants to pull a damaged strap out of a box after waiting two weeks for the damn thing.