First Malaysia's guitarist signed a Fender !

Squier introduces its Sham Kamikaze Signature Stratocaster® guitar model, named for and designed with the help of Malaysia’s top guitarist.

Available in Malaysia beginning with a special launch event on Saturday, June 20, at longtime Squier/Fender® Malaysian distributor Bentley Music in capital city Kuala Lumpur, the guitar is the Southeast Asian nation’s first-ever Squier signature model.

The Sham Kamikaze Signature Stratocaster guitar puts Kamikaze’s own personal touch on a Squier Classic Vibe series instrument, not the least of which is its distinctive and non-traditional reverse headstock design and reverse string arrangement, which lends a certain subtle, loose feel to the guitar’s comfortable playability.

Features also include an alder body finished in Black or Vintage White, gloss maple neck, Kamikaze’s signature on the front of the headstock and a Sigma logo on the back, vintage-style single-ply white pickguard, three custom vintage-style single-coil pickups (reverse-angled bridge pickup) with reverse staggered alnico III magnets, vintage-style tuning machines and tremolo, and aged plastic parts.

Sham Kamikaze is well established as Malaysia’s top rock guitarist. Born Shamril Salleh in 1976 into a musical family, he was exposed to many kinds of musical genres from a very early age. He began learning guitar at age 12 and was playing in bands by age 14.

As a young guitarist, Kamikaze continually honed his skills and backed major artists in and beyond Malaysia for many tears; he also took a teaching position at the Guitar Institute of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur. He formed Kamikaze in 1999 and recorded three albums—Kontroversi, Inspirasi and 3. All were nominated for Anugerah Industri Muzik—Malaysia’s music industry awards ceremony, equivalent to the U.S. Grammy—as best rock album of 2001, with Inspirasi winning the award. Kamikaze has performed with musicians such as Andy Timmons, Neil Zaza and T.M. Stevens, and opened for the Joe Satriani/Steve Vai/Yngwie Malmsteen G3 tour in 2000.