Yes, but Malmsteen also uses a scalloped board, which means the radius is determined by the frets and saddles, and thus the board's 9" radius has no bearing on it.
He also used non scalloped 7.25 strats (just like Jon Norum did) and sounded the same, even his vibrato0Oo was there! I'll post a clip -it's from 1984 alcactrazz Japan....
