Yngwie Malmsteen’s Tone – Simply Excellent

The Swedish guitar master may not be to everyone’s liking. But there is something that most people, perhaps reluctantly, would concede. Yngwie Malmsteen’s tone is somewhat different from the tones that can be heard among other guitar heroes, and he is great (which is not to say that everyone else’s is bad). What makes it different and how do you do it? And most importantly, how can you achieve it?

First of all, it would be nice to go over what Yngwie commonly uses. He has his Fender Strats and his Marshalls. It also has an old DOD overdrive between the guitar and the amp, although if you can find a YJM DOD overdrive it would work just as well. The important thing is the amplifier. Many people look for the gain of the preamp. This is a mistake. The amp should be running with the power amp stage at full effect, thus creating a cleaner, more classic kind of distortion. Modern high-gain amps can have some trouble delivering that kind of sound.

Yngwie uses (or used to use, before his signature Marshalls), 50-watt Marshall MKII heads. These were originally made in the early seventies. However, you can test a higher gain amp by cleaning the preamp and pushing the power amp. This will create extremely high volume levels. One thing that can help keep these levels manageable is to use an effects processor in the amp loop to lower the volume (using the effects processor’s output). This way, the sound is not affected too much.

Your choice of taxis will also have a big impact. What seems to work best is a Marshall 4×12 with Celestion Greenbacks, although many other options may work (if that sounds good, use it). This type of setup can stretch your wallet to breaking point. Luckily there are cheaper options. You can also use some of the modeling equipment out there. If you are on a very limited budget, a Roland Cube of some sort will do the trick. Combining a Cube with a Stratocaster equipped with Seymour Duncan’s YJM or DiMarzio HS-3 microphones will get you pretty close to the results. Just remember to use the “classic stack” mode on the Roland. Other modeling equipment will cost you a little more financially. For example, the Ax-FX is a great device, but it costs considerably more than the Roland Cube.