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Posts: 4825
Joined: Aug. 9 2006
From: Iran (living in Germany)
The Yngwie Malmsteen Interview
I don't know why but this brought back so many memories and so many things I could relate to, plus even so much stuff I could carry over to flamenco and learn from as weird as that sounds
Soon after that I was inspired actually to acquire my own YJM Strat. I got to replay the first one I tried to compared and I think I was just a bit drunk when I tried it and not used to electric guitar period. I say that as the one I acquired I got used to quickly and realize the high action is a total optical illusion due to the scalloping. If you go at it aggressively a guitar like this doesn’t work…it takes a type of fineness that I had lost due to playing acoustic in a more aggressive way…so getting that more precise and delicate approach was the trick and then this guitar became a dream to play especially on the left hand with vibrato etc. that we don’t do on acoustic.
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Posts: 4825
Joined: Aug. 9 2006
From: Iran (living in Germany)
RE: The Yngwie Malmsteen Interview (in reply to Ricardo)
Grats! It looks fantastic. It's funny, I was inspired too by some recent stuff I watched again. First I wanted to buy a Strat too, but since meanwhile I also listen and would like to learn Jazz too, I went for this bad boy at an amazing price used. These semi hollows are so versatile, you can do Jazz, Metall, anything. And meanwhile I also like the look of them (back in the days I thought these are old grandpa guitars) and god damn, it plays like butter. Straight neck with no releaf, action below 2mm, no buzz or dead spots, nothing. Switching from flamenco to these type of guitars feels like cheating.
Now this is the fun part. Since I haven't played E-guitar for almost more than 2 decades, coming back and exploring all the new gear and stuff and what happened with technology and the quality is simply astonishing. First of all the quality of even cheap beginner guitars! This quality was unthinkable when I started. But it seems like meanwhile factories can produce top quality guitars for really low prices. And the E-guitar scene is so huge now!
Then there is the modeling technology. So my friend had bought a Valeton Gp-50. This thing costs around 120 bucks. And I was speechless, how many different amps, tube amps, effects and whatnot it can reproduce with an astonishing quality. So I also ordered one just today. You can plug this thing directly to any PA or Box. Don't even need an amp anymore. It is an all in one thing and is also battery powered. There are also different versions of it like GP200 with expression pedal etc, same tech.
Gp200
There is also an even cheaper very small pedal GP-5 which is below 80 bucks, basically the same tech and sound, but no screen and some other stuff missing.
This is pretty much the sound I want with my semi hollow, but also perfectly achievable with Strats, Teles just using the neck pickup.
However, at some point I will also buy a Strat again :)
BTW, those white spots aren't really there. It just looks like it on the photo. It is perfect condition
As for the setup, apparently the setup he uses is like 7mm from buttom of the scallop to strings. Don't know which setup you have but you also have to have the correct screws at bridge with enough length to be even be able to get that high :D
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Posts: 2056
Joined: Jul. 12 2004
From: San Francisco
RE: The Yngwie Malmsteen Interview (in reply to Arash)
Thanks Arash! I really enjoyed the interview. Dude is obsessed with gear! He comes off like he’s still 18 years old and wants to rock out with bombs going off in the background. I liked him. I’ve never thought about trying to play like him but he did something new and plenty of people liked it enough for him to have a career. I’ve still got my ‘75 white strat which I’ve had since it was new. I put a lot of miles on it.
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Posts: 16304
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: The Yngwie Malmsteen Interview (in reply to RobF)
This guy (weird auto overdub to English if you open this in youtube) I concur with all his insights into the details of the YJM vs normal Strats. We can call it a “super Strat” if for the pickups alone. Kitarist has the older model with Dimarzio that he uses ever since Alcatrazz when they developed these for him. He switch to Duncan “fury” pickups in 2010 Relentless and the community of fans are divided on which are better as he basically had Duncan re create the same sounding pickups he had with little discernible difference IMO.
If you guys want I can share my deep dive into the infamous “Duck” history after realizing some discrepancies in the story after they replicated it and it’s damage as a custom shop 20K+ collector item …basically it is an “imposter” of sorts compared to what was used on the iconic Rising force and marching out albums and tours, and he seems to have obsessed over the original instrument loss and grotesque over compensated for finding a replacement to the tune of 200 or so of the same Strat (finally satisfied with the modern yJM model instead of the vintage instruments). If you guys want I mean.
Posts: 16304
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: The Yngwie Malmsteen Interview (in reply to kitarist)
quote:
ORIGINAL: kitarist
quote:
Kitarist has the older model with Dimarzio that he uses ever since Alcatrazz
Yup, the real thing. And what do you have?
Mine is 2019, so YJM Duncan fury. It compares to my Racer X guitar quite well with dimarzio in the bridge and Duncan mini in the neck. The YJM has decent gain but is noticeably quieter when not playing (practically zero hum)…both guitars very weak compared to my Kramer with Duncan JB that has distortion and beefy bass right out of the gate (louder and noisier). The YJM is quite a nice clear clean sounding instrument by comparison to the my others so perhaps if it is true that the output signal to noise is better on the fury pickup, then that is all really what he wanted to change.
The consensus seems that fans prefer the “old sound” Dimarzio but I think it is a bias, everyone says Fury has touch more gain, and perhaps low mid boost, but it could be hand winding that is biasing individual pick up sets rather than overall design. ALL the compare vids sound the same to me, and this is the one guy admitting that from his perspective they ARE the same.
And here is a favorite history lesson on strats and at that end Yngwie shows you how to change your own pickups:
Posts: 2056
Joined: Jul. 12 2004
From: San Francisco
RE: The Yngwie Malmsteen Interview (in reply to Arash)
While we are talking rock guitar I have to mention this guy. He was 18 years old when he recorded this clip. I’ve heard it a few dozen times and I never get tired of it. Technique and above all, feel and taste. The lick he plays at :36 is MONEY! Did I say I love the this clip? Haha
Posts: 16304
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: The Yngwie Malmsteen Interview (in reply to Mark2)
quote:
ORIGINAL: Mark2
While we are talking rock guitar I have to mention this guy. He was 18 years old when he recorded this clip. I’ve heard it a few dozen times and I never get tired of it. Technique and above all, feel and taste. The lick he plays at :36 is MONEY! Did I say I love the this clip? Haha
As a Racer X enthusiast (we are a rare and small tight nit group of nerds), max showed up on the scene executing all our favorite X tunes as a kid many many years ago. Then there is Lisa X who eventually took lessons from Gilbert and the poor thing was so small she could not get her thumb over the neck to do the correct chord voicings he wanted.
Posts: 4825
Joined: Aug. 9 2006
From: Iran (living in Germany)
RE: The Yngwie Malmsteen Interview (in reply to Ricardo)
man, every time I find something , it is already been talked before here even if it is not flamenco related but this time it is apparently also Alzheimer related , cause I posted there too
RE: The Yngwie Malmsteen Interview (in reply to Arash)
quote:
ORIGINAL: Arash
man, every time I find something , it is already been talked before here even if it is not flamenco related but this time it is apparently also Alzheimer related , cause I posted there too
I drive by this "buttons and bows" store very infrequently, maybe once a year. A couple of years ago my wife said that every time we do, I say "Hah, the Buttons and Bows place is still in business!" without any apparent memory of having said this countless times before. (OK after that I remembered to remember)
Posts: 16304
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: The Yngwie Malmsteen Interview (in reply to kitarist)
quote:
Although weird to pretend the Di Marzio period did not exist, in a history-of video.
He has discussed this history many times actually. Such as back in the guitar player interview 1985 etc., and of course since 2010 when he switched to Duncans. Basically a short history that goes like this. He brought over some cream Strat (I think the one pic below from Sweden), shocked that the pick ups (already he replaced them in Sweden) were too noisy and needed hum buckers. With Steeler he tried a normal jb style Gibson like Van Halen ("bless his heart" Malmsteen says), in some Strat body but did not like the magnetic window as he says. Dimarzio made him the stacked prototypes and I assume he was still using these in Alcatrazz, sending them back three times. The HS-3 is the last one where they told him, apparently, this is the "BEST we can do". He only had a few Strats and you can see the with the gray colored pickup covers that I assume were the HS-3s that finally had the decent noise to tone ratio, though he claims he was never fully satisfied.
He experimented with the half dozen or so Strats by changing necks and loaded pick guards...finally settled on the iconic 1966 body (see big headstock small logo, rosewood neck studio rehearsal for Rising force album during Alcatrazz tour) and replaced rosewood neck with the Duck neck (last photo, body and neck join are not sized proper I believe RW neck was wider) and used this in the studio to record Rising Force and Marching out, later the Stars video with Dio, the live tour in Japan with Rising force, and possibly some tracks on Trilogy. It was THE iconic configuration (look and sound) on the Album jacket photos etc., for sure his favorite guitar. But it got broken or destroyed and he transferred the Duck neck to a Black Strat body (Trilogy tour and likely studio recordings) but at some point traded some guitar for a 1956 fan-carved neck and stuck that old neck on a candy Apple red Strat (see trial by fire live and his instructional video for close ups) post odyssey. The claim by Fender was a 1961 candy apple red was used for the first ever YJM models, but I think he later stuck the 56 neck on that body, but the neck now resides on a proper beat up 56 body and the Red guitar is long gone (his main guitar for many years despite reuniting the Duck neck and body).
For the next decades it seems he become obssessed with the cream 71 Strats, trying to replace the sound of that 66 configuration and the Duck neck that he lost...collecting over 200 of the same type of guitar, never happy I guess. The Duck had frets replaced and reunited with the original Alcatrazz body it once had, but he had to retire it in 92 I assume since to do the fret job they shaved down the scallops. This guitar was replicated in 2008 and he lies about its role as the iconic '"Play loud", which only the neck was once that thing (he used in Alcatrazz guitar solo video). He uses the Duck replicas with proper scalloping job live in USA (the one in the video above is the replica not original).
After he got the pickups at Duncan he seems to have stopped using vintage 71 Strats all together only using YJM Corona built guitars or the Custom shop 68 replicas. So I don't think he is lying about being satisfied with the pickup change....he said at one point the YJM is better than his vintage Strats anyway (!). Seems his wife makes him auction them off for tax deductions often. (LOL)
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Posts: 2056
Joined: Jul. 12 2004
From: San Francisco
RE: The Yngwie Malmsteen Interview (in reply to Ricardo)
His obsession with his gear is Spinal Tapian in it’s absurdity. It’s interesting that some players stick with the same guitar and amp for years while others are constantly looking for the holy grail. Hundreds of pickups? And the willingness of manufacturers to genuflect to this is funny. Are they really going to sell that many more because YM finally decided they produced an acceptable one? Speaking of Spinal Tap, anyone see the sequel? It’s even better than the first one. Elton John’s bit was hysterical. About the original Sting said “I’ve seen it fifty times, and I don’t know whether to laugh or cry”
Posts: 16304
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: The Yngwie Malmsteen Interview (in reply to Mark2)
quote:
Speaking of Spinal Tap, anyone see the sequel?
Yes, on a plane, literally days before the poor guy was murdered by his son. Weird that I remember liking the film, impressed with it as a sequel, but because of the reality my brain has totally erased the memory of it. Will have to watch it again.
Malmsteen is a self parody, or has been over the years in public perception, but the irony is that he is the last of a dying breed and to be honest his "art" and antics have long moved passed making fun of him to, well there is not really anything like it left in this world so it is now highly valuable commodity. I reviewed much of the old journalism and feel ashamed that I went along with a lot of it and ignored his career despite actually learning a lot from his early period as a kid. Seeing him stick to his guns like a sort of old school heavy metal "agujeta purist", that was once arrogantly comical, I feel now the joke is on us as he has proved to be someone carrying the torch of the "good stuff", hitting home runs like the new live Tokyo DVD. I mean that Beato interview was shocking to MANY people that never cared for him other than "hardy har, where are his donuts??" sort of grade school humor perpetuated by media.
Many people are shocked by the hyped up YJM Strat itself and the quality of product etc etc. I figured out my mistake when I took my kid to see him as part of Vai's "generation Axe" and felt he was the superior artist on the stage and was surprised by that....so went back and revisited the decades I missed out on.
About the Frankentstrat x10, when I watch this video now, I realize the guy just doesn't want to get into the details and history so leaves it at "I brought one guitar, this one, its on the cover of my first record...can't believe this replica is so exact"... I mean he must have hand written "play loud" on like a dozen pieces of tape in order to perpetuate this myth and seeing a resurrection by nerd custom shop fans manifest before his own eyes must give him the mad scientist Frankenstein/Oppenheimer "I am a god" complex...but seems pretty humble today in interviews and lets people believe whatever they want. My self? I went at this history like forensic science because I just want the "truth" whatever it is. Like the PDL guitar history, same thing. It matters to nerds like me.
RE: The Yngwie Malmsteen Interview (in reply to Ricardo)
quote:
he is the last of a dying breed and to be honest his "art" and antics have long moved passed making fun of him to, well there is not really anything like it left in this world so it is now highly valuable commodity.
I actually agree completely. Always had a soft spot for him for that reason.
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