Yngwie Malmsteen: Pedalboard of Alcatrazz

Equally as difficult as playing any of Yngwie Malmsteen's songs, is labeling is guitar style. Is it heavy metal? Neo-Classical? Blues Rock? Your guess is as good as ours! What we do know is that Malmsteen's soloing on Alcatrazz' second album Live Sentence is flawless (as is his hair). The songs "Evil Eye" and "Since You've Been Gone" illustrate his ability to effortlessly execute fast arpeggios and single note lines while maintaining the melodic direction of the subject song. The key to Malmsteen's speedy arpeggios, tapping and vibrato is his use of a vintage 1969 Fender Stratocaster fitted with a scalloped fingerboard. While originally hand-carved by Malmsteen himself, he now opts for Fender's Yngwie Malmsteen Artist Series guitar which comes ready to play with a pre-scalloped fingerboard. The full details of the Yngwie Malmsteen's Artist Series stratocaster can be found here. Malmsteen, admittedly, rarely uses effects pedals when performing live. However, effects pedals can be heard throughout his lead and rhythm playing on Live Sentence. Hence, any faithful renditions of Alcatrazz' songs "Evil Eye" and "Since You've Been Gone" will require the following pedalboard setup:

• a Moog Taurus I bass keyboard - an analog synthesizer consisting of 13 foot-operated pedals adapted to add ambiance to Alcatrazz' live performances;
• a Vox Flanger 1902 pedal;
• a Dunlop Cry-Baby Wah-Wah pedal;
• a Boss OC-2 Octave Divider pedal;
• a Roland RE201 Space Echo unit; and
  
• a MXR Phase 100 pedal.

Not convinced that Yngwie Malmsteen is a phenomenal guitar? Check out his live performance of "Evil Eye" from Live Sentence on YouTube here.