Equipment Of Yngwie Malmsteen

Malmsteen uses Fender Stratocasters, especially vintage instruments from 1968 through 1972. His Strats tend to feature scalloped fingerboards. In the 1980s Malmsteen briefly used Schecter Guitars, who built him Stratocaster-style guitars similar to his Fenders. One particular guitar of his, nicknamed the "The Duck" has been used since the start of his career and is the instrument that he has been most photographed with.

For his acoustic sets, Malmsteen uses a nylon strung electro-acoustic black or white Ovation Viper. Prior to the Ovations, Malmsteen used Aria, Alvarez and Gibson classical acoustics on stage. Malmsteen regularly performs onstage with a Dean Markley custom light top, heavy bottom string gauge ranging from .008 through .048 gauge. Malmsteen's picks are Jim Dunlop Delrin 1.5 white.

Malmsteen uses vintage Marshall JTM45 amplifiers for his live performances, connected to vintage 4x12 cabinets with Celestion G12T-75 (75 watt) speakers. His effect pedals include a Dunlop Cry Baby, DOD 250 and YJM308 Overdrive Preamp, BOSS NS-2 Noise Suppressor (which he claims has "saved his life, many times"), BOSS CH-1 Super Chorus, BOSS PS-5 Super Shifter, and Roland DC-10 Echo.

Technique and style

Malmsteen is best known for his extremely fast shred guitar solos and Neo-classical style of playing. He favors the harmonic minor scale, and often uses diminished arpeggios and phrygian scales and draws an influence from Bach and Beethoven. In an interview, Malmsteen confessed that his regular use of harmonic minor was because in the 1980s he was trying to move away from the blues-based pentatonic scales that "everybody else was using".