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PG's Rebecca Dirks is On Location in Chicago, IL, at the House of Blues where she catches up with guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen who walks us through his touring rig that he used during the Relentless 2011 tour.

Guitars
Ygnwie uses his Yngwie Malmsteen Signature Strats with a large headstock, Seymour Duncan YJM Fury pickups, scalloped fretboard with Dunlop frets, brass nut, standard tremolo, and 250K YJM pots, as well as one more important detail: "You have to have the Ferrari sticker on the back, otherwise it won't work." He tunes one Strat down, and uses a red version for the song, "Red Devil." The guitars are strung with Fender .008 - .048 strings.

For acoustic songs, Malmsteen uses his well-worn nylon-string Ovation Viper customized with different soundholes and large frets.

Amps
Yngwie's legendary wall of Marshalls features 36 heads and 22 cabinets. The wall is composed of vintage Marshall heads and cabinets, but his live amps and cabs are from his new Marshall YJM series. The YJM100 cabinets are loaded with Celestion 75-watt speakers. He runs one of his YJM heads at 50 watts and one at 100 watts. Though the amp has attenuation, noise gate, overdrive, and digital reverb, Malmsteen says he doesn't use those features live.

Effects
For pedals, Malmsteen uses a Boss NS-2 Noise Supressor and a Boss CE-5 Chorus Ensemble for clean sounds.

He also uses a vintage Roland Analog Echo, "to make noise," a Cry Baby wah, Taurus bass pedals (not pictured), and a DOD Yngwie Malmsteen YJM308 Preamp Overdrive.

He uses an RJM Mastermind MIDI Foot Controller to split the signal for stereo sound and to control the effects. The Fuzz Face to the left of the controller is not in use, he says, he just likes the way it looks ("like a landmine.") His picks are 1.5mm Dunlop.

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on 05/05/2013	Nice to have a wall of Marshalls...anyone else notice that there in nothing plugged into the front of the heads nor a speaker cable coming out of the back of those heads to the cabinets? Not shocking, EVH did the same thing.
Progman on 03/09/2013	I use to have a DC-10 analog echo or a "noise maker" as Yngwie put it. It did make great feedback noises but that thing was a tone sucker.
NYCRocker on 02/07/2012	I've known Yngwie since 1988 and I'm going to burst all your bubbles but Yngwie is probably one of the nicest, most humble guys you could meet who also happens to be a guitar legend. I would say one of his negatives is that he is VERY aware of his "legend" status so he can kind of come off cocky. But its not boasting if you can back it up. That being said it NEVER interferes with his attitude that people that come to see his shows deserve 100%. Whether its an arena in Sao Paolo or a small venue in Ohio, he gives every show 100% attention. He also demands that kind of attitude from the people who work with him and THAT is what has given him the unfortunate "big ego", "hard to work with" label. His biggest negative is he doesn't pay his staff or band members well (hence the constant personnel changes) but other than that he is a dedicated, amazingly talented musician who never cheats his audience. This also rides over into his signature lines. Like Ed Van Halen and Paul Gilbert etc., he demands that anything that carries his name is 100% what he wanted.
Darryl on 01/12/2012	Thanks Yngwie for taking the time to show us your rig. Say what you want but he is obviously proud of his signature gear as he should be and uses it unlike some artists.
BJB on 01/12/2012	Actually he seems quite pleasant and normal. The YJM stuff is his brand and he's doing the Rig Rundown to advertise his brand. His niche is all very bombastic - all those amps and cabs (hopefully some are empty) are showbiz, like his hair and chains. That's part of what his fans come to see - along with the pyrotechnics and clean impossibly fast playing. The guy can sure play fast and clean. For me that's like juggling or something. But I do wish I could juggle like that - just for the pure hell of it.
Trudi on 01/01/2012	He still makes sweet music....
YJM on 12/16/2011	Its called endorsements so the more yjm fender strats are sold a piece of the pie goes into yjm`s bank account, the more people buy seymour duncan yjm pickups, the bigger the slice of pie goes into yjms bank account. can u idiots see the picture now? Only a garage band guitar player would worry about their ego. duhhhhhhhhhhh hahahahahahaha
Howard on 12/14/2011	I think his personality has turned nicer over the years, but I kind of like the sounds from the first album better than the more recent stuff. Maybe he's afraid of losing his stuff, why else would he write his name everywhere?
Edog on 12/13/2011	Poseur. Plain and simple. His tone is shitty and REBECCA still has better hair!!! Do they make a YJM Bouffant Brush?
Andre on 12/13/2011	When he said there there were only 2 things which could be seen from space, I was pretty sure the second one would be his ego. I get the sense that maybe his parents wouldn't buy him a label maker when he was a kid. Kudos to Rebecca for keeping a straight face!

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