i've been trying to nail Yngwie tone for years.

I use a Marshall MG series amp myself. MG50dfx to be precise.

In conjunction with that amp i use a BOSS SD1. which is an overdrive pedal similar to the signature DOD Yngwie one you nearly got.

Before i tell you how i use my setup to get Yngwie tone let me explain a little something about Distortion pedals VS Overdrive ones.

You seem to have grasped the concept of an overdrive pedal. Unfortunately the concept itself has put you off. Overdrive pedals are brilliant when you know how to use them. Distortion pedals are dirty and all that gain is generally going to give you a very muddy sound.

Taking into account you want to play Yngwie style with Yngwie tone. I surgest following the mans setup as closely as you can depending on your budget. I appreciate most of us can't go out and buy $2000 guitars and big Marshall Tube Stacks for $5000 or whatever they are.

BUT what we can afford are budget versions.

Now then. Because i use the effects loop in my ampl I have my Marshall MG50dfx setup with all dials on 0 except the reverb which i have on 5. I also have a Digitech RP100. A nice simple little effects unit that doesnt cost too much ($100 or so) .

I set the RP100 so that it has a sort of vintage Marshall sound. clean (barely any gain at all. 10/99 infact) . once i get that sound i overdrive with the BOSS SD1 (super overdrive pedal) .

theres alot of technicalities that could take an age to explain. But the basics are simple.

get a nice clean overdrive tone from your amp on its own or an effects unit. then overdrive it. you may be able to use your distortion pedal if you dont use too much gain. add some reverb (not TOO much lol) and see how it sounds.

I will go search up on your equipment if you give me a list of exactly the stuff you have. and i will get back to you with some setting ideas for Yngwie tone.

Hope i havent just repeated what you already knew. get me a list of all your gear and i'll get back to you.

 

i've been trying to nail Yngwie tone for years. I use a Marshall MG series amp myself. MG50dfx to be precise. I will go search up on your equipment if you give me a list of exactly the stuff you have. and i will get back to you with some setting ideas for Yngwie tone. Get me a list of all your gear and i'll get back to you.

Thanks, the overdrive concept did throw me off because I took it literally. Like, how can you overdrive a solid state chip is what I was thinking, for example!

Here is my gear. It is pretty basic at this point until I build it up:

1. Fender/Squier Stagemaster HH - Double Locking Floyd Rose Tremolo. Dual Humbucking Pickups 100% FAT. Reverse Headstock 24 Fret Rosewood Neck. Metallic Black.
2. Marshall MG15CD - 15W Practice Amp. Clean and Overdrive Channels. FDD Valve Amplifier Circuit. (No Reverb)
3. Boss DS-1 Distortion Pedal.

Thats it - for now!

 

well thats a decent place to start i'd say. i started with a strat rip-off a little 10watt Kustom amp and that was it lol.

i looked up on your amp and the BOSS and heres a surgestion.

AMP (Overdrive Channel) = Gain - 2
= Volume - 10
= Bass - 5
= Contour - 5
= Treble - 8

BOSS DS-1 = Tone - Half Way
= Level - Full
= Dist - Half Way

. Your Humbuckers should have the beef to make this work. If you really want Yngwie tone you should invest in a Digital Reverb/Delay pedal. pretty cheap these days you should be able to find a good deal on one.

Once that goes in it should take shape.

You want to be overdriving a clean overdrive. Know what i mean ? . thats what Yngwie does and thats why i do myself.

Let me know how it sounds and we can see if we can keep editing it until it sounds as good as it can sound.

We have to remember this is all pretty basic gear (i understand why). so making it sound like Yngwie tone is actually kinda impossible really. We can make it sound decent though and can develop a decent little rock tone that you can play with.

Sounding like Yngwie will come more from your fingers than your gear though lol.

 

Your Humbuckers should have the beef to make this work. If you really want Yngwie tone you should invest in a Digital Reverb/Delay pedal. pretty cheap these days you should be able to find a good deal on one. You want to be overdriving a clean overdrive. Know what i mean ? . thats what Yngwie does and thats why i do myself. Let me know how it sounds and we can see if we can keep editing it until it sounds as good as it can sound.

Thanks, I'll try the settings you suggest and let you know. Yeah I was planning on getting a digital reverb/delay unit next to add on, maybe in the next payday or so. When I played with the Boss online interactive pedal board demo it seemed the best minimum combo. The ones I priced were around $100. I couldn't afford it all at once this time. BTW, I checked out your MP3's in your profile and they sound great. You tone is very good and sweet.

 

Cheers. they were actually recorded with an Ibanez GRG170dx rather than my strat. I'll find a clip of the Strat tone and show you cause its way more Yngwie sounding.

EDIT:
this clip shall do i guess. Yngwie new album has a song on it with some free space without soloing on it :lol: makes a change. i stuck some soloing on.

Its me first then Yngwie. Obviously :lol:

http://www.digitech.com/soundcomm/patches/RP100/DannyBoyVSYngwieMalmsteen.mp3

 

Yngwie new album has a song on it with some free space without soloing on it :lol: makes a change. i stuck some soloing on. Its me first then Yngwie. Obviously

Your mp3 overdub sounds very close tone-wise. I tried your suggested amp and ds-1 settings and it sounds good. At first I though I broke the amp because it was a hair below 2 and no sound came out of the amp at all. The amp gain at 2 is the bare minimum for sound to kick in on the overdrive channel. At least it sounds clean when I turn the DS-1 distortion off so that is good! I need to play more guitar with it for my ears to get trained to it because my old settings really sucked and sounded muddy! Plus my amp volume wasn't as loud before in my small house and shocked my family playing my favorite Yngwie chord riffs from Krakatau, LOL. It sounded real heavy like that part does! I really need a little delay/reverb in there to make it sound more complete and fine tune for Yngwie's tone. Thank you so much for helping me dial this baby in and getting me to understand how all this interacts! Oh, on my guitar itself I have the volume knob up full and the tone knob is set half way so hopefully that is okay too.

 

i tend to have all the knobs on my guitar turned up full when im playing. but its your decision.

as for the amp gain. move it up a little if you want extra power. just dont go too far. if it starts to sound muddy then step back a little at a time.

the louder you turn the amp the easier it will become to produce a note.

and yeah the reverb/delay unit will help for Rock tone big time.

PM me if you need any help with anything im right here :thumb:

 

You want to be overdriving a clean overdrive. Know what i mean ? . thats what Yngwie does and thats why i do myself.

I was re-reading this. Would it be beneficial for me to eventually add an overdrive pedal in line with my distortion pedal to help boost the amp? I'm assuming the overdrive pedal should be first in the effects chain from the guitar. They are fairly cheap and the current YJM308 overdrive pedal is only $40 US. I heard DOD is working on an updated model adding an on/off LED.

 

I was re-reading this. Would it be beneficial for me to eventually add an overdrive pedal in line with my distortion pedal to help boost the amp? I'm assuming the overdrive pedal should be first in the effects chain from the guitar. They are fairly cheap and the current YJM308 overdrive pedal is only $40 US. I heard DOD is working on an updated model adding an on/off LED.

that would be a great idea. but here is how i would have that setup lined up.

AMP - Distortion Pedal - Reverb/Delay Pedal - Overdrive Pedal - Guitar

the overdrive goes in last so it is overdriving everything.

When you buy BOSS units you tend to need the BOSS PSA adaptor ($25 or so) otherwise you will get a crapload of noise. Unless thats just the way i have my stuff setup.

But yeah that order would be great. you'd be able to get a nice vintage marshall tone using amp and DS1. then you could overdrive it with the overdrive pedal which should have all knobs on full. then stick some reverb at the end.

could be nice.

 

But yeah that order would be great. you'd be able to get a nice vintage marshall tone using amp and DS1. then you could overdrive it with the overdrive pedal which should have all knobs on full. then stick some reverb at the end.

Yeah I hope they do come out with a revised YJM308 that included the LED indicator so you know if it is on or not. Either that or just leave it on all the time. When I bought the Boss DS-1, I did also buy the AC adpater for it. But so far I just have it battery powered until I get a surge protector because I have no free outlets where my setup is now. I though it would be noisy too but it really is pretty quiet so far. Also, would a compressor boost the signal instead of using an overdrive before the distortion pedal?

Also, I noticed you placed the delay unit in between the overdrive and distortion. Would it be better to move it after them like this: guitar/overdrive/distortion/delay/amp? See this page about preferred ordering: http://www.bossus.com/bugonline/how_to.asp?art=order

I'm no expert by a long shot but I'm learning alot from you!

 

i guess do it that way then.

AMP - Distortion - Overdrive - Reverb - Guitar

makes sense now i think about it. this way you are overdriving the basic tone. Then reverbing everything. probably the best bet actually.

 

Happy New Year to all!

Oh, I've adjusted my Boss DS-1 tone knob to around the 9:00 and 10:00 postion and it gives me more of a tube-like blues tone. I've played along with Yngwie's "Blue" song, and my guitar does sound more bluesy like that. With the tone at 12:00 it sounds more brittle to me.

I've been pricing Boss delay and reverb pedals and they seem to be on sale for at least $100 to $150. What do you think about the following as an alternative mainly for reverb sake?

The better Marshall MG15DFX amp sells for $170 by itself. But - I found Marshall also sells a combo package called the "Marshall Rockbox", which includes the MG15DFX amp, Marshall branded guitar gig bag, guitar strap, picks, string winder, and a digital guitar tuner, guitar cord, and a Rock Guitar instructional DVD - all for only $130. That seems like a great deal since it is less than the cost of this practice amp alone! I'm wondering if I should get this package to replace my used MG15CD amp (in excellent condition) which I could then sell to someone for way less than it's $100 brand new retail cost and recoup a bit of money?

The Marshall MG15DFX amp has selectable digital effects built-in like delay, flange, chorus, and reverb! I'm just saying that would solve my immediate lack of reverb sound and would cost the same as a nice delay or reverb box alone. What do you think?

 

if you can do that then do that. you could use the money gained from selling your current amp to get yourself an overdrive pedal. which you strongly need in my humble opinion.

i'll look up on the MG15DFX. should be similar to my MG50DFX although a few things missing.

 

ah yes this is more like it. this ones got the effects onboard as well as an FDD (frequency dependant dampener) which i have on my 50. It will make your amp sound more like a valve amp than a solid state. it wont work miracles but it will give it an extra bit of oomph.

unfortunately the effects look like you can only have one or the other. but thats fine really. stick some reverb on full and set the FX level at about 5 and that should be spot on.

unfrotunately since i cant mess around with the stuff you are using i can only imagine what kind of sounds are coming out of it.

Let me know if/when you get that amp package and overdrive pedal etc. and we can get to work on getting the best out of it.

 

ah yes this is more like it. this ones got the effects onboard as well as an FDD (frequency dependant dampener) which i have on my 50. It will make your amp sound more like a valve amp than a solid state. it wont work miracles but it will give it an extra bit of oomph.

Yes, my MG15CD also has the FDD. I keep it enabled all the time because it sounds better that way. I would like to get the overdrive too. I'm checking around with people in my area so if I can line up selling my amp, I'll replace it with the better one and the Rockbox package also gives me several cool Marshall branded freebies too! The MG15DFX should be the same as what you have except yours is 50 watts.

 

its similar. but not quite the same. its like a little version.

The specs of the MG15dfx are :

The Specs for the MG50dfx are :

So as far as features go theres a fair difference.

To be honest. if you shop around you should be able to find a MG30dfx for a little extra. $150 if you look hard enough. Depends how lucky you get really.

 

its similar. but not quite the same. its like a little version. So as far as features go theres a fair difference.

Thanks for the specs. It really does have nicer features! I'll keep my eyes on the lookout...

 

Heres the Marshall MG30dfx incase you fancy checking one out.

http://www.marshallamps.com/product.asp?productCode=MG30DFX&pageType=OVERVIEW

Specs for quick look :

 

DB, whoa! I finally got to read around guitar101.com seaching for Yngwie discussions and you seem to be quite the resident celebrity here! It is always nice to see more people appreciating what Yngwie does instead of lumping him into the "everything sounds the same" category. Rock on!

I was reading comments about your version of "Blue" which is funny because I was just using that song as a tone reference to aim for! Yngwie's tone on that song is to die for. Do you think that is basically Yngwie's signature tone for most of what he's played?

I'm gonna have to get his YJM308 overdrive pedal soon and then figure out how to use it properly in conjunction with my distortion pedal (which I'm using more for a solo line tone than any chord crunch) or maybe even he exclusion of it if that is what it takes to come close to that sweet signature sound.

I met Yngwie once on April 3, 2004 on his tour bus through the fan club meet & greet. We had some other fan club guests there too and his bus was crowded. Actually I was very star struck and couldn't think of much to say to the guitar god. A picture of us is on my website but bear in mind it was like 3:30am after a show and he looks ready to fall asleep! I wish that I would have had more one on one time with him to ask about his playing and tone. Maybe I'll submit interview questions through the fan club to him, if I can think of anything intelligent at all to ask. I hate reading interviews asking the same questions over and over, just to get the same answers I've heard before!

Steve (Yngwie Malmsteen 100%)
http://yngwie100.home.comcast.net

 

DB, whoa! I finally got to read around guitar101.com seaching for Yngwie discussions and you seem to be quite the resident celebrity here! It is always nice to see more people appreciating what Yngwie does instead of lumping him into the "everything sounds the same" category. Rock on!

I was reading comments about your version of "Blue" which is funny because I was just using that song as a tone reference to aim for! Yngwie's tone on that song is to die for. Do you think that is basically Yngwie's signature tone for most of what he's played?

I'm gonna have to get his YJM308 overdrive pedal soon and then figure out how to use it properly in conjunction with my distortion pedal (which I'm using more for a solo line tone than any chord crunch) or maybe even he exclusion of it if that is what it takes to come close to that sweet signature sound.

I met Yngwie once on April 3, 2004 on his tour bus through the fan club meet & greet. We had some other fan club guests there too and his bus was crowded. Actually I was very star struck and couldn't think of much to say to the guitar god. A picture of us is on my website but bear in mind it was like 3:30am after a show and he looks ready to fall asleep! I wish that I would have had more one on one time with him to ask about his playing and tone. Maybe I'll submit interview questions through the fan club to him, if I can think of anything intelligent at all to ask. I hate reading interviews asking the same questions over and over, just to get the same answers I've heard before!

Steve (Yngwie Malmsteen 100%)
http://yngwie100.home.comcast.net

Theres alot of regulars here. We have some excellent discussions. If you stick around long enough and contribute well you will soon become a valued member the same way the rest of us have become. It's the best site i have ever found for that sort of community spirit. People getting nickname's and becoming pals etc etc. Even though i have upset a few people with my opinionated outspoken nature. It's all in good fun.

As for Blue and my cover of it. And for his tone. I believe his tone has never changed. HOWEVER. the eq'ing of his tone in the studio may have been different from album to album. Mic Placements and EQing can do a great deal to a guitar tone. So thats perhaps why it differes slightly. I like his tone on "Fire & Ice" best to be honest. its purer but still has attack and bite. Yet its smooth and pleasant to my ear.

My cover of it was more of a jam over the backing with exception to the intro bits and certain licks i scatterred around here and there. I shall email you the cover i did if you want. Just let me know your email address. You can have a listen for yourself.

The overdrive pedal will help you alot. I fancy one of his signature one's myself but i dont wanna take the plunge until i get some noiseless pickups for my strat and can hear better what my real tone is like without all the pickup noise. But in your situation an overdrive pedal could really help you out.

Cool that you have met him. I haven't met him myself but he always seems to be just having a good time and a laugh. The arrogance is there but i think it's a part of his whole personna that he has when he is with fans etc. At home i imagine him being a stand up kinda guy. but i could be wrong.

 

The overdrive pedal will help you alot. I fancy one of his signature one's myself but i dont wanna take the plunge until i get some noiseless pickups for my strat and can hear better what my real tone is like without all the pickup noise. But in your situation an overdrive pedal could really help you out. Cool that you have met him. I haven't met him myself but he always seems to be just having a good time and a laugh. The arrogance is there but i think it's a part of his whole personna that he has when he is with fans etc. At home i imagine him being a stand up kinda guy. but i could be wrong.

I've heard the YJM308 is noisey according to reviews? If so I'd probably have to get a Boss NS-2 noise supressor. My guitar has humbucking pickups so maybe it won't be too bad, I don't know. Do you like any other brand overdrives?

Meeting Yngwie was really cool. He was very nice and polite. He even joked around when me while he signed my Attack!! CD. When he opened it the CD was loose and fell out onto the floor. We both bent down to pick it up and I'm lucky we didn't bump heads! Image that, Yngwie knocked out by my head butt - LOL. I've listened to a lot of radio interviews with him and he always comes across cool and humorous.

I think he got the arrogant label because he would speak his mind about other players, usually during a blind listen to recordings and asked to comment on them before he knew who they were! He is also extremely self-confident in himself. You know he doesn't listen to much radio rock and in a way that has keep him pure to his neo-classical style. When he hates something, like rap, grundge, or the "new" modern rock, he says so. He tells them they need to take lessons, not give them! At least he is honest with his opinion, and most importantly to himself.

 

well. I think all overdrive pedals will be noisey to be honest. Mine is noisey. but i use the Noise Gate on the Digitech RP100. I Turn that noise gate up full to get rid of the noise. A little noise gate pedal will serve you well.

it's a bitch aint it. You need all this stuff lol. Just get it bit by bit i guess.