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Yngwie Malmsteen, guitar abuser.

Fionn

By Fionn,
in Guitars

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Fionn Experienced

Fionn

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I realise that the guy is a musical genius, but I get the impression he's a bit of a kn0b. Check out the way he throws his guitars around. He has a 1954 Strat (one of the first 10 strats ever made!!!) which he just clashes onto the ground, banging it against other highly valuable guitars. Aaaargh!!! ...

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZeOOsSgx2Q"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZeOOsSgx2Q[/url]

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spongebob Mentor

spongebob

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Saw him live in 1988, with Joe Lynn Turner (famous wig-sporter) on vocals.

Great player, very dull gig, Encores went on forever, with just one mega-solo wig-out (sorry JLT) after another.

I've still got a pick of his (he threw a load into the crowd) which I grabbed off the floor when everyone was leaving!

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RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE Veteran

RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE

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He threw a guitar body into the crowd at a hammy o gig about 6/7 years ago. I caught it and gave it to my friend. He met him a few years later and got it autographed .
Malmsteen always personalises his sig, to reduce the value of it . He is an arrogant tw@t, but can back it up. I quite like him;)

Wish my ipad could relate to the you tube clips ;(

Edited by RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE
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Cat Burrito Grand Master

Cat Burrito

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Never liked him or his music. An amazing talent but I couldn't name one single song and I was subjected to a Rising Force album a lot in the late 80s. I remember him being criticised by the press for his gut overhanging his lace up leather trousers and sadly this is what I always think of when he comes to mind. Just goes to show you can practice all the scales but if you look a chump....

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Lowender Enthusiast

Lowender

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Yngwie never could decide whether he wanted to be a classical musician, a rock star, a featured virtuoso player, a showman or a band member. So he tried to do all of them -- and overdid them all. And consequently he never got much recognition beyond being a novelty. Now, he's a parody of the excessive overplayer.

The problem with Yngwie musically is a great as his technique may be, he plays every note he knows in every song. So after 5 mintes, you've heard all you're going to hear. And that's boring. And that's why he never went too far. There are tens of thousands of guys (and gals, and even children) who can play that fast.

Yngwie showed everyone that the rabbit is in the hat. Now, ow one cares.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmALm66sENs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LskRHAEioVk

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Telebass Mentor

Telebass

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[quote name='arthurhenry' timestamp='1386786932' post='2304576']
He's well known for treating his guitars in this way, but he owns them and plays the hell out of them, so I suppose he can do what he wants to.
[/quote]
Exactly. They're just guitars, after all.

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steve-bbb Mentor

steve-bbb

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[quote name='Fionn' timestamp='1386784420' post='2304527']
I realise that the guy is a musical genius
[/quote]

maybe if he had the compositional and arrangment skills of vai
the improvisational skills of holdsworth
the musicality of mike keneally

i could go on but you get the point

imho etc etc genius and guitar in the same sentence really should be reserved for special cases like Mr Hendrix :)

Malmsteen is a super proficient widdler. That is all ....IMHO etc etc :ph34r:

shame about the guitars ... you are right .... that does indeed make him a [s]bit[/s] lot of a dick

i hope this helps :)

Edited by steve-bbb
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mcgraham Proficient

mcgraham

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[quote name='Fionn' timestamp='1386784420' post='2304527']
I realise that the guy is a musical genius, but I get the impression he's a bit of a kn0b. Check out the way he throws his guitars around. He has a 1954 Strat (one of the first 10 strats ever made!!!) which he just clashes onto the ground, banging it against other highly valuable guitars. Aaaargh!!! ...

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZeOOsSgx2Q[/media]
[/quote]

Ya, it's a Malmsteen Strat... did you hear me the first time, it's a Maaaalmsteen Strat... and that's a Malmsteen signature, ya, and that's a Malmsteen cable... did I mention that I'm Yngwie Malmsteen? Genuinely, all Malmsteen, ya....

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KevB Mentor

KevB

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Ah yes the boy who wanted to be Hendrix and Blackmore and never grew up. Grew out quite a bit though. Lowender has him pretty much summed up in post 13. I also saw him with Turner on the Odyssey tour and felt I'd pretty much seen everything he had to offer in one gig and it wasn't worth going again so I never did.

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mcnach Grand Master

mcnach

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Yup, post #13 by Lowender sums it up, I also think.

I loved his first solo album, and his playing in Alcatrazz.
"No parole for Rock and roll" by Alcatrazz was a great album (was that from 1981 or 1983? I can't recall). Graham Bonnet's vocals are awesome, and Yngwie plays a lot and plays fast, but there is a lot of melody there and it seems that the solos do have a point and are part of the song. It's one of my all time favourite albums.

The first Rising Force album was recorded at around the same time, and finished just a bit later, and it showed a -to me- very interesting guitar player. It can get a bit widdly widdly at times, but the compositions are more sensible than what he did a few years later and until now. It was also quite different from what anybody else seemed to be doing. That album made an impact on me and I still play it regularly. Only two tracks had vocals, so I treat it as a guitar instrumental album, and for me it's stil unsurpassed. I listened to and liked a lot of stuff by Tony MacAlpine, Vai, Satriani... there's great stuff from all of them, but that first solo album by Malmsteen remains fresh and awe-inspiring to me.
The second album is not bad, but it starts getting into widdle-festing too much. The Third, Trilogy, is incredibly dated... you hear a bit of it and immediately you know it was a product of the mid 80s... That's when he turned into "commercial" (he admits in his biography that it's the way he wanted to go, he did not like guitar instrumental albums and did not want to do anything like on the first album)... and then Odyssey arrived. There's some cool stuff in there too, but I think the Malmsteen formula was already well established: every song ever after appears to have teh same kind of tonality and structure, and they're vehicles for excessive soloing in the middle, where each solo appears to be identical to the others, cramming every single note and scale into every single one of them. Yawn. Physically admirable. Musically sterile. And live... he seems to do that only faster, and he destroys the solos that sounded like actual compositions by giving in to the urge of adding a few thousand extra notes per minute. It gets boring really fast.

But the guy knows what he wants, worked hard, and got it. He does come across as a little bit arrogant... I never met him personally, so I don't know. I imagine he has to deal with a LOT of bullshit nearly everyday, and I can easily imagine I could sound a lot like him if I had to endure the same kind of crap constantly for years. What frustrates me is that he has the ability and ear to create something truly beautiful... but he just does not seem interested anymore. Of course, beauty is subjective.

Still, even his detractors have to admit he has a vibrato to die for. I love his guitar sound and vibrato and general expressivity... when he calms down for a second and lets it flow freely. Yum. :)

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