Tag Archives: Fender Guitar

Yngwie Malmsteen – The Greatest Hard Rock And Heavy Metal Guitarist Ever?

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By Andrew Catania

The historical archives of the heavy metal rock speak for the sheer class of Jimi Hendrix. As soon as his fingers came in touch with the metal chords, it was as if he was magically squeezing out tones that poured into the ears as profound musical fantasies that humanity had never heard before. It was as if his riffs, shreds, and chord pulls came out of a parallel world and evolving a musical plane out beyond the restriction of the physical dynamics of the contemporary music world. This is why, he is undisputedly worshiped as the God of heavy metal rock, and apparently, with the milestones, he had already established, no wonder it demanded a lot from his successor musicians to achieve a class even close to his grandeur.

Photo by Renee Jahnke

A look at the post-Hendrix era of music, we see a couple of names like Jimmy Page, Angus Young, Steve Vai and Eric Clapton. But if observed in the retrospect of the extremity of pulls, the non-conformity to contemporary technique and experimenting with the tones and chords, is it Yngwie Malmsteen who stands as the most eligible and deserving heir to the ‘Hendrix Legacy’? And would it be an exaggeration if we sum up Malmsteen’s career in a single statement as “he came, he saw, and he conquered”?

Photo by Renee Jahnke

Comparing the career hallmarks, mastery at hand and the technical blueprints of rock and roll musicians, Yngwie Malmsteen seems to have made a powerful and explosive mark in his musical career, straightaway challenging his fellow players of the neoclassic, heavy metal, rock, and roll genre, right from the start. The mastery he held over his six-stringed, personalized instrument is a worthy testament to his inborn brilliance. The new hard rock and heavy metal sensation took the world by storm, jolting the musical status quo of the 1980s, Malmsteen eventually turned into a name that you would love, or hate, but could not possibly ignore.

Photo by Renee Jahnke

His music had this lightning fast, jolting hard and exploding-onto-the-eardrums kind of effect. Despite his nerve-wracking tones pulled out of the fusion of metal and classic, he was not exactly the pioneer among the neo-classical maestros to have tried and aced the forte. But still, it might be hard to deny that his tones are addictive and unbearably beautiful for their explosive audacity and keep the audience hooked and bound in an exceptional phase of musical ecstasy.

Photo by Renee Jahnke

While the rock and roll world was experiencing Eddie Van Halen‘s hyper fast electric, Eric Clapton’s virtuosity, Jimmy Page’s finesse and Steve Vai’s Zappa, Yngwie Malmsteen made his presence felt through his fiery, fanatical and deviant tones, giving birth to his very own neo-classical, heavy metal genre. And this, precisely, would suffice as a reason why he could be considered a competent, potential descendant to inherit the towering throne of the legendary Jimi Hendrix and his legacy of rock and roll magnum opuses.

Photo by Renee Jahnke

Yngwie Malmsteen Shreds His Fenders and Marshall Amps Into Orlando

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By Andrew Catania

Yngwie Malmsteen performed at the House of Blues in Orlando, Florida in support of his World on Fire Tour 2017.

Yngwie didn’t disappoint his legends of followers from the opening riffs of Rising Force.  Tonight’s show reinforces why Yngwie has been around for 30 plus years and shows no sign of slowing down.

Yngwie has enjoyed success with every record he’s released.  His latest, World on Fire, has Yngwie taken over on lead vocals.  His collaborations with Jeff Scott Soto, Marc Bowles, Joe Lynn Turner, and Mike Vescera were nothing short of phenomenal.

For more World on Fire tour dates, check out yngwiemalmsteen.com

 

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Yngwie J Malmsteen and his Guitar Strings

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By Andrew Catania

Yngwie Johann Malmsteen is an eminent legend, a famous guitarist, and renowned bandleader. He appeared for the first time in the 1980s for his classical heavy metal playing style. Time Magazine ratings of 2009 declared Malmsteen as one of the top electric guitarists in the history.

Malmsteen was known to be a heavy user of Fender equipment. His well-reputed usage of a Stratocaster namely “The Duck” was a viral voice of time as Fender replicated it with 100 copies and branded it by the name “Play Loud”  It grew the popularity of Fender and Malmsteen simultaneously.

In the early period of his career, Yngwie uses to play guitar Stratocasters other than Fender. However, he remained an exclusively Fender guitar user after that during most of his career period. The behind picture is that he possesses an enormous set of nearly similar designed Fender Stratocasters instead of using multiple guitar string brands. Each differentiated product under the parent brand of Fender was uniquely branded by its attributes, benefits, and functioning. The most favorites of Yngwie, include Fender Stratocaster Duck of 1971, Fender Stratocaster no. 1 of the same year, Fender Stratocaster no. 2 of the 1970s, Fender Stratocaster no. 3 of 1968, Fender Stratocaster of 1961, Fender Stratocaster of 1966, Fender Stratocaster of 1959, The Custom Shop Fender Stratocaster and Yngwie signature model of the Fender Stratocaster. Fender Stratocaster Duck was named so due to its association with Donald Duck, and he still uses to play it on an occasional basis while Stratocaster no. 1 was branded for its usage of soloing. Stratocaster number 2 was stamped for its harder sounds, the maple-cap neck was a unique branding point for number 3, Stratocaster of 1961 was branded for a simultaneous bridge, and pickup functioning and the custom shop was branded as noiseless pickups. Hence the usage of guitar strings by Yngwie is not of multiple trials of numerous manufacturers of branded guitar strings; rather he used a familiar name of Fender for various unique products.

Fender still enjoys significant rankings among the top manufacturing brands of guitar strings. The way Fender differentiated its products as sub-brands are remarkable and created hype in the laconic industry of related products. There left no room for doubt that the size of the guitar strings manufacturing sector is terse, but few other competing brands emerged over time and were in use of Yngwie. These include Ovation Viper CV68 and Carvin AC175 Thinline Yngwie Malmsteen.

Besides, the most popular brands for guitar strings are D’Addario, Dean Markley, DR Handmade Strings, Dunlop, Elixir, Ernie Ball, GHS, La Bella, Martin Guitar Strings, Optima Guitar Strings, Rotosound, and Sfarzo. D’Addario is a provider of both acoustic guitars and electric guitars and is liked by consumers due to its branding strategy of environmental friendliness. Dean Markley possesses its facilities for manufacturing and is substantially accepted by modern guitarists of the era. DR handmade strings are the supplier of diverse range of related products with a perfect combination business model of standard and advanced equipment. Dunlop is the manufacturer of solely electrical guitar strings, whereas Elixir is a premium brand due to its significantly large charges for the durability of its offerings. Ernie Ball is the most famous brand due to well build and reputed goodwill while La Bella differentiated in its branding as it not only provides guitar strings but an array of musical instruments. Martin Guitar strings are known for its quality, and Optima guitar strings are a hot trend of time among top artists. Owing to unique features and offerings, brands of guitar strings do vary, but Fender remained an almost exclusive selection for Yngwie Malmsteen.

The Wolf Marshall Legacy

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By Andrew Catania

Wolf Marshall, one of the best guitar players, educators and note-by-note transcribers that exist! With more than 30 years of experience as a pedagogue, Wolf has been establishing himself as a teacher that puts in their students’ hands unlimited resources to learn different musical styles from different eras. From jazz to early rock and roll, from psychedelic to pop, from country music to heavy metal shred guitar.  Wolf just covered all the subjects!

Wolf’s labor as a teacher is appreciated through his books, audio and video footage that has been around since the 1980s, when he worked with many renowned guitar companies such as Star Licks, Cherry Lane, Music Sales, with whom he released many memorable guitar lessons:  analyzing different styles of playing and teaching licks that set the foundations for new lead guitar players out there. The way in which he introduced all this information through accessible home media was a significant innovation by that time, creating the basis for business and education model that remains relevant to this date.

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He is also an avid collaborator with the best guitar magazines on the market, such as Guitar World, for which he wrote great articles and columns. He also worked with Guitar Edge, Jazz Improv, and Vintage Guitar, for which he has been writing a regular column titled “Fretprints” for the past eleven years. Wolf Marshall’s approach to guitar teaching has maintained relevant to this day because of the particular emphasis he does on creating a smooth learning curve in all of his tutorials; This is especially important because of the wide variety of guitar players that become interested in Wolf’s material, filling their needs with each new release, regardless of the subject or the player’s level.

Wolf Marshall has been releasing an excellent quality material in various categories. He is widely known for his Guitar Signature Licks series, which contains more than 40 titles and covers more than 40 years of guitar playing! He goes deep into the style of great artists like George Benson, Pat Martino, Charlie Christian, Stevie Ray Vaughan, B.B. King, Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, Eric Johnson, Albert King, Mark Knopfler, Jeff Beck, The Beatles, Queen, Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones and many other relevant artists and bands of rock and roll history! Wolf shows his mastery over such diverse guitar styles and eras, proving himself an accomplished player, and he is also able to present this information in a way you can use.

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The purpose of this long ongoing series is to introduce you to the particularities of each performer regarding technique, expression, musical sense and theoretical background. He intends you to learn your favorite songs from your favorite artists at the same time you can incorporate this information into your guitar playing – because as an aspiring guitar player you will develop your voice thanks to a combination of influences and creativity. This series has been released in a book + cd format, so you can read the transcription and use the record as a reference to the music you are listening; this will also help you to understand how music notation works and to easily spot the notes on the fretboard. This format was replicated and revised through the years by many other publishers who wished to emulate Wolf’s educational success and influence.

Through Hal Leonard, he published The Wolf Marshall Guitar Method in the early 1990’s, which summarizes his experiences as a guitar teacher and takes his approach to a whole new level. He takes you through the basic, intermediate and advanced levels of technique, providing you a step-by-step learning experience. The impact this method has can be seen today as many guitar teachers out there use it with their students, because it centers on learning rock guitar in an accessible way: open position power chords, basic riffs and rock rhythms, chord progressions and lead guitar playing are the components of this series, carefully crafted to meet the expectations and needs of performers and teachers.

Wolf Marshall method of teaching and performance is still relevant today. His approach to guitar instruction has cleared the path for many other instructors that successfully emulated this process. When he gets to explain his material, you can see a concerned artist that is speaking to another artist, and he puts all of himself to present the information in the clearest way possible. This effort has not gone unnoticed, as you can imagine! Wolf has been working in the Jazz Department of the UCLA since 2007, where he teaches jazz improvisation and guitar master classes in the ethnomusicology section of the university.

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But Wolf goes beyond the teaching field! As you can expect from such a great guitar instructor, he is also a high-level performer. During the last years he has been a very busy jazz guitar player: in his YouTube channel, you will find any number of great jazz standards and improvisations with his Wolf Marshall Trio and Wolf Marshall Quartet, classic jazz combos with which he tours many venues to delight people with his engaging performances. Stella By Starlight, Sleepwalk, Wave, Misty, Girl From Ipanema and many other jazz classics performed by the talented Wolf Marshall, all available for us to watch and learn from, and you can see the passion going through his phrasing!

Wolf Marshall legacy to all guitar players is undeniable; you just have to check out the Amazon reviews his books, audio, and video catalogue are receiving; the comments that he receives in each of his YouTube performances…all from happy guitarists grateful to the man who taught them a lot. We are talking about more than two generations of great lessons and useful tips and advice! All of them making us better guitar players! For this reason, we say a big thank you and wish all the best to Wolf Marshall!