Yngwie Malmsteen
neoclassicalshredderscalloped-fretboardmarshall-wallstratocaster
Yngwie Malmsteen arrived from Sweden in 1983 and immediately made every American guitarist feel inadequate. His weapon: a scalloped-fretboard Fender Stratocaster through a wall of Marshalls — at one point reportedly 36 amp heads running through 22 cabinets. His signature approach strips away the Strat's string trees, uses a brass nut for increased sustain and brightness, and employs a custom hybrid string gauge. His quote on amplification is unambiguous: "Anything but a Marshall, please don't even fucking bother me." The Marshall YJM100 signature head is now the definitive document of his requirements. His neoclassical technique fused Paganini and Hendrix into a style that defined an entire generation of shredders.