Can anyone pinpoint what changed in Yngwie's tone?

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Metalhex

Metalhex

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These are kind of rhetorical questions but I thought it would be fun to discuss...

What we know:
- He switched from FS-1 pickups to HS-3 in the late 80s
- Its apparent that he started using more compression at some point
- He turns every knob up to 10 (supposedly)
- His car accident affected his technique and apparently he used more gain since Odyssey to cover his sloppiness.
- His current tone is drenched in reverb
- He's always used the same type of Overdrive pedals

The funny thing is that he claims that nothing in his setup/rig has changed over the years
Even if all these things are true, why does his current tone sound like garbage? I mean clearly his tone has evolved in stages. You have his 80s Polydor days' tones. His early 90s records are different from his mid-late 90s tones, they are more distorted. Then when he got complete control of producing his own records, his tone went full-mud, note-choked toilet-tone drenched in reverb. To me, his Facing the Animal/Alchemy tones are more distorted but still more clear and articulate than what he has today.

So why does he claim nothing has changed? How can he be apparently using more distortion when all the knobs were always dimed anyways? Can anyone pinpoint what has changed if everything "stayed the same"? (I know I'm answering my own questions but maybe I'm missing something; rhetorical yet partially serious questions ??)
 
My theory is how the records get made and who gets final say, the early albums had professional engineers and producers making them in real rooms on real gear. 2” tape, real consoles and outboard gear. All his later stuff is made in his house and he’s writing, playing, engineering and producing it all himself. Obviously drunk on his own power.
 
Maybe less (but better) production on the earlier material as well? His playing had more intensity back then too, and his articulation seemed a bit more defined. His picking, his legato. He was on fire.

He's running low on fury. He may have unleashed too much of it ;-)
 
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I think Yngwie is accurate (for the most part) when he says nothing has changed since the early days. We know for a fact what has changed over the years including his signature pickups and different signature overdrives he uses in place of the vintage grey DOD 250. None of these changes explains why his current recorded tone is so awful.

SO! It has to come down to the utter lack of production and engineering values on literally every album since 2012's Spellbound. In other words, ever since Yngwie started fancying himself as a one man band, producer, engineer etc. And it's not just the guitar tone that suffers, these albums really sound like crap from a fidelity standpoint and the fake drums and cheesy synths don't help matters one iota.
 
I think he used a filter or drastically different mic placement for the Trilogy album. The tone is very different.
 
Anyone still own their Yngwie Marshalls that came out like 8-10 years ago? I always thought those were cool. Huge in size, but don't see anyone talking about them?
 
His Sloppiness? Are you talking about his playing or the finesse of his kicks?
 
I think it's more related to the mixing and production. His sound on the new albums sounds more like a bedroom guy (aka me) making records at home. I've got a pretty good setup in my home studio with treatment and Focal Trio 6BE monitors, everything is so clear with these. His new albums sound too congested. Too little bass, too much reverb on everything, everything seems to be huddled in the midrange. There's no bottom end and very little instrument separation.
It also sounds like instead of using an overall reverb to blend it all together, each instrument is using it's own reverb adding to a haze. The drums sound like they're played in a warehouse or tiled bathroom.

The playing is still good though, but the bass needs to be turned up and reverb turned down.
 
I don't know of any guitarists who have the same tone now as they did in the 80's .. not one
 
MusicIsLife said:
Maybe less (but better) production on the earlier material as well? His playing had more intensity back then too, and his articulation seemed a bit more defined. His picking, his legato. He was on fire.

He's running low on fury. He may have unleashed too much of it ;-)
Click to expand...

I really think this is the biggest culprit, the lack of intensity first and production second.

That said, he sounds fucking great live and I think every guitar player should stand in a room with his wall of Marshalls to know what it sounds/feels like. I could only handle about 10-15 seconds of standing 10 feet in front of it.

He did a masterclass down here a couple years ago, he lives about 25 mins south of Ft Lauderdale so I wasn’t surprised to see a ferrari behind the venue and a U-haul in the front for just his Marshalls (no band). My buddy runs sound there and was having a bitch of a time getting the (non-mastered) backing tracks loud enough in the PA and the fucking guitars weren’t even coming out of the PA!

This is the whole show-
 
Probably using the G12T-75’s vs whatever he started with…Glenn says speakers are the only thing that makes a difference in tone…
 
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