Yngwie Malmsteen

30th June 1963 -

Yngwie Malmsteen is a Swedish guitar virtuoso famous for his mastery of classical and electric guitar styles, the fusion of which he pioneered and in doing so he gave birth to a new genre called "neo-classical". He has a trademark move in which he flips his guitar over his back so that it lands back in his hands without an interruption in the guitar playing. Other stage antics include high kicks of the leg and picking the strings with his teeth. Influences of Malmsteen's include Jimi Hendrix and the violin virtuoso Niccolo Paganini.

Malmsteen's first solo album was 1984's Rising Force. That album and others since have won him acclaim for his impressive technique. In 1998 he released Concerto Suite, cementing his reputation as a classical composer and performer.

Malmsteen joined Joe Satriani and Steve Vai on a G3 tour of the US. One of the most impressive aspects of Malmsteen's playing, particularly when viewed alongside the other two guitar greats, is his effortless speed. Malmsteen reaches the same insanely fast guitar speed using the convential "left hand fretting, right hand picking" approach, where Satriani and Vai often use right hand tapping to achieve similar speeds. (That's not to say Malmsteen is the better guitar player - I'm not a good enough guitar player myself to judge!) If I was to offer a criticism of Malmsteen it would be that a lot of his music sounds much like the rest - which goes for his lead playing as well.

Malmsteen almost always plays a blonde Fender Stratocaster with customized DiMarzio pick-ups and a scalloped fret board. Fender produce a signature model of the guitar.