Hallo Malmsteen-Fans!

Hier ist ein Auszug aus dem Interview, das Yngwie Malmsteen
unseren britischen Roland-Kollegen gegeben hat,
nachdem er für das GS-10 Sounds programmiert hatte.

Viel Spaß damit!

BOSS is celebrating its eight-millionth pedal sold this year. Do you remember your first BOSS pedal?

“This goes way back to 1977, 78, something like that. I got my hands on a Roland DC-10 Analogue Echo, and I still have it. And that’s the one I use to get that sound (mimicks the echo). Now, as far as BOSS pedals go, I will never forget about 1993 when I used a Hush Noise Gate rackmount and never like it, I’m sorry to say. But, if I didn’t have it there it would sound really noisy. One day, I came to sound check and my guitar tech didn’t tell me anything, but apparently it wasn’t working anymore. It was broken. I didn’t know anything about it. I went to sound check and the Marshall was the quietest ever. The quietest ever! He’d run out to the local store and put a BOSS NS-2 in the system without telling me. I was going, “My God, I can’t believe this!” This little thing is incredible. But the first BOSS one was actually an octave pedal, the OC-2.”

What inspired you to buy that one?

“I wanted a Mutron but I couldn’t afford that, so I got the BOSS Octave because I really like that low nasty sound, you know? I’ve been using it 22 years now, I’ve been using Roland and BOSS pedals from the beginning, but the OC-2 pedal is the first BOSS that I bought.”

It sounds like you really dig your BOSS NS-2 noise suppressor.

“It certainly was a great revelation to realise that in this little white box with a 9-volt battery you could blow away this $ 2,000 dollar thing. So, that made a big difference. As far as sound goes, I’ve never been a big “effect” guy, really. I’ve always been more into tone, just the sound. But getting rid of the noise was like a breath of fresh air, it was very cool, and I’ve been buying BOSS pedals for years because they’re great!”

Your concerto with the New Japan Philharmonic in Tokyo is stunning. Did you using your BOSS NS-2 for that?

“Of course, I never leave home without my NS-2s.”

You’ve also played through our CS-3 Compressor/Sustainer. What do you make of it?

“I used it for my acoustic guitar, my Ovation, and I use it sometimes when I record the bass. I like extreme compression – you know, the most compression you can get – which come automatically with a Marshall. So, when I play the bass or an acoustic guitar or sitar I always mic them up with a compessor, usually the CS-3.”

On your new release, Attack, you used a Roland GR-33 guitar synth on Valley Of The Kings. Can you describe how you use it?

“What happened was, for 12 years I always used a keyboard player and a drum programmer for my Roland R-8MKII, which is a bitchin‘ drum machine! The keyboard player and I had a falling out and I wound up sitting in my studio all alone. I was writing songs like Stronghold and Attack - good riffs if I may say so. But I felt there was something missing, so I went to the store and what did I do? I bought a guitar synth because I wanted to hear what it would sound like if a keyboard player like Derek Sherinian played some interesting stuff on there. Reason being, I didn’t have somebody with me. I just wanted to add something that would help me come up with vocals and lyrics. I write all that stuff - I write everything.”

We hear some tabla drums in the intro and ending of Valley Of The Kings – are those from the GR-33?

“I just hit the low E, and boom! That’s all it was. (Anmerkung: Dieser Tabla-Loop befindet sich auch im GR-20). And then I overdubbed flute on top of it. But I did a lot of music with the GR-33 and still do a lot with it. There’s no keyboard, just a ROLAND R-8 and a GR-33 guitar synthesizer.”

The last time we visited you, we brought the new Roland GR-20 synthesizer.

“I’ll tell you what I was really keen on – the solo violin. I can’t wait to get one for myself.”

This week we’ve been making patches for the BOSS GS-10. Users will be able to download the patches we made from the BOSS website. Your sound is based on Marshalls, so you used some of the modelled stacks. This is a small unit that you can take on the road - do you think you will do so, and why?

“Oh yeah, I’m going to use it as my warm-up amp before the show. Of course! Absolutely. It’s got a lot of gain. I’ve tried a lot of these things but this is probably the best one. I like it.”