Based on what has been said here and what I researched further it seems that the true secret to Yngwie's Alcatrazz Metallic Live '84 and early Rising Force tone could be the result of the grey DOD 250 overdrive/preamp, the Roland DC-10 analog echo and the Boss CE-1 chorus ensemble working together synergistically.
The interesting thing is that the DC-10 and CE-1 are both apparently capable of boosting and driving the signal further through their preamps, even when the effects are bypassed. Here's what a poster said on a forum regarding the DC-10:
SP2333 wrote:People are forgetting the Roland DC10 analogue delay noise maker. It has been in his signal chain since day 1 and is still there today. The far left knob controls input gain and you can boost your input gain tremendously. Even with all delay bypassed the input gain control is still active.
And here's what someone else said a few pages back in this thread regarding the CE-1:
RisingForce and yngwie308 wrote:However, the most important effect is (besides the DOD250) the Roland Boss Chorus Ensemble CE-1. This pedal was used on several of the early recordings including the Steeler and Alcatrazz albums "No parole from rock'n roll", "Live Sentence" and "Metallic Live 84" video. The interesting thing about the CE-1 is that it was not designed for guitar (impedance etc) so it adds some extra overdrive and boosts the signal even further, especially in a live configuration.
1985 pedalboard:
If you look at pictures of his 1985 pedalboard you can see that the DC-10 output apparently goes into the DOD input, so maybe his DiMarzio HS-3s were boosted by the DC-10 before going into the DOD. The CE-1 seems to be gone from his 1985 pedalboard though. IMHO, you can hear how his tone has slightly less gain on the 1985 concert compared to the Alcatrazz 1984 concert since the CE-1 is gone. His tone is also slightly less percussive and more mid-ranged and honky (mid-ranged tone could be EQ or different speakers though).
1984 pedalboard:
In the 1984 pedalboard, the DC-10 and the CE-1 are both present and it seems that the DOD output goes into the CE-1 input, but I'm not quite sure, and I'm unable to see whether or not the DC-10 output goes into the DOD input, so I'm a bit confused. Perhaps he ran his pedals differently in 1984 compared to 1985. His 1984 tone was the best of the two.
So based on the 1984 and 1985 pedalboard pictures it would seem that his drive sound (excluding other effects) could have gone like this:
- Fender celluloid extra heavy picks ->
- DiMarzio HS-3 (Close to the strings with disconnected tone pots.) ->
- Roland DC-10 (Looks like input level is either on approx. 1.8 / 6.8-7 or 3.8 / 9.8 on 1985 pedalboard. Difficult to see due to lack of knob and low resolution.) ->
- DOD 250 (Gain maxed out with level at 9 o'clock.) ->
- Boss CE-1 (Unknown.) ->
- Marshall 1987x (EL34 or KT77 tubes.) ->
- Celestion G12-65 speakers
Here's some interesting info regarding the DC-10 that I found on
this site:
MATRIX wrote:legendary Roland DC-10 Analog Echo that was used by Yngwie Malmsteen... This Echo unit is loaded with several JRC4558D chips that made the TS-808 Tube screamer famous. It also is based off of the most popular MN3005 bucket brigade chip as well.
Unfortunately I couldn't find the schematics for the DC-10 anywhere.
Here's the schematics for the CE-1:
http://www.freeinfosociety.com/media.php?id=1884
It'd be cool if somebody isolated the preamps of the DC-10 and CE-1 and built pedals of them like Dunlop did with the Echoplex Preamp pedal.
IMO, Yngwie and EVH both had very airy, percussive tones in their early days. Notice how when they hammer-on and pull-off on the lower wound strings how much tight low end thump there is. It's as if there's this bassy, airy force driving each note. Great bright and airy yet warm and bassy, percussive attack. What did they have in common? They both used Marshall NMV amps and used their echo units as preamps (Echoplex/DC-10), perhaps even unknowingly so. It most likely gave them that nice percussive and bright yet warm tone. And don't forget that Yngwie used Fender celluloid extra heavy picks in his early days. Celluloid picks have a crisp, glassy and liquidy tone.
BTW: I'm watching demo videos of the CE-1 on YouTube as I write this and it becomes quite obvious how much the 1984 Alcatrazz live tone was affected by it. There's that tight low end thump right there.