The very best sounding amp I ever used is the Bass Rockman. It's basically a cheap piece of plastic crap, I've busted a few, but there is nothing that even compares to it. The compression is just perfect, the tone, the sustain, the feel...I've kept it as the foundation of my sound since 1985.

Nowadays I keep it rackmounted in order to help keep it whole. For distortion I found that a Zoom 9030 was just perfect, with great compression, distortion with EQ, and amp/speaker simulation that wasn't perfect but had some good settings. Unfortunately sometimes you can't get electronic things "fit", and I always had problems with hiss and weird feedback when I hooked them up. Now I use a Boss ME5 that's allright. Both signals go through EQ's (a Boss 24 band and a Rane parametric) and then to a Rane mixer, from which I go direct to a board either live or studio.

"You must know about my guitar. When I was on tour with YJM in Japan back in -85, we visited the offices of Fender, since they were going to do some sort of sponsor deal with Yngwie. There they had an all black Jazz Bass, and I was immediately struck by severe greed. It was so damn cool, even though it was a Jazz Bass (Which is not my preferred model despite the interesting sound- it's mainly impractically shaped to "wear" on stage).

Apparently the Fender people could see that I enjoyed trying it out, and was quite unhappy to leave the premises, because as we were leaving, standing in the stairwell pushing the buttons to the elevator, some staff member I didn't recognize just walked out to us and handed me a case with the guitar in it. Exstacy!!! I used it for some time on the road, until we got to Texas.

There we went to see the people behind Schecter (remember them ?) They were also interested in doing a deal with YJM, and I was once again just tagging along. Being very curious, I walked around the premises, checking out their workshop. And on one of their shelves, under a thick layer of dust, I found a black Precision body with a black lacquered metal pick guard.

I immediately asked if I could have it (I wanted it so bad I forgot all about polite behaviour, not like me at all...). Later I put together the neck from the Fender Jazz and the Schecter body (pick up and tail piece that came with it), and it was just magic. I have never, before or later, found an instrument that just suited my playing and the sound I strive for so perfectly. I would be quite crippled without it."

The picks are Jazz III's, ever since Pontus showed them to me I can't use anything else. Before that I used Fender 1.21's. And the strings...they have to be stainless steel, free of nickel, or I lose the skin on my finger tips when I sweat. There have been great brands over time, Rotosound, Yamaha, Bill Lawrence. Today the only brand of strings I can use are EBS Nordic Steel strings, but they are too damn expensive. The gauges are standard .045, 0.65, 0.85, 1.05.

Sometimes, whenever I can, for stage purposes I use some EBS gear. The new TD650 hybrid head (tube/transistor I think...), two of them, along with a 4X10 cabinet and a 1x15 Evolution Pro Line cabinet, one head for each cabinet. This way I can do low ends on the 1x15 and the distorted "middier" sound on the top cabinet. Believe you me, this rig rocks! Check it out at their website!

And finally. The best new piece of equipment I've found is the Line 6 Bass POD PRO. It was a shock for me to hear the settings for the Ampeg SVT rig, it sounded exactly like the rig I used on tour with YJM in -85.This little box had the same sound as three heads and six 8"X10" cabinets...it just gave me the chills! We use it to good effect in the studio (hard disc recording) where the digital format works perfectly. The compression, the filters - it's beautiful! Unfortunately the distortion just plain sucks, and so far I'm dissatisfied with how I get it to perform live.