
When Yasmin Williams plays her Timberline harp guitar, she uses her fretting hand to strike the low-resonating strings on the upper neck. They're tuned to open G.
An emerging star finds peace and inspiration in the world of 2020 and, with her unconventional style and instruments (including harp guitar and tap shoes), distills it into the beautiful instrumentals of Urban Driftwood, her second album.
Acoustic guitar fingerstylist Yasmin Williams had a wide breadth of musical influences growing up in Washington D.C. Everything from go-go funk to Jimi Hendrix to Nirvana to hip-hop inspired her to pick up an electric guitar, and that amalgamation of styles remains the bedrock of the music she makes. But it's how she translates it all through her acoustic guitar, kora, kalimba, and a pair of tap shoes that makes the 24-year-old's latest release, Urban Driftwood, so captivating.
It also raises a question: How does one go from bashing out Nirvana songs to becoming one of the fastest-rising stars in fingerstyle guitar?
"I wanted to branch off and write my own music," Williams says. "But I felt like the electric guitar was a bit limiting, especially with the percussive stuff I wanted to do. And once I figured out how to do fingerstyle, it was a lot easier for me to write my own tunes. I think the first song I learned was 'Blackbird,'by the Beatles. That pushed fingerstyle into my brain. I fell in love with it.
"But I've always written instrumental music, simply because that's what I'm comfortable with. Even when I listen to music in general, I don't necessarily care about the lyrics most of the time. It's always the instrumentation and arrangements that get me to listen to a track."
Sunshowers
Since the day in May 2018 that Unwind, her debut album, dropped, Williams's acoustic instrumental wizardry and tapestry of influences has been on full display, with her impeccable technique and unique take on fretboard tapping demanding attention.
Inhibited by the bulk of some acoustic-guitar bodies, Williams decided to approach tapping by laying her 6-string horizontally on her lap. This is much more comfortable for her, and offers better access to the whole fretboard, laying it out more like a piano than a guitar. It's just one way Williams expands her musical dialect with a non-traditional approach. It wasn't long after the release of Unwind that Williams started to gain a reputation as an innovator. And, as innovators often do, she already had her eye on something new.
"For Unwind, there wasn't much of a theme," she says. "It was more like a collection of songs I'd written from late high school to the end of college. Whereas Urban Driftwood is definitely about something. It has a theme and an arc to it." In the album's liner notes, Williams explains that all of the songs were written during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that the lockdown and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of George Floyd's killing is reflected in the unfolding of its sequence. She also sought to craft a sonic landscape that communicates a feeling of movement and the natural beauty that persists in urban spaces.
"It is a solo guitar, so the tone has to be on point. I can't have a muddy bass or a buzzing treble."
"It's my first project that shows where I'm from and pays homage to my roots," she continues. "And it was an extremely different process than how I recorded my first album. Since I had already released a 'guitar' album, I didn't want to release another one. I wanted to show my composition skills and show I've grown as a songwriter, composer, guitarist, and musician. That was a huge goal."
She aced it. Urban Driftwood is audibly a step forward—not only in the excellence and emotional depth of its playing, but for her inclusion of new sounds and musical colors. Partly, Williams accomplished this by including guest musicians. Amadou Kouyate, for example, adds djembe to the title track and"Adrift." The latter also features cellist Taryn Wood, and she and Williams create an adventurous topography of melodies that repeatedly interlock and veer apart.
"'Adrift' was me sharpening my composition tools and writing something with counterpoint in mind. It's almost like a fugue. I wrote that song to see if I could write a duet for guitar and another instrument. I thought it came out great and was a good fit with the theme of the album, so I included it."
To give her complete access to the fretboard while tapping, Williams has created her own lap-style approach to playing acoustic. Here, she's weaving a melody on her custom Skytop.
Photo by Umbar Kassa
Like "Adrift," much of Williams' music is carefully calculated. Her debut album was planned to precision before she entered the studio. But Urban Driftwood producer/engineer Jeff Gruber wanted Williams to take a different approach—to open her mind to new influences and new recording techniques. "Jeff got me to open up, in terms of not having to have everything finished before I get into the studio," Williams says. "Being able to experiment while recording was not something I was open to at all. I'm definitely a perfectionist. I want everything already figured out and finished. He showed me that it's okay if it's not. Great things will come out of experimentation, trial and error, and trying different techniques.
"Like, usually I use a looper pedal. And that's what I wanted to do on 'After the Storm.' I thought overdubbing and slicing things was cheating. I don't know why I thought that. It made things way harder than they needed to be. But that's how I wanted to do things. But there are four guitar parts in 'After the Storm.' Thankfully Jeff convinced me that it would sound better if I recorded each guitar part separately."
Put on Urban Driftwood with a good set of headphones and you'll understand what Gruber was after. The broad aural spectrum gives the impression you're sitting in the middle of an acoustic guitar orchestra. But now Williams has to reproduce that onstage. "Unfortunately, I didn't think about that before going into the studio," she says, laughing. "It's extremely hard, especially since my songs are already so technical. But I don't want the live performance to affect the studio recording. Thankfully, I can play most of the songs on the album myself now. Like 'Swift Breeze'—I figured out a way to play it live with the looper pedal. But I definitely will have to use backing tracks on some songs, because the parts are instruments that I don't play."
Yasmin Williams Gear
With its considerable overdubs, the material on Urban Driftwood is challenging to perform live. But with backing tracks and a deep reservoir of technique, Yasmin Williams rises to the task.
Photo by Jan Anderson
Guitars
- Custom Skytop acoustic with James May Ultra Tonic pickups
- Timberline acoustic parlor harp model with K&K pickups
- Sublime Guitar Company acoustic
Strings, Picks, and Accessories
- Shubb capos
- Calton guitar cases
- D'Addario Humidipaks
- GHS Silk and Steel string sets (.011–.048)
- Black Mountain thumbpicks
Effects
- Audio Sprockets ToneDexter
- Strymon BigSky
- Pigtronix Infinity Looper
- Joyo volume pedal
- Hologram Electronics Microcosm
- TC Electronic PolyTune
- Looptimus foot controller (for triggering backing tracks)
- Tap shoes
It's easy to get caught up in the songs and sounds of Urban Driftwood and miss the technical aspect of William's playing. It all seems so natural and seamless. But, watching her perform, you'll see her effortlessly whip through fast tapping passages, explore expansive chords, and reposition her guitar from conventional positioning to her lap for tapping, mid-song, without missing a beat.
"I have to practice that a little bit," Williams admits. "Especially for 'Juvenescence.' That switch is rather difficult because I only give myself a beat to do it. There's a lot of thought put into it. It's like, 'Okay, I'll play a harmonic here, give myself a rest, or something.' Usually, I don't give myself long because it will mess up the continuous motion of the song."
Williams' playing technique is just the tip of the iceberg. She's also known for incorporating additional instruments into her songs, and, in fact, her simultaneous guitar/kalimba performances are one of her trademarks. "I had always liked Maurice White's playing, especially on Earth, Wind & Fire's live versions of the song 'Kalimba Story,'" Williams explains. "Then one day I was writing a song and I wanted to add another timbre that guitar couldn't achieve. I was trying to think of instruments, and that kalimba sound kept popping into my head. I didn't realize it was the kalimba until I found one with no price tag in Guitar Center. I was like, 'That's the sound that I've been hearing! That's the Earth, Wind & Fire sound!' I've been using those ever since.
"Oh, and I use tap shoes, too," she adds, laughing. "Jeff had the two mics in stereo. One was on one shoe, and another mic was on the other, which I've never done before. He also added a plate reverb to it, which gave it the weird ping-pong delay in 'Through the Woods.' It blew my mind!"
Rig Rundown - Yasmin Williams
Thanks to Gruber's passion for capturing sonic detail, every instrument on Urban Driftwood has a beautiful dimensionality. "Jeff was huge on making everything sound spacious and lush," Williams says. "When I listened to it for the first time, I was shocked at how spacious and vibrant the guitar sounded. He didn't use a DI or anything. He used two or three mics on the guitar, close-miked, and that's it. He used pencil condenser mics."
Although this straightforward miking technique puts Williams' performances under a microscope, good luck finding a string buzz or flubbed note on the entire album. Not many players can perform with that level of precision. "I get irritated at myself if I hear any type of note inaccuracies or buzzing," she explains. "The only thing I can accept is [sliding] string sounds, because I like it and there's not much I can do about it. Other than that, I want it to sound as clear as possible. It is a solo guitar, so the tone has to be on point. I can't have a muddy bass or a buzzing treble. It has to be good. That's the standard I set for myself. I practice that a lot. Accuracy is extremely important."
Williams' touch and technique are vital to her tone but playing her beautiful custom Skytop acoustic guitar probably doesn't hurt, either. "The Skytop [tuned to open D] is its own story altogether," she says. "I really loved [Skytop luthier Eric Weigeshoff's] designs, how the guitars look, and the fact that they have the two huge side soundports instead of the one soundhole in the front. It sounds better to me, and it actually projects a lot better, which you may not expect. But because of my lap-tapping technique, his normal side ports can get muffled because they're facing my stomach. So since I do a lot of that tapping, he recommended this wood that had holes in the front called teredo-holed Sitka spruce. The holes are natural and made by mollusks, and I didn't care how it sounded! I just thought it looked cool. [Laughs.] It's like functional art. But those holes do help the sound project when I'm lap-tapping. It does a great job."
The Skytop is on every track on Urban Driftwood except "Adrift."
"I use my old Sublime guitar on that because it sounded better with the cello," Williams notes. Her other trademark instrument is her Timberline harp guitar. In addition to its standard 6-string layout, this parlor-size instrument features six lower-octave strings, tuned in open G. Staying true to her pragmatic approach to technique, Williams prefers plucking the lower strings by reaching over the top of the guitar and picking with her fretting hand. It took some work to master, but the harp guitar is now an indispensable tool in her sonic arsenal.
TIDBIT: Producer Jeff Gruber was Williams' studio guru for her latest album, Urban Driftwood, urging her to experiment with overdubs and capturing every sound in pristine detail.
"I'd wanted a harp guitar for a while, but it always seemed intimidating because of the extra set of sub-bass strings. It's actually not, once you get the hang of playing it. It just has a whole other dimension. I use it on 'Swift Breeze' to play the super-fast tapping part. And I also use the harp guitar on 'Jarabi.'"
Regardless of which guitar Williams plays, she has a beautiful, natural-sounding tone, even when plugged in. But she's not afraid to use pedals to get it. "Gear is very important to your tones, to everything, to how you play," she says. "If you find something that works for you, then use that. I'm getting into pedals more and experimenting with delays and reverbs and all that. I love to use them live and have a pedalboard. I have a Strymon BigSky, a Pigtronix Infinity Looper, and a cool Joyo volume pedal that's miniature, so it fits my foot well. And I got a new pedal by Hologram Electronics called a Microcosm, which is super cool. It's like a granular delay/micro-looper. It has stereo reverbs, too. I also have a ToneDexter, which is important for my guitar tone live." That device uses Audio Sprockets' WaveMaps technology to create an optimized version of an acoustic guitar's voice.
For someone who gave up electric guitar for its tonal limitations, Williams is definitely becoming a pedal junkie. Is this part of another sonic evolution? "Oh, yes, for sure," she admits. "I'm playing electric way more than I have in a long time. My main instrument is still acoustic, but I think electric will pop up at a show or two in the future.
"Nowadays, I'm more aware that I'm in a unique spot in the guitar scene, and I'm not afraid of that anymore," Williams continues. "I'm actually enjoying writing music that includes percussive stuff that pays homage to D.C. or go-go music or West African music or whatever. I like putting something different into the guitar canon, if you want to call it that. That's the point of Urban Driftwood."
Yasmin Williams, “Juvenescence” | New York Guitar Festival sessions
Yasmin Williams performs "Juvenescence" at Dumbarton Oaks Park in Washington, D.C. Enjoy her beautiful, ringing tone and expressive technique, and watch, at 1:34, as she seamlessly transitions to her trademark lap-tapping without missing a beat.
- Rig Rundown: Zane Carney - Premier Guitar ›
- Kaki King: “My Stamina and Accuracy Have Gone to Shit” - Premier ... ›
- Yasmin Williams' Rig Rundown - Premier Guitar ›
Xotic revamps a classic Vox-boost-in-a-box pedal, creating a new one in the process.
Smart, feature-packed update on a classic. Nice size and price.
Small boost knob.
$180
Xotic Effects AC Booster V2
Xotic Effects newest version of the Vox-flavored AC Booster, the AC Booster V2, adds a second, footswitchable boost circuit (tweakable via a small, clear knob tucked among the four main-channel controls), plus a set of four dip switches on the box’s righthand side which engage compression, modern or classic voicing, low-mid boost, and high-mid boost.
This new suite of features packs significant extra functionality into V2’s still-diminutive enclosure. The Vox sounds are all there, and with the high-mids juiced and treble nudged, you’re squarely in clanging Top Boost territory. The modern voicing trades some furry mid-range chunk for a bit more aggression and clarity, while the compression is useful for leveling leads and smoothing out unruly playing.
The boost knob is a little difficult to access, situated as it is in the center of the primary four-knob array. I don’t have particularly big fingers, but even I had trouble twiddling it. That’ll annoy some. But it’s a small price to pay for such a pedalboard-friendly footprint. The boost doses you with a healthy bump in level and gain that’s great for stand-out leads and solos. And speaking of standing out, the upper-mid boost switch is a treat. I found that creating a greater disparity between the high mids from the low mids made for a more precise and satisfying tone-shaping experience than I would experience using a standard mids knob.
There are no shortage of pedals that ape Vox AC30 mojo, but I haven’t seen many that will give you the range of utility that the AC Booster V2 will, for less for $200. Xotic nailed a smart and versatile redesign here.
Nashville luthier and guitar tech Dave Johnson shows us the baker's dozen of tools he thinks any guitar picker requires to be a guitar fixer.
3. Guitar Tech Screwdriver Set - 3000
4. Nut File Set (for medium guitar strings) - 0882
8. String Spacing Ruler - 0673
9. Nut and Saddle Files - 4556
The Ultimate Guitarist's Tool Chest Giveaway
Whether you're setting up your first guitar or fine-tuning a custom build, these are the 13 tools every guitarist needs. Now you can win them all. We've partnered with our friends at StewMac to give away a complete pro-level toolkit valued at over $750.
Click here to enter
Paul Reed Smith cradles one of his company’s Charcoal Phoenix limited-edition guitars in front of a PRS Sonzera amp.
The storied guitar builder reflects on his dozen months sharing his experience, knowledge, and perspective with PG’s readers.
Over the past year, I’ve written a series of articles in Premier Guitar going over some of my, and our industry’s, views of guitar making. You can find all of them all online (and for those reading this online, the articles are collected here). What I am going to attempt to do for this final piece is boil down each of these articles to a “sort of” conclusion. I have enjoyed the process of writing and editing each one. For the most part, it’s been a lot of fun. So:
Tonewood Doesn’t Matter. Wood Does (August 2024)
We don’t use the word tonewood in conversation at PRS. It doesn’t capture a lot of my experience of which combinations of wood make good instruments. First and foremost, we are looking for qualities of wood over species, and we make sure we dry and treat each one appropriately.
What Makes a Guitar Worth the Price? (September 2024)
Very often, the price of a guitar does reflect how good an instrument is—and very often the price of the guitar has nothing to do with how good an instrument is.
What You Can and Can’t See When Buying a Guitar (October 2024)
This one’s a pet peeve. When making a purchase, you can clearly see the color of a guitar and how beautiful it is, but you have no idea if the neck is going to warp over time because of many factors, including wood drying and truss rod installment design. Trust your experience.
Does Where a Guitar Is Made Really Matter? (November 2024)
There are really good, really smart, really talented people all over the world. While I won’t deny it’s helped our career here at PRS being in the United States, I do not believe it is a truly defining factor of our quality. A good example would be the PRS SE Series.
The Complicated Beauty of Electric Guitar Pickups (December 2024)
We’ve taken so many good stabs at humbucking design, and I’m getting incredibly good feedback on our new McCarty IIIs. But making pickups is a complicated art. There are a lot of ingredients in the recipe.
“I hope these articles have had some positive impact on you as a group.”
In Guitar Making, It’s the Details that Matter (January 2025)
Well, that title says it. What’s interesting for me is that all guitar makers believe that different types of details matter more than others. At PRS, we have our own beliefs.
When Building Guitars—Or Pursuing Anything—Go Down All the Rabbit Holes (February 2025)
This one’s about learning. It’s a process I really enjoy. Whether your passion is guitar making, guitar playing, or something else entirely, there is always more to keep discovering.
Paul Reed Smith on Buying Gear (March 2025)
Very often at a clinic, the people who don’t play guitar have a less calcified view of the sound of the instruments being demonstrated than those players who have already developed strong ideas. On the other hand, one time a very experienced player was at one of my clinics and heard something he’d been looking for for a long time and did not expect it out of the guitar he got it from. Trust your experience—not your predetermined views.
Learning from the Mistakes of Guitar Building’s Past (April 2025)
I think my beginnings as a repairman gave me a lot of insight on this one. Even still, just the process of defining a past guitar-making mistake is its own art.
Paul Reed Smith on Where Amp History—and Tone—Begins (May 2025)
This one I love. It’s a greatly exaggerated version of mods you could do to a TS808 Tube Screamer, which has a history on the web. Amplifiers are “modulated power supplies” and can have so much impact on your tone.
The Lifelong Rhythm of Learning (June 2025)
In some periods of time, there’s a lot to be learned, and in some periods of time, you can barely hold what you had before. It’s different for everyone, and for me, it’s been up and down. No matter where you are in the process, there’s always good work to do.
I hope these articles have had some positive impact on you as a group. I know some things resonate with some people and not others, and the opposite as well. I haven’t gotten a lot of feedback from these articles except that there’s not an overwhelming chorus saying “what an idiot,” which I assume means there’s been some meat on the bone of some of the views shared. It’s been a joy. Thanks for listening.
Kemper updated the entire product range introducing the all-new Kemper Profiler MK 2 Series. More Power. More Flexibility.
KEMPER PROFILER - The all-new PROFILER MK 2 Series
Kemper today announces the immediate availability of the all-new KEMPER PROFILER MK 2 Series. Kemper continues to raise the bar with the upcoming Profiler MK 2 Series — a bold evolution of the Profiler lineup (All PROFILERs: Head, Rack, Stage, the Player, and the powered versions), delivering more power, more flexibility, and more creative potential than ever before.
At the heart of the PROFILER MK 2 Series works an upgraded processing engine, unlocking faster performance, with boot times clocking in around 20 seconds, and a host of new features that expand the boundaries of what a modern guitar or bass rig can do.
A New Era of Effects:
20 Blocks in Series, the most powerful effects architecture ever found in a Kemper unit - The PROFILER MK 2 Series now offers seven additional effect blocks, raising the total number of simultaneous audio effect blocks to an incredible 20 — all running with zero added signal latency. It’s like having an entire, fully integrated pedalboard with pedal essentials at your feet — but one that boots in seconds, never needs rewiring, and always remembers your settings.
A new Era of Profiling:
Kemper announces a new profiling technology for the MK 2 series. Availabilty is expected during Summer. Currently in extended testing with some selected third-party profile vendors the new profiling offers:
- More than 100,000 individual frequency points meticulously analyzed for the most precise amp recreation ever achieved.
- Next-Level Speaker & Dynamically adjustable Cabinet Resonance – Capturing the true dynamics of your setup with the longest and most complex impulse responses in the industry.
- Liquid Profiling Technology – Seamlessly integrate the original amp’s gain and tone controls, transforming a single profile into a fully dynamic, living amplifier.
- Unparalleled Precision & Feel – A cutting-edge hybrid approach combining precise, deterministic analog measurement with Kemper’s industry-leading profiling intelligence.
Overview - All that’s new in the PROFILER MK 2 in more Detail:
All-New FX Section – 7 Additional FX Slots - ThePROFILER MK 2-Series introduces an expanded FX section with seven dedicated “pedalboard essential” FX slots, featuring: A new second Noise Gate (Palm Ninja), Compressor, Pure Booster, WahWah, Vintage Chorus, Air Chorus, and Double Tracker.
Adding these to the pre-existing 10 audio blocks, Spectral Noise Gate, Transpose Effect, and Volume Pedal - in total this provides users with 20 simultaneous audio effect blocks, setup gig-ready right out of the box while maintaining full flexibility for customization.
This new layout makes it convenient to cover all the bases and offers 8 flexible FX blocks available for the acclaimed tone shapers and studio-grade unique FX the KEMPER PROFILER is famous for.
Performance Meets Portability - With a smarter internal design and new lightweight aluminum components, the Profiler Stage Mk 2 has shed excess weight — making it even more gig-friendly without sacrificing the tank-like build quality musicians rely on. Whether for touring the world or heading to a local session, this is the most travel-ready full-featured Profiler yet.
Mk 2-ready Player! - For all guitarists and bassists already rocking the compact PROFILER Player, there is good news: it’s been “MK 2”-ready from day one, meaning it’s fully aligned with the power and potential of the new series, and now, on LVL 1 already, it features 16 simultaneous FX in total. This new extended signal flow becomes available for all Player owners as a free update, and yes, it will get Profiling, too. Making the PROFILER Player out of the box the features richest and most professional performance and recording solution - with its travel-friendly footprint and convenient price point!
8-Channel USB Audio Support for the new Mk 2-Series - Native 8-channel USB audio support to all KEMPER PROFILER MK 2 Series units, enabling seamless multitrack recording and reamping directly into your DAW – no external interface required.
Loop Longer, Play Harder - The integrated Looper also gets a serious upgrade. With up to two full minutes of recording time, the MK 2 Series lets you capture extended phrases, build layered soundscapes, or craft entire performances — all on the fly. (Looper available from LVL 3 for the Player)
Speed and Responsiveness Upgrades - Major improvements under the hood. Boot times, preset switching, and UI responsiveness are noticeably faster and smoother, especially in Performance Mode.
Christoph Kemper, Founder & CEO:
“The new PROFILER MK 2-Series makes the PROFILERs feel more like a complete rig than ever before. With instant access to essential FX, full USB audio integration, and improved playability, we’re giving our users a platform that adapts and grows with them.”
Pricing & Availability:
The new KEMPER PROFILER MK 2 Series models are available now from dealers worldwide and directly from the Kemper Online Store. All the new features require a KEMPER PROFILER MK 2 Series device. Visit www.kemper-amps.com for downloads and release notes.
PROFILER Head $1,348.00
PROFILER Rack $1,398.00
PROFILER Stage $1,498.00
PROFILER Player $ 699.00
PROFILER PowerHead $1,798.00
PROFILER PowerRack $1,798.00
PROFILER Remote $ 469.00
At a glance!
The Kemper Profiler MK 2 Series isn’t just about doing more. It’s about doing it better, faster, and without compromise. With unmatched tonal power, surgical precision, and effortless usability, this is the most complete and forward-thinking Profiler platform yet.