Don't miss your chance to get loud with these amps!
REVV GENERATOR 120 MK3
The Revv Generator 120 MK3 is the world's first stereo-direct-output reactive load & IR Loading tube amp. It brings you 4 channels of all-tube finely-tuned tone based on feedback from touring artists, session guitarists, & engineers. It also features Two notes Torpedo-embedded technology for going direct to FOH, studio monitors, or headphones. No cabinet required. A built-in noisegate & lush reverb are accompanied by a host of switching & voicing options to make getting the sound in your head faster than ever.
The Blue Channel is chimey with tons of headroom, & now includes a "Wide" switch to give you a wide-range frequency boost for more push & sustain. The Green Channel features 3 all-new drive modes to take this dynamic channel from edge of breakup, to fat overdriven tones. The Purple Channel is famous for its razor-sharp metal clarity, & now in MK3 it receives more low end & saturation with no loss in tightness. Finally, highest gain - Red Channel has an all new touch-sensitive feel which takes you from warm oldschool overdrive to the most massive modern tones available.
Revv Amplification is committed to bringing you the most complete amplifier experience available. Clarity, feel, & tone – for stage, studio, & home.
HX 100
The PRS HX 100 captures the flexibility, power, and balance of late 60's British-inspired tone. A continuation of PRS's popular HXDA amplifiers, PRS HX amps feature a refined control layout and a newly-documented "Authentic Hendrix" Touring Circuit. This circuit is heavily inspired by one of Hendrix's personal amps, purportedly used at Woodstock, which Paul Reed Smith and PRS Amp Designer Doug Sewell were able to study in 2018.
Keeley Custom 12
Designed in collaboration with Robert Keeley of Keeley Electronics as a follow-up to the bestselling Custom 10, the Keeley Custom 12 is built to seamlessly integrate your pedals into the heart of an all-tube Supro amplifier. The preamp and 2-band EQ section are voiced perfectly for running your gain pedals in front of the amp, while still maintaining Supro's signature midrange heft and phenomenal touch dynamics.
MOD® Kits, MOD102+ DIY Guitar Amp
The MOD 102+ is a great place to start for those interested in building their own tube amp. It is based on a classic American tube-circuit design combined with a British-style Class A output tube section that produces 8 Watts of power. At low volume it produces a clean, chimey tone that moves into smooth overdrive at higher volumes. The amp features a three position progressive toggle switch for off-standby-power. In addition, each control features push-pull functionality - pull out the bass control knob for "mid boost", pull out the treble control knob for "bright", pull out the volume control knob for "turbo". These features along with a JJ ECC803-S (a long plate 12AX7 known for its complex mid range tones) allow for a wider variety of tones and extra control for the user. All parts are included along with a pre-drilled steel chassis, wire, and tubes.
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Two Rock Studio Signature Amp
The Two-Rock Studio Signature is the latest generation of the single channel 35 watt amplifiers. Making some changes to the original Studio Pro 35, the new Studio Signature model remains a 6L6 clean amplifier for a solid pedal platform with some additions that will make the Studio Signature a continued legendary product.
New build techniques, layouts, and materials implemented over the last few years were the key starting points to this amplifier's new construction. The added boost toggles are an obvious change at first glance, allowing the use of our potentiometers with custom tapers. Reverb send control on the back panel and a Return control on the front give room for these toggles. The Gain Structure switch can also be found on the back, allowing the same functions as the flagship Classic Reverb Signature essentially giving 3 front-end types to this already versatile clean amplifier.
New aluminum chassis, anodized in silver or black and donning new silver knobs, a black bronco cab, and black matrix grill cloth give this amp a stunning new look.
Mighty Bass 50BT - Modeling Bass Amp with IR
Mighty Bass 50BT is a versatile bass amp for practice, rehearsing and recording. It's equipped with a premium 6.5" loudspeaker and driven by a 50-watt classic D power amp.
NUX's iconic TSAC modeling technology provides various nice-sounding amp models and all the essential effects with great playability & response, while IR offers you more cab sounds! You can engage drum function with APP, and record phrase loops with footswitch.
Mighty Bass 50BT has 3 channels, you can save one preset in each. For deep tone editing, simply use its Mobile APP and PC Software!
Highlights:
-Bass Amp Modeling with Cab IRs, expanding possibilities of tones
-IR loading (1024 samples) with Edit Software
-Whitebox compressor effect offers you analog touch & response
-Independent IR toggles for Amp and DI out
-USB Audio Stream for recording interface with routing setup
-Footswitch to remote Drum&Loop (60s)
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A simple and straightforward atmosphere machine spans deep, orchestral ambient reverbs and colorful room sounds.
Great range of sounds from small room and plate reverbs to expansive, orchestral, and ambient tones. Organic edge to many sounds and fewer digital artifacts. Small size.
No presets without external switches. And only a single preset available without MIDI.
$279
Strymon Cloudburst
strymon.net
Harmonizing ambient reverbs are tricky stuff. Tilt too much to the heavy-handed side and you can easily have a box of schmaltz on your hands. And from an operational standpoint, a lot of harmonizing reverbs tend to be complex and thick with secondary, hidden controls. That’s great for sound designers. Maybe less so for performing guitarists that would rather play and write than tinker with a pedal’s deeper secrets.
Strymon’s Cloudburst does a classy, clever job of inhabiting the simplicity side of the spectrum. It’s still deep and rich with ambient sounds that can stretch to extra-expansive. But it also produces very rich sound pictures of small spaces. And while it won’t effectively replace a spring sound—there’s a little too much harmonizing at most voices for that—it can be modest, a little lo-fi, imperfect, and less than pristine in really cool ways. With a WYSIWYG control set, it’s also a lot of fun to use in fast-moving, intuitive fashion.
Shrunken, Streamlined, Simple
Strymon pedals have taken on a few forms over their history. The near-uniform, relatively economical layouts of pedals like the Flint, El Capistan, and Deco, or bigger pedals like the BigSky or TimeLine, have an almost Boss-like way of engendering familiarity and ease. The Cloudburst feels every bit as inviting, and perhaps more so for its small size and relatively spare control array.
“Short decay, bright tone, spanky pre-delay, and a strong dose of mod, to simulate tape drift, can evoke skanky Exile on Main Street ambience.”
The controls are de rigueur for an ambient reverb. Mix, decay, pre-delay, tone, and modulation make up the knobs. A single toggle called “ensemble” switches between the three levels of harmonics that are added to the input signal: off, mezzo piano, or forte, which effectively increase the intensity of the harmonic effect
Each of the controls, and the pedal in general, have a lot of range, so you have to pay close attention to how the knobs relate to each other at very specific settings, with just a single preset at your disposal (called a “favorite” setting here), which unfortunately requires an outboard switch that can also be configured to work as a freeze switch (not included). If you have a MIDI controller, the pedal can be set up for 300 presets. The lack of many easily accessible presets is bound to turn off some users, and that’s a shame given the pedal’s range. But that makes it no less fun to work with on the fly, and the expression-pedal jack means you can create dramatic variations in mix level while you play. Cloudburst also comes with a full stereo TRS in/out, TRS MIDI, USB C and a discrete JFET front end.
Summon the Cumulus
The Cloudburst really can move through a lot of spaces, and many voices and capabilities will surprise. In the no-ensemble setting, and at a low mix level (as heard in Clip 1 of the audio included with the online version of this review), you get a taste of how rangy the Cloudburst can be in even small amounts. For starters, the pedal can offer a dollop of brightness and punch to a clean signal. Short decay, bright tone, spanky predelay, and a strong dose of mod, to simulate tape drift, can evoke skanky Exile on Main Street ambience, or a more controlled ’70s room environment. Stack on the decay time, a washy pre-decay, plus doses of tone and modulation, and you’re in ringing harmony-heavy surfgaze spaces. Advancing the mix just to noon significantly changes the size of the no-ensemble setting. And here, as heard in Clip 2, you’ll find much dreamier colors as you advance the mix.
One thing that’s cool about themezzo piano and forte settings is that both modes can generate high-harmonic or orchestral textures that straddle the strange and organic. Depending on tone, modulation, and pre-delay settings, they can take on husky, almost dirty overtones or can be soft—almost like a synth with a slow attack setting. They can also easily be tuned to eliminate much of the cloying, hyper-angelic sound that colors other high harmonic reverbs, and can embellish simple melodies in very dramatic ways (Clip 3).
One thing that’s cool about themezzo piano and forte settings is that both modes can generate high-harmonic or orchestral textures that straddle the strange and organic. Depending on tone, modulation, and pre-delay settings, they can take on husky, almost dirty overtones or can be soft—almost like a synth with a slow attack setting. They can also easily be tuned to eliminate much of the cloying, hyper-angelic sound that colors other high harmonic reverbs, and can embellish simple melodies in very dramatic ways (Clip 3).
The Verdict
Strymon’s simple but expansive Cloudburst pays a cost for its streamlined functionality and compact enclosure. Primarily, there are not enough presets for how many cool sounds there are here, unless you introduce other hardware and use MIDI. But that problem aside, Cloudburst is fun and stimulates musical thought. It’s also intuitive to use—as long as you’re willing to take the time to study the expansive ranges in the controls and get a sense for how interactive they can be. Still, even minor mastery of Cloudburst’s capabilities can open up opportunities and musical directions. At $279, it’s a pricey little machine. But it’s not hard to see getting many tunes, hooks, licks, and sparks of inspiration from the Cloudburst. And you can rack up a few hundred bucks worth of that stuff pretty quickly.
Strymon Cloudburst Ambient Reverb Demo | First Look
Get a behind-the-scenes look at the premium guitar maker’s precision processes, from sawing neck blocks to final setup and shipping, as we follow the building journey of a Mike Campbell Alliance Series semi-hollowbody from Croatia to Germany.
The Mike Campbell Alliance Series signature model is inspired by Duesenberg’s Starplayer TV, which he notably played during the 2008 Super Bowl half-time show.
Founded in 1986 by Dieter Gölsdorf in Hannover, Germany, Duesenberg’s guitars, basses, and lap steels are played by a wide variety of artists including Mike Campbell, Ron Wood, Bob Dylan, Joe Walsh, John Mayer, Vince Gill, Robbie McIntosh, Carmen Vandenberg, Jason Isbell, and Tom Bukovac.
The Making of a Dream Guitar | Duesenberg Guitars Production Tour
In the video “The Making of a Dream Guitar,” we get to see how these stylish music-making machines are built. It’s a never-before-seen look at the company’s production process.
Gölsdorf, who had extensive experience in guitar hardware design, created Duesenberg Guitars with the goal of establishing consistently outstanding tone, roadworthy reliability, and unique design, and the company has successfully followed his vision ever since, becoming a respected maker of high-end instruments.
The Duesenberg Starplayer TV variation made for Heartbreakers and Dirty Knobs guitarist Mike Campbell is the star of the video, and we follow an example on its journey of creation, starting in the Croatian village of Varazdin, which was established in the 17th century.
We begin the tour by looking at the neck of the Starplayer, which is made from a single piece of maple for better clarity and attack. We see raw planks of maple cut to length and then trimmed into neck blanks, which are milled by a CNC machine that creates the truss rod channel and rough headstock shape. Meanwhile, rosewood fretboards are prepared, including the installation of the side dots, fretboard inlays, and binding. Once the neck is ready, a dual-action truss road is inserted, and the fretboard glued on. Then it’s back to CNC, where tuner holes are cut and the neck’s medium D profile is shaped, smoothed, and finalized. After that, the fretboard is sanded to a 12" radius and the frets put in place. Fine sanding is the final step in the neck’s production.
After the neck has been contoured and loaded with the fretboard and other appointments, the final step is fine sanding for smooth playability.
The body of this semi-hollowbody model is next, and in the video you’ll see the center block being routed, the laminated maple sides being heat-pressed into shape, and the contouring of the laminated spruce top and flame maple back. The f-hole and its binding are also part of this process. The pieces are glued together, and when the body is set the channels for the top and bottom binding are inserted and then it is allowed to dry once more.
Next, the neck is inserted into the body, for a seamless, sound-transferring fit, followed by another round of hand-sanding. Then, it’s time for painting.
These Starplayer bodies have already had their neck joints cut, and are waiting to the fitted.
Now a clear base cost of primer, which is sanded after drying, is applied. The next step is masking, to protect the binding during the painting process. We see the process for finishing a Mike Campbell Starplayer model in “The Making of a Dream Guitar,” starting with a white coat that allows Duesenberg to mask the axe’s twin stripes during later stages of painting. Next: a metallic blue color coat, artfully sprayed on. When the masking in removed after the paint is dried, revealing the binding and other appointments, the headstock gets the company’s iconic “D” logo and the final clear coats.
Fine-sanding and polishing comes next, and the high-level of skill required for this task quickly becomes evident. The next stop for this instrument is Duesenberg’s headquarters, in Hannover, where final production takes place.
The in-house CNC and Plek department in Hannover gets the instrument, and the electronics cavities are routed before the Pleking process takes place—cutting each fret to achieve comfortable, low action. The fretboard edges are rounded off by hand, and the frets polished.
Here’s another eye-catching Duesenberg model, the Paloma in Catalina Sunset Rose, with suitably wild west surroundings. Other models currently in production include the Double Cat, Caribou, Falken, Senior, Julia, Starplayer Bass, Lapsteel, and Starplayer III.
The final stage of building the Starplayer TV is setup and assembly. If you know anything about Duesenberg Guitars, you know the hardware is all proprietary, with a distinctive art-deco vibe. The Duesenberg tremolo bridge works on a unique steel needle and nylon bearing design. The pickups use silver-nickel components, and the tuners conceal the sharp string edges. This process for finishing instrument—including finalizing the neck, adjusting the pickups, and much more—is handled by a single luthier, who leaves a handwritten signature inside each instrument. The last step is playing each guitar, and then they’re moved on the quality control, where they are placed in its case and packed for shipping. Next stop? The guitar’s new owner.
You can learn even more about Duesenberg guitars by going to the company’s website at https://www.duesenbergusa.com/en/ or https://linktr.ee/iduesenberg You’ll find all the models currently in production including the Alliance Series, Starplayer TV, Double Cat, Caribou, Paloma, Falken, Senior, Julia, Starplayer Bass, Lapsteels, and Starplayer III.
Narration By: Nathan Fawley
Music By: Heinz Rebellius
A Film By: Andrej Lillak
Special Thanks:
Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers & The Dirty Knobs
Wolfgang Morenz of JORIS
All members of the Duesenberg team for their commitment to the Steel Strings
In the guitar, Yvette Young found a refuge from the pressures of the world of classical music competition, and from parental expectations.
With the album Catharsis, the unique guitar visionary has reached a new creative zenith. But it wasn’t easy.
A tattoo of the word “resilient” adorns both Yvette Young’s collarbone and the T-shirts and masks that just recently sold out on her website. That’s an apt descriptor for Young’s strong will. It served her well when, even with the meteoric rise to success of her band, Covet, the behind-the-scenes environment turned extremely toxic after a band member’s behavior became erratic. Young is reluctant to say more about the matter, but she felt unsafe and trapped, and she wanted to quit the band she’d started to instead either pursue a solo project or revisit the visual arts. (A former art teacher, she double-majored in fine arts and education at UCLA, and made money painting guitars, including one for WILLOW.)
“I went from a situation where I was afraid of one of my bandmates, and did what I needed to do to free myself from what I felt to be an emotionally, and thus creatively draining, situation,” reveals Young, who parted ways with Covet’s members during the recording sessions for the new album, Catharsis, and had the bass parts re-done by noted touring and session bassist Jon Button.
So, Catharsis reflects the close of an old, painful chapter and the beginning of a new one. “The process was arduous, and decisions were difficult and super daunting, but I’m ultimately so proud I got through. I learned so much about recording and chasing a sound, and I learned about advocating for myself and fighting for what I want,” says Young. “I think it’s an important thing for a lot of creatives to remember: Art must not come at the expense of overall well-being and safety, and the only sustainable way to create is in an environment that you feel free. That’s what this music is to me—my freedom.”
covet - firebird (official video)
Making the album proved to be therapeutic. “I feel like, on Catharsis, some of the songs are a bit darker and it was definitely me having an outlet for some stuff that was painful, but a lot of it is uplifting and very happy and dance-y,” Young says. “Because music is transformative, and if you’re ever feeling in a bad mood, if you write music that sounds really happy, it can uplift you. Writing music that sounds like how you wish you felt can be really helpful sometimes.”
“I’ve always been really fascinated with ‘can you make someone feel something or convince them of something without even saying a word?’”
A public search for new band members would have drawn too much unnecessary attention and Yvette would have had to spend too much time vetting every prospect. Instead, she found her new bandmates via her good friend, composer and pianist Summer Swee-Singh, who recruited bassist Brandon Dove and drummer Jessica Burdeaux. Burdeaux was Summer’s bandmate at the time, but had an opening in her schedule. “Summer is an angel. She knows me. She knows that I’m an overly nice person sometimes. I tend to let people boss me around and then I give up,” explains Young. “She said, ‘You need people that are just as caring and just as hardworking.’”
Dove and Burdeaux’s work ethic was immediately on full display as they learned Covet’s ultra-technical music in just two weeks. To much online gossip and drama, the revamped Covet lineup was revealed on social media in October 2022. But even as the wheels were set in motion, Young’s resiliency was put to another series of tests. Just four days before the first show of their appropriately named Rebirth tour, their van—a 2007 Ford E-350 that Young paid for out of pocket—was stolen. Covet then raised money on GoFundMe to rent a van and get the tour going. But then that rental van was broken into, with the windows smashed and gear stolen. Even with all of these mishaps, the first tour of the new Covet lineup was successful.
Emotional Nerd Rock
The songs on Catharsis, with its mix of melancholy and majesty, are the most accurate representation of where Young’s current interests are. “I want to write something that’s catchy. I want people to be able to hum it—like for your average listener who doesn’t understand guitar, who doesn’t listen to music. I want them to be able to enter this music and still get something from it,” she says. “But I don’t want to leave guitar players bored, so I’m going to put some flashiness and odd-time stuff in there, but trick people into dancing to it. That’s really fun for me.”
The current Covet lineup, touring behind the new album, Catharsis, is drummer Jessica Burdeaux, Yvette Young, and bassist Brandon Dove.
Photo by Eli Chavez
On their Facebook page Covet describes themselves as “Emotional Nerd Rock” and Catharsis songs like “Firebird” and “Lovespell,” the album closer that features saxophonist Alex Rose from Minus the Bear, deceptively sneak geeky polyrhythms and metric mind games into the context of feel-good, catchy music. In “Lovespell,” Young explains, “There’s a part where I’m in five, drums are in four, and bass is in three. And you’re dancing to it, and you can’t tell. I play it on tour now, and that’s the song that people dance to the hardest. They don’t even notice it. I feel like I’m in a good place. I have a cool opportunity where I’m writing catchy stuff that moms and dads like and can listen to, but I’m also trying to open people’s minds up to more progressive elements of music that you wouldn’t necessarily find on the radio.”
“Interlude,” Catharsis’ piano-driven track with a nostalgic/melancholic vibe,is similar in mood to some of Young’s previously released solo piano music. “It’s so funny, because my voice on piano is a little bit different than my voice on guitar,” she explains. “When I write, it feels like I’m not even there anymore. Like it feels that who I am doesn’t matter. I just hear stuff and it comes out. I know that sounds crazy, but I feel like I’m just channeling emotions and trying to find ways to express certain abstract feelings without having to use lyrics. That’s the value of instrumental music. I’ve always been really fascinated with ‘Can you make someone feel something or convince them of something without even saying a word?’ Just by the tension of the music, the timbre, the pedals that you use, the way that you phrase something, the key changes, all of that. It’s really fun to try to do that. The piano music and Covet’s music is all storytelling. It’s me trying to transport people to a fantasy place.”
Music on Her Own Terms
Young is among today’s most important young guitarists. Steve Vai named her as one of the five guitarists taking the instrument to the next level and recruited her to teach at his Vai Academy last summer. Ibanez has graced the virtuoso with two signature models: the YY10 and the newly released YY20. So, Young is a now a bona fide guitar hero, but the road to stardom was not easy.
Since the beginning, Young has had a conflicted relationship with music. Born in San Jose, California, to parents from Beijing, China, Young started piano at 4 and was immediately thrown into the fire. Her father, a piano salesman/technician, composed music, and her cousins played competitive piano at a very high level. Little Yvette was next in line—a prodigy in the making. She had to practice four hours a day and played high stakes competitions from age 9 to 18.
Young’s painting for the cover of her new album is a perfect reflection of its sense of uplift and emergence from adversity.
“The classical world was pushed really hard on me. I don’t know if it was my thing when I was younger,’’ recalls Young, who, in her youth, was obligated to practice fragments of 30-minute concertos over and over again until they were memorized and mastered. She also started violin at 7 and later played in her high school orchestra and the California Youth Symphony, where she was concertmaster. While Young delighted audiences with her flawless performances, deep down she hated the competitive aspect of music. It was not fun and Young’s internalized perfection in her musical and academic pursuits (having to be a straight-A student), combined with the intense pressure of the elite classical world’s cutthroat environment, led to anorexia nervosa. This eating disorder saw Young in and out of the hospital during a four-year span in her teens. The condition became so severe that Young would sporadically flatline in her sleep. Miraculously, she survived.
This dark period marked the beginning of Young’s new journey. While in the hospital, she picked up the guitar. It wasn’t a deliberate move; she wasn’t seeking another instrument to conquer and compete with. Rather, the 6-string was therapeutic and empowering. It also helped reignite her passion for music. “One cool thing about guitar, for me, is it was really important that it was an instrument I picked for myself. I don’t let anyone else dictate how I approach it,” says Young, “Music saved my life. I don’t think I’d be here if not for guitar. Guitar helped pull me out of my eating disorder. It made it so I felt like I had a voice, when I don’t feel like I’m the most outspoken person. The most exciting part of it all is that now I have the opportunity to share with people how wonderful of an outlet music, in particular guitar, can be. And how amazing it can be for building up your confidence. I’ve been through a lot. I’ll always be writing music. It’s kind of like my comfort but it’s also my way of expressing joy.”
“Art must not come at the expense of overall well-being and safety, and the only sustainable way to create is in an environment that you feel free.”
Young learned some chords by watching videos, and while she understood music theory, that didn’t factor at all into how she approached the instrument. Young explains: “Honestly, because of my classical upbringing, I feel like I have a good ear. I would listen to songs and—I didn’t even really read tabs at that point—I would just figure them out meticulously, note-by-note, and then teach it to myself.” The first song Young learned was Creed’s wistful ballad “One Last Breath” (referred to as “Six Feet From the Edge”), and she listened to Radiohead, and folk artists like Cat Stevens and Sufjan Stevens. While she first learned everything in standard tuning, Midwest emo bands like American Football and math-rock bands like Toe were major influences and led her to the world of alternate tunings, which she has built her style around ever since.
In 2013, while working as an art teacher, Young found fame accidentally after posting guitar videos on Facebook. One of her students created an Instagram page for her, and suddenly she became very famous. “I didn’t expect to have one of my videos go viral. The one video that went viral was this tapping fast thing, and I got contacted by a bunch of companies to do videos for them,” recalls Young. “At the time, I was a teacher, I was working in a school, and music was just this fun side thing—this outlet I get to do after I work my 9 to 5, to feel better. I had no idea that these videos would pop off like that, so it was exciting.” In 2014, Young formed Covet, and the trio has since been at the forefront of the math-rock scene.
Yvette Young’s Gear
Young’s new bandmates, Jessica Burdeaux and Brandon Dove, learned Covet’s ultra-technical music in just two weeks.
Photo by Sarah Phung
Guitars
- Ibanez YY10
- Ibanez YY20
Amps
- Vox AC30
- Vox AC10
- Roland JC-40
- Yamaha THR10
Strings
- D'Addario NYXL (.011-.056)
Effects
- DigiTech Whammy Ricochet
- Walrus Audio Julianna
- Caroline Guitar Company Somersault
- Boss DD-3 Digital Delay
- MXR Carbon Copy Deluxe
- Earthquaker Devices Avalanche Run
- Earthquaker Devices The Warden
- Dirge Electronics Slowly Melting
- Moreland Magnetics 707 Fuzz
- DigiTech FreqOut
- Hologram Electronics Microcosm
- ZVEX Mastotron
- Ground Control Audio Noodles
- Boss OC-5 Octave
- Meris Mercury 7
- Electronic Audio Experiments Longsword
- Strymon Zuma
A 6-Stringed Piano
Young is part of a new generation of virtuoso guitarists that have created a new language far removed from the vocabulary of legacy, boomer guitar heroes. You won’t hear Hendrix, Slash, or even Yngwie-inspired licks. The omission of these influences wasn’t deliberate, however. “I just wasn’t exposed to it. It’s like when you grow up more sheltered. I didn’t really consume any pop culture, to be honest. I wasn’t even allowed to listen to rock rock when I was younger because my parents were more traditional, and they were like, ‘classical music is the way.’ I’m a late bloomer, man. I just discovered rock like, last week,’” she jokes. “I started out listening to indie music/post rock. Post rock really appealed to me because it was a lot like classical music in the way that it progresses. It’s very dynamic and it’s emotional. For me, music has always been less about virtuosity and more about its emotional appeal.”
Still, there’s no doubting Young’s virtuosic abilities. Her ultra-technical style is inspired by the piano’s polyphonic capabilities. She views the lower strings as the left-hand accompaniment register of a piano and will use it to play implied bass parts and harmonies. The upper strings of the guitar are used as the right-hand melodic side of the piano. Both hands may cross over into the other register if the music calls for it. Pianistic effects are achieved by her use of uncommon tunings, fingerstyle moves, and right-hand tapping.
“Now I have the opportunity to share with people how wonderful of an outlet music, in particular guitar, can be.”
While tapping is a big part of Young’s style, its modern-era pioneer, the late Eddie Van Halen, wasn’t even in the equation when Young started doing it. Rather, she picked up the technique from listening to bands like TTNG and other acts in the obscure art/indie scene that she grew up with. She’s recently gotten into Van Halen’s playing, though, and has also started incorporating more conventional guitar-isms, like bending.
“I don’t really know how it happened. One day I was just like ‘Instead of this slide up one fret, what if I bent to that?’ I was like, ‘Ooh, I love the way this sounds with delay.’ It sounds really cool. I checked out a bit of Van Halen, too. I wanted something that had a lot of energy. I was running and I was listening to that, and was like, ‘Okay, yeah, like the way Eddie plays is really cool.’ I think subconsciously I probably just digested all of that and spat it out in the form of my own writing.”
Another part of her distinctive sound is muting. “I’m muting with my right-hand palm and with my left hand,” she explains. “My right hand will mute the lower strings and I’ll sometimes use the pointer finger on my left hand to stop the high strings from ringing out. I’m also doing whammy bar stuff. This is new to me. I feel like I had a little bit of a breakthrough and I downgraded to .011s now because I need to be able to bend. I was using .012s before and I had a dark era where I was at .013s.”
“In order to stay passionate at what I do, to not have it feel like how I felt in the classical world—doing things for other people or trying to impress other people—I really have to be my own fortress and I have to really stay in tune with what excites me.”
So, Young’s new Ibanez YY10 and YY20 models come with .011s. “First I did the YY10, Strat style, then YY20 Tele style, orange finish,” she says, explaining their genesis. “There’s no Wilkinson tremolo system. There may or may not be a new one in the works, but I’m really excited because [if it happens] it’s gonna be a higher end one.”
These signature guitars are tuned (low to high) F–A–C–G–B–E when they are shipped. “I wanted to just kind of challenge people to try it,” she relates. “I’ve been talking to a bunch of students and they’re like, ‘I never tried open tunings because I’ve always been scared of tuning it to something different.’ I was like, ‘Well what if it just came that way?’”
Young’s own musical voice is ever evolving and, despite making a name for herself as a virtuoso, the self-described “people pleaser” resists pressure to cater to any expectations. “As I matured in my craft, I was like, ‘I feel like this isn’t even what I’m excited about,’” she says. “I’m sitting here live, playing these technical songs, sweating bullets, not feeling the music, just really worried ’cause everyone has their phone out and all eyes are on me, and I better not mess up this run or else it’s gonna end up on YouTube. I hated that. In order to stay passionate at what I do, to not have it feel like how I felt in the classical world—doing things for other people or trying to impress other people—I really have to be my own fortress and I have to really stay in tune with what excites me. The direction I go in becomes really clear when I focus on what gives me goosebumps when I’m playing, what makes me jump up and down ’cause I’m so excited about it.”
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Yvette Young wasn’t raised on legacy guitar heroes and, as a result, her approach is fresh and highly personal. “I truly discovered it like an outsider. I was working on guitar and was like, ‘I guess you could play it like this.’ That definitely contributed to me sounding the way I sound,” says Young. “But I also consumed and listened to a wide variety of music. I was trying to take all the things I find exciting about different genres and just blend them into one sound.”
“Shibuya” sees Young—tuned to D–A–D–F#–A–E (low to high) with a capo on the 2nd fret—using her unique approach with plucks, taps, slaps, and slides to create a mesmerizing musical experience.