This month on Bought & Sold, the mother of ducks, keeper of strange time signatures and virtuoso of the Ibanez offset guitar, Yvette Young, checks in to talk all things gear.
We’ll be asking her about her biggest gear regrets, her electric guitar pickup preferences, and, perhaps most pertinently, what’s on her go-to rig right this moment.
What was the first serious guitar you bought with your own money?
“That one’s interesting! And I have two answers. The first guitar I had was a C1-E acoustic that I actually taught myself guitar on. It’s one that I got during high school, when I was trying to write my own stuff and trying to learn. And then the first actual serious guitar that I had was an SX Tele(-style model) that I traded for a drum machine (laughs).
“At the time, I didn’t have any money, but my friend Ethan from Louisiana needed a drum machine, and he was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll give you my Tele for a drum machine.’ So he’s kind of responsible for me playing electric guitar.”
What was the last guitar you bought and why?
“Let me think… I feel rather privileged because I have the Ibanez endorsement (Yvette has signature YY10 and YY20 models, with a new P-90 version also in the works). I haven’t really had to ever buy another electric guitar.
“But I purchased a nylon-string acoustic from Brazil because I just love how nylon-strings sound – and because I wanted something that was a little more dead-sounding.”
What’s the most incredible find or bargain you’ve ever had when buying guitars?
“This is more gear-related, but I scored a really cool reel-to-reel recently for, like, $100 (laughs). That was really good, really nice. It needed some repairs, but that was pretty exciting.”
What’s the strongest case of buyer’s remorse you’ve ever had after buying gear?
“My worst case of buyer’s remorse was probably an impulse-buy banjo (laughs). I was third-wheeling on a date, and I felt awkward and needed to fill the void with an unnecessary purchase. I never play it because the high string trips me out. I wish I got a banjitar instead!”
Have you ever sold a guitar you intensely regret letting go?
“I have actually never sold a guitar! But I loaned an acoustic guitar to someone. It was a really nice Cort acoustic guitar that I lent one of my students. But then they moved, took it with them and I won’t ever get it back. So that wasn’t a trade and I didn’t sell it; it was more like, ‘I’m loaning it to you to learn,’ and then they just took it.”
What’s your best buying tip for anyone looking for their ultimate guitar?
I love my local music store in the Bay Area, Guitar Showcase. Such lovely staff there, and they have a pretty nice vintage selection
“You have to try it. You have to feel it. You have to see how it makes you feel. You have to spend time with it and really see if it inspires music out of you. I’ve played guitars that look cool and have the hype, but they just feel kind of uninspired to me. But I’ve played guitars that I don’t know if they’d really aesthetically be my first choice, but they just feel and sound amazing.
“So I would say you need to make sure you try the guitar in your own rig, too. Sometimes, if you’re playing out of another amp, it might be brighter than you’re used to. Try to simulate the environment that you’re going to be using the guitar in as accurately as you can. Don’t go by looks because you’re not going to pick up a guitar that looks good but feels like crap.”
When was the last time you stopped and looked in a guitar shop window or browsed online and what were you looking at?
“I was looking at mics because I’ve been really getting into recording myself. Honestly, I’ve been looking at a lot of Universal Audio stuff and plug-ins. I’m looking for stuff that can do what some of my pedals do – and I’ve been hunting for a really nice cello because I want to learn cello.
“I love my local music store in the Bay Area, Guitar Showcase. Such lovely staff there, and they have a pretty nice vintage selection from what I remember. I love shopping in person. It’s music, so I have to hear it before I decide to buy – and comfort and feel are so important, too.”
If forced to make a choice, would you rather buy a really good guitar and a cheap amp or a cheap electric guitar and a top-notch guitar amp?
“I feel like a cheap guitar and a good amp because ‘cheap guitar’ doesn’t mean bad guitar. I have plenty of guitars that are cheap, but I feel like they still sound really impressive for the price point.
“I think that with an amp, it’s like ruining a really nice audio file with… I don’t know… something that’s going to degrade it a lot. There’s no point, right? I’d rather go for the expensive amp.”
If you could only use Humbuckers or single coil pickups for the rest of your career, which would it be and why?
“Single coils are articulate, dynamic and twinkly. For the style that I play, I just need a lot of dynamics, so I’d have to go with single coils.”
Yvette’s go-to rig
“Right now, I’m playing my P-90 (Ibanez) Talman, which is something I’m working on releasing to the public. So it’s the P-90 Talman through a Silktone, which is kind of a boutique amp, and I love it. It’s so balanced and nice.
“I usually play (Vox) AC30s, but I kind of love how I can get something out of the Silktone without losing definition and clarity. Charles Henry is the best – I’ll hype him forever, he’s an outstanding person; I think he’s brilliant. Those amps really sound so smooth, and I feel like they just make me play better.
“Pedal-wise, I’ve got an EarthQuaker Devices Warden (optical compressor), and I’m using the Meris MercuryX for my chorus, vibrato and reverb sounds. Then I’ve got a Boss OC-5 (Octave), an Electronic Audio Experiments Longsword (overdrive).
“I’ve also got an EarthQuaker Avalanche Run delay and an MXR Carbon Copy delay. I’ve been using a lot of DigiTech stuff, like the Whammy Ricochet, and the Hologram (Electronics) Microcosm, which is absolutely essential for me.”
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