Yvette Young Guitars & Gear: Ibanez YY10 and YY20, Vox AC30 and the Covet Pedalboard
Yvette Young's documented rig: Ibanez YY10 and YY20, Vox AC30, open tunings and the Covet pedalboard, from Premier Guitar rundowns and maker pages.
Yvette Young plays two-handed tapping the way a pianist plays a keyboard: both hands on the fretboard, harmony and melody at once, usually in a tuning that no beginner method book would suggest. Her gear follows from that. She plays Ibanez Talman-style guitars, including her own YY10 and YY20 signature models, through a Vox AC30, with a long chain of reverbs, delays and modulation pedals in front. This article sets out the rig as it is documented in Premier Guitar rig rundowns from 2019 and 2023, in Ibanez’s own product pages, and on Walrus Audio’s page for the pedal she developed with the company. Gear details are as of the dates given, and her board changes from tour to tour.
Young leads Covet, a band built around her guitar. Ibanez’s artist page lists Covet as her group and names the YY10 and YY20 as her signature models. Premier Guitar’s writer, Chris Kies, describes her playing as finger-tapping boosted by heavy modulation and shaped by classical piano training, producing polyphonic parts over atmospheric post-rock textures.
The Playing: Tapping and Open Tunings
Two things define how Young uses her equipment: two-hand tapping and open tunings. Ibanez, announcing the YY10 on its Japanese site, says her signature sound comes from unusual tunings and two-handed tapping. That is the manufacturer’s framing, but it matches what the music press reports.
According to Premier Guitar’s 2019 rig rundown, Young started in standard tuning but did not find her own voice until she moved to alternative tunings. Kies writes that she found them through the Japanese post-rock band Toe and the band American Football, and that her main tuning is F-A-C-G-B-E, which he describes as a Lydian-flavoured open tuning inspired by Toe. The same article reports that she writes solo two-hand tapping pieces and often starts from a vocal melody, then spends hours on the fretboard finding harmonies to accompany it. These are Kies’s paraphrases of what she told him, not direct quotes.
Marshall’s 2021 profile of her, published on its own site, gives three tunings as examples: F-A-C-G-A-E, D-A-D-F#-A-E and F-A-C-G-B-E. In the 2023 Premier Guitar rundown, also by Kies, her signature guitars ship tuned F-A-C-G-B-E from low string to high, and for her album Catharsis she used F-A-C-G-C-E. Ibanez’s product pages for both signature guitars list the same factory tuning as F, A, C, G, B, E from the sixth string to the first.
Tuning is also a practical problem on stage. A 2019 Performer interview by Jason Peterson says her ability to switch quickly between tunings is critical to her sound, which is the writer’s wording rather than hers. The same piece reports three guitars on that tour. In our view, the guitars below are best read as a set rather than one main instrument.
The Rig
Guitars
Ibanez introduced the YY10 as the Yvette Young (Covet) signature model, developed with her and based on the Talman she used as her main guitar. The Japanese announcement carries an October 2020 date in its web address, but the page text shows no date, so we treat that as the likely announcement time rather than a confirmed one. According to Ibanez’s US product page, the YY10 has an alder body, a maple neck with a maple fretboard, 22 medium frets, a 25.5-inch scale and a 305 mm fingerboard radius. It carries three Seymour Duncan Five-Two single-coil pickups with a five-way selector, a Wilkinson WV6-SB tremolo, Gotoh MG-T locking tuners and a bone nut. Ibanez says it ships with D’Addario EXL116 strings, gauged .011 to .052, and with a sticker featuring artwork Young designed herself. The only colour listed is Slime Green Sparkle.
Ibanez’s Japanese announcement describes the neck as a traditional rounded profile with a contoured joint for high-fret access, and says Young specifically wanted the 10.8 mm string spacing on the Wilkinson bridge. It describes the Five-Two as Alnico 5 magnets under the lower three strings and Alnico 2 under the upper three, intended to give a punchy low end and a smoother top.
The YY20 is the Orange Cream Sparkle sibling. Ibanez’s US page lists an alder body, a maple YY neck with a rosewood fretboard, the same 25.5-inch scale and neck dimensions as the YY10, a Gotoh GTC202 bridge with six individual saddles, Gotoh locking tuners and two Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro single-coil pickups in the neck and bridge positions. It has the same EXL116 factory strings and the same stickers by Young. In our view the spec reads as a Telecaster-style counterpart to the Strat-style YY10. The page is slightly inconsistent on switching, describing a three-way selector in one place and mentioning a five-way selector in another, so we do not state the switch type as fact.
In the 2019 rundown Kies describes two sparkle-finish Ibanez Talmans that Young named herself. “Creamsicle” has a rosewood fretboard, and “Flubber” is the one she says is her favorite even though the two are nearly identical in spec. Both carry Seymour Duncan SSL-5 Custom Staggered single-coils, which, Kies reports, she learned about after trying a loaner Talman at NAMM. On Flubber, he writes, she uses the neck position for tapping, the fourth position for softer fingerpicked parts and the bridge position for grittier tones. Her first Ibanez, the same article says, was a 1990s Talman with Bill Lawrence pickups, and her first electric was an SX Telecaster that she got in a trade for a drum machine.
By the 2023 rundown, Premier Guitar describes two YY10 models under the same names. Creamsicle has a rosewood fretboard and Seymour Duncan SSL52 Five-Two pickups. Flubber has Wilkinson single-coils and is reserved for drop D. That rundown describes the Wilkinsons as more pristine and clear and the Five-Twos as breaking up in a grittier way that Young likes; we paraphrase rather than quote. Both guitars use D’Addario NYXL strings in .011 to .056, a heavier set than the factory .011 to .052, and Young discusses possible future P-90 pickups on a YY model. The 2019 article, by contrast, reports NYXL Extra Heavy strings (.012 to .060) on the Talmans, so her string choice has changed over time. The 2023 article also mentions the YY20 but says it was not on that tour.
The 2019 article says a hand-painted Strandberg Boden seven-string was used every night for the opening songs “Sea Currents” and “Falkor.” It does not give a tuning. Marshall’s profile also lists Strandberg guitars among her electrics before the Ibanez Talmans.
Amps
Both Premier Guitar rundowns document a Vox AC30. The 2019 article says she nicknamed it “Toyota,” plugs into the high input of the top boost channel, uses the amp’s own reverb alongside two reverb pedals and keeps the tremolo turned off. The 2023 rundown records the same high-input, reverb-on, tremolo-off approach. Marshall’s profile says she mainly plays through Vox amplifiers. If you want to copy the channel setting, our Vox AC30 Top Boost article explains the channel and input naming on these amps, including why two of its most famous players, Brian May and Rory Gallagher, did not use the Top Boost channel.
Effects
Premier Guitar documents two snapshots of Young’s board, and the pedals that appear in both have the strongest support. Reverb, delay and modulation take up most of the chain.
Both rundowns list them. The Warden is a compressor, and Marshall’s profile adds that she uses it for live shows. Our EarthQuaker Avalanche Run article covers that pedal in detail.
It is on the board in both the 2019 and 2023 rundowns. Our Meris Mercury7 article covers what the pedal does.
The 2019 board carried a Walrus Audio Fathom reverb and a Julia chorus/vibrato, and the 2023 list adds a Julianna. For background on the pedals, see our guides to the Fathom, Julia V2 and Julianna.
The 2019 rundown lists all three MXR pedals, and the Carbon Copy Deluxe is still there in 2023. Marshall’s profile mentions an MXR bass octave pedal as a way to get a bigger sound. The Performer article’s writer names a Carbon Copy delay, a Way Huge Supa-Puss delay and an EarthQuaker Devices Space Spiral as delays she uses; this is the writer’s list, not a quote from her.
Kies lists a Caroline Guitar Company Somersault, an Electronic Audio Experiments Longsword, a TC Electronic Ditto, a Ground Control Amaterasu V2 and a TC Electronic PolyTune 3 tuner. Marshall describes the Amaterasu as a pre-amp.
Premier Guitar lists a Universal Audio Galaxy ’74 Tape Echo and Reverb, a Hologram Electronics Microcosm, a Beetronics Fatbee, a Boss DD-3 digital delay and OC-5 octave, a DigiTech Whammy Ricochet and FreqOut, a ZVEX Mastotron and a Ground Control Audio Noodles as new for that tour, along with a D’Addario chromatic pedal tuner. Our ZVEX Mastotron article covers the fuzz.
As of 16 October 2026, Walrus Audio’s product page calls the Qi Etherealizer a collaborative creation with Yvette Young and lists it at $449.99. It combines chorus, delay, granular and reverb effects. Walrus says the effects can run in series or parallel, presets can be saved, and the terracotta version carries original artwork by Young. The page also carries a statement from her saying she hopes the pedal inspires players to explore colours and textures. We have not seen the Qi on a documented tour board.
Tone Recipes
Tone Recipe: Tapping Voicing
Kies reports that Young uses the neck pickup on Flubber for tapping. Our Stratocaster comparison cites a reviewer calling the neck pickup of one American Professional II sweet and warm, a general guide rather than a rule. For a similar approach, set a Vox-style amp to the high input of its top boost channel with the tremolo off, add a compressor and keep the reverb on the amp. This is our reading of the documented rig, not a recipe Young has given.
Tone Recipe: Gritty Lead Voicing
In the 2019 article Young reportedly uses the bridge position for grittier tones and the fourth position for softer fingerpicked parts. In the 2023 rundown she says the YY10 responds well to overdriven tones through her pedals and AC30, and that the Five-Two pickups break up with more grit than the Wilkinsons. In our view a fuzz like the Mastotron or a modulated delay is where that extra grit would be pushed further, but that pairing is our suggestion, not hers.
Documented Gear and Confidence
Role: Signature guitar — Detail: Specs from Ibanez’s US page; in the 2023 rundown
Role: Signature guitar — Detail: Specs from Ibanez’s US page; mentioned but not on the 2023 tour
Role: Main amp — Detail: Both Premier Guitar rundowns
Role: Core pedals — Detail: On the board in 2019 and 2023
Role: Signature pedal — Detail: Walrus Audio product page; no tour use documented in our sources
Role: Opening songs — Detail: 2019 rundown; later use not documented
Role: Delay pedals — Detail: Writer’s list, not attributed to her
Frequently Asked Questions
What guitar does Yvette Young play?
The main guitars in the sources we read are Ibanez models. In 2019 Premier Guitar documented two sparkle-finish Ibanez Talmans, and in 2023 it documented two YY10 signature guitars, both with three single-coils. Ibanez also lists a second signature model, the YY20, with two single-coils and a rosewood fretboard.
What tuning does she use?
F-A-C-G-B-E, low to high, is the tuning Premier Guitar names as her main one, and it is the factory tuning Ibanez lists for the YY10 and YY20. Other tunings include F-A-C-G-C-E for Catharsis, according to Premier Guitar, and D-A-D-F#-A-E, according to Marshall.
Which amp does Yvette Young use?
A Vox AC30, per both Premier Guitar rundowns and Marshall’s profile. She plugs into the high input of the top boost channel and uses the amp’s reverb with the tremolo off.
Does Yvette Young have a signature pedal?
Walrus Audio lists the Qi Etherealizer as a collaborative creation with her, priced at $449.99 on the page we read on 16 October 2026. We found no other maker page confirming further signature pedals.
Which strings does she use?
Premier Guitar reports D’Addario NYXL sets: .012 to .060 in 2019 and .011 to .056 in 2023. Ibanez ships its signature guitars with D’Addario EXL116 strings, .011 to .052.