Ibanez

YY20

Electric· Yvette Young signature — Talman math-rock platform

Ibanez Yvette Young Signature YY20 — Talman-style alder body in Orange Cream Sparkle finish, roasted maple neck with rosewood fingerboard, Seymour Duncan Antiquity 'Surfer' single-coils, Gotoh tremolo, and a 25.5-inch scale optimized for Covet's open-tuning + tapping vocabulary. Yvette has been a D'Addario artist since her early Covet records and uses 12-gauge strings (D'Addario sets) on this exact model for the alt-tuned math-rock register that defines tracks like 'Atreyu' and 'firebird'.

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Unusual but loved by real players — against-the-grain choices

D'Addario

EXL145 Nickel Wound Heavy

12–54 · $6.99

Character mismatch — guitar character and string character do not match. This is intentional, not an error.

D'Addario EXL145 12-54 on the Ibanez YY20 is Yvette Young's documented setup for Covet's open-tuning math-rock vocabulary — heavy 12s on the Talman-style YY20 for the alt-tuned tapping passages that define 'Atreyu', 'firebird', and the entire 'Effloresce' / 'Catharsis' songbook. As Yvette put it on the D'Addario artist archive: "D'Addario strings have always been reliable and I find that they retain bright tone and last way longer than any other strings I've used!" She explained her gauge migration: "I would say 11 is a perfect gauge for people who still need to bend and fingerpick as well as tap.

I upgraded to 12s because I was bending the 11s too easily and it was messing with my accuracy." Conventional wisdom: every Talman / shred-Strat thread defaults to 9-42 or 10-46 — the bend-comfort default. Mismatch logic: 12-54 on the YY20's 25.5-inch scale gives the precise bend-resistance Yvette needs for tapping accuracy in alt tunings (FACGCE, FACGBE) — lighter gauges go floppy when down-tuned 2-3 steps and tap clarity collapses.

Best for math-rock / instrumental players using YY20 or similar Talman in alt tunings; skip if you stay in standard E and prioritize easy bending over tap clarity.