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ScoobySteve

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Joined
May 1, 2008
Messages
3,309
Location
Busan, Republic of Korea
It was actually yesterday, but had to noodle with it as much as possible!

Here is my brand new Y2D PDN. This thing is simply stunning. Visually the pictures dont do it justice (well maybe Pete's pictures of my axe here: http://forums.ernieball.com/music-man-guitars/54728-tale-ups-pdn-y2d.html do) but honey burst is a fine color, and the pau ferro and roasted maple rounds it out perfectly.

back.jpg stand.jpg HS_zps6d45351a.jpg

Pete's Pictures do this axe way more justice than my terrible camera phone, but over all impressions.

I've spent a few hours with her now, and since i was a long time Les Paul player, when this mahog body/maple cap/tune o matic bridge Y2D came up, I was too intrigued to pass it up. I'm glad I pulled the trigger! Not gonna speak about the set up, construction, and quality, cause ya'll know its excellent.

My 25th is my #1 and go to guitar, and this axe compliments it very nicely. I've always been mainly a humbucker guy, and I REALLY like this guitar overall, an excellent Blues/Rock machine. The only teeny tiny nit pick I can make is that I don't particularly like the feel of the SS frets, but balances out due to their greater longevity. The stock EBMM nickle frets feel AMAZING, but with my heavy hands these will help this guitar be a work horse.

Playing with dirt/od. Tonally speaking, its punchier than the 25th. It's not as resonant and full bodied as the 25th, that's for sure (don't think many guitars are), but it fills in an excellent niche in my tone world. I definitely know what a lot of ya'll meant when you said its more of a "rock machine" cause its an excellent way to describe it. It's a really in-your-face puch with growly chords and very crisp and articulate leads. I've never played a normal Y2d, but I do love this one. Note separation without shrill highs, muddy lows, or overly honky mids. The pups don't respond too drastically to changes with the tone knob as the 25th (pro/con depending on who you are) but I use the tone knob often, so it takes some adjusting.

Regarding the dirty channel, it really helped going to the 25th tour in Hollywood with BP, Steve and Luke, as Steve explained how he had designed and intended the switching array on the Y2d to ascend and descent with where he was positioned on the neck. That explanation helped me a LOT on dealing with pup changes with dirty tones, as pos 2,3,4 are not in combination with a typical HH setup. Its very intuitive that way.

The cleans however, are not my particular cup of tea. Maybe I'm super spoiled with my 25th that offers a wondrous palette of cleans? Position 2 and 4 are quite nice, and 5(the neck) is very usable, but the middle is not easy to mix in given the massive volume drop with the addition of that single coil. On a dirty/OD channel the middle is actually really awesome for biting off a bit of gain. I do think I need to spend more time on how to deal with it on a clean setting. Tips very welcomed and appreciated.

This one is a real keeper, and keeps me very well content with my humbucker arsenal (contentment which I am sure will grow with time and adjusting) the only concern I have is that my Silo Spec may see less playing time as a result. :(

Thanks for coming by guys, cheers!
 

joe web

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Joined
Jan 1, 2006
Messages
2,054
Location
Nürnberg, Germany
congrats man!!! the PDN Y2D is really a killer guitar!

how do you like the roasted neck? doesn´t it plays like butter? :)

soundwise, i think you´ll have to understand how Steve Morse uses the Single Coil pickup in this guitar.
he doesn´t use it for clean sounds that much, he normally use the SC to lower the gain for rhythm playing without loosing the top-end in it´s sound. that´s the reason why the SC is sitting lower as the HB pickups.
try it, and you´ll love it. for cleans i use the 2nd position (both HB together), which gives me a nice warm and rounded clean-sound.
 

ScoobySteve

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Joined
May 1, 2008
Messages
3,309
Location
Busan, Republic of Korea
It really is great on the dirt channel, Amazing tone. Its got so much "chugginess" (if that's a word) that I just adore about tune-o-matic/stop tail bridge types with maple caps.

The neck, is of course, unbelievable, LIKE BUTTAH! Unfinished roasted maple may need to be a standard option soon, i'm really impressed by it. I had to pick this axe up state side and bring it with me to Korea (new axes can't be shipped overseas) and it gets REALLY cold in those storage cabins. The case was chilling cold at the baggage terminal and the guitar obviously went out of tune, but not that bad, only a dozen cents south, unbelievable. I've flown with guitars many many times before, I was quite impressed. Temperature/environment resistance witnessed first hand.

I slapped some RPS 11's on this baby and been rockin it all day. I do agree with the clean tones, as Steve doesn't use them much, but that's my 25th is for. the 25th/Reflex is REALLY hard to beat in the clean department, even by its EBMM brothers.

Cheers!
 

ErnieJohn

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Joined
Dec 24, 2011
Messages
530
Location
Ireland
That is really cool, nothing like the feeling of a new guitar, especially one of such quality, enjoy.
 

jzeijen

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Joined
Sep 6, 2010
Messages
1,067
Location
The Netherlands
Welcome to the Y2D PDN club! Very nice one you got there. Personally I love the 'crazy' pickup wiring, got used to it pretty quick. But then I somehow didn't find the switching on the standard Morse I had confusing..

Was a bit worried about the lack of body contour, but until now it hasn't been a problem. Enjoy that awesome Y2D!!
 

mtrejo

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Joined
Jun 9, 2011
Messages
1,611
Location
Phoenix
Y2D…PDN…Y2D…PDN…I need a friggin Y2D PDN! These things are just beautiful.

Nice score :)
 
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