Music Man Steve Morse Y2D Demo/Review

Ernie Ball Music Man is a company with an incredible catalogue of artists, both past and present. Like many young, aspiring guitar players of my generation, I was first introduced to the company via John Petrucci and his signature models. After owning a JPX for a while, in 2014, I found myself wanting to add another Music Man to my collection. My search ultimately ended with the Steve Morse Y2D. It wasn’t because I was an avid Deep Purple fan, nor was it because I looked up to Steve Morse as the monster of a player he is, since I wasn’t aware of that fact at the time. Rather, I bought this guitar for two simple reasons: It looked awesome and, on paper, seemed like a hybrid of several guitars I enjoyed at the time. 

Construction 

• Poplar body w/ quilted maple top and custom clear pickguard

• Birdseye maple neck with rosewood fingerboard

• 25.5” scale length

• 1 ⅝” compensated nut 

• 12” radius

• 22 high profile, wide nickel frets

• Lightly recessed tune-o-matic with custom brass tailpiece

• Schaller locking tuners

• Wheel truss rod adjustment

• Dimarzio Steve Morse pickups

• 250k pots 

The Y2D is quite different from the majority of guitars on the market, as can be seen from the official spec. Poplar isn’t a body wood I’ve seen used often in modern, high-end production guitars, and 250k pots are typically not found on a humbucker-equipped instrument. The rest of the spec reveals that this guitar has taken inspiration from both Fender and Gibson camps, but with the addition of modern appointments. This combination helps make the Y2D stand on its own despite bearing aesthetic similarities to other guitars.  

Of particular note with the body itself is the lack of comfort cuts, which is quite atypical for most modern double-cutaway guitars. The rear edges are slightly softened as to not be square, while the top is slightly more squared. This makes sense when one considers that, prior to teaming up with Music Man, Morse played a heavily modified telecaster, leading him to prefer the feel of a slab-style body. 

The clear pickguard is also a unique feature that helps to really show off the beautiful maple top. My one complaint with the pickguard is that it tends to show fingerprints and any dust/grime more readily than the gloss finish. 

In terms of overall instrument quality, this thing arrived flawless, as you’d expect from a guitar in this price range. Over the years, it’s proved to be remarkably solid and stable. There was a long period of time where I (foolishly) forgot how awesome this guitar was and left it in its case or on a rack, never taking the time to set it up or check on it after changing seasons. Despite that, this guitar has never had any issue whatsoever. No fret sprout despite me failing to condition and clean the fingerboard for several years, no need for neck adjustment after changing strings, and absolutely rock-solid intonation that I haven’t had to adjust since receiving it.

Feel

If you’ve done any amount of research on Music Man, you know that they are renowned for their neck construction and overall playability. This is one of the main reasons I’m such a huge fan of their guitars, and the Y2D is no exception. The trademark oil-and-wax finished neck is smooth as silk, and the neck heel is tapered and contoured allowing you to comfortably play the highest frets with ease. If I had to compare the neck profile to something, I’d say it feels most similar to an early 60s Strat neck, but a touch thinner, with a much flatter radius. 

Another feature that really elevated the playability of this guitar was Music Man’s decision to recess the bridge into the body. It's not a feature that can be seen unless you are looking at the guitar up close, but it makes all the difference in terms of playing feel. Because the bridge sits lower into the body than it would on a traditional tune-o-matic, your forearm and wrist are able to stay in a more neutral position, helping you play for much longer without fatigue. 

The one thing that slightly detracts from the overall playing experience, for me, is the lack of cutaways on the body. Outside of Music Man, Telecasters and Les Pauls are my preferred guitar types, so I’m no stranger to guitars lacking the comfort cuts. On a guitar with all these other modern appointments though, I would have preferred, at minimum, a tummy cut to prevent the back edge from digging into my ribs after hours of playing while standing. The edges are softened, as mentioned above, but I know this could be a dealbreaker for someone used to Strats or the Petrucci models. 

Sound

To put it bluntly, this guitar is an absolute rock machine. Before getting the guitar, I was worried that the 250k pots would have a negative effect on the sound of the humbuckers. That concern immediately disappeared after plugging it in for the first time. In fact, these pots are some of the smoothest and most responsive I’ve tried on any guitar. If you’ve ever watched Steve play, you’ll understand why, as he is constantly adjusting these knobs to alter the tones and gain levels from his live rig. 

The bridge pickup packs a lot of punch in the mids and is incredibly harmonically rich, allowing it to cut through dense rock mixes. Contrariwise, the neck pickup is much more round and smooth, as it's been designed to ensure leads in the higher register pack enough weight to cut through without ever sounding shrill. The 4th position on the switch allows you to combine these two humbuckers and the resulting sound is very much akin to a Les Paul’s middle position: delicate, clear chime. If however, you put this position under gain, you can get some very Zeppelin-esque tones. 

I was less impressed by the middle pickup, both solo and blended in with the bridge. Granted, the intended use case for this pickup is to enable the player access to clean tones without switching amp/channels, and it does do a good job of that. As someone who has always used multi-channel amplifiers or modelers however, I prefer just switching tones and using either the neck pickup or neck + bridge for cleans. It's also worth mentioning that I’ve never personally been a fan of the tones of middle pickups in general, so your mileage may vary if you are someone who likes that sound. 

Conclusion

Music Man’s Steve Morse Y2D is an excellent sounding and excellent playing instrument. Even though it lacks the comfort cutaways and the middle pickup isn’t really my thing, I have still had hundreds of hours of enjoyment with this instrument, with many more to come. It is an expensive instrument, especially these days considering Music Man has raised their prices, and unfortunately this color has since been discontinued. Even still, I believe if you have the chance to play one, you should. If you can get over its minor quirks, the Y2D really is a guitar brimming with songs just waiting to be written.