By Bob Pletka 04/20/12 One of the fun things about this business is that we get to see and play some pretty nice guitars as they come thru ET. A few weeks ago I spent the evening with a good friend and former band mate Steve Frost. Steve owns one of three 5150's that is modded like my 5150ex is and it had been about six years since the poor thing had seen fresh tubes! So we spent the evening yakking, drinking a little Tequila, and reloading his 5150. Steve was packing his new Young Guitars "Hawthorne" with him and to say it's his "new love" would be selling it short! Over the course of the evening he filled me in on his Young Hawthorne and told me they were just up the road and said "why don't you guys get together?" What? Eurotubes and a guitar manufacturer? Ah, ya! Sounds good to me! Steve hooked me up with Marcus Young over the phone and he was very interested in coming in to play a few of his guitars thru some of the different amps in the studio and to get our take on them, so I said, "sounds like a party to me!" We all got together a week ago Friday and Steve Frost came in to join us adding his Hawthorne to the mix. Carla lined the bar with some great grub and everyone here took the time to run thru all the Young Guitars. Checkout the lineup! From left to right in either shot, the "Belmont", the "Invado", the "Dorado", the "Hawthorne", the "Vargas" and the "Artura". Marcus Young is the designer and creator of these fine guitars and the first thing you notice once you get past the gorgeous looks, is the feel. The fit and finish on all models is superb! No matter which one you lay our fingers on, it's a player. The pickups are all originals wound by Young Guitars and ranged from their "Peerless 90" Soap bar down to their "Mini Siren Humbucker". You can read all about these and more over on the Young Guitar Website. What stood out to all of us was the fact that all the pickups went from a great sparkling clean to a grind with an attitude, but still retained a lot of clarity. As all of us worked our way thru the different models it was obvious they were all great guitars but as with anything we started picking our favorites. Aaron and Michael both loved the "Belmont" which was capable of just about anything from Surf to heavy Rock, our guest Steve Frost of course loves his Hawthorne, Jay thought the Vargas rocked, while Eddie and I both gravitated to the Dorado which was a Tele on steroids! I also quite liked the Invado which is a bit of an SG thing. Below are a few shots of the madness. Steve Frost is on the far right with his Hawthorne. Anyway, it was a fun Friday, thanks to Steve for setting it up, and a big thank you to Marcus and all the young guitar people for stopping in with some great guitars! We ended up taking a couple shots with Marcus who is seated in the middle. Jay, on the left, then Michael, Aaron, me and Eddie.

Young Guitars