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Guitar Center Hollywood was packed on February 26, 2026, for a pedal- and tone-focused masterclass that felt less like a clinic and more like an open conversation between two distinct guitar voices.
With Kiki Wong of The Smashing Pumpkins and Yvette Young of Covet onstage together, the evening moved easily between personal storytelling, pedalboard deep dives, full performances and livestream Q&A—all anchored by a shared belief that tone is an evolving, deeply personal pursuit.
From the outset, it was clear this wasn’t going to be a dry gear rundown. The moderator, Paul Riario of Guitar World magazine, framed the night around how tone is built, how it evolves and how pedals shape creative expression. What followed was 90 minutes of honesty, humor and seriously inspiring playing.
“Guitar Saved My Life”
Before a single pedal was engaged, both players traced their musical beginnings back to classical roots.
Young described being raised on piano and violin in a competitive environment that ultimately left her burned out. During a prolonged hospitalization in her teens, she picked up an acoustic guitar and began writing as a form of journaling and therapy.
“I legit would not be here if not for a guitar,” she said, a moment that drew audible emotion from the room.
Wong’s path ran parallel in some ways. Also classically trained on piano, she discovered guitar through a Yamaha acoustic that had been sitting in her family’s closet. A crash course in three chords from her dad led to self-teaching in the pre-YouTube era. Then came Metallica’s Master of Puppets—the moment that flipped the switch. The obsession with heavy tones and high-gain sounds that followed would shape her early identity as a player.
If Young’s story centered on guitar as survival, Wong’s revolved around discovery and intensity. But both circled back to the same idea: Tone becomes meaningful when it becomes personal.
Pictured: Yvette Young Playing On-stage at Guitar Center Hollywood
Tone as Color, Tone as Evolution
Young, whose pedalboard drew laughs for its sheer size, explained her approach through a visual art lens. A former art teacher, she compared melody to a black-and-white drawing and pedals to color—a way of selectively shading, highlighting and transforming the emotional impact of a line.
Her first performance of the night, “Firebird,” leaned into ’80s-inspired chorus textures, inspired in part by a Yamaha THR amp preset that sparked the original riff. On her touring board, that shimmer came from a Walrus Audio Juliana and Meris MercuryX, alongside a network of delays, including an Avalanche Run, Carbon Copy Deluxe and DD-3.
For Young, EQ and preamp stages are as important as the flashier effects. She emphasized how sculpting frequencies helps parts cut through in a live mix—a subtle but crucial reminder that tone isn’t just about the sound in isolation, but how it lives in a band context.
Wong described her tone journey as almost the inverse. Known online for metal-forward sounds, she admitted that joining The Smashing Pumpkins expanded her palette dramatically. Long sessions working through tones with Billy Corgan challenged her to refine and rethink her approach, balancing her aggressive, distortion-driven instincts with the band’s established sonic identity.
That growth was on full display when she tore into Pumpkins classics, leaning on the unmistakable Big Muff-style fuzz foundation associated with the band’s catalog while adding her own edge through additional gain stages and amp modeling from Revv.
Imperfection, Performance and Pedal Mishaps
One of the most relatable moments of the night came when Young spoke about hitting the wrong pedal live—something she admitted happens more often than fans might expect. Instead of obsessing over mistakes, she’s learned to roll with them. Perfectionism, she noted, can be a trap.
That theme echoed later when Wong powered through a tuning issue during a performance of “Bullet With Butterfly Wings.” Rather than letting it derail the moment, she owned it with humor, reinforcing a recurring message of the evening: Live music is about connection, not flawlessness.
Young’s second piece, “Bronco,” showcased her fascination with glitch textures and controlled chaos, inspired by experimental players like Nick Reinhart of Tera Melos. What could have been a simple texture became the backbone of a full composition—a demonstration of how creative limitation can fuel originality.
Pictured: Kiki Wong Playing On-stage at Guitar Center Hollywood
Breaking Dry Spells and Embracing Community
During the livestream Q&A, questions ranged from songwriting workflow to creative burnout.
Young explained that sometimes she begins with a specific pedal in mind, treating it as a creative constraint. Writing demos for new gear forces her to explore unfamiliar sonic territory, often leading to unexpected ideas.
Wong offered a complementary perspective on breaking through dry spells: seek community. Attend clinics. Collaborate. Put yourself in rooms with other musicians, even outside your genre. Inspiration, she suggested, often arrives through shared experience rather than solitary effort.
That spirit of collaboration culminated in a prearranged duet the two prepared after meeting in person to write together. What began as a simple chord idea from Young evolved into a dynamic, high-energy performance that had the room buzzing. By the end of the set, audience members were already calling for a collaborative EP.
Pictured: Kiki Wong and Yvette Young Talking Tone at Guitar Center Hollywood
Yvette Young — Pedalboard Breakdown
Yvette Young’s board is built for layered ambience, pitch manipulation and rhythmic texture, reflecting her compositional approach of using effects almost like orchestration tools.
- Walrus Audio Canvas Tuner – Programmable display tuner at the front of the chain. Young's tuner features "Hot Shrek" as a reminder to not be too serious.
- EarthQuaker Devices The Warden – Optical compressor for smoothing dynamics and sustaining tapped passages.
- Electronic Audio Experiments Longsword – Primary overdrive with onboard EQ shapes gain and push the amp.
- BOSS OC-5 Octave – Adds octave textures and low-end weight.
- DigiTech Whammy Ricochet – Momentary pitch-shift effects for dramatic dives and rises.
- Ground Control Audio Noodles – Utility/loop switching pedal in the signal chain.
- BOSS DD-3 Digital Delay – Short, stutter-style delay for rhythmic glitch effects.
- Meris MercuryX – Multi-function reverb with modulation and chorus capabilities.
- DigiTech Freakout – Feedback generator that creates controllable harmonic feedback effects.
- EarthQuaker Devices Avalanche Run – Stereo delay and reverb for expansive ambient textures.
- MXR Carbon Copy Deluxe – Analog delay used as an always-on delay layer.
- Hologram Electronics Microcosm – Granular processor for glitch, looping and idea generation.
- Chase Bliss MOOD – Micro-looper and ambience generator for transitions and sound design.
- UAFX Galaxy ’74 Tape Echo & Reverb – Additional delay for oscillation and experimental textures.
- Walrus Audio Qi Etherealizer (Yvette Young Signature) – Multi-effect combining delay, reverb and granular processing for transitions and ambient layers.
Pictured: Yvette Young's Pedalboard for Pedal and Tone Masterclass at GC Hollywood
Kiki Wong — Pedalboard Breakdown
Kiki Wong’s board focuses on aggressive gain structure with a few strategic modulation and ambience tools for texture in The Smashing Pumpkins’ layered live arrangements.
- Interstellar Octonaut – Octave-style effect used adds harmonic texture, particularly in live arrangements of “1979.”
- Electro-Harmonix Pitch Fork – Pitch-shifting pedal controlled by an expression pedal for sweeping octave effects.
- AXESS Electronics Guitar Buffer – Signal buffer maintains tone integrity across long cable runs and stage systems.
- BOSS TU-3S Chromatic Tuner – Compact always-on tuner for quick visual reference during performances.
- Walrus Audio Lore – Ambient multi-effect for experimental textures and atmospheric layers.
- MXR Joshua Ambient Echo – Delay for rhythmic and ambient echo effects in specific song parts.
- Revv G3 Anniversary Distortion – High-gain distortion based on the Revv G120 amplifier’s Purple channel.
- Revv G2 Anniversary Distortion – Lower-gain distortion for alternate drive textures, based on the Revv G120 amplifier’s Green channel.
- Electro-Harmonix Little Big Muff – Fuzz recreates the classic Smashing Pumpkins-style wall-of-sound tone associated with the Big Muff family.
Pictured: Kiki Wong's Pedalboard for Pedal and Tone Masterclass at GC Hollywood
The Journey Continues
Asked where they see themselves in five years, neither artist offered a rigid plan. Young spoke about chasing curiosity and avoiding stagnation, while Wong reflected on how unpredictable her own path has been—from new mother playing late-night Call of Duty to auditioning for and ultimately joining The Smashing Pumpkins .
If the masterclass proved anything, it’s that tone isn’t a fixed destination—it’s a process shaped by mentorship, experimentation, vulnerability and community. At Guitar Center Hollywood, Wong and Young didn’t just talk about pedals, but they showed how the pursuit of sound can mirror the pursuit of growth—messy, evolving and deeply human.
And judging by the packed house and global livestream audience, that journey resonates.