After almost 4 years with my Fender Player Stratocaster, GAS has once-again crept in for something completely different. Should I buy a Yamaha Revstar?
In my 30+ years of player the guitar, Yamaha has always been a brand that has proved solid and reliable. Having owned many a Pacifica, my FG850 acoustic has been a trusty and inspiration songwriting companion. In all those years, I’ve never been in a position to own my holy grail guitar; the Yamaha SG2000, but could the new Revstar Standard series (RSS20) scratch that itch? It certainly ticks a lot of boxes.
Gibson Les Paul Features
Moving away from the Strat always takes me back down the Gibson road., and the Yamaha Revstar shares many of the Les Paul’s classic feature set. Powerful twin-humbuckers. Mahogany body with maple cap. Set mahogany neck with a rosewood (yes, rosewood) fingerboard. 24.75 inch scale. 12 inch radius. 3 a-side tuners with a back-angled headstock. 2-piece bridge/stop tail. All the right ingredients for maximum sustain, tuning stability and effortless, choke-free playability.
The Yamaha Revstar is its own thing
But this isn’t a Gibson Les Paul and it isn’t a copy or a cheaper Epiphone or PRS. It’s a completely new design which really appeals to me. It’s not pigeonholing you in an way. It’s fresh and modern. Also, Yamaha Revstars aren’t that common, they don’t line guitar-shop walls like Les Pauls and Strats. It’s the clever, left-field, more exclusive option.
The Yamaha Revstar is the new Yamaha SG!
Well, we already have the high-end Yamaha SG of course, but I feel the Revstar range plugs the hole left by cheaper SG range, including the fantastic 700s. At the very least the Revstar range provides the beautiful twin-horned looks and feel of those classic mid-market SG’s of the last century. Plus it’s got binding and new inlays.
It’s a Yamaha
As I mentioned earlier. I’ve never had an issue with Yamaha guitars. They are solid, dependable and desirable. If It’s good enough for Carlos Santana, right? Having Yamaha (or in this case the Yamaha pitchfork logo) on the headstock is in no way a climb down from Fender or Gibson, not in my book. In fact, the new headstock looks great, not as pointy as a PRS but maintaining that shallower string break angle to aid tuning, a little like the famous Brian May Red Special.
Chambered Body
Having spent my life trying to sound like Brian May, the extra resonance imparted by a chambered body is one of the many contributing factors. Yamaha get all sciency with this bit, with chambering being the result of experiments on body resonance. I’ll take their word for it.
Yamaha Revstar: Carbon re-enforced neck
A rigid neck is always a good thing once a guitar has been setup. It helps combat any movement due to temperature and climate change. Having Carbon rods as well as the truss rod can only help that problem.
Stainless steel frets
These are a lot more durable than standard nickel fret wire, so in theory fret wear should never be an issue on the Yamaha Revstar. Stainless steel frets are rarely seen on an instrument of this type in this price range.
Treble bleed circuit
A treble bleed circuit preserves the top-end frequencies when rolling down the volume control. This means for example if you ride the volume for lead/rhythm tones, you rhythm tone will maintain the highs and be much more clear and useable than a traditional circuit that turns to mud. Again, another high-end feature on a mid-priced instrument.
The Yamaha Revstar has a Passive boost
If that wasn’t enough, we have an onboard, passive boost on the tone pot that gives you a few db’s of boost plus attenuates the high end. ‘Focus’ is certainly the right word for it.
5-way switch
Move back to humbuckers from a Strat usually costs you those in-between clean tones we all know and love. However, the Yamaha Revstar goes one better in not only giving you positions two and four, but wiring them in such a way to deliver a slight delay between the combinations of pickups. This produces that ‘out-of-phase’ honk and another leg up into Brian May land.
Yamaha Revstar: The price is right
And all this for £600 (ish) ? With a Yamaha brand gig bag thrown in! That’s around the same price as a Fender Player Stratocaster, which is a pretty safe/vanilla choice. or something like a PRS SE or an Epiphone Les Paul, both, for my money, being the cookie-cutter options lacking their own identity.
Conclusion
For my money, The Yamaha Revstar has the features, the looks, the pedigree and hopefully the playability and tones we’ve come to expect. All the best bits of a Gibson Les Paul, but with a few Red Special style elements thrown in for good measure. What could be better?
I think I might just get one. Click here to pick one up and support the channel.
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