The Yamaha Revstar is, on paper, my ideal next guitar. But does it deliver on Yamaha’s promises?
I’ve touched on the Yamaha Revstar and, in particular, the humbucker-equipped Yamaha Revstar RSS20 before. But now I’ve laid my hands on one, do I still want to buy one? Not any more, and here are 10 reasons why.
1 – Electronics
Small, non-CTS pots and a less-than-premium switch betray Yamaha’s scarce but assured claims of the modern take on the Gibson Les Paul punching above its weight. This is the first of many well-hidden clues that the Yamaha Revstar isn’t the guitar it’s cracked up to be. Pickups are Yamaha’s own VH5n and VH5b Alnico V Humbuckers which may not be a concession but may not be anything exotic or groundbreaking either.
2 – Switching
On paper, an in-built boost and 5-way dual-humbucker arrangement with out-of-phase single coil options seems like all my Brian May tone dreams come true, but in practice? it’s been mentioned by a number of my favourite YouTube guitar reviewers already (namely the Guitaristas and John Nathan Cordy) that these features aren’t really useful or desirable in practice. Personally? The boost isn’t impactful enough with gain to qualify for a solo boost and clean it’s a ‘just add mud’ switch.
Traditionally, this type of switching on humbucker-equipped guitars has been employed to clean up the signal, rather than Yamaha’s opposite direction of boosting it, but at the end of the day, a lot of players (including me) would rather the less-is-more approach of not having a switch at all.
As for the in-between options? Well, It’s certainly not Brian May. It’s not phasey or squealy enough with gain, and next-to-unusable clean. It’s a bit of a niche, cocked-wah thing going on, especially with the boost.
I get it. Guitarists are traditionalists, and Yamaha is going for something a little different, but I don’t believe those differentiated elements have been given enough thought as to their usefulness in practice.
3 – Hardware
I’ve mentioned the switch earlier, but the stop/tailpiece arrangement is standard on all Les Paul-type guitars and the controls themselves seem to be taken from Gretch’s affordable range. We don’t even get the nicety of a Graph-Tech nut, present on Epiphones at even half the price. Again, it appears corners have been cut to get this guitar to a price point.
4 – Fretwork
Stainless steel frets eh? On an affordable guitar? Well, although there’s no argument that they last longer than nickel, there is nothing special about the fretwork. On a shop-floor model, even with a high-ish action, I was still choking out on the higher, and, it has to be said, scratchy-feeling frets. Stainless steel frets are no substitute for a good fretwork.
5 – Neck
The Yamaha Revstar’s neck falls between the two stools of the slinky playability of a Strat and the chunky, premium feel of a Gibson Les Paul. It’s inferior to both and lacks any personality or identity of its own. Picking up a Strat immediately after this feels like home and picking up a Les Paul (even the equivalent Epiphone) feels like a jump up a price band.
And that’s starting to feel like the whole problem with the Yamaha Revstar. It’s advertised as its own thing, but it appears to be devoid of personality, especially when pitted against the classic designs.
6 – Colors
Up until now, I can see why Yamaha has made the decisions they’ve made with the Yamaha Revstar. Try something different, include some unique switching options, but keep it in the Les Paul ballpark. But what’s with the awful colour options? The hideous Flash Green, the almost passable but not quite Hot Merlot, the strange and very acquired taste of the vertical Sunset Sunburst (similar to those ugly Player Plus Strats). They’re all bordering on the offensive, bar the safe and only option for me of Black.
I just don’t get it. Why shoot yourself in the foot like that Yamaha?
7 – Looks
The colour options are indeed awful, but going for the black option still doesn’t rid you of those bizarre racing stripes, which have no place on a guitar, no matter what Yamaha says about its background of cafe-racer motorcycles and other irrelevances.
If this guitar was supposed to be the spiritual successor to the legendary and inarguably beautiful Yamaha SG, why did they ruin it with these colours and stripes? Why did the design team take their cues from a motorbike and not a guitar?
I think this is another hint that businessmen, not guitarists or guitar builders, were in the driving seat of this project. Sure, it’s not an ugly guitar, it could have been a lot worse, but at the same time, Yamaha seems to have missed an open goal with the Yamaha Revstar, considering the history and reputation of the Yamaha SG.
I mean, just look at the Yamaha SG….
The Yamaha Revstar really should have looked a lot better than it does.
8 – Value for money
This is a guitar made in Indonesia costing £550+. So what are you getting for your money? The stainless steel frets were a false positive, unbranded pickups, cheap hardware, cheap electrics, and switching options nobody really wanted.
But the Yamaha brand counts for something right? Yamaha is a solid guitar company, right?
In my history of owning Yamaha guitars, they’ve always been unassuming, reliable guitars that gave me bang for my buck, but with the Yamaha Revstar, I’m just not so sure as that’s a lot of money for Indonesian manufacturing. I’m just not entirely sure what I’m paying for. Please tell me it’s not the innovative chambering pattern nonsense.
9 – Competition
So would I rather have my Fender Player Stratocaster? Yes, because it plays better, it looks better, it has better hardware and it sounds like a Stratocaster.
What about an Epiphone Les Paul Standard? Again, yes, because It plays better, it looks better, it has better hardware, and it sounds much closer to a Gibson Les Paul than the Yamaha Revstar.
Purchasing an Epiphone Les Paul, support the blog by purchasing here.
Ok, a lot of you want something different, but nobody wants anything worse.
10 – Feel
This last point is the most important, as it encompasses most of the factors mentioned above. The Yamaha Revstar is touted as something modern, different, and versatile, but in the acclaimed guitar lineage of something special.
But it just doesn’t feel special at all.
It’s made in Indonesia but is over £550. It’s a cookie-cutter cheap and generic feeling instrument with cheap and generic parts. The colours are awful and it doesn’t look right. It doesn’t play well and it has complex switching you won’t use.
Before picking one up, I thought Yamaha’s playbook of not pushing their instruments was a clever one. They didn’t need to shout. Only people in the know bought one, sneaking off in the knowledge they were one step ahead, and had invested in a superior instrument. Yamaha was the dark horse.
Nowadays? They’ve been sidelined for a different reason.
Conclusion
In answer to my first question. No, Yamaha has not delivered on its promises.
I really wanted to love the Yamaha Revstar. To own a Yamaha SG for the twenty-first century, something modern and unique, not just another Les Paul or Strat, with complex switching options and an onboard boost to emulate my guitar hero, a cleverly thought-out chambered body to aid sustain and stainless steel frets for a perfect playing experience.
But sadly none of the above is true and/or matters, because the end product turns out not just to be inferior to its competition, but also to Yamaha’s incredible guitar-making past.
To put it bluntly, If I want a Yamaha SG, I know the best option is still a Yamaha SG, even an old cheaper one, like a Yamaha SG500.
I was about to buy a Japanese revstar at a very good price but when I investigated and saw the quality of the electronics I was discouraged. The alpha pots are not bad. I agree but they do not correspond to the quality that one expects from a professional guitar. I have a sg. 500 and the pots, although they are not cts, are actually of a much higher quality than the alpha the carbon strip is thick unlike the alpha ones that seem only painted and if they cut costs on that it leaves me thinking that quality was not their priority, the truth is my sg 500 is a much superior guitar.
Thanks Eerik. An updated low – mid tier SG range is what we all wanted, but Yamaha it seems aren’t interested.
You seem angry. It’s a guitar and from all I’ve seen and read it’s well liked. You lack credibility because of your anger.
I’ve no reason to be angry as I took the wise decision of testing the guitar out thoroughly before buying. Had I not, you may have been correct!
There are very few websites or youtube channels that criticize guitars. Almost all of these “Content creators” and “reviewers” seem to be more concerned about the perception of positivity so that brands will send them more gear to review or to maintain a “brand safe” relationship. Calling genuine criticism anger because they are not singing praises about the all mighty revstar come to save us all, or any other guitar for that matter, is defeatist and against the interests of individuals looking for genuine and honest reviews.
Thanks for your support, Mercelo. I’m afraid it’s a sign of the times! This is my own honest and unbiased opinion.
I have been looking at Revstar Professional P90 reviews for about a month and almost bought one online at a steep discount prices. Today I decided to go to a local guitar store to try one before buying. They had a standard P90 in stock, rather than the professional. It was a vert uninspiring guitar. The action was terrible. The neck was terrible. The 2 and 4 pickup positions are nothing like an out of phase guitar. The Focus switch made the tone terrible. I’lol be buying a Heritage H-150 Standard II with P90 pickups. Heritage makes great guitars; I’ve never found or owned a bad one.
Thanks for the comment, Heath, and welcome to the blog. Some people love them, some not so much. I’m in the latter camp and wish Yamaha had simply reintroduced it’s SG range, which featured some incredible instruments in the mid-teer (remember the SG700s!). The Revstar, I agree, is a disappointment, and as consumers, we don’t have to search too far to find satisfaction (as you did with Heritage – Amazing craftmanship), so Yamaha have shot themselves in the foot here, evidenced by the recent heavy discounts.
I have had and played hundreds of guitars, and I do own the RSS20 myself – your review is absolute horse s**t.
First of all, the neck is carbon fiber reinforced and stays in any position you set it up. The satin back and the stainless steel frets are a killer combo for playability, and the fretwork itself is immaculate. The Epiphone guitars you mentioned are horrendous, mostly due to the Indian Laurel fretboard that is more dry than the Sahara desert.
Colours are bad, I agree, but you can always repaint the guitar with your local luthier.
I’ve had Epiphone and Gibson guitars, PRS and Ibanez as well. I’ve played and owned a number of them, and nothing beats the Revstar in this price range. I’d say that a PRS SE McCarthy comes close.
I’m glad you’re happy with the Revstar but sad you’ve fell for Yamaha marketing and even sadder you’ve pulled the luthier card and hence lost all credibility in your argument.
🖕
And if you don’t have a luthier in your area? It’s not an expensive guitar to begin with, and a refinish will most likely cost more than you paid for it. It would be easier to sell it, that’s if you could sell it to begin with.
I’ve owned the Revstar Element for close to three years, and it is a well “engineered” guitar… And I absolutely DESPISE IT. That’s the whole problem. It was designed by engineers in lab coats who don’t quite get what makes things “cool”. Seriously, those color choices are ABYSMAL. I have the Element in swift blue, and I’m at the point where I don’t even want to open the case anymore and see Papa Smurf staring back at me. The colors up and down the entire line up are atrocious. Swift blue? Flash green? Hot merlot? Neon yellow? I get the whole cafe’ racer thing, but I’m not buying a motorcycle here, guys. The best colors are the black, vintage white, and the red copper which isn’t even offered as a standard color in the USA. There’s other things I don’t like about it, like the slider switch which feels like it came from a Fender garage sale, and the dry filter doesn’t seem to do much of anything. I might not be playing it loud enough, but I don’t hear a huge difference.
I’ve said elsewhere that the guitar reminds me of the time when Volvo said to their engineers “Okay lads, we really want you to let your hair down and go nuts, make us an exciting car!”, and all they did was to make the S60 “safer”. Yamaha is trying to at least give players more options, as they’ve introduced some new colors, and a more traditional red, but there’s no word if those are coming to the US at all, and they still haven’t appeared on Sweatwater. As far as “value”, I’m starting to think D’Angelico or some of the Epiphone models like the Coronet or the Wilshire are better bangs for the buck. You get a nicer selection of red or black, and you get a classic model that his some history to it. I already have the Coronet which I love, and I’m contemplating getting a D’Angelico Premier DC semi hollow body or maybe even a Brighton.
It really is a shame, when I played it I thought it was a great playing guitar, but then the color just grew on me in the wrong way like a wart. I don’t even think I can sell it to buy the red copper. Thomann won’t ship the red copper to the USA, and if I try to order it from Canada I’m going to get whacked with a hefty import tariff (which by the way I DID NOT VOTE FOR, if you know what I mean). I don’t think I’ve opened the case in over a year because I don’t want to see that big Papa Smurf staring back at me. I might turn it into a refinishing or mod project. I might get a skin to cover the abysmal swift blue. But as it is now it’s a case queen.
Thanks, Robb. Good to know it’s not just me!
Some good news, it appears Yamaha is listening to the (constructive) feedback and has introduced some new colours, including a nice Sonic Blue and Vintage White. Additionally, the price is decreasing, and not before time. Maybe if they had also binned off all the cafe racer / scientific marketing waffle and gone with a new affordable SG line, it would have been more of a success. Don’t get me wrong, different is good, but worse is, well… worse!
Well, I say listening, more like reacting, to try to increase sales.
LOL comparing it to a les paul, of course it’s not. I also wouldn’t want it to be. I have a Godin that killed both my les pauls. But the Revstar is a good guitar and any cork sniffing about small pots is just that. The japanese guitars I have from the 80s used small pots and they were no different AT ALL to CTS BS marketing. More important is the amount of ‘give’ on the pot. How easy does it roll, and is that your preference. Some like CTS, some like Bourne, an Alpha works just fine.
For every complaint you had it was simply grousing for zero reason. There is no way that everything about this guitar was bad, just because your limited perspective comes down to useless duality of Fender/Gibson-and likely Marshall/Fender, doesn’t mean diddly squat. In fact you make yourself look bad as a reviewer given your ‘quibbles’. The neck isn’t either of these two things!!!!! Ever heard of a Jackson? Or Ibanez? They are nothing like a fender or gibson, must have no personality. My Godins also are nothing like a fender or gibson, but their ergocut fits my hand well and lets me play longer without fatique. So for me I hate both of those classic neck styles, because I never grew up playing those. The regular necks are uninteresting if you weren’t forced to get use to those from your budget 200 dollar Super Guitar Player Value pack. The one many players got because their parents knew it was a passing fad. NEXT.
I am only responding so that normal people go out and give the guitar a try. I don’t want them to buy it, I don’t know what the will like, but crapping all over this because of lousy personal preferences and sticking to the most basic bro guitars is why there will never be innovation in the guitar world. Or if it happens people like the author will hold it back like a shill might. Very disappointing review, and one that should not be taken serious. It didn’t sound at all objective, just subjective with no caveats.
SO why buy a 600 dollar Revstar when I can blow 1200 on a second tier les paul epiphone. Maybe because they are providing value for price and your complaints might be someones elses nirvana.
Great answer!!!
Not entirely accurate. In parts of the article I’m comparing the Epiphone 60s / 50s Les Paul Standard, which is cheaper than a Yamaha Revstar RSS20. I would advise anyone else to make the same comparison and come to their own conclusions, mine being the Epiphone is the better guitar for less money and the Yamaha is flawed for the reasons I gave. Something also worth pointing out, the Revstars did go up in price for while but now Andertons have discounted them to £629, I wonder why that is? Maybe I’m not the only one that isn’t convinced.
Anyway thanks for the comment. I appreciate your thoughts.
You have other options without spending the $1,200 on a Fender or a Gibson. You can easily get a D’Angelico, Danelectro, Gretsch, and many Epiphone original models go for under $600 like the Coronet, Riviera, Crestwood and the Wilshire.
The biggest problem with the I have with the Yamaha Revstar are A) the colors are just butt UGLY. I don’t get the thinking here. Seriously, look at these colors. Swift blue? Hot merlot? Flash green? Neon yellow? Even one of the new ones “mist green”. It looks gray. There’s “green” about it. Honestly, the new sonic blue looks more green than that. It’s like they deliberately painted them the most hideous colors because they had left over paint from the motorsports division. The best color is the red copper and that’s only offered as a Sam Ash exclusive in the US.
And…
B) there’s this whole “practical” nature of it that they can’t get away from, and it doesn’t have any cool factor to it. It feels like this is a guitar that wasn’t designed with any input from actual guitar players, but by men in lab coats. There’s things you notice when you start playing it that you also notice like why doesn’t it have a separate volume knob for the neck and bridge pickup? The slider switch feels cheap. The push pull “dry filter” on the Element doesn’t really do anything. I get the whole inspiration from their cafe racers, but these aren’t motorcycles. It’s a totally different audience here.
I bought a revstar standard online recently and I’m not as impressed by it as everyone else seems to be. I’m stuck with it now because sending it back would cost too much. The swift blue colour is ok at first glance, but kind of pisses me off and I agree the racing stripe is dumb. Wish I’d bought the black one in hindsight. Playability is average. Something doesn’t feel right to me and the tones don’t seem clear enough. I’m getting a muddled sound. The neck feels chunky which I don’t like. My junior jet club which I broke recently was much more comfortable to play and lighter on the wallet.
I’ll play the revstar for now and might just buy a PRS or a Mexican start. I want to love the revstar but unfortunately I don’t. Maybe I’m too brainwashed by fender.
Thanks for your comment and point of view, John. I agree. It’s a pretty average guitar with clever marketing that I (almost) fell for. Don’t concern yourself with carbon reinforcement, modern tone chambering, cafe racer styling, and out of phase / focus switching. Gimmicks. As I said, the Epiphone Les Pauls are better for less money. If the Revstars were cheaper, I would look again, maybe.
Thanks for your comment Karl, I wasn’t trying to be misleading and although some of it is personal preference and opinion at least 5 of those reasons are objective and/or at least qualified in some way.
PMT and Guitar Guitar were the location of my tests, not Temu.
I completely agree with you. Everyone should try one for themselves. I did, and these were my conclusions, which I know not everyone will agree with, but which I hope will at least be useful given I’ve owned one of its competitors.
Wow.
Simply a stunningly misleading take filled with very specific personal preferences – which are perfectly valid & true for the author – presented here as absolute & authoritative wisdom.
No worries, but goodness gracious I hope everyone disregard and tries one of these guitars.
And.. Lol.. Where did you get the guitars from? Temu?
To any readers: the quality and playability of these guitars is simply amazing. They may not turn out to be your style or your tones – and that’s cool if not – but you will feel the quality and playability at the very least.
Rock on everyone
Agreed on all points. Thanks, Karl.
Yeah this just doesn’t sound right at all ?. I own a Revstar Standard. Best electric I’ve ever played! Quality switches, amazing versatility. The neck and fret work is just outstanding. Beautiful made, sounds absolutely stunning, it resonates and vibrated through your body with its state of the art hollow body construction. This review just doesn’t seem right. Highly highly recommended at the price range it’s the best electric I’ve ever- unique and beautiful ?
Hi Jude. Thanks for your comment and point of view. I’ve tested a couple of Revstars (RSS20s) and the article is the impression I got. To me, compared with an Epiphone Les Paul Standard (50s or 60s) it feels of less quality but now it’s around £200 more expensive. I still maintain that the ‘State of the art’ features like the reinforced neck and chambering are a bit of a marketing gimmick as when push comes to shove compared with similar (and cheaper) instruments it feels generic and cheap. Yes it has many switching options but again in practice I was left feeling disappointed dispute the claims of uniqueness and versatility. Each to their own though and I’m glad you had a better experience with them.
I have both the dual humbucker and dual P90s Revstar standards. My experience is nothing at all like what’s presented here. The switch on both is a high quality mechanical super switch, the fretwork was perfect out of the box. The volume pot is the same smaller Alpha pots found in amps. It is small, but high quality. Alpha is a korean manufacturer and they are great. The taper is excellent on both pots…The pups on both are spectacular. The necks are fatter, super comfortable, not to mention satin and super fast. Fretboard is rosewood. This article is a real head scratcher.
Hmm… bad day?
I do not agree with anything stated here
Just my opinion