YAMAHA REVSTAR

YAMAHA REVSTAR
82
GUITARIST JUNE 2022
C
ombining Yamaha’s long and
storied history with a dash of
motorcycle ‘Café Racer’ heritage
plus a mixture of Japanese craft styles,
Revstar originally launched in 2015 after
quite a lengthy gestation period. We were
among the many involved in evaluating the
various prototype stages, which occurred
around the world, and the time and expense
involved in the process was certainly a
rarity in our experience. The final multi-
level Revstar range was impressive,
although (barring a couple of additional
models) it remained rather static. Oddly,
too, there were no flag-waving Revstar
signature artists, though Yamaha Artist
Services (YASLA) in Los Angeles crafted
many custom artist models – not for public
consumption – that hinted at the many
directions in which Revstar could go.
There’s little doubt that the new Mk II
models are informed by seven years of
feedback. It’s typical Yamaha: a slow-
moving corporation that doesn’t act on
whim or ‘flavour of the month’. Outwardly,
the new guitars don’t mess with the recipe
too much, but, as we explain, pretty much
every feature has been evaluated and
tweaked and new ones added.
So, what’s changed? Let’s start with the
body. It retains the original Revstar’s outline
style – clearly inspired by Yamaha’s classic
SG outline, with the bass-side pointed
horn pulled upwards, along with the lesser
known Super Flighter from 1977 – but
has been slightly increased in size and is
now chambered mahogany throughout
the new range. There’s a thin maple top
(approximately 6mm), as before, on the
higher level Standard and Professional
models, and the latter level also gets two
thin carbon graphite reinforcement strips
placed under the maple top, in between the
bridge and tailpiece and behind it.
Like the originals, these are slab bodies
with Strat-style forearm and rib-cage
contours, but they’re not bolt-ons and they
follow the Gibson protocol in terms of scale
length. The glued-in necks on all models slot
full-width into the body and extend under
the neck pickup. In addition, exclusive to
the Standard and Profession models only,
are two strips of carbon graphite flanking
the two-way adjustable truss rod within
the three-piece mahogany necks. A final
difference is that the Professional level
gets a dose of Yamaha’s Initial Response
Acceleration (IRA) treatment, “which
applies specific vibrations to release stresses
in the instrument for a ‘played in’ tone”.
Still with the chassis construction,
another major upgrade for some players
YAMAHA REVSTAR RSE20, RSS20, RSS02T &
RSP02T
APPROX £399, £649, £649 & £1,599
CONTACT Yamaha PHONE [phone] WEB http://uk.yamaha.com
What You Need To Know
These look like the old models!
Well, for starters, the body has been
slightly enlarged. The range has also
been simplified into the start-up
Element and mid-range Standard
levels (made in Indonesia), and the
made-in-Japan Professional models.
What else is new?
The bodies are also now chambered:
“Yamaha’s Acoustic Design process
sculpt[s] tone and increase[s]
resonance while reducing weight and
optimising balance”. Standard and
Professional models feature carbon-
reinforced necks, while Professional
models add carbon reinforcement to
the body for “weight relief, vibration
transfer, and tone shaping”.
We hear there’s a new switch…
The original Revstars’ Dry Switch is
retained on Element models, while
the upper tiers feature a Focus
Switch, “a passive boost that darkens
highs while increasing bass and mids
for an effect like overwound pickups”,
and a five-way lever pickup switch.
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VIDEO DEMO http://bit.ly/guitaristextra
GIT485.rev_yamaha.indd 82GIT485.rev_yamaha.indd 82 12/04/2022 15:4312/04/2022 15:43