review 80 GIBSON 2019 LES PAUL STANDARD ’50S & ’60S, CLASSIC & TRIBUTE GUITARIST JUNE 2022 GIT485.rev_yamaha.
GIBSON 2019 LES PAUL STANDARD ’50S & ’60S, YAMAHA CLASSIC &REVSTAR TRIBUTE review Revstar Restart Seven years after it first appeared, Yamaha’s Revstar range gets a thorough makeover without losing any of the original style. The next level? Let’s examine the evidence Words Dave Burrluck Photography Phil Barker JUNE 2022 GUITARIST GIT485.rev_yamaha.
YAMAHA REVSTAR VIDEO DEMO http://bit.ly/guitaristextra YAMAHA REVSTAR RSE20, RSS20, RSS02T & RSP02T APPROX £399, £649, £649 & £1,599 CONTACT Yamaha PHONE 01908 366700 WEB http://uk.yamaha.com What You Need To Know 1 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.
YAMAHA REVSTAR 1 2 will be the stainless-steel jumbo frets on our Standard and Professional models, while the radius of the rosewood fingerboard on all models slightly changes from the 350mm (13.75 inches) of the previous guitars to 305mm (12 inches). The upper two tiers also have binding around the top edge of the bodies, ’boards and headstocks, with small bar fingerboard inlays; the Element models are unbound with dot fingerboard inlays.
YAMAHA REVSTAR VIDEO DEMO http://bit.ly/guitaristextra 3 4 THE RIVALS Plenty of big names are in competition here, not least Epiphone with its Les Paul Studio (in-store at £399), all mahogany with a maple veneer top and Alnico Classic covered humbuckers. Another guitar in strong competition to the RSS20 is Epiphone’s 1961 Les Paul SG Standard (£649, inc case).
YAMAHA REVSTAR 5 sealed semi-solid designs you can tap the body with your fingernails and easily hear the hollow areas, you really hear very little hollowness here. They feel like mainstream solidbodies – and good ones at that. We can’t help thinking that the ‘semi’ side of this design is used to impart some depth and resonance, akin to good lightweight woods that much higher level guitars might use.
YAMAHA REVSTAR VIDEO DEMO 7 7. These rather elegant non-locking tuners, shown here on the RSS20, are used across the range. Note the Hanko stamp motif from the original Revstars. On the Indonesian models, it means ‘Revstar’; on the Japanese-made Pro model, the decal means ‘Made in Japan’ 86 8. Like the originals, all the guitars have a nicely shaped neck heel. The full width of the necks slot into the body and continue under the neck pickup 9.
YAMAHA REVSTAR UNDER THE HOOD Let’s see what powers these Revstars… is that a transformer? T here’s a surprise on opening the control cavities: all the models with a Focus Switch have a small transformer lurking in the corner – something we’ve never seen in our many years of writing about guitars! The rest of the circuit is simple: small Alpha 500k audio pots for volume and tone, the latter with a pull-push switch that introduces either the Focus Switch or, on Element models, the Dry Switch from the pre
YAMAHA REVSTAR VIDEO DEMO http://bit.ly/guitaristextra 10 10. Another feature retained from the original series, this tailpiece reinforces the Café Racer influence of the initial concept. It was designed by Piotr Stolarski: “Originally, the idea was to have the strings anchoring through the body or to attach them to the tailpiece, like a convertible. So, the final design is adjustable – higher or lower – but not string-through,” he said 11.
YAMAHA REVSTAR YAMAHA REVSTAR RSE20 YAMAHA REVSTAR RSS20 YAMAHA REVSTAR RSS02T YAMAHA REVSTAR RSP02T PRICE: £399 (inc gigbag) ORIGIN: Indonesia TYPE: Double-cut, solidbody electric BODY: Chambered mahogany NECK: 3-piece mahogany, glued-in SCALE LENGTH: 629mm (24.
