YAMAHA RSS02T

Yamaha’s Revstar range gets a serious makeover and much more

Back in 2015, Yamaha took the wraps off its Revstar range, their first new electric guitar design in over a decade. It involved substantial R&D, not to mention worldwide evaluation sessions with industry insiders and artists, and the final designs mixed up Yamaha’s long guitar history with a dash of motorcycle ‘café racer’ heritage and a flavouring of Japanese craft styles.

Seven years on, here is the Revstar Mk II. Outwardly similar in style these are far from a refresh: the new guitars amount to a substantial redesign. There are fewer models, too (nine in total, including two left-handed models), and the range is split into three levels: the start up Element, the meat-and-potatoes Standard, as with our reviewed RSS02T, both made in Indonesia, and the top-level Japanese-made Professional.

Pulling our RSS02T from its quality gigbag, it appears very similar to the previous style but the changes start with that double-cut body shape which here is slightly enlarged in size. It’s also a chambered design with a thin maple cap all hidden under the faultless gloss finish. Chambering can be used to reduce weight but here it’s about improving the resonance and response informed by Yamaha’s Acoustic Design process. Our sample has a very mainstream ‘solidbody’ weight of 3.55kg (7.81lb).

Like the original Revstar, the Mk II models centre on a Gibsonesque scale length of 24.75”, the mahogany neck is glued to the body but again hidden from view are two carbon graphite reinforcing rods either side of the truss rod to, primarily, increase stability. The Revstar’s original neck shape from the 500-series models upwards is changed here to a less chunky profile with a slightly narrower nut along with a satin finish to the neck back.

So while the basic chassis has actually evolved quite dramatically, the updates don’t stop there. The frets remain jumbo in size but are now stainless steel on this and the Professional models. The custom tailpiece is retained from the original version, although now it’s nickel-plated, and it remains very much part of the ‘café racer’ style. It is slightly adjustable in height to introduce a trapeze tailpiece-like response.

YAMAHA’S REVSTAR HAS A NEW LEASE OF LIFE

Also retained here are the dual soapbar single coils, designed by Yamaha Guitar Development and made by pickup giants G&B, but there are plenty of changes to the actual electronics. Firstly, there’s now a five-way lever pickup selector which gives us bridge, both and neck in positions 1, 3 and 5. Then in positions 2 and 4 two small capacitors come into play “to shift the phase of the pickup slightly (not like the typical out-of-phase sound) and create a taste of a ‘half-tone’ sound when they’re mixed,” explains Yamaha’s Takashi Yamashiro.

The Mk II range also introduces another new feature called the Focus Switch. Described as a ‘passive boost’, if you take off the rear control cavity cover

you’ll see a small transformer inside your guitar! “We found that by passing the signal through a transformer, the level could be increased a little bit without a battery,” continues Takashi, “and also shift the frequency range. It could give an effect as if the pickup is over-wound.”

Plugging in and playing the result of all this original design and second-generation tweakery we get the impression that Revstar has come of age. The changes to the neck alone create a really good player with effortlessly smooth string bends. Going through the pickup selections we have a pretty humbucking sounding array at the bridge and neck (power with a little cut), which, as you pull down the volume control, turns to cleaner jangle while those subtly phase-shifted mix positions certainly emulate the character of a Strat’s mixed pickup positions. It’s like Revstar has a new lease of life. The Focus Switch certainly boosts the lower and mid frequencies, rounding out the high end for a thick, Santana-esque texture. Plenty of us might be thinking we could do that with a simple pedal boost, but using the Focus Switch, creates a character shift for some pretty huge sounding gained voices or, in contrast, some thick, rounded cleans. But it’s just the overall feel and these really good sounding soapbars that sway the deal for us: a guitar that punches significantly above its price point.

...PUNCHES SIGNIFICANTLY ABOVE ITS PRICE POINT