Yamaha Revstar - Best jazz guitar you don’t know about!

[DawgBone]

ArmorAll weekly forever
PlastX (polyurethane headlight restorer) every six months
All Class valve, slide, and key oil for the pick guard
ChapStick for the finger board
WD-40 for glamour photos (polarization filter effect)

Armor All has silicone in it so if in the rare chance of a repair or repaint you'll risk fish eyes in the new paint.

[Hep To The Jive]

Just an average sound to me, can get this on any humbucker solidbody. What else to consider, aesthetics, playing comfort, maybe someone likes it for those reason, fair enough.

Personally it doesn't check any boxes for me, too modern looking, wide neck, poly... and no bigsby?? (getoutta here!). Hard pass.

[jazzloverfat]

I tried all 3 versions (by price-point) and i couldn't tell the pro to the intermediate apart in the store. They both sounded and felt great to play through a DSL40. Both models felt A LOT more resonant and alive than a Gibson LP Tribute I wanted to buy at the time. The Elements was similar in terms of feel, just the sound is a bit different because it lacks the focus thingie and instead it has a split coil feature. Tbh, I've yet to see a bad Yamaha guitar. The new colors look tempting too, the seafom green-ish looking one I find particularly attractive, but given I already have 2 solids, it would be hard to justify another one... maybe the P90 version, but even so...

I also recommended the Elements version to a friend and when I went with him to buy it, I almost liked it more than my H-150. No stupid Nitro to worry about, and i hate to admit it, but the neck felt easier to play for me ... Don't get me wrong, I love the sound of my H-150, has a great top, but I will never buy a nitro guitar again.

[deanmartian]

Personally it doesn't check any boxes for me, too modern looking, wide neck, poly... and no bigsby?? (getoutta here!). Hard pass.

Interesting you don't consider a thinline blue tele with filtertrons and a bigsby "too modern looking"

[Hep To The Jive]

Interesting you don't consider a thinline blue tele with filtertrons and a bigsby "too modern looking"

Are you joking? All the items you listed are 50's design, the tele beat up nitro Grtesch like finish is the vintage vibe to a core. There is no modern bones in that one.

BTw i switched TV Jones to another tele, so the blue one is back with the trad single coil look

[Christian Miller]

Interesting you don't consider a thinline blue tele with filtertrons and a bigsby "too modern looking"

Yes but such a guitar is objectively awesome to look at while the Revstar much like the SG2000 looks like it was designed by a committee to avoid legal action in the 70s.

OTOH the Yamaha is probably going to be way better as an actual instrument than modern mass market Fenders etc.

NB my reasons for preferring nitro are quite shallow. It’s quickly worn off my 335 neck though and now it feels really comfortable and worn. I like that a lot.

In a way I feel like a mug for buying a modern Gibson but there’s no getting away from the fact that I just really like it. I think there may be something wrong with me and I should prefer a weighty Japanese guitar from the 80s that has the acoustic properties of plastic coated granite and never goes out of tune.

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[kris]

I've tried several of these, both the higher end Japanese and lower end Indonesian versions and both the older and newer versions. They were nice guitars but I found the weight was consistently higher than I'm willing to consider.

Hi Jim,
I don"t like heavy guitars... but I"ve heard that these guitars have chambers and they"re so heavy?
Best
Kris

[Little Jay]

Also there’s reverb and reverb. My ears have got very tired of the standard plate and hall patches you get on everything - such as on the AER amps (I think there’s one chip they use for everything?) but the high end Lexicon digital reverbs from the 80s are some of the most beautiful sounding things ever. It’s the soundscape of Vangelis/Blade Runner…

But that was super expensive rack mount gear, although I believe Ben Monder uses one of the less high spec vintage Lexicon units.

OTOH I do like real Fender spring reverb, just a touch.

And the ECM ‘big dark room’ sound is iconic.

But increasingly I just like the sound of the room, provided it’s a nice room, and if it isn’t there’s only so much you can do.

OTOH I tuned into a Cecil Alexander vid the other day and he seems to going DI no plugins with a solid body guitar haha. Hardcore! Must be making a point. (It is the best way to judge your playing, no makeup.)


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Yup, I really dislike the reverb on my AER Alpha but on my Henriksen Blu 6 it’s a bit better (don’t know if that’s the same chip/unit?) The reverb on my Quilter Superblock US is actually very nice sounding and very Fender springreverb like. The best to my ears is my Boss FRV-1, which sounds just like the spring reverb of my Twin Reverb. But I too use only a touch.

[ruger9]

I like poly because I can clean the guitar with windex.

Lemon Pledge

[ruger9]

I dig the P90 version, but I hate the "trapeze style" tailpiece on those. If the P90 version came with the stoptail bridge like the PAF version does, I'd likely have tried one already. I have heard about the weight, most people report they are on the heavy side (despite being chambered).

For now I'll stick to my Thinline tele with P90s. But if they release a stoptail P90 version, I'm in.

[GuyBoden]

I think there may be something wrong with me and I should prefer a weighty Japanese guitar from the 80s that has the acoustic properties of plastic coated granite and never goes out of tune.

I liked my early 1980's Yamaha SA, it had a very thin coat of Poly finish as all the early Yamaha SA models did.

But, you'd sound good playing any guitar.

[Christian Miller]

I liked my early 1980's Yamaha SA, it had a very thin coat of Poly finish as all the early Yamaha SA models did.

But, you'd sound good playing any guitar.

Thanks Guy, that’s a very good looking guitar…


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[alpop]

Hi Jim,
I don"t like heavy guitars... but I"ve heard that these guitars have chambers and they"re so heavy?
Best
Kris

I own the Japanese Pro version with the P90s and my guitar weighs 7.6 lbs, exactly the same weight as my American Pro II Telecaster.

The Revstar is a pleasure to play and mine has survived the cut several times when I'm looking to sell or trade something in in order to make a new purchase.

I've got mine strung with 10-46 so I use it in a non-jazz context. I have no doubt it would be great for clean jazz if set up with heavier strings

[deanmartian]

Are you joking? All the items you listed are 50's design, the tele beat up nitro Grtesch like finish is the vintage vibe to a core. There is no modern bones in that one...

But the irony my friend is that the Revstar’s shape traces back to the early SG models from the late ‘60s, which themselves were based on ‘50s silhouettes. It’s not a modern invention by any stretch. Everyone has their tastes of course, but disliking a guitar because it ‘looks too modern’ doesn’t really track when the majority of new guitar designs are derivative. Nothing’s new.

Although, the Fender Telecaster is one of the few non-derivative electric guitar designs in history.

[Jim Soloway]

I own the Japanese Pro version with the P90s and my guitar weighs 7.6 lbs, exactly the same weight as my American Pro II Telecaster.

The Revstar is a pleasure to play and mine has survived the cut several times when I'm looking to sell or trade something in in order to make a new purchase.

I've got mine strung with 10-46 so I use it in a non-jazz context. I have no doubt it would be great for clean jazz if set up with heavier strings

At that weight I suspect it would be a lovely guitar.

[Woody Sound]

I like the tone *without* the Focus Switch better.

[Ronstuff]

I own a RS620, I love the frets and the feel of the guitar, super confortable. I just really prefer my 335 sound-wise, so I don't use it very often...

[AllanAllen]

Although, the Fender Telecaster is one of the few non-derivative electric guitar designs in history.

What? Its shape is completely derivative. The manufacturing wasn’t, but the shape is as old as guitars themselves.

[Woody Sound]

I dig the P90 version, but I hate the "trapeze style" tailpiece on those.

Just shows you, different strokes. I think that tail is super-cool.

[Woody Sound]

[Woody Sound]

This is the one for me.

[kris]

Today I"m going to test the Revstar guitar in the music store.

[kris]

Today I"m going to test the Revstar guitar in the music store.

Revstar - this is a very good guitar. I checked cheaper models made in Indonesia with p90. I plan to buy this Revstar.

[Gitfiddler]

Over the years Lee Ritenour has been seen playing/endorsing a Revstar RS420.

Lee Ritenour | Equipboard

[Woody Sound]

Armor All has silicone in it so if in the rare chance of a repair or repaint you'll risk fish eyes in the new paint.

At the beginning of the CD era in the 80s, some audiophools (Stereophile Mag?) started the questionable rumor that polishing CDs with ArmorAll made them sound better and less digital. Well, pretty soon their CD collections started disintegrating.