Guitar design can be scientific - Yamaha use 3D simulations, modal analysis and vibrational testing to design their Revstar range, implementing interesting chambering and carbon reinforcement to achieve a specific sound and performance. Get your own Yamaha Revstar: thmn.to/thocf/21ze2hv008 More info from Yamaha: uk.yamaha.com/en/products/musical_instruments/guitars_basses/el_guitars/rs_2022/index.html Thanks to @KrenarCilkuGuitar for his excellent playing and insight. This video was filmed at 42 Gear Street, an event sponsored by Yamaha. More details on how CSGuitars implements product promotion - www.csguitars.co.uk/disclosure #42gsfour #yamaha #revstar More from CSGuitars: Gain access to exclusive content at: www.patreon.com/csguitars Join CSGuitars Discord - discord.gg/csguitars Buy CSGuitars Merchandise - www.csguitars.co.uk/store Website - www.csguitars.co.uk Contact - colin@csguitars.co.uk ____________________________________________________________________ *Description contains affiliate links. Purchasing using one of these links will generate a small commission for CSGuitars at no additional cost to you.*
But the question is if you can perceive any of these alterations. Have you watched Jim Lill's channel and his experiments shit tonewood? Highly interesting. I really recommend your watch it. He made some amazing experiments.
@@EbonyPope 100 percent agree. Jim Lill's channel is a must watch to gain a different perspective about solid body electric guitars. Yamahas weight relieve makes a lot of sense in terms of neck dive but every thing is pure marketing.
@@MarkGutierrez Jim Lill's experiment was not science. It was a fun demonstration, but no objective measurements. The conclusions were flawed because the design was flawed to begin with. The question "Can you hear a difference between two sounds after the sound is processed several times and compressed and decompressed to get to your ears over YT?" is a totally different question than "Is there a difference between two sounds?"
@@georged9615 you greatly underestimate audio compression algorithms. Of course lossless formats are great to listen to with a pair of monitoring, but anyway the music the guitarist will play will either be live (and the acoustics of the room will not be "pure") or recorded and listened to in mp3 99% of the time... If it sounds good in 320kbps mp3, that's more than enough!
the best thing about this guitar is that even if you dont believe or care about the chambering science, the price pretty much matches with any other normal guitar that doesnt have this feature anyway
Yamaha is the People’s instrument company. They’ve been making fantastic affordable instruments forever. Still make the best sounding drum set for under a grand too. Even their entry level acoustic solid tops are great. $250 gets you an incredibly good sounding and playing dreadnaught. I’ve had my eye on these Rev Stars for a while.
Which drum model are you referring to? I’m interested in checking them, thanks btw and yes, i love their basses, the cheaper ones are absolute tanks and sound amazing!
@@Fantasmas333 The Stage Custom birch series. Fantastic sounding 5 piece drum set for around $800. You can get them used for much less than that even. If they’re in good shape, totally worth up to $500.
@@Fantasmas333 Presumably Stage Custom , I like the fusion size one with 20 inch bass drum, punchy sound and makes it easier to set Tom's lower than a 22 BD. 10,12, 14 Tom's.
Colin! Thanks for having me on, mate! It was an absolute blast doing this; hope to see you soon and have fun in the Philippines, cheers! P.s sorry for saying "dry switch" instead of "focus switch"... my bad...😅
Great playing Krenar! You did a great job showing how dynamic and rich sounding these guitars are and you're a total shred lord! You need to get your hands on that Pro gold top model with the P90s. Cheers!
Dude I think you liked that dirty tone more than you want to admit lol you had that look on your face like fuck yeah I nailed that and it sounded sick lmao
When you remember how Yamaha is a masterful source of high level tuning in everything from exhaust systems to concert piano's, it's easy to understand how that experience, and technology would translate into their guitars, as well.
Colin, A few folks have taken apart the Revstar (in particular Phil McKnight). The boost seems to be done with a transformer to increase the output voltage (higher voltage at higher impedance). The only drawback is that loading in your pedals or amp may muddy up the high end.
It apparently uses the low level signal from whatever preamp it's plugged into to increase output. It reduces the high and anyway, so I don't know if the loading matters. It may even isolate the pickups from the effects of cable capacitance.
I'm an engineer and work in the aerospace industry. This kind of 3D stress modeling is used ALL the time there. So I'm happy to see a guitar builder apply the same tools and concepts to achieve a particular end. I'm surprised that there aren't more guitar companies already doing this. I've always admired the design of the Revstar. This video gives me one more reason to pick one up someday.
Can't really work with wood, though. Wood structure is too inconsistent for the specified results of the chambering, but it doesn't really matter with a thick solid body guitar anyway.
@@martinkrauser4029 Could even work with engineered wood. The '70s era Gibson Howard Roberts guitar (with the oval sound hole) was designed by Bill Lawrence with engineered plywood so the top and bottom vibrate in phase, making it acoustically loud and with strong bass.
Yeah Dave Lister's guitar in Red Dwarf was actually a Revstar because it was the only guitar that the aerospace industry would allow onboard a spaceship.
I have a previous gen Rev Star with humbuckers and have to say it's a shockingly good guitar with a very unique and distinctive sound. The fretwork is great, build quality is great, they're balanced and comfortable to play. It was really cool to see what the chambering looks like inside and the process they use to design the guitar. Cheers!
@@stephen3164 Main difference is some older ones used a TonePro bridge without a tail piece. These new ones all have a Tune-o-matic or the longer tailpiece. I think the electronics are slightly different too, the push pull knob is more of a darker sounding boost, where the older one I have cuts some low end and a little bit of volume to emulate a coil split without the noise.
@@mattastic247 - I wish they offered the humbucker version with the fancy tailpiece. I’d take that green with black stripes and large chrome “archtop” style tailpiece.
Yamaha is absolute on the top of world, Piano, Drums, Synthesizer, DAW, Mixers, Monitors, Guitar/Bass, Motorcycle, Electronics, etc. even if Yamaha release a Dishwasher, I'm gonna buy it.
The Revstar's a guitar I've only been aware of for a short while, mainly because Chris Buck plays one and he's a pisstakingly good player so it definitely piqued my interest. This is pretty damn cool - absolutely overkill but overengineering the shit out of things is fun
I got one of these for my birthday a couple months ago, my absolute favorite guitar to play. I got the standard model with humbuckers in white, and my god I love it. It’s such a classy looking instrument, and those stainless steel frets are something else.
Would’ve really appreciated a blinded side by side testing sort of play through. Try a few of them that are chambered and some that aren’t, and see if you can tell a difference without knowing which is which.
You would have to swap the pickups and tone pots too. Especially the pots vary in resistance and therefore affect the tone quite significantly. A pot may say 500k Ohms but it's actually 475 and the next one is 515k Ohms. To exclude this factor it should be the same strings, same pick and same electronics. Have you seen Jim Lill's tonewood experiments here on UA-cam?
The biggest issue Yamaha have with the revstar line imo is that both the element and standard series are so good for the price that it's kinda hard for me to justify buying the profession MIJ version. Looking at the price of a standard series with humbuckers...makes a strong case for being the best quality guitar you can find under a grand. They all look cool too.
wow. a new design that is properly original, designed with science, sound and looks unique and good, *without looking like it's from a sci-fi movie* something that's sets it's own standard legitimately i didn't think it was possible, but Yamaha actually did it. good for them, they earned and deserve this. this model has a big future. BIG, big.
I worked all my prof life on structural modal analysis, i am a guitarist too, i know very well the goodness of Yamaha design approach! beautifull guitars, revstars
It is beyond me why Yamaha electrics aren't more popular and mainstream among pros like Fender or Gibson. They are excellent and gorgeous. I would actually prefer one over those brands if only for its uniqueness.
I have no doubt that they've successfully tuned these guitars' acoustic resonance, but I have a hard time believing it really matters when the wood's acoustic resonance is barely even a part of an electric guitar's sound compared to pickups. Would be curious to hear your thoughts on Jim Lill's video where he does a lot of experimentation related to that idea.
Well you can think of it in terms of pickups being highly customizable with a few minutes of work and an inexpensive tool. The body is what it is, without hacking away at it. It's fair to say they wanted to focus on what the player isn't going to change.
@@rmaxtpmx The body is less customizable, but again, makes such a small difference in terms of whole sound that doing this much work on it is is pointless overengineering IMO.
just found your channel, definitely dig your stuff, and love that you're into gear that isn't the usual les paul and strat that youtubers always spend too much time on... ALSO! really stoked you could invite that jazz guitarist along to demo the tone. he is a great player, with great phrasing and technique, and TBH, if you really want to hear a GUITAR (not the amp and fx) a good jazz player will show the true voice of a guitar better than anything else! great vid!
Yamaha is, and always will be, one of the most valuable and incredible company ever. Everyone that have played a Pacifica knows that. And the Revstar is another example of their good intentions when you think about guitars. You can play everything with this, and in a fantastic way!
Thank you for that, Colin. So many guitars, so little time! If a lad/lass of say age 12 tried one guitar per week until aged 70 , they would only be able to try around 3000 guitars. Your channel is invaluable in assisting the players to focus their instruments/ equipment choice but without too much time (or money) being erroneously used developing their personal style and skill. I applaud you. 👏👏👏 I wish this type of facility had been available when I was starting the journey. (I'm nearer 70).
On the standard and professional models activating the focus switch seems to work almost like a mid boost circuit where it tapers some of the high-end, tightens up the bottom, and boosts middle range forming a warmer overall sound. I am super impressed by these guitars and have to admit that the standard range is probably the best value in a do-all gigging instrument. I have the luxury of working in the guitar retail industry and it affords me the opportunity to test drive tons of guitars on the daily. That said I had been deliberating between an Epiphone modern SG and the Epiphone prophecy series modern Les Paul as a new purchase to add to my ever growing collection of mid range instruments; that was until a Flash Green Revstar RSS 20 came through my station yesterday. I could not stop gushing over the instrument (I have a thing for all things green, preferably in a deep emerald hue). Anyway, once I plugged it into a little Orange 20w combo to give it a quick run I was beyond amazed at just how dynamic the sound was. It is one of the most articulate and resonate guitars I have ever played. I decided then that I needed a much better amp and some effects to really see what the limits were on this thing. Long story short, I was unable to find the limits. It was like a starving pig it just gobbled up every thing I threw at it. It does not get uncomfortable in any genre of music. I even went as far as experimenting with some alternate tunings and found that I didn't need to reintonate it for a DADGAD tuning. I was shocked to say the least. I have to say that the cavitation of the body does something mesmerizing to elevate modulation effects and accompanies stereo chorus and flanging effects wonderfully. I have to wait another 30 days to utilize my employee discount, but I already reserved a RSP 20 for when that 31st day comes around. What a stellar instrument!
"If you can get your hands on one" is a big "if". It took me a full year just to have the opportunity to play one. That opportunity ended up being a clerical error as the people at the store told me "we aren't supposed to have any Revstars, Yamaha told us customer orders only" (and yes this is major retail chain saying this.). But I did get to play one...and (solely because I didn't love the colour of the model they had) got on the list for one. They'll be able to order it in about 4 months. And I completely understand why. Brilliant guitar.
That "dry switch" just sounds like maybe a parallel/series switch. That's exactly what happens when you put pickups into series. They get louder and lose a ton of high end.
To clarify and summarize: RSP (Japan): carbon fiber in neck AND body, IRA treatment RSS (Indonesia): carbon fiber in neck ONLY RSP and RSS: stainless steel frets, Focus Switch, tailpiece (which can be pressed on for vibrato), binding RSE (Indonesia): NO carbon fiber, nickel frets, Dry Switch ALL: chambered body
I’ve eyeballed these since they came out - and I would get one if I were still gigging. Everything I’ve seen and heard endears me more and more towards them. As for the video - what a lovely player!
Love seeing guitar nerds interacting with eachother. Reminds me of the social version of Ricky Bobby going "I don't know what to do with my hands." That's why I generally just talk to my guitars. They only respond with what I want them to. No, I'm not lonely! Why would you ask that?
Do a blind comparison between an unchambered Revstar and a chambered one with the same pickups and hardware. If there’s an audible (better still, measurable) difference, I’ll believe you. Failing that, I’m calling bullshit marketing wank. (And I actually LIKE the Revstar.)
Tried one of these in a shop a while back, and my first thought picking it up was that it was noticeably heavy for a chambered guitar. Seeing this video I can understand why.
That part about unwanted resonance is true. I've had a few guitars that I couldn't deal with because of weird resonance issues. You hope it's just the bridge or tuners that need adjusting but even that doesn't help sometimes.
The amplifier doesn't supply voltage to the guitar. The switch engages an additional induction coil which shifts the resonant peak of the pickup, its an entirely passive process.
on the Standard its a Boost switch and in position 2 it puts a minute delay between the neck and bridge, in position 4 it puts the same delay but between the bridge and neck, this is all done via a small transformer in the circuit
I bought a first generation Revstar, in 2017. I’m glad mine is NOT chambered, but it would be interesting to play the new ones, just to compare. The ergonomics of mine is perfect for me, I’m 6’5”, and the wrap tailpiece is key, now they don’t offer that bridge and mine is actually a smaller body. But I’m old enough to have played an SG 2000, and that was one of the nicest sounding guitars ever (Santana) So I was not disappointed, and the Rev star instantly became my main Axe. My previous was a ‘66 SG Junior, a hand built instrument, this Yamaha was not, but it has all the best qualities of a hand built instrument.
@CSGuitars : What do you think about the Jim Lill video "Tested: Where Does The Tone Come From In An Electric Guitar?" I'm not sure if these holes REALLY affect the sound of an electric guitar...Whether it's on the balance of the tone or on the length of the sustain. Has Yamaha presented a strict before/after? And what's the point knowing that the amp and speaker color the sound VERY much?
I bought a standard blue with the racing stripes. The guitar chose me. It plays and sounds fantastic. It’s a style I normally wouldn’t be drawn to, but as soon as I played it there was a connection. To me, that doesn’t happen all the time with a guitar.
I am in favor of chambering for weight reduction because I almost always play standing up and for at least an hour or two, and a pound or more reduction in weight is felt and appreciated after a while especially for us older folks or anyone with a bad back, etc. I think Yamaha decided primarily to lighten the guitar in a way that enhances its overall mass and physical balance. Any acoustic advantages are probably open to debate but if you're going to do this you might as well optimize the possible effect on sound or at least be thought of by customers as having considered it and that's likely what Yamaha has done here. As a 'side note,' my Les Paul Studio has Gibson's "Modern Weight Reduction" and tips the scales at just over 8lbs but most of the weight comes out of the lower bout, making it a little more prone than usual to neck dive. But LP lovers are used to that and live with it.
these revstars have impressed me from the beginning, but the honorable mention must go to the super crusher. I watched your vid on it, and genuinely didn't realize it was a SS amp until you mentioned it. sure, yt compression, and side by side I be able to tell, bla bla bla, but still, I'm impressed btw, Krenar should play more often with distortion, because that was awesome
I’ve got my eye on a couple of those cause I have to have a humbucker model and a p90 model. Every demo of those just seals the deal. Not a single bad review, they all are highly spoken of and that can’t be a bad thing… lol… thanks very well done. Even if I am late to the party. lol…
I wanted one of the last generation Revstars, so I jumped on the new version. I have the RSS02T just like the one in the video, and I think it’s great. It is a little heavier than I had hoped-even with the chambering.
I have a Revstar and love it, but wish Yamaha would add to their Line 6 Variax modeling guitar line up, I'd add it to my collection for sure. In fact Id probably sell my Variax JVT 59 since I think the revstar is a much better made guitar.
Ugggh... Sounds incredible. Just what I wanted to hear after plugging in a restoration project I've been working on for 6 weeks and finding out that something is wired incorrectly... 🤦🏼
The idea behind this guitar seems awesome. Then again, is anyone surprised? Yamaha, the same company that tuned the Lexus LFA's intake manifold, and built resonating chambers so that the driver / passenger could hear the engine rev at two different octaves... Yamaha has a ridiculous amount of amazing engineering credentials under their belt; I was wondering when I would see it applied to instruments. ...but this doesn't really do much aside from tell us that it's there. Give us DI's, oscilloscope data, phase-cancelling versus other instruments, etc. etc. etc. If I wanted to watch people play smooth and inoffensive good-sounds through an amp, I'd check out literally any dealer-sponsored """review""".
I have questions. For instance, these resonances; are they being measured in the output signal of the pickups, or perhaps in the wood itself? Are the measurements taken before the cap is glued on? How does glueing on the cap change things? If after, the chambering is already done, so how can they tune the specific guitar chambers at that stage?
a dude who was in my band had one and i played it occasionally once you run it through distortion and one or too effects it doesnt really behave any different than any other solid body
If you have played an amazingly lively guitar that's been marred by a dead spot, you'd understand how exciting this new Yamaha research and implementation is.
An '83 SA800 was my main guitar for many years... sold my 335, the Yamaha sounded better. It was made with nontraditional woods-- the top was laminated Birch with a Beech core, the sustain block was alder. They really know what makes a semihollow tick. Even back then, Yami was serious about the science.
What's up with the little knob type things on the carbon fiber inserts in the body of that unfinished guitar? They don't seem to be there on the finished guitars.
HAA! Great review... I saw the early tech on these and ordered one, SIX MONTHS AGO!!! LOL. Still waiting, Looking forward to putting this through the musical paces. Cheers!
No such thing as a passive pre-amp. It's most likely just a more advanced passive circuit and probably on a circuit board, and maybe therefor where the misunderstanding is. You cannot have amplification without adding energy, and in electrical terms that means a power source like a battery is needed.
I have the lowest cost Revstar. It can sound like my Les Paul, my Strat, and almost my 335. When I want to take only one guitar to the gig, it's always the Revstar.
Really appreciated all of the information about the science behind it but then the first time you play the guitar you bury the sound of the instrument in a deep reverb? I don’t get it it seems like there are a lot of options of how you could demonstrate the instrument by having different styles, and approaches to how the instrument could sound but it’s impossible to tell what the instrument is doing with that much reverb. Thanks for the informative video.
I own the revstar and one complaint and advice to yamaha.... ok so for the nut they are using some kind of white glue. when they glue the neck in, the person who does that is wiping the excess off of the neck and they are getting some into the grain of the wood right under the nut. it doesn't affect playing at all but it is there. It is on my guitar and i can see the guy on the left has the same thing.
Yeah, I had to remove the volume knob aluminum cap, right in the way, didn’t like the dry switch either, so I have a stacked vol/tone where the tone was, and a blend for the neck PU. I bought their woodworking and paint, and changed everything else, aluminum is a lousy bridge material if you ask me, the new models are all tunamatic bridge, steel. Way better, I didn’t buy one of the 2017 striped ones, $750, but all my guitars have a stud tailpiece, except trems, and they no longer sell them that way, big attraction for me!
That’s probably true… But this line has been a pretty big success for them. And this is the second iteration of the red star line… I think they started about three years ago and then they revamped them. Some people actually prefer the older ones.
@@JohnnyArtPavlou Don't get me wrong, I would like to see this guitar take off, but as I watched the video I started to cringe. I don't know if Yamaha sponsored this video but either way it seemed to paint them into a very niche market. You have market giants out there (strat/Tele & Les Paul) and they say in the video that it doesn't sound like either. They also brought in a jazz player for the video. Most jazz players prefer full hollow or semi-hollow (tough sell). I really hope it takes off though.
@@SB-qi7mv Yes, it was super-sponsory. Apparently, there are some jazzers who like telecasters. One day we’ll know who built the pyramids and how they did it. In one way will understand everything there is to know about tone wood. I mean, you know, there’s that thing where a lot of guitars player say, about a solid body guitar… That if it sounds good unplug… And if it feels resonant, and all of that crap, then they know it’s gonna sound good plugged in. Which might be true. But you could also make the argument that if those strings are causing the body to vibrate… That some of the vibration that could go to keeping a note, sustaining longer is being lost in the body… Or dampened. And of course, sustain is its own stupid argument. It’s kind of cool to have a lot of staying yada yada yada but you can get all of the stain you want using your whammy bar or your vibrato technique or any of 1 million pedals. It’s all good… The thing that most guitars seem to want least of all is a guitar that has too many tones in it. Did rather have five guitars with one tone each, than one guitar with five tones in it.
Colin. I want to see you talk about synth pedals like the Boss SY-1. I have sommany TATAs about the send/return part if the pedal, applications for metal, etc.
Hey Colin, quick question. I’m not sure if you have any experience with the 5150 Iconic head, but I just snagged one yesterday and I’m having a bit of difficulty dialing it in. I grabbed a Boss EQ-200 unit earlier today, and I’d like your opinion on something. Should I run it in the effects loop or in front of the amp? I’m not a fan of dealing with pedalboards, and I’d ideally like to set up my rig to where all I have to do is plug in my wireless unit and play. For some context, I have an Ibanez Mini Tube Screamer, the Boss EQ-200 and an MXR Smart Gate that I’m planning to run into the effects loop and securing those pedals to the grille on the back with zip ties since I’d much prefer them on at all times anyway.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Guitar design can be scientific - Yamaha use 3D simulations, modal analysis and vibrational testing to design their Revstar range, implementing interesting chambering and carbon reinforcement to achieve a specific sound and performance.
Get your own Yamaha Revstar: thmn.to/thocf/21ze2hv008
More info from Yamaha: uk.yamaha.com/en/products/musical_instruments/guitars_basses/el_guitars/rs_2022/index.html
Thanks to @KrenarCilkuGuitar for his excellent playing and insight.
This video was filmed at 42 Gear Street, an event sponsored by Yamaha.
More details on how CSGuitars implements product promotion - www.csguitars.co.uk/disclosure
#42gsfour #yamaha #revstar
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But the question is if you can perceive any of these alterations. Have you watched Jim Lill's channel and his experiments shit tonewood? Highly interesting. I really recommend your watch it. He made some amazing experiments.
@@EbonyPope 100 percent agree. Jim Lill's channel is a must watch to gain a different perspective about solid body electric guitars. Yamahas weight relieve makes a lot of sense in terms of neck dive but every thing is pure marketing.
@@MarkGutierrez Jim Lill's experiment was not science. It was a fun demonstration, but no objective measurements. The conclusions were flawed because the design was flawed to begin with. The question "Can you hear a difference between two sounds after the sound is processed several times and compressed and decompressed to get to your ears over YT?" is a totally different question than "Is there a difference between two sounds?"
@CSGuitars what's a tri sonic pick-up? I was introduced to them through brian may from Queen and I've been wondering what the difference is
@@georged9615 you greatly underestimate audio compression algorithms. Of course lossless formats are great to listen to with a pair of monitoring, but anyway the music the guitarist will play will either be live (and the acoustics of the room will not be "pure") or recorded and listened to in mp3 99% of the time... If it sounds good in 320kbps mp3, that's more than enough!
I see a scotsman on a sun lounger in actual sun, I click like. Once, maybe twice in a lifetime experience.
the best thing about this guitar is that even if you dont believe or care about the chambering science, the price pretty much matches with any other normal guitar that doesnt have this feature anyway
Yamaha is the People’s instrument company. They’ve been making fantastic affordable instruments forever. Still make the best sounding drum set for under a grand too. Even their entry level acoustic solid tops are great. $250 gets you an incredibly good sounding and playing dreadnaught. I’ve had my eye on these Rev Stars for a while.
Which drum model are you referring to? I’m interested in checking them, thanks btw and yes, i love their basses, the cheaper ones are absolute tanks and sound amazing!
@@Fantasmas333 The Stage Custom birch series. Fantastic sounding 5 piece drum set for around $800. You can get them used for much less than that even. If they’re in good shape, totally worth up to $500.
@@Fantasmas333 Presumably Stage Custom , I like the fusion size one with 20 inch bass drum, punchy sound and makes it easier to set Tom's lower than a 22 BD. 10,12, 14 Tom's.
Colin! Thanks for having me on, mate! It was an absolute blast doing this; hope to see you soon and have fun in the Philippines, cheers!
P.s sorry for saying "dry switch" instead of "focus switch"... my bad...😅
Great playing Krenar! You did a great job showing how dynamic and rich sounding these guitars are and you're a total shred lord! You need to get your hands on that Pro gold top model with the P90s. Cheers!
Beautiful playing!
your playing was beautiful
Amazing playing. Wonderful insight.
Dude I think you liked that dirty tone more than you want to admit lol you had that look on your face like fuck yeah I nailed that and it sounded sick lmao
Absolutely love the Revstar. It's hand's down one of the most underrated guitars out there.
Krenar really makes the guitars come alive with such a beautiful voicing.
When you remember how Yamaha is a masterful source of high level tuning in everything from exhaust systems to concert piano's, it's easy to understand how that experience, and technology would translate into their guitars, as well.
Colin,
A few folks have taken apart the Revstar (in particular Phil McKnight). The boost seems to be done with a transformer to increase the output voltage (higher voltage at higher impedance). The only drawback is that loading in your pedals or amp may muddy up the high end.
It apparently uses the low level signal from whatever preamp it's plugged into to increase output. It reduces the high and anyway, so I don't know if the loading matters. It may even isolate the pickups from the effects of cable capacitance.
@@GCKelloch Huh? What kind of signal do you get from the input side of a preamp
I'm an engineer and work in the aerospace industry. This kind of 3D stress modeling is used ALL the time there. So I'm happy to see a guitar builder apply the same tools and concepts to achieve a particular end. I'm surprised that there aren't more guitar companies already doing this.
I've always admired the design of the Revstar. This video gives me one more reason to pick one up someday.
Well, they would have to convince a 'guitar player' not the highest IQ group around...lol 🤣
Can't really work with wood, though. Wood structure is too inconsistent for the specified results of the chambering, but it doesn't really matter with a thick solid body guitar anyway.
@@GCKelloch works with carbon fiber, though.
@@martinkrauser4029 Could even work with engineered wood. The '70s era Gibson Howard Roberts guitar (with the oval sound hole) was designed by Bill Lawrence with engineered plywood so the top and bottom vibrate in phase, making it acoustically loud and with strong bass.
Yeah Dave Lister's guitar in Red Dwarf was actually a Revstar because it was the only guitar that the aerospace industry would allow onboard a spaceship.
I have a previous gen Rev Star with humbuckers and have to say it's a shockingly good guitar with a very unique and distinctive sound. The fretwork is great, build quality is great, they're balanced and comfortable to play. It was really cool to see what the chambering looks like inside and the process they use to design the guitar. Cheers!
How is the previous gen different?
@@stephen3164 Main difference is some older ones used a TonePro bridge without a tail piece. These new ones all have a Tune-o-matic or the longer tailpiece. I think the electronics are slightly different too, the push pull knob is more of a darker sounding boost, where the older one I have cuts some low end and a little bit of volume to emulate a coil split without the noise.
@@mattastic247 - I wish they offered the humbucker version with the fancy tailpiece. I’d take that green with black stripes and large chrome “archtop” style tailpiece.
Yamaha is absolute on the top of world, Piano, Drums, Synthesizer, DAW, Mixers, Monitors, Guitar/Bass, Motorcycle, Electronics, etc. even if Yamaha release a Dishwasher, I'm gonna buy it.
The Revstar's a guitar I've only been aware of for a short while, mainly because Chris Buck plays one and he's a pisstakingly good player so it definitely piqued my interest. This is pretty damn cool - absolutely overkill but overengineering the shit out of things is fun
Hal-Ca also plays a Revstar.
And Matteo Mancuso!
I have two and they are now my favourite newish guitars!
I got one of these for my birthday a couple months ago, my absolute favorite guitar to play. I got the standard model with humbuckers in white, and my god I love it. It’s such a classy looking instrument, and those stainless steel frets are something else.
Legit, the Revstar range are some of the nicest guitars on the market today. Those necks are immaculate.
I love the "I don't play with gain very often" into ripping a sweet Eric Johnson lick combo.
I
Just received mine.
Absolutely worth every penny!
Killer design, balance, feel and above all TONE!
I like how he sounds with gain. He's a natural.
Would’ve really appreciated a blinded side by side testing sort of play through. Try a few of them that are chambered and some that aren’t, and see if you can tell a difference without knowing which is which.
You would have to swap the pickups and tone pots too. Especially the pots vary in resistance and therefore affect the tone quite significantly. A pot may say 500k Ohms but it's actually 475 and the next one is 515k Ohms. To exclude this factor it should be the same strings, same pick and same electronics. Have you seen Jim Lill's tonewood experiments here on UA-cam?
I haven’t. There’d certainly be a lot of variables to isolate, not the least of which being weight as a dead give away for what you’re playing.
Yea, and maybe even hear it without a bunch of reverb also lol
Yeah, this seemed like an ad for Yamaha and not the Science of sound
All of the Revstars are chambered so a blind test wouldn't achieve much.
The smile while playing the P90 model says it all! Both the humbucker and the P90 models are exquistite imstruments! Thanks for sharing!
The biggest issue Yamaha have with the revstar line imo is that both the element and standard series are so good for the price that it's kinda hard for me to justify buying the profession MIJ version. Looking at the price of a standard series with humbuckers...makes a strong case for being the best quality guitar you can find under a grand. They all look cool too.
The same with the basses, the 734a has almost all of the same features as the P34 at like, less than half the cost.
wow.
a new design that is properly original, designed with science, sound and looks unique and good, *without looking like it's from a sci-fi movie*
something that's sets it's own standard legitimately
i didn't think it was possible, but Yamaha actually did it. good for them, they earned and deserve this.
this model has a big future. BIG, big.
I worked all my prof life on structural modal analysis, i am a guitarist too, i know very well the goodness of Yamaha design approach! beautifull guitars, revstars
It is beyond me why Yamaha electrics aren't more popular and mainstream among pros like Fender or Gibson. They are excellent and gorgeous. I would actually prefer one over those brands if only for its uniqueness.
I have no doubt that they've successfully tuned these guitars' acoustic resonance, but I have a hard time believing it really matters when the wood's acoustic resonance is barely even a part of an electric guitar's sound compared to pickups. Would be curious to hear your thoughts on Jim Lill's video where he does a lot of experimentation related to that idea.
Agreed. A whole lot of focus for
Well you can think of it in terms of pickups being highly customizable with a few minutes of work and an inexpensive tool. The body is what it is, without hacking away at it. It's fair to say they wanted to focus on what the player isn't going to change.
@@rmaxtpmx The body is less customizable, but again, makes such a small difference in terms of whole sound that doing this much work on it is is pointless overengineering IMO.
God just please don't. There are forums for this. Go to one of them. Don't forget your eye protection.
@@griffinc466Yamaha overengineers everything. That’s why they’re cool.
just found your channel, definitely dig your stuff, and love that you're into gear that isn't the usual les paul and strat that youtubers always spend too much time on...
ALSO! really stoked you could invite that jazz guitarist along to demo the tone. he is a great player, with great phrasing and technique, and TBH, if you really want to hear a GUITAR (not the amp and fx) a good jazz player will show the true voice of a guitar better than anything else! great vid!
Yamaha is, and always will be, one of the most valuable and incredible company ever. Everyone that have played a Pacifica knows that. And the Revstar is another example of their good intentions when you think about guitars. You can play everything with this, and in a fantastic way!
I got turned onto Yamaha at an early age with their motorcycles everything Yamaha builds is great.
Awesome & with @krenar !! :)
Ah, Krenar. His playing made me buy a telecaster a few years ago. Awesome musician
Bought a revstar guitar recently, I was blown away by the feel and the tone.
Thank you for that, Colin. So many guitars, so little time! If a lad/lass of say age 12 tried one guitar per week until aged 70 , they would only be able to try around 3000 guitars. Your channel is invaluable in assisting the players to focus their instruments/ equipment choice but without too much time (or money) being erroneously used developing their personal style and skill. I applaud you. 👏👏👏 I wish this type of facility had been available when I was starting the journey. (I'm nearer 70).
On the standard and professional models activating the focus switch seems to work almost like a mid boost circuit where it tapers some of the high-end, tightens up the bottom, and boosts middle range forming a warmer overall sound.
I am super impressed by these guitars and have to admit that the standard range is probably the best value in a do-all gigging instrument. I have the luxury of working in the guitar retail industry and it affords me the opportunity to test drive tons of guitars on the daily. That said I had been deliberating between an Epiphone modern SG and the Epiphone prophecy series modern Les Paul as a new purchase to add to my ever growing collection of mid range instruments; that was until a Flash Green Revstar RSS 20 came through my station yesterday. I could not stop gushing over the instrument (I have a thing for all things green, preferably in a deep emerald hue). Anyway, once I plugged it into a little Orange 20w combo to give it a quick run I was beyond amazed at just how dynamic the sound was. It is one of the most articulate and resonate guitars I have ever played. I decided then that I needed a much better amp and some effects to really see what the limits were on this thing. Long story short, I was unable to find the limits. It was like a starving pig it just gobbled up every thing I threw at it. It does not get uncomfortable in any genre of music. I even went as far as experimenting with some alternate tunings and found that I didn't need to reintonate it for a DADGAD tuning. I was shocked to say the least.
I have to say that the cavitation of the body does something mesmerizing to elevate modulation effects and accompanies stereo chorus and flanging effects wonderfully. I have to wait another 30 days to utilize my employee discount, but I already reserved a RSP 20 for when that 31st day comes around. What a stellar instrument!
"If you can get your hands on one" is a big "if". It took me a full year just to have the opportunity to play one. That opportunity ended up being a clerical error as the people at the store told me "we aren't supposed to have any Revstars, Yamaha told us customer orders only" (and yes this is major retail chain saying this.). But I did get to play one...and (solely because I didn't love the colour of the model they had) got on the list for one. They'll be able to order it in about 4 months.
And I completely understand why. Brilliant guitar.
Yamaha always delivers quality instruments. Cool video, thanks!
Even with the chambering, it's actually still a fairly heavy axe, like LP Studio heavy 7-8lbs. I was surprised
Beautiful guitars and really nice, chill video and playing demo. Good work guys.
That "dry switch" just sounds like maybe a parallel/series switch. That's exactly what happens when you put pickups into series. They get louder and lose a ton of high end.
Just subbed to krenar few months ago, great player. Thanks for the vid colin!
To clarify and summarize:
RSP (Japan): carbon fiber in neck AND body, IRA treatment
RSS (Indonesia): carbon fiber in neck ONLY
RSP and RSS: stainless steel frets, Focus Switch, tailpiece (which can be pressed on for vibrato), binding
RSE (Indonesia): NO carbon fiber, nickel frets, Dry Switch
ALL: chambered body
The dry switch is only available on the element series, I believe Krenar meant to call it the “focus” switch. Great video!!!
Holy chambering Batman!!! As I’ve said before, if it has the triple pitchfork on it it’s probably awesome.
Great playing Krenar 🤘🏽
Fully agree !
I’ve eyeballed these since they came out - and I would get one if I were still gigging. Everything I’ve seen and heard endears me more and more towards them.
As for the video - what a lovely player!
Love seeing guitar nerds interacting with eachother. Reminds me of the social version of Ricky Bobby going "I don't know what to do with my hands." That's why I generally just talk to my guitars. They only respond with what I want them to. No, I'm not lonely! Why would you ask that?
Do a blind comparison between an unchambered Revstar and a chambered one with the same pickups and hardware. If there’s an audible (better still, measurable) difference, I’ll believe you. Failing that, I’m calling bullshit marketing wank. (And I actually LIKE the Revstar.)
Tried one of these in a shop a while back, and my first thought picking it up was that it was noticeably
heavy for a chambered guitar.
Seeing this video I can understand why.
That part about unwanted resonance is true. I've had a few guitars that I couldn't deal with because of weird resonance issues. You hope it's just the bridge or tuners that need adjusting but even that doesn't help sometimes.
The dry switch is using the voltage from the amp to power it. Doubles the pickup output and boosts the bass and mids
The amplifier doesn't supply voltage to the guitar.
The switch engages an additional induction coil which shifts the resonant peak of the pickup, its an entirely passive process.
At about 10:43 he goes to the neck full on and wow I hear a David Gilmourish tone for sure. I would really like to have one of these Revstar guitars.
That guy has an excellent right hand picking technique.
Just picked a Standard one up in the sunburst colour, yesterday. Happy as can be so far, great bang for the buck too
Love my Revstar. It's my favorite guitar.
on the Standard its a Boost switch and in position 2 it puts a minute delay between the neck and bridge, in position 4 it puts the same delay but between the bridge and neck, this is all done via a small transformer in the circuit
I bought a first generation Revstar, in 2017. I’m glad mine is NOT chambered, but it would be interesting to play the new ones, just to compare. The ergonomics of mine is perfect for me, I’m 6’5”,
and the wrap tailpiece is key, now they don’t offer that bridge and mine is actually a smaller body.
But I’m old enough to have played an SG 2000, and that was one of the nicest sounding guitars ever (Santana)
So I was not disappointed, and the Rev star instantly became my main Axe.
My previous was a ‘66 SG Junior, a hand built instrument, this Yamaha was not, but it has all the best qualities of a hand built instrument.
This was a great video, Colin. Thank you.
Do the focus switch next! Fascinating how it uses an inductor to passively boost the signal
They are actually wrong in this video. What they have is the focus switch and not the sry switch like they say.
@CSGuitars : What do you think about the Jim Lill video "Tested: Where Does The Tone Come From In An Electric Guitar?"
I'm not sure if these holes REALLY affect the sound of an electric guitar...Whether it's on the balance of the tone or on the length of the sustain. Has Yamaha presented a strict before/after? And what's the point knowing that the amp and speaker color the sound VERY much?
Nice! Really want one with P90s - almost certainly my next purchase. Great demo thanks
In the Standard and Professional models the push-pull is not the Dry-Switch, they call it Focus Switch. It's a passive low and mid-boost.
I bought a standard blue with the racing stripes. The guitar chose me. It plays and sounds fantastic. It’s a style I normally wouldn’t be drawn to, but as soon as I played it there was a connection. To me, that doesn’t happen all the time with a guitar.
I am in favor of chambering for weight reduction because I almost always play standing up and for at least an hour or two, and a pound or more reduction in weight is felt and appreciated after a while especially for us older folks or anyone with a bad back, etc. I think Yamaha decided primarily to lighten the guitar in a way that enhances its overall mass and physical balance. Any acoustic advantages are probably open to debate but if you're going to do this you might as well optimize the possible effect on sound or at least be thought of by customers as having considered it and that's likely what Yamaha has done here. As a 'side note,' my Les Paul Studio has Gibson's "Modern Weight Reduction" and tips the scales at just over 8lbs but most of the weight comes out of the lower bout, making it a little more prone than usual to neck dive. But LP lovers are used to that and live with it.
You wrote what I think : thanks!
@@antalantal2366 Alright! Thank you!
SG players…Hold my guitar…..Up…..Please.
these revstars have impressed me from the beginning, but the honorable mention must go to the super crusher. I watched your vid on it, and genuinely didn't realize it was a SS amp until you mentioned it. sure, yt compression, and side by side I be able to tell, bla bla bla, but still, I'm impressed
btw, Krenar should play more often with distortion, because that was awesome
I’ve got my eye on a couple of those cause I have to have a humbucker model and a p90 model. Every demo of those just seals the deal. Not a single bad review, they all are highly spoken of and that can’t be a bad thing… lol… thanks very well done. Even if I am late to the party. lol…
That's really cool. Didn't know this. Thank's for the info
Rocking an early 90s attraction base cheap model and that thing is still ripping. I love it to bits. Yamaha allways has a special place for me
Yamaha RS-320 is my first electric and it's amazing for the price! Doom machine if you set it up right, can do anything from blues to rock and metal
I'm somewhat of a doom player and the rss20 (new standard one) is my no1 guitar now. Just love it.
I wanted one of the last generation Revstars, so I jumped on the new version. I have the RSS02T just like the one in the video, and I think it’s great. It is a little heavier than I had hoped-even with the chambering.
It's not super light, I agree. A lot lighter than my Les Paul though.
How much does it weigh? Does the neck dive?
I have a Revstar and love it, but wish Yamaha would add to their Line 6 Variax modeling guitar line up, I'd add it to my collection for sure. In fact Id probably sell my Variax JVT 59 since I think the revstar is a much better made guitar.
Ugggh... Sounds incredible. Just what I wanted to hear after plugging in a restoration project I've been working on for 6 weeks and finding out that something is wired incorrectly... 🤦🏼
The idea behind this guitar seems awesome. Then again, is anyone surprised? Yamaha, the same company that tuned the Lexus LFA's intake manifold, and built resonating chambers so that the driver / passenger could hear the engine rev at two different octaves... Yamaha has a ridiculous amount of amazing engineering credentials under their belt; I was wondering when I would see it applied to instruments.
...but this doesn't really do much aside from tell us that it's there. Give us DI's, oscilloscope data, phase-cancelling versus other instruments, etc. etc. etc.
If I wanted to watch people play smooth and inoffensive good-sounds through an amp, I'd check out literally any dealer-sponsored """review""".
Argh. JUST when I convinced myself to tighten up the budget, you remind me that I've always wanted one of these with the P90's and the tailpiece.
These things came out a while ago. I saw Andertons was using them in a recent video as well. Yamaha must be pushing these hard again.
That dark blue with the gold racing stripes at the end.. Oh goodness me... 😍
My Sunset Professional P90 Revstar is just absolutely PHENOMENAL. It's the most resonant guitar I've ever owned.
I have questions. For instance, these resonances; are they being measured in the output signal of the pickups, or perhaps in the wood itself? Are the measurements taken before the cap is glued on? How does glueing on the cap change things? If after, the chambering is already done, so how can they tune the specific guitar chambers at that stage?
Beautiful guitar, but will they ever be available? I ordered mine last year in March and I'm still waiting.
Why do I get the feeling that you could fill her up with porridge and she'd still sound the same?
a dude who was in my band had one and i played it occasionally
once you run it through distortion and one or too effects it doesnt really behave any different than any other solid body
Revstar humbuckers sound too muddy for me,
But I own their P90 model (RSS02T) and I absolutely love it,
It is among one of my favorite guitar
If you have played an amazingly lively guitar that's been marred by a dead spot, you'd understand how exciting this new Yamaha research and implementation is.
Is the RS420 the same as the RSE20? 😳
Do they both have this treatment (chambering and reinforcements) or is it just the higher range?
Just purchased the Standard W/p90s..... Hands down the most amazing guitar I've ever held in my hands
You peaked my interest on the Revstar. Love my "77 SA1000
An '83 SA800 was my main guitar for many years... sold my 335, the Yamaha sounded better. It was made with nontraditional woods-- the top was laminated Birch with a Beech core, the sustain block was alder. They really know what makes a semihollow tick. Even back then, Yami was serious about the science.
What's up with the little knob type things on the carbon fiber inserts in the body of that unfinished guitar? They don't seem to be there on the finished guitars.
That's a demonstration body.
Those are handles to allow the carbon fibre sections to be removed as a visual demonstration of the construction.
Great player! There are so many terrible players demonstrating this guitar, great review!
HAA! Great review... I saw the early tech on these and ordered one, SIX MONTHS AGO!!! LOL. Still waiting, Looking forward to putting this through the musical paces. Cheers!
Meanwhile Jim Lill slaps some hardware on a two by four and it sounds great. :)
No such thing as a passive pre-amp. It's most likely just a more advanced passive circuit and probably on a circuit board, and maybe therefor where the misunderstanding is. You cannot have amplification without adding energy, and in electrical terms that means a power source like a battery is needed.
I have the lowest cost Revstar. It can sound like my Les Paul, my Strat, and almost my 335. When I want to take only one guitar to the gig, it's always the Revstar.
Really appreciated all of the information about the science behind it but then the first time you play the guitar you bury the sound of the instrument in a deep reverb? I don’t get it it seems like there are a lot of options of how you could demonstrate the instrument by having different styles, and approaches to how the instrument could sound but it’s impossible to tell what the instrument is doing with that much reverb. Thanks for the informative video.
I've got one,build quality is superb, humbuckers sound a little weedy,should've got the p90 version,only real downside is that it weighs a ton!
🎉🎉🎉🎉 just got one!!!
I own the revstar and one complaint and advice to yamaha.... ok so for the nut they are using some kind of white glue. when they glue the neck in, the person who does that is wiping the excess off of the neck and they are getting some into the grain of the wood right under the nut. it doesn't affect playing at all but it is there. It is on my guitar and i can see the guy on the left has the same thing.
Yeah, I had to remove the volume knob aluminum cap, right in the way, didn’t like the dry switch either, so I have a stacked vol/tone where the tone was, and a blend for the neck PU.
I bought their woodworking and paint, and changed everything else, aluminum is a lousy bridge material if you ask me, the new models are all tunamatic bridge, steel. Way better, I didn’t buy one of the 2017 striped ones, $750, but all my guitars have a stud tailpiece, except trems, and they no longer sell them that way, big attraction for me!
All of that technology poured into their guitars and Yamaha's guitars still won't get much respect.
That’s probably true… But this line has been a pretty big success for them. And this is the second iteration of the red star line… I think they started about three years ago and then they revamped them. Some people actually prefer the older ones.
@@JohnnyArtPavlou Don't get me wrong, I would like to see this guitar take off, but as I watched the video I started to cringe. I don't know if Yamaha sponsored this video but either way it seemed to paint them into a very niche market. You have market giants out there (strat/Tele & Les Paul) and they say in the video that it doesn't sound like either. They also brought in a jazz player for the video. Most jazz players prefer full hollow or semi-hollow (tough sell). I really hope it takes off though.
@@SB-qi7mv Yes, it was super-sponsory. Apparently, there are some jazzers who like telecasters. One day we’ll know who built the pyramids and how they did it. In one way will understand everything there is to know about tone wood. I mean, you know, there’s that thing where a lot of guitars player say, about a solid body guitar… That if it sounds good unplug… And if it feels resonant, and all of that crap, then they know it’s gonna sound good plugged in. Which might be true. But you could also make the argument that if those strings are causing the body to vibrate… That some of the vibration that could go to keeping a note, sustaining longer is being lost in the body… Or dampened.
And of course, sustain is its own stupid argument. It’s kind of cool to have a lot of staying yada yada yada but you can get all of the stain you want using your whammy bar or your vibrato technique or any of 1 million pedals. It’s all good… The thing that most guitars seem to want least of all is a guitar that has too many tones in it. Did rather have five guitars with one tone each, than one guitar with five tones in it.
Funny enough, ever since I started building my own guitars, the Revstar is the only one I'd ever consider buying ...
“I’m gonna try to play with gain…” he says (and proceeds to melt my face)
Colin. I want to see you talk about synth pedals like the Boss SY-1. I have sommany TATAs about the send/return part if the pedal, applications for metal, etc.
Cranar proves my point I believe. A fabulous player with a guitar that does exhibit his talent and artistry on the guitar ! 🎸.
Hey Colin, quick question. I’m not sure if you have any experience with the 5150 Iconic head, but I just snagged one yesterday and I’m having a bit of difficulty dialing it in. I grabbed a Boss EQ-200 unit earlier today, and I’d like your opinion on something. Should I run it in the effects loop or in front of the amp? I’m not a fan of dealing with pedalboards, and I’d ideally like to set up my rig to where all I have to do is plug in my wireless unit and play.
For some context, I have an Ibanez Mini Tube Screamer, the Boss EQ-200 and an MXR Smart Gate that I’m planning to run into the effects loop and securing those pedals to the grille on the back with zip ties since I’d much prefer them on at all times anyway.