2022 Yamaha Revstar Element RSE20 | A classy Neon Yellow riff machine for under $500! Review & Demo

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This is the 2022 Yamaha Revstar Element RSE20 in Neon Yellow!

Yamaha has revamped its Revstar lineup for 2022, and there are now three tiers of the guitar available, with the Element model being the most affordable and stripped back of the bunch: it comes in at a wallet-friendly $499/479.

Revstar RSE20 at Thomann:
At Sweetwater:

The Revstar Element’s specs just scream rock and roll – and the Neon Yellow finish on this one certainly adds to the vibe! Under that eye-catching colorway, we have a chambered mahogany body, and the neck is mahogany too. The 24.75” scale length neck is an almost chunky C shape, and we have 22 jumbo frets on the rosewood fingerboard, which has a 12” radius.

All the hardware is Yamaha’s own, from the tuners and the bridge to the pair of Yamaha VH3 humbucking pickups. There’s a twist to the pickups, too: pull up the tone pot to activate the Dry Switch, which is a high pass filter. The Dry Switch filters out some of the booming low-end you often get from humbuckers, delivering more sparkly tones with added clarity. It’s like a coil split in a way, but without the hum and the associated volume drop.

But how does the guitar sound, and does the Element perform above its budget, sub $500 price tag? We’re about to find out! In this video, I try the Revstar in as many different musical styles as I can, from country, folk and indie, to pop, rock, punk, metal and more – and we test out that Dry Switch as much as we can too.

Here are some links to the various playing samples and info bits:

00:00 Hello!
00:10 Introduction to the Yamaha Revstar Element
01:04 Specs and info
03:12 Today’s rig and plan

Clean Sounds
04:10 Clean tone reference chords on all pickups/Dry Switch options
04:43 Poppy barre chords
04:59 Blues progression
05:11 Ringing open indie pop chords
05:24 Country strummed chords
05:43 Country lead sound
05:51 Country ballad arpeggios
06:04 Funky rhythm chords
06:18 Indie pop picked arpeggios
06:37 Indie rock strummed chords
06:51 Cowboy chords with tone control test
07:54 Strummed folk pop chords

Crunch Sounds (Crunch Channel on amp)
08:12 Groovy classic rock riff
08:37 AC/DC inspired classic rock riff
08:55 Airbourne inspired classic rock riff
09:05 Greta Van Fleet inspired rock riff
09:18 Hendrix inspired classic rock riff

Crunch Sounds (Clean Channel w/Greer Lightspeed)
09:34 Fat indie rhythm chords
09:50 Indie rock octave chords
10:14 Indie rock barre chords
10:39 Volume control roll-off test
11:23 Indie octave chords riff
11:51 Edgy indie rock chords
12:05 Garage rock riff

Lead Channel Sounds
12:21 Classic hard rock riff
12:38 Hard rock riff
12:54 Classic hard rock rhythm sound
13:20 Glam rock riff
13:33 Chunky alternative rock chords
13:57 Alt rock riff
14:11 Pop punk riff
14:24 Pop punk melodic lead riff
14:40 Green Day inspired punk rock riff
14:54 Punk rock power chords
15:08 Less Than Jake inspired punk rock riff
15:19 Progressive rock riff (Drop D tuning)
15:35 Modern rock palm-muted power chords (Drop D)
16:00 Rage Against The Machine inspired groovy riff (Drop D)

Clean Channel w/Revv G3 Distortion Pedal (all in Drop D)
16:15 Metal chugging riff
16:31 Mastodon inspired metal riff with country twang
16:43 Thrash metal riff
16:52 Hardcore chug test
17:03 Rammstein inspired industrial metal riff
17:16 Lead sounds
17:28 Classic heavy metal/sludge riff

18:01 My thoughts and the Revstar’s unexpected versatility
19:01 First impressions out of the box
19:42 Weight and unplugged sounds
20:26 Build quality and hardware
21:43 Playability and neck
22:04 Sounds and the Dry Switch
24:36 Who is the Revstar aimed at, and what competition is out there?
26:15 The Revstar Standard and Professional models
27:15 My conclusions on the Revstar Element
28:47 Thanks and goodbye


More info on the Revstar Standard and Professional models – and more chambered body pics – are here:


My setup was as follows: I ran the Revstar into my Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 head, also using my Greer Lightspeed for the overdrive and my Revv G3 for the heavy distortion sounds. The amp went from the Red Box DI straight into my Focusrite Scarlett 2i4, which went into Logic Pro X. That's it. No post-processing on the sounds was done.

Here’s some links to those bits of gear:

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H&K Black Spirit 200 head:
Greer Lightspeed:
Revv G3:
Focusrite 4i4:
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Enjoy!

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Backing music from the YouTube Audio Library: Duck In The Alley – TrackTribe.

#YamahaRevstar #Revstar #YamahaGuitar #YamahaGuitars


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