Is the Yamaha Revstar a Gibson SG Killer?!

today we ask a question that frankly not enough people have been asking and that is is the Yamaha rev star a Gibson SG killer there's actually some history to this so stick around [Music] hey you're watching Alamo Music TV my name is Chris McKee and I'm Cooper Greenberg we're here with Alamo Music in San Antonio Texas and you can find us on the web at alamomusic.com if you're new to the channel make sure you subscribe you turn on notifications like our videos and if you want to support us and our smiling faces visit our spring store link below for custom swag and check out our podcast the fretboard confessional wherever you get your podcast and hey you know what if you feel generous you can buy either one of us this guitar or each of us one of these guitars because we have four in stock we do yeah so this if you don't know is a Yamaha rev star RSS 20. rss20 and uh we hear all really big fans in the store and actually I'm going to peel back the curtain just a little bit our uh guitar tech Casey Jones who is about the best around yep highly respected but a bit of a curmudgeon he hates everything but he loves the refstars he loves working on guitars he does yeah he's happy but he he's very critical he's very opinionated when it comes to guitars like any seasoned uh guitar guitar tech would be because you see everything that comes across your bench yeah you've seen the the worst from every manufacturer yeah and like when Chris and I talk about guitars on the channel many of you have noticed we'll typically try to find at least something good to say about everything even if we like it or not he does not operate that he's not beholden to that yeah and so he's he's real honest and his opinions are all very valid rev stars are guitars that he loves he really really enjoys them yeah um so yeah whenever he gives the seal of approval it's like another notch for me of like all right I know I like this guitar it got the KC uh thumbs up so it's I know it's good you know yeah um and we've really dug the Rev Stars we've talked about when they kind of put out the new version the changes that they made were awesome they feel good they play great the specs are right three kind of series within the element got the standard and got the professional and this is the standard this is the standard and a very cool finish uh what are they calling this actually black well that's original they didn't come up with something like you know Mystic C black um Onyx old dark night time they could have called it Onyx no stars in the sky I do I do like it's black with like the racing stripes though yeah and they're not like bright white it's kind of a subtle look and over here this one's also I think the Finish is called black ebony I know I'm just kidding um so we got the SG also standard here big difference is uh standard means a lot of different things across a lot of different manufacturers so with Gibson standard is kind of the you know Flagship USA model Les Paul Standard SG standard over here I guess the flagship would be the professional which we have too it's I feel like many of you who know the price difference between this are probably like well maybe they didn't have a professional no we didn't we do but it's an interesting comparison because uh two standards price difference is Big these go for what 8.49 now I think it's 8.99 8.99 yeah and these go for what 14.99 16.99 19.99 who cares well and so and thinking about doing this video I talked to uh Casey of like hey I have an idea for video what do you think he's like yes in a very evil way which is why we picked two Sinister looking guitars yeah um the kings of rock there was an option to do the pro against like a 61 reissue because they're closer in price but I like doing these standard options for one what we're really doing is we're taking this which is already an underdog in the minds of pretty much everybody who's watching this a Yamaha versus a Gibson and this is the lower priced version of this model at 8.99 for the standard and this one is made in Indonesia yeah you know so we're basically saying okay we're going to take everything that for every you know initial response would be the underdog and we're going to put it against a arguably an American classic yeah which is the Gibson SG and and we're doing this in a fun way too because someone very famously abandoned the Gibson SG at kind of the height of their career and went to a very similar looking Yamaha and that was one Carlos Santana Santana do you know he has a movie coming out right now what's it called Supernatural it's called Carlos Santana really it's something yeah it's uh I think three days by the time you watch this it will probably already have come and gone but I think it's this week that we're filming this is he it's in theaters is his character played by Rob Thomas like that the hat and seven is like yo that's great uh no he's playing himself it's a documentary so anyway it would be weird if it was a documentary and somebody else played it yeah and so then it's then it's you're getting into Weird Al is he just talking about his career with I think it's like a career retrospective yeah that's cool so pretty cool you know so maybe it'll talk about the Yamaha days yeah um because he you know famously he had played sg's Woodstock he's playing SGS and then he started endorsing and playing Yamaha SGS it was a what was the the model number was an SG 2000 silent guitar no yeah it was something like that because we have a like a placard of one yeah something around here yeah um and the refstar is really that body shape but in kind of an offset yeah kind of design so if this if this ever looked modern and different but also kind of reminiscent and classic that's why it's because it's based upon the classic uh Yamaha SG models yeah and really we're going for double cut humbuckered out uh rock and roll guitars and we have done videos on the Rev star you know and you know by the way that we're talking about this that we have strong affections for this guitar SGS are the American classic but they're Often overshadowed by Les Paul's they are two and it's weird I think people see the price of Les Paul's which are standards now up to 29.99 um and then this is significantly less than that people are like oh well it's like their value USA guitar it's just different but um but in a lot of ways it is they're yeah I mean it's their cutting board you know yeah their their version of Italy yeah it's a rock and roll uh machine that's very Bare Bones and when comparing these two a big thing that you notice in the demo is the pickup switching and all that it's totally Bare Bones compared to this one more is not always better but I think the options on the Rev star are really well thought out and gives a little bit more choice to the classic two humbucker setup because over here You Got Rhythm both and treble over here you got a five-way and then a focus switch so you got 10 options well and you got a single volume single tone versus two two there's benefits to both I play guitars both ways um I was playing my last ball yesterday and I was thinking myself you know middle position and just kind of going back and forth you know for different songs different sounds adjusting more treble here more bass here it's a really it's a powerful versatile option people Overlook but sometimes I like this more straight away yeah single volume control with a five-way um there's a reason it's the more modern take on things yeah so um also interesting to talk about that guitar is definitely thicker and kind of a bigger body it meets you know the neck meets the body at an earlier fret I guess maybe not but um it's also not all black technically that is all ebony this Onyx Big Boy actually has kind of a transparent dark finish so you can see through and see through the grain but yeah so this one's thinner but if you look up online the photos of their weight relief that they do on these guitars very very cool so this is weight relieved and it's done in such a Yamaha kind of way you know it's very cool but um yeah the focus switch on that guitar that I kind of mentioned it's this nice passive kind of boost and it adds a lot of color pushes everything so you still have the five switches which give you in between sounds on humbuckers which is very cool um on the switch you have all these distinct sounds and then kind of a boosted version that just beefs them all up and it's not just volume it's you know it's EQ which is very very cool um God the heel's so cool very cool comfortable heel satin finish neck good looking tuners tuners that are definitely inspired by you know but they feel good A little thing on the back that's from the latest Zelda game I forget what it means but yeah I remember seeing it while I was playing twos of the Kingdom now um I'm guessing based on you can feel the headstock is that a scarf joint that they've done kind of a Volute on there um I don't know if it's a scarf toy it probably is you can't tell because of the way the neck is finished but I would anticipate they've done a scarf joint but probably over here that'd be more typical for an Indonesian made guitar and then they've machined of a loot yeah into it um because you know the truss rod is right there and you don't want to create a weak point yeah also that has stainless steel frets it does which can be a cool thing for people that are into that sort of thing if you're into that thing it's cool and probably one of the more affordable guitars to have stainless steel Frets I think it is probably the most affordable yeah but maybe wrong but yeah I think so the professional also has stainless steel Frets but it has an ebony fingerboard this has a Rosewood fingerboard again no pal Pharaoh not pero Pharaoh Rosewood stainless steel Great Sound and Pickups over here yes you've got Rosewood not stainless steel Frets but um I mean the SG is an SG and it's classic and it's very cool I want to listen to them because I got to play both of them and then kind of talk about spoiler alert why I think this one is great and why I really like SGS but I would choose that one so let's check it out [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign there you have it the musical stylings of Cooper Greenberg and why he prefers the red star yeah there we go um maybe I preferred it because I got a lot more time to go through all the options and play like three times as long um now here's the thing we were talking before we shot the video about the guitars that you're always like one day I'll get one of those we both want HD 28s one day I've always been like one day I just need to add NSG to the lineup just because it's classic and I love the way it looks I like the way they sound yeah Angus Young was always my favorite when I was growing up so it's kind of like this younger version of me that wants to be Angus Young that always wants an answer yeah the Epiphone right no you wanted the Epiphone one yeah you remember that I remember a friend of mine got the Epiphone and yes I was so jealous Green With Envy because all I had was a stupid old Strat that was made in Mexico yeah yeah so it set me on a whole different you know track in my life I became a whole different guy because I grew up with a strat instead of an SG you could have had a face tattoo yeah I mean that's that comes with it I think um but yeah I like the SG now let me ask you a question yeah if you're sitting like that with the guitar on your knee yeah do you feel feel comfortable doing this no no I do not that's not that big of a deal because most people that play in SG will not be sitting down for a gig but it's something that drives me a little crazy yeah you know it's funny I I mentioned I was playing my Les Paul yesterday and uh I don't even feel comfortable I had to grab something I was like you know anyways if you know you know so yeah the the they are neck heavy they've long kind of had that uh notoriety about them and usually if you've got uh if it's strapped to you it's typically fun yeah and it's totally fine it's just the thing where I play this one first and it feels like such a balanced guitar it's got the kind of belly carve it's it I mean that's not an uncomfortable guitar to hold it's thin and it's kind of it's very thin what's interesting about this is that these two guitars actually have a very similar weight um I thought that the Rev star was heavier yeah but it's actually not it's just that on this the additional weight that would match the Rev Stars over here yeah and you can just you can feel that yeah you can feel it I think um you could hear in the demo the output of these pickups is very different because we left the controls on the amp exactly the same this felt like it was trying to break loose and it was big and it was heavy and as loud that guitar it can get heavy we all know that I think it's more important for the comparison to kind of keep the controls exactly the same I know if I push that amp because volumes were on 10 on both of these if we push the amp obviously this could get crazy and get wild this has lower output pickups yeah I mean and it was like this had such an easy kind of adjust the attack to get it to Crunch a little bit because we weren't cranking that amp by any stressamine but especially with that boost kind of vibe it started getting heavy and kind of getting crunchy and this stayed pretty clean and that's just an interesting kind of thing it probably sounded like in the demo that the controls were different but they were not so I think that's worth talking about typically I will say I usually prefer lower output pickups yeah and to get your dirt from pedals and from the uh from the amp and not from the guitar I think usually you get more musicality there's less compression going on yeah particularly with a tube amp because even if you have a compressor you're getting compression and squishing this from the tubes which is a good thing but if you hit the front end of it too hard anyway so generally speaking that's where I land but sometimes if they're the right pickups Potter pickups are pretty cool yeah the hot pickups are cool I mean they both sound good and that one arguably has a more classic old school sound um I think when people talk about the most versatile electric guitar everybody's bringing up strats and you know things with all these different options that you can conform to whatever sound you're going for rarely do dual humbucker guitars get thrown in because everybody thinks of Les Paul's and stuff is like that's its own sound that you get but this does the Dual humbucker thing in a very versatile way that you can get those in between kind of out of face quacky sounds um and it's just yeah it's it's nice I dig it so playability what do you think between the Gibson and the Yamaha I'm a sucker for satin neck yeah I do like that that that is a thing um both of them are easy to play they're both slim necks and they're comfy I think all in all the balance the feel of this guitar stainless steel doesn't hurt it's smooth but I like the satin that one is so easy to play fast and really high on you know um it's just it's interesting I think that maybe we revisit this if people request with the professional model but I think even with the standard if anything it's equal to that guitar you know and that's on its own is a powerful statement it's an import guitar it's not quite half the price but considerably less expensive yeah they both come with gig bags right this is a gig bag that's a gig bag you know so in a lot of ways they're very equal but price wise the Gibson being us made saying Gibson on the headstock is demanding more of a premium and at the end of the day it's up to you I will say that I like these tuners a little bit better I like the design of those tuners yeah I do I like the feel of these Grovers and there's one other piece of Hardware that if I bought that rev star I would change out and that's the switch I don't like the feel of the five-way switch I like the volume and the tone knobs and and the feel of the taper and everything yeah but I don't like the switch that'd be my one yeah you put a Seymour Duncan thing where you can control it from your iPad no probably not yeah yeah I mean not that there's anything wrong with that um those might be very cool I've only seen the constant ads on Instagram for their new Switch yeah they're pushing they call that a tier one launch that's what that's what that's called but uh but no I I just I don't they came put you know can't put my finger on it I can and I just don't like the feel of it so I don't know what it's interesting I'd probably put a shower switch in it there you go well at 8.99 uh it's leaves you a little room to do some upgrades you know um I dig it I think they're very cool I think they come in a lot of cool colors interestingly enough sg's now come in a whole bunch of different colors lots of new colors that are available um more colors than are available for the the Rev star here's the the interesting thing that I think would be good to piggyback on this powerful comparison I think that's a really cool guitar uh Rhett did a recent video talk about why guitar players don't play Yamaha guitars and um then Chris Buck another YouTube guitarist that I follow from the UK who has a like really cool custom shop rev star that I was telling Cooper about it's like Nitro gold top I'm like What's Up Yamaha yeah can I have a custom shop around the star please um yeah maybe one day when I grow up and I'm as cool as Chris Buck I gotta grow my hair out so it's not happening but um both of the them did very compelling videos and here's what I would say to it I think the whole hang up with Yamaha guitars is more of an American thing it seems to be a very classic go-to in the UK for instance pacificas and whatnot I think they're really cool guitars I also think they seem to my recollection I think Yamaha guitars were I don't know more around in the 90s yeah I remember seeing a lot of pacificas and things like that um I think the Rev star this newest version is such a compelling guitar that at this point if if guitars as a whole still continue to turn their nose up at it then you're just stupid yeah it's a really cool guitar and different in a sea of the same yeah yeah for sure and for like a any kind of tone you go for I mean that volume was down a little bit before the demo great kind of Jazzy warm tone for like a modern rock like I think about kind of Queens of the Stone Age type stuff that a lot of young up-and-comers are in that genre they work great I I really like them I also think we could do the same exact comparison with a special and a P90 version and the results will be very similar I love the P90s on like an SG special I think it's awesome yeah but the P90 version of this it's similar to the Les Paul's like that's actually the one I want the P90 I want the P90 rap star they're awesome they're really cool and uh you know you get one in hot Merlot because everybody loves to drink their wine if there's one request I have from Yamaha it is please increase the color offerings on all three levels of the Rev star and like the neon yellow dude I actually I like the neon yellow we have one at one of our locations and it's a lot of people have been like I I'm weird I like that guitar um and and custom Shopper of stars like this is a thing I need in my life now yeah that would be super cool I mean we at now I was like dude let us at least do a run of our own color and our own you know that would be cool if you like it just let us know and we'll we'll bug them yes but yeah I think I mean it's hard because that's such a classic that has not changed a ton um put some Robo tuners on there maybe so maybe it's a little better but um yeah I think in terms of a new electric guitar years ago it's a new old electric guitar yeah years ago it was all about how Yamaha FG X5 and you know fsx5 the red labels were like the most compelling best acoustic guitars of the year um yeah they were punching above their weight class yeah same thing that's the same thing so they're doing good stuff open up your eyes yamaha's got the goods yeah so is it an SG killer that's up to you let us know in the comments below what you think about these two guitars and whether or not you think the lower priced rev star held its own or even surpassed surpassed the classic Gibson um and also if you'd like information on either of these guitars or any of the other SGS and rev stars that we have in stock you should go to our website which is alamomusic.com there you go you can chat with someone live by the way you can buy that one on our website you cannot buy this one on our website but you can chat with someone on our website and buy it that way who's to say you can call you can email you can say that's the one I want and when you do so we can hook you up with a strap too because you're never going to be able to sit down comfortably with that thing so yeah there you go if you're new to our Channel make sure you subscribe you turn on notifications and like our videos keep coming back for more we'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: Alamo Music Center

Views: 83,605

Keywords: yt:quality=high, guitar review, guitar demo, alamo music, best acoustic guitar, best electric guitar, acoustic guitar review, electric guitar review, how to play guitar, yamaha revstar, yamaha revstar rss20, gibson sg standard, gibson sg vs yamaha revstar, gibson sg review, yamaha revstar review, revstar versus, sg versus, yamaha electric guitar, gibson electric guitar, gibson versus, best gibson guitar, best yamaha guitar

Id: bPZAy4w8Ots

Length: 26min 31sec (1591 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 30 2023