Yamaha is coming up to its 50th anniversary in the guitar business, and has launched a new series of solid body electric guitars inspired by café racer style motorbikes of the 1960s to celebrate. Of the eight RevStar models, seven include Yamaha's new Dry Switch tone enhancement technology that essentially replaces coil split wiring found in some guitars with passive circuitry for single coil-like tone from humbucking pickups.
The Dry Switch EQ circuit was specifically designed for the RevStar series and is engaged using a familiar pull/push tone pot. But instead of activating a conventional coil split/tap, a passive circuit kicks in that's reported to filter out low frequencies for a "bright, clear tone with lots of body, no hum and plenty of power."
This offers players the benefits of using a no noise humbucking setup for single coil sounds, but without removing any windings from the circuit or drastically altering the output volume. Yamaha says that the tone tweaking effects of the Dry Switch can also be applied to single coil and P90 pickups, too.
"Reflecting the raw power, high-performance aesthetic of vintage street-racing motorbikes, RevStar guitars are meticulously crafted to sound as good as they look," said Yamaha's Armando Vega.
The hardware and finish of the RevStar series guitars vary according to model. The Professional RSP20CR (which wasn't included in the company's press release), for example, comes with a 22-fret, 24.75 in scale mahogany neck topped by a rosewood fingerboard, a mahogany body with maple top and VH7+ vintage-style humbucker pickups. The only model in the range to feature a Bigsby B50 vibrato is the RS720B, which is also treated to a mahogany body with flamed maple top and Filtertron-style pickups. Meanwhile the series starter, the RS320, is the odd one out as it doesn't feature the Dry Switch tech.
The RevStar series guitars are due to ship late next month, recommended retail prices start at US$629 and top out at $1,549.
You can see and hear the RS820CR model in the video clip below.
Source: Yamaha
