Yamaha RGX420S

Local Shop, Amsterdam - Holland for €390

The nicest feature of this guitar is the direct-out switch to send the signal of the bridge humbucker straight into the amp, passing by the volume and tone settings. This gives a very nice bright tone. But: I think every guitar should sound that good without a direct-out switch. A guitar that sounds good, also when you use your volume and tone controls!
And I like the 5 way switch which gives you the options of coil splitting the humbuckers. Without that options you woulnd't get to many different sounds out of this guitar.

I allready owned a Yamaha RGX121 which I like a lot, especially because of the playability of the neck. So I thought I'd buy almost the same guitar with a Floyd Rose tremelo. It has the same neck radius and rosewood fingerboard. But: although the Yamaha catalog suggest these guitars are almost the same, they are NOT! The RGX420s has a wider neck and jumbo frets. Making it close to my Ibanez RG2570, which is not what I was looking for. I didn't want a cheap copy of my expensive Prestige line Ibanez, I wanted a slim and fast Yamaha neck! Besides this I think the tone of the pickups miss distinction and personality, but I must admitt they are very powerfull and ideal for shredders and metal heads. It's even hard to get a clean tone from this guitar. The tremelo takes some work on it, make sure you tighten the arm well or it's useless. You can adjust swinging movement with the nut which you can reach from the back of the body. But all'n all this tremelo doesn't garantee the guitar stays in tune.

Construction's fine. Absolutely no comment there. Quality of body and neck are good. Hardware is good enough for this price range.

After a few hours of setup work a good guitar started to appear. The neck reacted well to truss rod changes, I adjusted pick-up height and polepieces, and did some work on the vibrato arm. This guitar should have been a Yamaha (and it sounds like one which is not bad) but it feels like an Ibanez with this neck. If that's what you are looking for (but maybe you can't afford an €850 Ibanez) this is a cheaper alternative. After some setup work it plays well and it sounds realy heavy! (but I wouldn't buy it a second time, I like guitars with a bit more personality)

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I bought this great guitar from fair deal music and paid 270 quid for this guitar....and a great guitar this is

i love this guitar...its the best guitar ever for the sort of money i paid for it...it simply looks gorgeous and is well easy to play...as easy as pricy guitars like PRS guitars....and sounds great..ceramic pickups were nice no matter what sort of music you play..even though i changed them to EMG-HZ pickups...better then guitars ive played that cost much much more...booster switch is nice..very reliable..always stays in tune

well..i love everything i guess but if i have to choose something i guess the flloyd rose can piss me off sometimes..since it takes ages to change strings but thats it!..(erm actually when you palm mute and your hand touched the bridge it trembles..but thars the bridge 4 u)

the quality of this guitar is great..again especially for the money....good solid construction..very tough..

overall..great guitar very nice....amazing purchase for the money i paid...looks great...sounds great...yamaha really know how to make good guitars and price them well unlike some manufacturers that build shit and sell them for a bomb...

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I ordered the guitar from a local store for $450 CDN ($CDN520 with tax)

Double locking tremolo works great.

The pickups produce great tonal varieties. I seriously can produce anything from Jazz/Blues sounds to Death Metal crunch with this guitar.

24 Jumbo frets increased playability a lot. Vibratos and bendings are much easier and sound much more musical when done on a guitar with jumbo frets. Some have also said that jumbo frets produce more sustain, but I think they give you more control.

The extra "headroom" given by the 24 frets is also very nice.

Comes with a coil tap / lead boost function.
When the tap/boost switch is flipped on, the guitar switches to the coil that is closest to the bridge and max out the volume and the tone, REGARDLESS of your current knob settings.

For example, I could be playing a very soulful, slow, melodic solo with the neck pickup and tone knob at zero for the most mellow sound. At the mere flip of the boost switch (located at a very convenient, yet out-of-the-way location) I could tear into a pure Metal lead.

As I said, this guitar can produce a great variety of tones, all without changing the settings on your amp.

The five-way switch also gives you 2 out-of-phase options (one for the neck, and one for the bridge pickup) for alternate tonal possibilities. I personally find that clean sounds are best done with the neck pickup in the out-of-phase position.

The naked neck feels great, in contrast to the painted neck on some guitars (Gibson) that impede playability. Not too thin like the Ibanez Wizard necks, but not too thick either. A soft C shape that is very comfortable to play.

The only improvement I would ask for is for the guitar to come equipped with some brand name pickups.

But the stock pickups are actually very good, and can accomodate many styles of playing.

I own 2 Yamaha guitars, the other being an RGX121S.

Both are of the highest construction quality. I have tried many much more expensive guitars (Gibsons, Fenders, PRS..etc) But except for the top-of-the-line models, the build quality tend to be very inconsistent. Some of the guitars they put out now are just plain appalling, even in the #2000-3000 ranges. (I hope someone from Gibson is reading this)

I would highly recommend any Yamaha guitar to any guitar player. They have been some of the most well built guitars I have played and owned. I plan to purchase more Yamahas in the future. Their price-to-quality ratio is simply un-matched by any other company in the industry that I am aware of.

Bottom Line is:

If you want a well-built guitar that can be used to play a lot of different styles and sounds good in all of them, then this is a guitar to seriously consider.



This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

What type of bridge (Floyd, Wilkinson ...)? Licensed Floyd Rose tremolo

What type of bridge (Floyd, Wilkinson ...)? Flat and wide enough

How many frets, what kind of micro as well as their configuration? 2 double pickups, a splittable infinity so to speak! Unimaginable combination of microphones that sound great! Position 2 and 4 are reminiscent of the strats!

What are the settings (volume, tone, micro switch ...)? A volume knob, one tone, plus a selector to switch to direct pickup.

UTILIZATION

The handle is it fun? VERY!

Ergonomics is it good (in terms of shape, weight ...)? Great! The shape is reminiscent of the Ibanez, the weight is right hair

Access to acute (recent freight) is it easy? A breeze!

Do you get a good sound easy? Yes, even playing directly to an amp, no effect is so fun the sound of microphones is nice! Super versatile sound level

SOUNDS

They are suitable to your style of music? Besides the appearance, she should have any kinds of music sound levels

With what (s) amp (s) or effect (s) do you play? I use most often on a Boss GT-8 connected to the computer in stereo, if not on my little amp Line 6 clean.

What are the sounds you prefer, you hate? I like everything

OVERALL OPINION

How long have you use it? About 3 months (I had a makeover before use)

Have you tried many other models before buying it? Yes, enough! But it was either too expensive or too bad

What is so special that you love the most, least? Its look passes across

How would you rate the quality / price? Ben for € 140 ... =)

With experience, you do again this choice? Of course!