OPINION

'Bit of a plank' was everyone's first reaction when the RGX came out of the box. (Second reaction from those who played it involved asking about a coil tap, pulling the volume knob off, and an embarrassed 'er... no it hasn't'.)

This is a very angular guitar, from the pointy headstock down to the sharpened Strat horns; even the contouring of the body (it's shaved away at the back, and in the two cutaways) is left unrounded.

The plankiness is further emphasised by the weight of the guitar. Wood Guru Adrian Legg says that basswood is a perfectly respectable timber to use for musical instruments, but its lack of density makes the RGX110 feel flimsy and insubstantial.

The neck has a comfortable Stratty profile, with the same high quality black gloss finish that covers the rest of the guitar. It's fixed to the body with a very firm four-bolt joint. The 24 frets are flat-topped but highish, and the neck is wide in the modern post-tapping mode. The fingerboard of the 24 fret neck looks like rather coarse-grained rosewood, but is actually bubinga (not 'buvinger' as the catalogue says). The dry and awkward feel of the fingerboard was another notch up in plank quotient, though there was some compensation in the total lack of dead spots and fret buzzes - a traditional sign of dodginess in a cheap guitar.

One pickup and one volume is as basic as they come, and this aura of primitivenes is definitely not dispelled by the presence of an ordinary Strat tremolo (though there are RGX models with locking nuts and fine tuners). However, once I'd removed one of the three springs from this creaky device, and tuned the instrument properly, it worked like the proverbial - no matter how I tried, the strings refused to stick in either the black plastic nut or on the chromed bridge saddles. It just would not go out of tune. Even the arm behaved itself reasonably, staying wherever I left it.

DECISION

Appearances can be deceptive: it's not a plank at all, but a very well constructed and playable guitar. I was wrong.

The humbucker is reasonable, but not superb, and I felt the overall sound could have been warmer. The RGX is as versatile as you'd expect any one knob single pickup guitar to be (not very) and is at its best at full tilt through a very large and fuzzy amplifier. The tremolo is — pardon the cliche — taut and responsive, and was delightfully easy to set up. A good solid and usable guitar.

This is Yamaha's first high profile venture into Taiwanese guitar making, and if the RGX110 is anything to go by, they've got it right. The other models in the series include almost every six string pickup configuration imaginable, and four different basses. I hope they're as sound as this one.