Yamaha Unveils Matteo Mancuso's Signature Revstar — and It's Built for More Than Fusion

Yamaha has turned Matteo Mancuso's custom Revstar into a production signature guitar. Announced September 24, the RS20MM takes the chambered body, expressive switching and DiMarzio pickups associated with his stage instrument and puts them in a model listed at $1,599.99 in the US. For players who have followed the Sicilian guitarist's fingerstyle approach, this is a chance to see which parts of his sound Yamaha chose to make available off the shelf.

This isn't a brand-new partnership. Yamaha says Mancuso has played Revstars since 2017 and became a Yamaha artist in 2019. The company calls the RS20MM only the second widely available artist-signature model in the Revstar range. Its goal is to recreate the look and playing feel of his custom guitar, rather than merely attach his name to a stock finish.

What makes the RS20MM different

The guitar pairs a flamed maple top with a chambered mahogany body and a carbon-reinforced, three-piece mahogany neck. Yamaha says a refined neck heel, developed at Mancuso's request, is intended to ease access to the upper frets. A Vintage Sunburst finish, gold hardware, a logo at the 12th fret and his signature on the truss-rod cover give it the visual identity of his custom instrument.

Two DiMarzio PAF 36th Anniversary humbuckers sit under the strings. The five-position selector offers more combinations than the standard three-way arrangement on a two-humbucker guitar, while pulling the tone control engages Yamaha's passive Focus Switch. Yamaha describes that switch as a way to add mids and lows and tame the high end. Those are manufacturer descriptions, not a hands-on verdict from us.

The specification sheet also lists 22 jumbo stainless-steel frets, a rosewood fingerboard with a 12-inch radius, a 24.75-inch scale, locking tuners, a Tune-O-Matic bridge and a stopbar tailpiece. A deluxe gig bag is included. It's a conventional-looking dual-humbucker guitar in some respects, but the switching and chambering point toward a broader range of textures than its silhouette suggests.

Why the switching matters

Mancuso's playing can move between jazz, fusion and rock without leaning on a conventional pick attack. A guitar that responds to the smallest difference in touch is central to that approach. Yamaha says the pickup choice was made to preserve articulation and dynamic response; the five-way system and Focus Switch give him ways to shift character without changing instruments.

Mancuso put the relationship in his own words in Yamaha's announcement: “This signature model is an evolution of the custom Yamaha Revstar I've relied on for years, both onstage and in the studio.” The release does not claim that buying the guitar reproduces his technique — nor would any guitar do that. What it does establish is that the production model follows the instrument he has actually used.

Price and availability

Yamaha's September 24 announcement lists a US price of $1,599.99 and says the RS20MM is available through authorized dealers. Its US online store currently displays the same price but marks its own stock as unavailable, so check a dealer for local availability rather than assuming the web store can ship one today.

The bigger question for players is how the extra switching feels under the fingers, particularly at stage volume. We haven't tested the RS20MM, so this is an announcement report rather than a review. On paper, though, the most interesting part isn't the signature on the headstock: it's Yamaha's attempt to preserve the flexibility of a working guitarist's custom Revstar in a repeatable production model.

For the player behind the instrument, read our take on Matteo Mancuso.