I’ve always been impressed with Yamaha’s electric guitars. In fact, a few years ago when we were all sharing offices, a blue Yamaha Pacifica was my desk-side guitar. By then it had been passed around and played by half a dozen office mates who all agreed it was one of the nicest-playing electrics we had in our stash.
And with good reason: Yamaha’s L.A. custom shop developed the series to meet the needs of top session players. If you’ve been lusting after a Pacifica model, now’s the right time to grab one: The Pacifica Standard Plus PACS+12M can be had for $200 off the standard price at Sweetwater’s Black Friday sales event.
As the latest addition to Yamaha’s now 34-year-old series, the Pacifica Standard Plus PACS+12M builds off a strong legacy. Although it’s made in Yamaha’s Indonesian factory — rather than in Japan, where the new Professional models are built — it’s a solidly built and well-spec’ed model that stands tall in a market flooded with plenty of competition. Total Guitar’s Dave Burrluck was so hard-pressed to find a single problem with it, he decided it was “near perfect.”
Some of the reasons? In addition to boasting a smoothly contoured neck heel and lower bout, the body takes things forward with Yamaha’s Acoustic Design process that aims to maximize body and neck resonance. The Gotoh hardware includes the same superb 510 two-post vibrato found on many of the top guitar brands. In other words, no expense was spared even for a model that’s a notch below the Professional level.
And then there are Yamaha’s new Reflection pickups: an HH7b humbucker in the bridge and a pair of HS7 single-coils. Developed with Rupert Neve Designs, makers of some of very fine pro-audio preamps and EQs, the pickups demonstrate this pedigree in their response. The single-coils sound practically like what you’d expect a classic Strat to resemble after a round of recording studio post-production: The bass is big, and the highs clear, with no sharp edges anywhere.
The bridge humbucker adds even more heat and fills the midrange in a similarly finessed way, rather than laying it on thick and heavy. From pristine pop to modern funk, R&B or cool jazz, the Pacifica Standard Plus PACS+12M fits the style and groove whether you play onstage or in the studio.
To to tell you the truth, I think I may have just convinced myself to upgrade my old Pacifica for this new guy. See if you can beat me to it.
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