Yamaha Pacifica 510v

stimpsonslostson · February 2016

I first played a 510 as the "house guitar" at an informal jam thing I used to do so (that's where I decided I'd like one) I saw it used for everything from HiGain metal to cool blues. It was utterly reliable & no fuss.
I got this one from a friend and it's equally good. (Nothing wrong with Yamahas QC consistency then!)

The good:
The hardware is superb: locking Grovers, Tusq nut, wilkinson trem combine to give impeccable tuning stability. It never seems to slip out of tune.
The Seymour Duncan p-rails pickup is VERY good. Hotter than "vintage" but with the volume rolled off a bit it cleans up fine. You go from single->p90->HB with little discernible volume jump, the tone just gets thicker.

The finish is excellent: no blemishes anywhere & the gloss finish on the neck is an unexpected joy, not sticky at all, just gloriously slippery & smooth.

The bad: genuinely the only thing I'm not totally sold on is the neck- it's fairly narrow. Nothing like as narrow as other Pacifica models I've played though.
My other guitars all have quite thick necks & I occasionally push the low E off the frets.

Obviously there's only one pickup, but with judicious use of the pots I've never struggled to get the sound I'm after.
I tend to live in P90 mode & switch to single coil for stratty stuff or HB for heavier things.

Overall:
It's the ultimate backup or studio guitar. It'll "do" anything you throw at it with ease.

Despite being an excellent guitar, strangely it's never been my #1 guitar, probably due to a lack of what I can only describe as "personality" or "soul"- but it sounds great, is effortless to play, utterly reliable & oh so versatile.