Modding a rare Pacifica 120s

Jazzthat

So this was my birthday present from my wife about 18-20 years ago , a very sentimental one ! 
I started reading loads of forums about whether it is worth to upgrade a cheap guitar , and most people said "no" . You'd be better off buying new better one .
Well ... I thought differently and went ahead to do it.
The whole guitar hardware has been replaced apart from bridge plate , neck plate and ferrules .
Nut and saddles swapped for graphtech . Amazing upgrade to the tone , literally fell in love . 
Pickups swapped for SD JB and Jazz . Pickup Frames are schaller ( had to alter holes positions on guitar body  to install them ) .
Jack input swapped for pure tone multi contact in gold ( superb ! ) .
Electronic changes -
Dunlop pots 
Jupiter capacitor 0.022
Hi end audio silver cable (in teflon insulation )and silver solder .
Done leveling , crowning and polishing myself .
This was my first attempt at doing such a complex job , but being precision engineer I had no doubts I can pull this off .
I would like to thank to all forum members , that contributed either selling some bits to me or sharing huge knowledge about guitars .

Jazzthat

For some reason photos didn't upload in order . So there are pics of before and after leveling and polishing . 
And the guitar itself sounds awesome with elixir 10-52 optiweb on  ,Love the feel and sound !

normula1

Very nice it's always good to see a zebra pickup

danishbacon

Nice work! How does it play now? Does it Jazz?

Jazzthat

danishbacon said:

Nice work! How does it play now? Does it Jazz?

Thanks . Not sure if it plays jazz as I am not that good ( I wish though ) . Overall , it plays like an expensive guitar would and I really like how it has come out . The tone it's bloody lovely ! Definitely nothing about this axe is cheap anymore lol

AlexC

Those are great guitars. Matt Bellamy used to play one when Muse started out - used one at Glastonbury. Love your mods!

Jazzthat

Also not mentioned in parts description are , graphtech string tree and schaller strap lock buttons.

danishbacon

Anyone seeing this and thinking to themselves, wow what a great idea, @Nibulniblin has got something along these lines in the classified, cheap. 

Jazzthat

AlexC said:

Those are great guitars. Matt Bellamy used to play one when Muse started out - used one at Glastonbury. Love your mods!

Thanks buddy , and I  never knew that Matt played one of those !

danishbacon

@Jazzthat how did you find the levelling process?

Jalapeno

Super job !

Sarge

Did you find the file comfortable to use? 

YellowLedBetterMan

Looks fantastic. I'm enjoying doing up my Pacifica at the minute.

ICBM

Very nicely done .

One of the things that makes this so worthwhile is that Yamaha's cheap guitars are slightly different from many others - they're actually made to virtually the same standard as their higher-range models, they just use cheaper finishing and hardware. The woods (especially the necks) and the machining are more or less identical.

The only thing I would change is to raise the bridge saddles so the screws aren't sticking up from the tops - at least for the four middle saddles - this will make it much more comfortable to play, and might improve the tone slightly as it will increase the break angle. In order not to raise the action you'll need to shim the neck - but it looks like it would need to be quite minimal, probably around business-card thickness.

Jazzthat

danishbacon said:

@Jazzthat how did you find the levelling process?


I think most people are put off by the simple fact , those tools cost a lot and may not be confident doing it .
Me myself, the more I read and watched  YouTube I was getting more confident and eager to do it and couldn't help to think that this is an easy job . 
I made few tools myself as well ! 
As for the leveling , I'd do it again and again and it's very easy . Just require a lot of time and patience if you want it to be more than perfect lol . 

Jazzthat

Sarge said:

Did you find the file comfortable to use? 

Thanks Sarge for helping me out here  . It was a breeze to use , unlike other triangular file I had . 

Jazzthat

YellowLedBetterMan said:

Looks fantastic. I'm enjoying doing up my Pacifica at the minute.

Thanks buddy ! I am sure you will love yours too

Jazzthat

Here are pics of tools I made myself , though these are obviously some sort of copies of what's out there for the job .

Jazzthat

The leveling beam is made out of solid aluminium bar . I found its weight a perfect balance to move up and down the neck without any pressure applied . 
I never used hollow beam , but I'd imagine it wouldn't be that easy as this .

The notched straight edge is about 5mm thick and nicely deburred . It sits well and safely on a neck on its own so you can inspect properly any gaps .

The last little tool helped me to drill extra holes ( M6 schaller pin ) for locking tuners .
That worked effortlessly .

Jazzthat

Jalapeno said:

Super job !

Thanks!

Jazzthat

ICBM said:

Very nicely done .

One of the things that makes this so worthwhile is that Yamaha's cheap guitars are slightly different from many others - they're actually made to virtually the same standard as their higher-range models, they just use cheaper finishing and hardware. The woods (especially the necks) and the machining are more or less identical.

The only thing I would change is to raise the bridge saddles so the screws aren't sticking up from the tops - at least for the four middle saddles - this will make it much more comfortable to play, and might improve the tone slightly as it will increase the break angle. In order not to raise the action you'll need to shim the neck - but it looks like it would need to be quite minimal, probably around business-card thickness.

Thanks for the advise . I'll think about that on next strings change .