Pacifica Pro Series

Svartmetall

Yamahas tend to be excellent value for money, but the sheer fugliness of that pickguard would put me off.

RichAC

Svartmetall said:

Yamahas tend to be excellent value for money, but the sheer fugliness of that pickguard would put me off.

I think it looks great.

stimpsonslostson

RichAC said:

Svartmetall said:

Yamahas tend to be excellent value for money, but the sheer fugliness of that pickguard would put me off.

I think it looks great.

As I said in the original post, I don't like it either. At best it's "inelegant". I find it quite jarring. I wonder if a standard Pacifica guard would fit. 

CavemanGrogg

Svartmetall said:

Yamahas tend to be excellent value for money, but the sheer fugliness of that pickguard would put me off.

This only seems to be with their guitars and entry/lower rangers of pianos.  If you look at almost all of the other instruments that they make, even their entry level student models hold their value on the secondhand market, especially their traditional orchestra instruments.  Of course there are exceptions to this, but from what I've seen, it seems to be the rule when it comes to Yamaha instruments.

Musical_Mystery_Tour

CavemanGrogg said:

Svartmetall said:

Yamahas tend to be excellent value for money, but the sheer fugliness of that pickguard would put me off.

This only seems to be with their guitars and entry/lower rangers of pianos.  If you look at almost all of the other instruments that they make, even their entry level student models hold their value on the secondhand market, especially their traditional orchestra instruments.  Of course there are exceptions to this, but from what I've seen, it seems to be the rule when it comes to Yamaha instruments.

That's very true, but 'you can sell it for about the same money you paid for it' is not a great priority criteria for buying instruments.

March

Got to try a couple at the show yesterday. Although I did not plug any of the ones I tried in, in terms of feel I must admit I was left pretty underwhelmed.

Voxman

sweepy said:

I do wonder if they have dumped the narrow nut of the older Pacifica’s  but I think most of us wince at £2k for a Yamaha no matter how good they are 

Exactly this. However good these are, the resale value will take a nose-dive and I think you'll be fortunate to get 50% back.  

DrJazzTap

We all know that yamaha make some excellent stuff.. a few comments on resale value, whilst  that is undoubtedly true. That shouldn't be what you think of when you buy a guitar imho. 
If you want a well made strat shaped object and you get on with the neck, and you have no plans to shift it on then go for it. I would like to have seen some more outlandish finishes, as I cant really differentiate between these and the ibanez az guitars. 
I'd also love a crazy finished Tyler superstrat, I just don't have 4k at hand.

guitarjack66

JohnCordy said:

Yamaha have their own factory in Hammamatsu Japan (and their own in Indonesia I think?).

The nuts are 42mm on these.

I think @RichAC is about bang on in terms of this being relatively close to the Ibanez Az, the neck is not quite as chunky which is one of the few downsides I think some folks had with the Ibanez Az, and for me personally I prefer the pickups in the Pacificas 

Jeez,42mm? I have smaller hands,for a Westerner,but I can't imagine a fully grown adult could play anything comfortably that small in nut width.

Chimpankie

guitarjack66 said:

JohnCordy said:

Yamaha have their own factory in Hammamatsu Japan (and their own in Indonesia I think?).

The nuts are 42mm on these.

I think @RichAC is about bang on in terms of this being relatively close to the Ibanez Az, the neck is not quite as chunky which is one of the few downsides I think some folks had with the Ibanez Az, and for me personally I prefer the pickups in the Pacificas 

Jeez,42mm? I have smaller hands,for a Westerner,but I can't imagine a fully grown adult could play anything comfortably that small in nut width.

Same as Suhr’s standard, I think? I find my Fender with a wider nut jarring in comparison 

Alun

Musical_Mystery_Tour said:

Alun said:

Musical_Mystery_Tour said:

Bit on the overpriced side for what is basically a Strat copy.

Could argue that for basically any guitar though. Heck, you could argue most Fenders are overpriced. 

If one is prepared to do a bit of DIY, there are a ton of two-hundred quid Strat copies these days which - courtesy of CNC cutting - are basically okay from a wood standpoint which you can then throw some better parts on and cross the finish line at about the four hundred quid mark, and they'd piss all over that thing.

That proves my point. Any guitar is “overpriced” when you could buy a cheaper one and DIY it. And even if we’re not talking DIY, if your prime concern is bang for the buck then there is no reason to ever spend more than £1000 on any guitar anyway, because the diminishing returns are so minute. So really, when cheaper options are always available no matter what you’re looking at (even Fender themselves), the criticism just feels a little pointless. 

Jeremiah

guitarjack66 said:

JohnCordy said:

Yamaha have their own factory in Hammamatsu Japan (and their own in Indonesia I think?).

The nuts are 42mm on these.

I think @RichAC is about bang on in terms of this being relatively close to the Ibanez Az, the neck is not quite as chunky which is one of the few downsides I think some folks had with the Ibanez Az, and for me personally I prefer the pickups in the Pacificas 

Jeez,42mm? I have smaller hands,for a Westerner,but I can't imagine a fully grown adult could play anything comfortably that small in nut width.

The standard Pacificas are 41mm.

BigPaulie

Jeremiah said:

guitarjack66 said:

JohnCordy said:

Yamaha have their own factory in Hammamatsu Japan (and their own in Indonesia I think?).

The nuts are 42mm on these.

I think @RichAC is about bang on in terms of this being relatively close to the Ibanez Az, the neck is not quite as chunky which is one of the few downsides I think some folks had with the Ibanez Az, and for me personally I prefer the pickups in the Pacificas 

Jeez,42mm? I have smaller hands,for a Westerner,but I can't imagine a fully grown adult could play anything comfortably that small in nut width.

The standard Pacificas are 41mm.

And perfectly playable they are too. I've got a 412v and a 604w and the nuts don't pose a problem for my larger than average hands.

CavemanGrogg

Jeremiah said:

guitarjack66 said:

JohnCordy said:

Yamaha have their own factory in Hammamatsu Japan (and their own in Indonesia I think?).

The nuts are 42mm on these.

I think @RichAC is about bang on in terms of this being relatively close to the Ibanez Az, the neck is not quite as chunky which is one of the few downsides I think some folks had with the Ibanez Az, and for me personally I prefer the pickups in the Pacificas 

Jeez,42mm? I have smaller hands,for a Westerner,but I can't imagine a fully grown adult could play anything comfortably that small in nut width.

The standard Pacificas are 41mm.

The Pacifica was originally designed as Yamaha's student electric guitar, Yamaha actually uses them in their ''Music Academies'' and not just the cheapest model the further you go with Yamaha with lessons the better model of Pacifica you use in class - the beginner/my first lessons if your using the Academy's instruments you get handed the cheapest model to use and in the advanced classes if you are still using their guitars and don't have your own guitar you're handed what used to be their top of the line Pacifica model, in fact in Asia in the 90's the cheapest Pacifica models - they used to make Telecaster shaped ones as well, all came in ''starter packs'' - the guitar, a small solid state practice amp, gig bag, cable, tuner, picks and even a simple teach yourself book, so the intended end user, wasn't people in their 20's, 30's, 40's, and so forth with years perhaps even decades of playing experience behind them, but rather children and young teenagers as their first electric guitar, to learn on.  If you have a a look at the specs of the rest of the electric guitars that Yamaha make, the vast majority of them have the standard nut widths, 43mm on a electric, 45 on an acoustic, and 50mm/2'' on a classical.  Despite their looks, Yamaha are in fact extremely traditional.

Don't forget until NAMM 24's announcement of the 2 new Pacifica models, the most expensive model of Pacifica was around the £600 mark, that's not bad for a ''my first guitar'', when you are just starting out, it's at the upper end of ''my first guitar'' in terms of quality, features, and pricing.  However, you can't just compare 'Yamaha's my first guitar'' with other student guitars pricing from other brands you also have to compare the pricing of student/beginner guitars against all other student/beginner instruments and that is what the Pacifica range is or rather was, in fact the most expensive model before the NAMM announcement is actually cheaper than Yamaha's entry/student level budget ''my first'' flute, trumpet, sax, horn, and a hell of a lot of other starter instruments that not just Yamaha make, but also made by other brands - so £600 is actually quite a bargain for a great quality entry level guitar with very good specs and features.

This is why despite loving the Yamaha brand, I absolutely hate and loathe everything about ''Yamaha UK''.  In Asia, Yamaha actually go into schools, and not just fee charging schools that only the well off can afford to send their kids to but also state run schools, and offer music lessons - granted these are group lessons and not one on one lessons, to students for extremely affordable token amounts, as well as giving the parents/students the opportunity to buy Yamaha student level instruments for vastly discounted prices, discounted to the point that the vast majority of instruments where actually cheaper to buy than to rent - far far cheaper than if you where to walk into a Yamaha music store and buy the instrument directly from the Yamaha store, and they do this with quite a selection of instruments - I myself started learning music with Yamaha Music Academy in primary school with the recorder during my lunch break.  You compare that to what ''Yamaha UK'' are doing, and have always done in the UK, and indeed Europe, and they are simply lazy S.O.B.s who quite frankly are up their own arses with self importance and ego.  Funnily enough Apple - though they where known as Macintosh back in the 80's and 90's used to do basically the same thing, they would turn up at schools - even colleges and universities, and kit out the entire computer department with the latest Macintosh hardware - and upgrade it every year with the latest hardware, all for free, though they would charge the schools for the software - remember back then Microsoft where selling more copies of ''Microsoft Office for Macintosh'' than Macintosh where selling hardware and Microsoft where making a hell of a lot more money with their software for Macintosh, in fact just from the sales of ''Microsoft Office for Macintosh'' alone, than Macintosh where making selling their hardware, and basically copy what tobacco has been doing for centuries, namely ''get them hooked while they're young, and we'll create a customer base that lasts a lifetime''.

CavemanGrogg

guitarjack66 said:

JohnCordy said:

Yamaha have their own factory in Hammamatsu Japan (and their own in Indonesia I think?).

The nuts are 42mm on these.

I think @RichAC is about bang on in terms of this being relatively close to the Ibanez Az, the neck is not quite as chunky which is one of the few downsides I think some folks had with the Ibanez Az, and for me personally I prefer the pickups in the Pacificas 

Jeez,42mm? I have smaller hands,for a Westerner,but I can't imagine a fully grown adult could play anything comfortably that small in nut width.

You are Donald Trump, and I claim my fiver ''wee hands'', and no, please don't start sending me photocopies or photographs of your hands trying to convince me that you have normal people sized hands

guitarjack66

Jeremiah said:

guitarjack66 said:

JohnCordy said:

Yamaha have their own factory in Hammamatsu Japan (and their own in Indonesia I think?).

The nuts are 42mm on these.

I think @RichAC is about bang on in terms of this being relatively close to the Ibanez Az, the neck is not quite as chunky which is one of the few downsides I think some folks had with the Ibanez Az, and for me personally I prefer the pickups in the Pacificas 

Jeez,42mm? I have smaller hands,for a Westerner,but I can't imagine a fully grown adult could play anything comfortably that small in nut width.

The standard Pacificas are 41mm.

Now I know why the only time I picked up a Pacifica it felt very uncomfortable to me.

guitarjack66

CavemanGrogg said:

guitarjack66 said:

JohnCordy said:

Yamaha have their own factory in Hammamatsu Japan (and their own in Indonesia I think?).

The nuts are 42mm on these.

I think @RichAC is about bang on in terms of this being relatively close to the Ibanez Az, the neck is not quite as chunky which is one of the few downsides I think some folks had with the Ibanez Az, and for me personally I prefer the pickups in the Pacificas 

Jeez,42mm? I have smaller hands,for a Westerner,but I can't imagine a fully grown adult could play anything comfortably that small in nut width.

You are Donald Trump, and I claim my fiver ''wee hands'', and no, please don't start sending me photocopies or photographs of your hands trying to convince me that you have normal people sized hands

I have slightly chubby fingers,nothing dramatic,but just not claw fingers.

conkerandco

Just went popped in to the Yamaha showroom in Soho to have a look at these. They only have the Indonesian models in currently - Japanese versions due in a few months. 

Tried the White/Rosewood model for a little bit through a Helix Floor / FRIR cab. Wasn't really blown away at all - the feel and playability is just as bland as the looks imo. The pickups sounded ok, but I wasn't taken aback by anything I was able to dial up quickly on the Helix. Very thick poly finish, dry looking rosewood board and non-rounded fingerboard edges.

It certainly felt no better playing or constructed than my Silver Sky SE. If I didn't already know, I would have assumed it was around the £600-700 price mark.

carlos

guitarjack66 said:

JohnCordy said:

Yamaha have their own factory in Hammamatsu Japan (and their own in Indonesia I think?).

The nuts are 42mm on these.

I think @RichAC is about bang on in terms of this being relatively close to the Ibanez Az, the neck is not quite as chunky which is one of the few downsides I think some folks had with the Ibanez Az, and for me personally I prefer the pickups in the Pacificas 

Jeez,42mm? I have smaller hands,for a Westerner,but I can't imagine a fully grown adult could play anything comfortably that small in nut width.

Huh? The Fender Player Strat, i,e., the bog standard strat made in mexico has a 42mm nut - https://www.fender.com/en-GB/electric-guitars/stratocaster/player-stratocaster/0144502500.html

Are you sure you aren't mixing up millimetres or something? Or are you King Charles?

HT986M2

conkerandco said:

Just went popped in to the Yamaha showroom in Soho to have a look at these. They only have the Indonesian models in currently - Japanese versions due in a few months. 

Tried the White/Rosewood model for a little bit through a Helix Floor / FRIR cab. Wasn't really blown away at all - the feel and playability is just as bland as the looks imo. The pickups sounded ok, but I wasn't taken aback by anything I was able to dial up quickly on the Helix. Very thick poly finish, dry looking rosewood board and non-rounded fingerboard edges.

It certainly felt no better playing or constructed than my Silver Sky SE. If I didn't already know, I would have assumed it was around the £600-700 price mark.

Well that's disappointing.  I could give the sound a pass because that's always very dependent on the room and setup, but it's sad to hear the built quality and playability is bog-standard.