Why is there not tons of love for the Pacifica?

spacecadet

GuitarZero said:

imalone said:

AES and SA (looks like the TVL was a signature model SA) are on sale again. Their signature range is so small as to be non-existent. Buying Line6 means Variax is now part of the Yamaha range. I'd agree they're not particularly guitar focused.

Interestingly enough, the new Variax Standard looks like a Pacifica with Variax guts.

http://uk.line6.com/variax-standard/

Thats cause it is. Yamaha bought Line 6 a couple of years ago in case you weren't aware. With Yamaha's investment I reckon we will see some very special things coming from them.

imalone

spacecadet said:

GuitarZero said:

imalone said:

AES and SA (looks like the TVL was a signature model SA) are on sale again. Their signature range is so small as to be non-existent. Buying Line6 means Variax is now part of the Yamaha range. I'd agree they're not particularly guitar focused.

Interestingly enough, the new Variax Standard looks like a Pacifica with Variax guts.

http://uk.line6.com/variax-standard/

Thats cause it is. Yamaha bought Line 6 a couple of years ago in case you weren't aware. With Yamaha's investment I reckon we will see some very special things coming from them.

I think he got that

GuitarZero

imalone said:

spacecadet said:

GuitarZero said:

imalone said:

AES and SA (looks like the TVL was a signature model SA) are on sale again. Their signature range is so small as to be non-existent. Buying Line6 means Variax is now part of the Yamaha range. I'd agree they're not particularly guitar focused.

Interestingly enough, the new Variax Standard looks like a Pacifica with Variax guts.

http://uk.line6.com/variax-standard/

Thats cause it is. Yamaha bought Line 6 a couple of years ago in case you weren't aware. With Yamaha's investment I reckon we will see some very special things coming from them.

I think he got that

I did, thanks

Norwegian_Blue

Here's a Pacifica Endorsee...

stickyfiddle

GuitarMonkey said:

In the heyday of the Yamaha Pacifica, Squier guitars had plywood bodies and the Yamahas had nice solid wood ones. Lots of people, including me, bought a Pacifica.

Then Squier upped their game and started using proper wood. That, and their close resemblance to the Fender equivalent, meant that Yamaha sales declined.

Came to say just that. Before the Vintgae brand and the Squier Classic Vibes, the Pacifica was the go-to starter recommendation for a beginner guitar. Then the aforementioned happened and the Yamahas haven't improved to keep pace. Noone aspires to play a Yamaha, so there's no market left for them. Obviously they still sell some, but nobody really cares.

Danchi

I've got a 1221 i'm probs gonna put up for sale soon. 

Crazy guitar tbh. Wizard neck and Dimarzio pups. I loved it at the time but haven't played it in ages. Was more expensive than a Les Paul when i got it! 

I think the Pacifica range to pretty good to be fair. I've bought others too to use as parts for frankensteins and they're always well put together.

EdGrip

By the way - when I was 13, I went into various shops and found, and pledged to save up for, a guitar called a Yamaha RGX420 Drop 6. As far as I was concerned, it was clearly the best guitar ever. Mercifully when I had scraped the money together, the dude in Hunstanton's East Coast Music talked me into a red Epi Les Paul instead. Thank God. Can you even imagine?

gjonesy

Richardj said:

I've just aquired an 812W in a deal and it is really rather good. Came as standard with Seymour Duncans, locking Sperzels and a Gotoh/Wilkinson bridge. With the quality parts it feels and sounds great, certainly doesn't have less 'character' than any production Strat I have owned including US built models.

Having just let this go to @Richardj these really are cracking guitars for the price these go at second hand. I could be biased though as Ive also got a 604w, 412 and 102 (tele shape). 

Quite fancy a Mike Stern sig or 302 to add to the collection at some point

imalone

stickyfiddle said:

GuitarMonkey said:

In the heyday of the Yamaha Pacifica, Squier guitars had plywood bodies and the Yamahas had nice solid wood ones. Lots of people, including me, bought a Pacifica.

Then Squier upped their game and started using proper wood. That, and their close resemblance to the Fender equivalent, meant that Yamaha sales declined.

Came to say just that. Before the Vintgae brand and the Squier Classic Vibes, the Pacifica was the go-to starter recommendation for a beginner guitar. Then the aforementioned happened and the Yamahas haven't improved to keep pace. Noone aspires to play a Yamaha, so there's no market left for them. Obviously they still sell some, but nobody really cares.

Yamaha and Pacifica aren't quite the same, there's even another thread at the minute about someone after an SA...
I'd agree the Pacifica range by itself maybe doesn't have the same cachet as a Strat or Les Paul, but to me Yamaha have  a reputation of making solid instruments across the board.

spacecadet

I see the point about them being miles better than the competition years ago but the competition caught up. I don't think I see them as characterless. They have their own sound. It's a more modern, hard yet spongy one but not really like anything else. I do think there is a market for a high end one. If they can make something that good out of China or Indonesia then Christ knows what they would be capable of producing with their luthiers in Japan! Imagine an SA Pacifica! 

Played a few acoustics today in a store and they were awesome too. I'm probably easier to please with acoustics but it was an FSX something or other. Very comfortable neck, balanced sound unplugged, low action, flawless finish. Toured an APX years ago and it was great. I think they have a much stronger presence and share in the acoustic market than the electrics. Didn't Bonamassa play a Yammy acoustic for about 3 minuites? Lukather too as I remember.

rossi

Its not the lack of character  so much as the lack of mojo . Mojo is the embedded history in the  subconscious .The sweaty  clubs and juke joints ,the sheer brillance of that 50's /80's playing .a fender or even a Sqier has it ,so do Gibson or even Chibsons .PRS dont .They  associated with shoot outs between doctors and lawyers to see which one is more expensive and shiney .Pacificas are a stop on the way to something else.The MX5 of the guitar world .Capable but you know when you see a guy playing one  he has dreams of greater things  ....or his wife wont let him drive anything faster .

EdGrip

... Apart from the ones like me who'd rather have the Yamaha than the Gibson cos they'd rather not have the Mojo.

cbilly22

rossi;642542" said:

Its not the lack of character  so much as the lack of mojo . Mojo is the embedded history in the  subconscious .The sweaty  clubs and juke joints ,the sheer brillance of that 50's /80's playing .a fender or even a Sqier has it ,so do Gibson or even Chibsons .PRS dont .They  associated with shoot outs between doctors and lawyers to see which one is more expensive and shiney .Pacificas are a stop on the way to something else.The MX5 of the guitar world .Capable but you know when you see a guy playing one  he has dreams of greater things  ....or his wife wont let him drive anything faster .

Hmmmm...no, My Pacifica's are what I've gone back to having owned and been unimpressed by the, so called, something else. That, and the realisation that its the player that imparts the mojo not the instrument and its advertising.
Not to say I don't own some of these apparently mojo embedded instruments, because I do. I just prefer playing the fuck out of some generic, factory line guitars and thoroughly enjoying the..."yeah, but its not a fender" derision they seem to inspire.

rossi

There's always one

Gru

Imagine if Eric Clapton had switched to Yamaha in the 90s (electric and acoustic). I am pretty sure others would have followed and the brand would be very different now. Artist exposure is massive, just look at the Little Martin and Ed Sheeran.

DrJazzTap

I've always loved Yamaha guitars. When the Chapman stuff first started coming out, I thought "why wouldn't you just buy a Pacifica?"

The higher end models do seem to be bargains though!

paulk

I either play a strat or a tele and have done so for yonks. A coupe of months ago I, on a whim, picked up a Pacifica 311H. I loved the feel and playability of the thing. Swapped out the pickups as I am wont to do (stuck in a Duncan Super distortion and a hot p90), rewired it, stuck in a killswitch and it's practically my number one now. Solid guitar.

jeztone2

Isn't a lot if this about context?

If Yamaha had never released a budget Pacifica & instead bought out a guitar with a really upmarket brand under a different name. I suspect there'd be guys on HRI & The Gear Page looking for vintage ones.

Look at the Vertex FX Mike Landau scandal ( where a cheap piece of gear is rebranded as boutique). It was sort if inevitable that would happen.

Again if Noël Gallagher turned up on 'Later...' with a PRS Hollowbody, I suspect you'd see a re evaluation of a guitars "Mojo"

Iamnobody

jeztone2;663740" said:

Again if Noël Gallagher turned up on 'Later...' with a PRS Hollowbody, I suspect you'd see a re evaluation of a guitars "Mojo"

Really? How much do you think it would devalue them by?

ICBM

jeztone2 said:

if Noël Gallagher turned up on 'Later...' with a PRS Hollowbody

…he'd look a twat.

Admittedly he does anyway, but at least his playing style suits the Epiphone/Gibson semis, or maybe a Jazzmaster/Jaguar, Gretsch or Rickenbacker.

It would need someone new and cool who doesn't have the baggage of a previous style of music and who can impress a new generation who also don't associate them with middle-aged blues-rockers to play one, before they will be cool. It happened to some extent with the nu-metal players, but that seems to have died out a bit. Mike Einziger made them cool too, but he changed to a Jazzmaster.