Need some advice - pickups on Pacifica 112

M

mikeman1

New member
Hi guys. I'm new here. This looks like a good place to get some good recommendations!

Looking to upgrade the pups on my Pacifica 112j. Alder body, maple neck, rosewood FB, one tone and one volume, HSS. Tuners are excellent, neck is awesome. The current pickups are these sucky ceramic cheapos.

I have a standard tele with Texas Specials and a Traynor YCV20 amp and several stomp boxes that I use for country (twangy lead) and some some vintage rock stuff in one band I'm in, so I have that end of the genre spectrum well covered.

The other band I'm starting will be focused on original alternative, grungy, and heavier rock stuff. I'm looking for a nice balanced clean sound, reasonable volume balance between the pups, and something maybe medium hot for the crunch/distortion end of things. Looking for a nice creamy distortion with good articulation. I'm using a modded Peavey Classic 30 (Weber speaker, JJ EL-84 power tubes, 3 12ax7's - Tung sol in V1, Sovtec in V2 and JJ in V3. The mids on this amp are inherently somewhat high. Prior to the upgrades the mids were vicious. So high you could skin a frog with that thing! I usually leave the amp set to slight crunch on Channel 2 and stomp my Boss DS2 for heavier distortion. I have a Wampler Paisley drive from my country rig that should work to cover overdrive.

The number of pups on the market these days is staggering. After many hours of research I've come to the conclusion that I'm leaning towards Seymours. The sound bytes on the SD website are a little sketchy, so I'm looking for some advice from people with first hand experience with SD's. The key points are: well balanced tone for clean (a bit of mid-scoop is OK), good volume balance between pups, and a nice creamy smooth distortion.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated!
 
Re: Need some advice - pickups on Pacifica 112

I forgot to mention that I'll be using the Pacifica for the new band. Mainly because its inherently a little darker than the Tele.
 
Re: Need some advice - pickups on Pacifica 112

Welcome to the forum!

Well, for creamy and smooth, either the Slash humbucker or Alnico II Pro will do. Either isn't high output, but I think they maintain the 'creamy' thing at many different gain levels, which higher output humbuckers don't tend to do. Not being that high in output gets them to blend a little better with single coils. As far as the single coils, either Alnico II or the Five Twos would be my choices, for darker tones across many gain levels.
 
Re: Need some advice - pickups on Pacifica 112

As the Pacifica's nut and bridge are pretty narrow, a 49mm, 51mm and 53mm polepiece spread set is the one you want. The standard 52mm does not work that well on a Pacifica, specially the neck position and also the middle position as well for some people.

Kinman and Haussel make'em.

Also Zhangbucker offer all their strat sets with the three different polepiece spread as a custom order. I actually own such a set, so I know what I'm talking about.

/Peter
 
Re: Need some advice - pickups on Pacifica 112

Mincer said:
Welcome to the forum!

Well, for creamy and smooth, either the Slash humbucker or Alnico II Pro will do. Either isn't high output, but I think they maintain the 'creamy' thing at many different gain levels, which higher output humbuckers don't tend to do. Not being that high in output gets them to blend a little better with single coils. As far as the single coils, either Alnico II or the Five Twos would be my choices, for darker tones across many gain levels.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Seriously considering the Alnico Pro's in all 3 positions. Would you know off-hand if these will physically fit my Pacifica? Also, how would I go about wiring the HB? The guitar currently doesn't have a push/pull knob or switch to split the HB. Actually, I'm not even sure if this switch is even really required to run the pup, although I would assume it would give me added versatility. Thoughts?
 
Re: Need some advice - pickups on Pacifica 112

Discharged said:
As the Pacifica's nut and bridge are pretty narrow, a 49mm, 51mm and 53mm polepiece spread set is the one you want. The standard 52mm does not work that well on a Pacifica, specially the neck position and also the middle position as well for some people.

Kinman and Haussel make'em.

Also Zhangbucker offer all their strat sets with the three different polepiece spread as a custom order. I actually own such a set, so I know what I'm talking about.

/Peter
Click to expand...

I just did a comparison with my tele and there is a .8mm difference at both the neck and the bridge positions. Is that really enough to make a noticeable difference?
 
Re: Need some advice - pickups on Pacifica 112

+1 on the Screamin' Demon in the bridge.

I would probably go with an STK-4M in the neck and an SSL-1 standard polarity in the middle. Wiring would be noiseless in all positions except for middle only. I would split the bridge and neck when either is combined with the middle.

I would probably opt for a pair of Area 67s instead of the Duncan singles. In this case I think the magnet in the Screamin' Demon needs to be flipped. The bridge and middle would both be split when combined. All positions including the middle would be noiseless.
 
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Re: Need some advice - pickups on Pacifica 112

mikeman1 said:
Thanks! Seriously considering the Alnico Pro's in all 3 positions. Would you know off-hand if these will physically fit my Pacifica? Also, how would I go about wiring the HB? The guitar currently doesn't have a push/pull knob or switch to split the HB. Actually, I'm not even sure if this switch is even really required to run the pup, although I would assume it would give me added versatility. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

I am not sure how the Pacifica is routed under the pickguard- there are a few Pacifica fanatics here that might know...I know their single coils and humbuckers are regular-sized, though. I wouldn't worry about splitting the bridge humbucker, unless you want to, and this could be done with a a simple push/pull pot.
 
Re: Need some advice - pickups on Pacifica 112

mikeman1 said:
I just did a comparison with my tele and there is a .8mm difference at both the neck and the bridge positions. Is that really enough to make a noticeable difference?
Click to expand...
???

What exactly did you measure? My PAC has a 40mm nut, and the Tele should be 42mm. At the bridge, the PAC was 52mm and the Tele 54mm.

Take a ruler and measure the strings spread just over the center of the neck p'up. You should choose the closest polepiece spread to the actual string spread.

/Peter
 
Re: Need some advice - pickups on Pacifica 112

I posted the string width question to Yamaha tech support. Most of the new Pacificas come with SD's installed, so my question was are they specially made for Yamaha, or are the standard width SD's compatible. I'll let you know the answer when (if) it comes.
 
Re: Need some advice - pickups on Pacifica 112

mikeman1 said:
the new Pacificas come with SD's installed, so my question was are they specially made for Yamaha, or are the standard width SD's compatible.
Click to expand...
Only the higher models come with SD p'ups from the factory, so I don't know if the neck and the bridge are as narrow as the Pac 112J, the one you specifically asked for, and the one I actually had for almost four years.

/Peter
 
Re: Need some advice - pickups on Pacifica 112

Im thinking maybe a custom custom bridge and an alnico 2 pro neck if youre looking for, as you put it, "smooth creamy distortion" from a duncan pickup set. If you want the mids dialed back a bit as well as a bit more grit, a custom bridge and a pearly gates neck would do nicely. On the non-duncan side of things, i always recommend the bare knuckle juggernaut set. Ive never come across a set of pickups that truly do everything well. And i mean literally everything. Split coil tones sound very stratty, neck pickup is smooth but will retain attack and grit if u pick right. Bridge will do everything from super-djent to grunge to zeppelin to hendrix. expensive yes, but absolutely worth it.
 
Re: Need some advice - pickups on Pacifica 112

dxlxntxxlxr said:
Im thinking maybe a custom custom bridge and an alnico 2 pro neck if youre looking for, as you put it, "smooth creamy distortion" from a duncan pickup set.
Click to expand...

This is my absolutely favorite combo in a Strat-style guitar.
 
Re: Need some advice - pickups on Pacifica 112

mikeman1 said:
Got an answer from Yamaha tech support on the string width / pole width issue. They sent me this link:

https://www.seymourduncan.com/faqs/what-does-trembucker-mean-and-how-is-it-different-from-humbucker

So I'll need a Trembucker in the bridge position. The tech assured me that the mid and neck positions will be fine with standard size single coils.

Thanks for your help guys. Awesome forum!
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's what I would have thought, too.
 
Re: Need some advice - pickups on Pacifica 112

mikeman1 said:
So I'll need a Trembucker in the bridge position.
Click to expand...
That'll be the format that'll closer to the bridge's string spread. However, as this format is Duncan proprietary, you need to buy retail so it'll include the right p'up ring for the p'up.

mikeman1 said:
The tech assured me that the mid and neck positions will be fine with standard size single coils.
Click to expand...
"Fine" might be used in a little bit loose way here. In my own experience, once installing my SSl-1s in the Yamaha pickguard, the neck p'up rod didn't match the 1st string position so well, so it didn't sound as loud as the other five, and that was a problem for me. To make up for it I had to compress the hell out of that guitar, and the end result was way less-than-optimal. Using the Zhangbucker set with the three different polepiece spread was the ultimate solution.

For the record, the stock neck and middle Yammy p'ups have a 50mm polepiece spread for a reason. So, consider yourself warned, as chances are, you might run into the same problem as I did.

Of course, if you mostly play using only the bridge p'up with a lot of gain, then all the info I gave you just won't matter.

/Peter
 
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