NGD - Yamaha Pacifica 604W (unexpected)

[waltschwarzkopf]

Hi guys,

Some of you say my previous post about if to trade or not. I took your advise and took it!
She is a beauty and in mint condition! Plays great and sounds great. It has Sperzel locking tuners and a Wilkinson VS100 floating tremolo. One volume and one tone with push/pull coil splitting. It has 4 single coils (Yamaha AlNiCo?? I assume) in HSS configuration, so the humbucker is actually two single coils together and connected in series, therefore the “split humbucker” is actually a real true coil.
I played some Santana, Deep and Van Halen to try it out with the trem and everything goes great.

What did I give up? An Ibanez RG321MH that I bought used (in good condition) with a new Ritter bag for 200CHF, the bag alone is worth 75CHF so I got this Yamaha for a bit more than $100 which for me is a steal!

Here are some pictures!








Thank you all for your advise!
Walter

P.S. If you live in Zürich and want to get together and jam, send me a PM.

 

[The JEM Ghost]

Re: NGD - Yamaha Pacifica 604W (unexpected)

Congratulations with your new guitar Walter! I recommended doing this trade so I am quite sure you'll have no regrets about it! Those Sperzel locking tuners and Wilkinson trem is really great hardware, you'll love it! It's a nice looking guitar too in my opinion and seems to be in near mint condition. Only thing I'd do is to oil the fretboard thoroughly (with Lemon oil for example or Dunlop's deep conditioner). Have fun with it mate! I'm really confident you won't regret this trade!

 

[waltschwarzkopf]

Re: NGD - Yamaha Pacifica 604W (unexpected)

Congratulations with your new guitar Walter! I recommended doing this trade so I am quite sure you'll have no regrets about it! Those Sperzel locking tuners and Wilkinson trem is really great hardware, you'll love it! It's a nice looking guitar too in my opinion and seems to be in near mint condition. Only thing I'd do is to oil the fretboard thoroughly (with Lemon oil for example or Dunlop's deep conditioner). Have fun with it mate! I'm really confident you won't regret this trade!

Thanks a lot! So far so happy! The hardware really is great and the alnico V pickups sound really good too. I want to clean it up put in new strings. I have a pack of D'Addarios 9-46 that I think will do the job.

 

[elelpe]

Re: NGD - Yamaha Pacifica 604W (unexpected)

That Pacifica is superior compared to the Ibby. Don't let it go. Happy NGD!

 

[Aceman]

Re: NGD - Yamaha Pacifica 604W (unexpected)

That is almost exactly like my Pac 712! I think those pickups are actually OEM from DiMarzio...


My 712 with Sperzel/Wilkenson could easily do some VH whammy dives and stay in tune. And the neck was amazing. I should have kept that guitar.


We need a total sound/feel report.


And Switzerland is one of mt favorite places in the world. I WILL take you up on that jam sometime!!!!! Just to play that!

 

[Will S-T]

Re: NGD - Yamaha Pacifica 604W (unexpected)

Fantastic score there mate. I love the neck profiles on those higher end Pacifica's.

Pics aren't that great, but it looks like a rich dark blue transparent right?

 

[waltschwarzkopf]

Re: NGD - Yamaha Pacifica 604W (unexpected)

That is almost exactly like my Pac 712! I think those pickups are actually OEM from DiMarzio...

My 712 with Sperzel/Wilkenson could easily do some VH whammy dives and stay in tune. And the neck was amazing. I should have kept that guitar.

We need a total sound/feel report.

And Switzerland is one of mt favorite places in the world. I WILL take you up on that jam sometime!!!!! Just to play that!

I know, it plays and sounds great! The pickups sound amazing, although I'm still figureing them out. Rolling of the volume on the neck gives very nice clean tones Metallica-like, the "humbucker" has some power that I use for Van Halen or heavy power chords, and when split it produces a very nice sound similar to Santana's tone.

I haven't tried massives dive bombs yet, but I think it won't be a problem. Sure, let me know when you come and we'll jam!

Pics aren't that great, but it looks like a rich dark blue transparent right?

Yes, transparent blue. The color is great, but kinda tricky to get it right in the pictures. Blue on direct light, dark blue on the shadow and if you look closely you can see the grain of the wood.

 

[Masta' C]

Re: NGD - Yamaha Pacifica 604W (unexpected)

Glad you made the switch! Told you they are great guitars...highly underrated based on the prices they go for!

I think those pickups are actually OEM from DiMarzio...

The 604W has Yamaha Alnico 5 pickups in it (singles and humbucker). They sound great, though!

 

[Aceman]

Re: NGD - Yamaha Pacifica 604W (unexpected)

When I tore my 712 apart - the neck and middle were definitely manufactured by DMZ. I KNOW the bucker was a PAF Pro - but mostly because I put it in....

Yamaha could have easily bought pups from DiMarzio whatever they are called.

 

[Masta' C]

Re: NGD - Yamaha Pacifica 604W (unexpected)

When I tore my 712 apart - the neck and middle were definitely manufactured by DMZ. I KNOW the bucker was a PAF Pro - but mostly because I put it in....

Yamaha could have easily bought pups from DiMarzio whatever they are called.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I've owned, played, modded and fixed up more Pacificas than anyone else on this forum, especially the 1989-2004 era stuff.

No bragging intended, I've owned the 512, 712, 721, 912, 921, 1212, 1221 and both an ultra-rare 1412 AND a 1421 from the 1989-1996/7 time period. I've also owned several mid-gen 3XX models and a 6XX plus two 8XX guitars from the later era and had one of the first 1XX models that came out, which I gave to a friend many years ago. I just sold off two 12XX, two 9XX one 7XX and a 5XX last year.

But what would I know?

Your 712 was from the early-gen Pacificas and would have come with Yamaha-made pickups originally. The pickups and the bridge are pretty much all that separated the 712 from nearly identical and slightly more expensive 912, which DID have OEM DiMarzio pickups (two stacked singles and a humbucker). If you had factory DiMarzios on a "712", then someone either swapped the pickguard/pickups from a 9XX/12XX model or you had a 912 body with a "712" neck.

Here's a blurb straight from Yamaha: "The Pacifica 712 was made from 1989 through 1992. At that time it retailed for $699, . . . It has a USA made neck, an Alder body, Yamaha pickups, a graphite nut, and self-locking tuners."

P.S. - Warmoth made the necks for the 7XX and up series throughout the '90s, even though the guitars say "Made in Taiwan", "Japan", etc. which is why they're so d@mn nice to play!

The 604W came out a few years later and has different Yamaha-made pickups that are shared with a couple other models from that era. If I remember correctly, the bridge "humbucker" is actually 2 single coils on that one. Like I said, solid pickups, but the 600 series didn't receive DiMarzio OEM, that's a guarantee.

 

[Aceman]

Re: NGD - Yamaha Pacifica 604W (unexpected)

Well, I got mine for $150 used at a pawn shop....so the Swap theory is entirely plausible...

 

[ColeJustesen]

Re: NGD - Yamaha Pacifica 604W (unexpected)

Yamaha makes excellent guitars! I own two SGs, a Studio Lord from the 70s, and the newer Revstar RSP20CR, and all of them are excellent. I used to own a PAC912 that I gave to a friend and a PAC512 that I sold. I gave my PAC912 to my buddy because he needed a backup guitar and because I needed to free up some space. It was a fantastic guitar! Those high end Pacifica models are amazing guitars!

Congrats on the new guitar!

Cole

 

[stevie_bees]

Re: NGD - Yamaha Pacifica 604W (unexpected)

I used to own one exactly like yours! I also had a red one too, using both when I was playing in a band in Cyprus. Excellent guitars and the consistency between them was why I gigged them for 2 years out there. Congrats!