Pickups for Yamaha Pacifica?

Crazy_Guitar

Crazy_Guitar

New member
Hey folks.

I own a Yamaha Pacifica 521.
That's an alder body, bolt maple neck, rosewood board, vintage tremolo, HSH guitar.

I have ordered a JB for the bridge. I shall order a Jazz for the neck too.
However, I am undecided as for the middle position!

I am looking for the classic Strat tone. I would prefer a stacked pickup.
I will be using split-5 wiring and a push/pull tone knob to tap the humbuckers in position 1 and 5.

What pickup would you reccomend?
SSH-52 stack custom model? STK-S4?

And one more thing: whenever the humbuckers are tapped (push/pull upwards and positions 2 and 5), I will have the "outside" coils active.
Do I need a RW/RP middle pickup?

Cheers...
 
Re: Pickups for Yamaha Pacifica?

Crazy_Guitar said:
What pickup would you reccomend?
SSH-52 stack custom model? STK-S4?

And one more thing: whenever the humbuckers are tapped (push/pull upwards and positions 2 and 5), I will have the "outside" coils active.
Do I need a RW/RP middle pickup?

Cheers...
Click to expand...

If, by "outside" you mean the screw coils, then yes. Although, remember that both pups you just mentioned are already noiseless.
 
Re: Pickups for Yamaha Pacifica?

Thanks!
I am aware they are already noiseless. However, I really like the Strat sound of 2 single-coils in paralell, out of phase! ;)

What about the pickup choices?
 
Re: Pickups for Yamaha Pacifica?

Good Choice but the JB would tend to over power those pups. With the same set up I would personaly go for the Stacks.. :)
 
Re: Pickups for Yamaha Pacifica?

I would go with the STK-S4 in the middle and maybe a 59 in the bridge. For my taste a JB will be a little too hot and bright for a Pacifica.
 
Re: Pickups for Yamaha Pacifica?

I have a JB in another alder/maple/rosewood Yamaha (RGX820Z) guitar and I love the sound! I won't change that. :D

Ok... I am a bit undecided. On the neck: Jazz or '59?

The guitar I mentioned above has '59/JB... would I be "repeating" sounds?
On the other hand, would the Jazz be too trebly on a Pacifica?
I mean... I really love the sound of a '59 on the neck of an alder/maple/rosewood guitar, but I was looking for a more "Strat" sound. I know I can't achieve it with a neck humbucker, but I'd like to be close enough...

As for the middle, has anyone tried the SSL-52 custom stack version?
 
Re: Pickups for Yamaha Pacifica?

Crazy_Guitar said:
Hey folks.

I own a Yamaha Pacifica 521.
That's an alder body, bolt maple neck, rosewood board, vintage tremolo, HSH guitar.

I have ordered a JB for the bridge. I shall order a Jazz for the neck too.
However, I am undecided as for the middle position!

I am looking for the classic Strat tone. I would prefer a stacked pickup.
I will be using split-5 wiring and a push/pull tone knob to tap the humbuckers in position 1 and 5.

What pickup would you reccomend?
SSH-52 stack custom model? STK-S4?

And one more thing: whenever the humbuckers are tapped (push/pull upwards and positions 2 and 5), I will have the "outside" coils active.
Do I need a RW/RP middle pickup?

Cheers...
Click to expand...

Do you absolutely have to have a stacked single coil? The Classic Stack Plus pickups are pretty good (I've owned a couple before), but for "classic Strat" tone, either Vintage singles or the Alnico II Pro singles are what I would use. There is also the vintage rails, but still....

As for RWRP, I'm not sure.
 
Re: Pickups for Yamaha Pacifica?

Well, the stack is not a requirement!
I almost never use the middle pickup alone, so, as far as I have all other 4 positions hum-cancelling, I won't have any trouble. High gain setups really tend to get noisy sometimes.
 
Re: Pickups for Yamaha Pacifica?

Crazy_Guitar said:
Oh... really? I thought they were.
Anyway, I still want them to be out-of-phase. :)
Click to expand...

Its a common misconception. :)

There's three things you can do to a pup to make it out-of-phase with another:

1. Wind it the opposite direction.
2. Reverse the magnet.
3. Reverse the hot and ground wires when you connect it.

Each one of those will reverse the phase. So, if you do two things, any two, you reverse the phase, then bring it back again. An rw/rp pickup is wound the opposite direction, (phase reversed), then has the magnets installed backwards, (reversed again). Thus, its in-phase.

Thats how it gets its noise-cancelling function. The noise in the air doesn't care about the magnets. Only the coil of wire. So by reversing the wind direction of one, the noise thats picked up out of the air is out-of-phase and cancels.

So now you need to make a decision. If you're going to use the middle out-of-phase all the time, don't get an rw/rp. Get a normal one. That way, your notch tones will still be noise cancelling. If you plan on using it OOP only occasionally, get the rw/rp. It won't be noise-cancelling when switched to OOP mode. You'll have done all three conditions above.
 
Re: Pickups for Yamaha Pacifica?

I mean... I really love the sound of a '59 on the neck of an alder/maple/rosewood guitar, but I was looking for a more "Strat" sound. I know I can't achieve it with a neck humbucker, but I'd like to be close enough...
Click to expand...

Try a PGn! Sounds killer in the neck of a Strat.
 
Re: Pickups for Yamaha Pacifica?

I hate to be mister negativity but I once had an agathis guitar. Pickups can save an agathis guitar, yes, but the guitar won't have any of that wonderful wood tone and life.

I had an ESP LTD EC-100QM and put the Hot Rodded Combo in it. Sounded great in that guitar, but the body wood didn't seem to contribute much to the tone.

No offense, but if I were you, I'd buy something in mahogany with some Duncan Designed pickups in it. Schecter has a bunch of these. Sure, they're not as good as Seymour Duncan pickups, but you can upgrade later, and the axe is actually worthy of upgrading the tone. A mahogany body guitar, not plugged in, sounds 10x better than an agathis guitar not plugged in, hands down. That or swamp ash or a good piece or basswood (axes costing $500 and upwards in my opinion, but I'm not sure where the price point gives you good tone woods with basswood). I have owned a Showmaster, and own a Lite Ash Stratocaster, and will essentially own another one once I upgrade the body of the guitar I'm buying. Swamp ash, good basswood and mahogany make agathis cry and run home to its mommy.

Just my 2 cents. I hadn't checked what woods that guitar was made from. I also had the same issues with my LTD guitar, which is why I sold it. Take it as experience from someone who tried the "cheap guitar with good pickups" adventure. If I knew then what I knew now, I would've bought two Lite Ash Stratocasters, and modded one to have two humbuckers.
 
Last edited:
Re: Pickups for Yamaha Pacifica?

TwinReverb said:
I hate to be mister negativity but I once had an agathis guitar. Pickups can save an agathis guitar, yes, but the guitar won't have any of that wonderful wood tone and life.
Click to expand...

If you read a bit more carefully, you'll see that the wood is alder.
 
Re: Pickups for Yamaha Pacifica?

Hey, come on!!! :D
I own a bunch of guitars! I can tell when a guitar is good enough for upgrades and when it's not worth it! :D
 
Re: Pickups for Yamaha Pacifica?

TwinReverb said:
My bad. Musiciansfriend must be wrong, again. They do that some times.

Yeah nevermind, alder is good.
Click to expand...

I know. :)
And my Pacifica is worth every upgrade! She really plays well!

One more thing: any opinions on the SSL-52? Can anyone here "compare" the SSL-52 to the STK-4? (Besides being hum-cancelling, of course...)
 
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