Yamaha PAC012DLX Pacifica Series HSS Deluxe Electric Guitar Vintage Sunburst

I returned a Fender Squier Sonic Stratocaster HSS Limited-Edition and bought this. The Squier felt cheap, wouldn't stay in tune and had terrible fret sprout and sharp ends. Don't get me wrong. I have a Mexican player strat that is wonderful. I wanted something cheap to keep at the office to practice on. The build quality on this Yamaha is very good for the money. Stays in tune, no sharp fret ends and just feels solid. The vintage sunburst finish is excellent. The pickups could be better. The front and middle have a slight buzz. Nothing terrible. The back pickup has no buzz at all. Overall i am pleased with this guitar.

This guitars best feature is definitely its build, the neck, body and fretboard all feel very nice straight out of the box, very little setup was needed. It's a very good guitar to encourage people to play, great for practice and the pickups are decent enough to play small live venues.

This is the best Fat Strat type guitar I've ever owned. The neck feels great, it is very comfortable to hold and the burst finish with the black pickguard/pickups makes it the best looking Pacifica I've ever seen. If I had to choose again, I would buy this exact same one. It sounds and plays very well out of the box. I've been playing on and off for over 40 years, mostly classic rock like AC/DC, Deep Purple, Rush, ... etc. Yamaha needs to make more of these available as they can be hard to find in this exact config! Their new models with the partial pickguards and some with mixed nickel/standard pickups look odd to me. I've modified mine to make it even better for me. The trem is set up decked so other strings don't go flat when bending. I've slightly scalloped the fretboard for better bending/vibrato ...I also replaced the pickups with Dimarzio Air Classic Neck and Virtual Vintage Blues to brighten things up (they sound great!). I've also disconnected the middle pickup and screwed it low for less interference. Finally, I smoothed out the fret ends with emery boards

the thicker strings buzz especially on the thicker strings but it's a great excuse to turn your amp up. It stays in tune decently and sounds good.

After getting flooded out in a freak rainstorm at a Farmers Market I decided I needed an inexpensive guitar to play at outside venues. (Also at some gear unfriendly open mic's I could name.) Something I could play - yet not greive if it got damaged. After reviewing the usual suspects I settled on the Pacifica either 112V (not available) or the 112DLX - Straight out of the box, the DLX was set up to spec, no adjustments needed (but I still liked to fuss over it a bit), surprising good looks, and a good variety of sounds and plays nicely - what more could you ask for?

it's a very nicely constructed machine for the price .Has a warm sound as it has ceramic pickups. good to have a different tone than my mexican strat hss. it is nicely constructed with low action and was easy to setup. the trem system is not as bad as described on internet but is surely not meant for dive bombs.