New Guitar Day: Yamaha Pacifica PAC 311H

Figure 1a. Yamaha Pacifica PAC311H

 

Figure 1b. Yamaha Pacifica PAC311H

I’ve been wanting to try one of these for a few years now, but I’ve been nervous about two things:

The unusual pickup combination looks weird. It doesn’t bother me, but I was worried that it would after I’ve had it a while, if that makes sense. It seems like that would be the first thing I would get sick of. I love the idea of HS guitars (I have no use for a middle pickup), so I figured I could probably live with it.

I’ve also been worried about the resale value, in case I ever decide I don’t like it and want to sell it. I have sold many guitars over the years – sometimes I do OK, sometimes I take a bit of a hit, but I usually won’t buy something if I don’t think I can sell it without taking too much of a hit.

I found it on sale on Reverb recently, so I got it for a price I can live with (Manchester Music Mill shipped incredibly fast, the guitar was very well packed, they sent tracking info, they posted feedback right away – the transaction could not have gone better, so props to them).

A quick note: I got the PAC311 instead of the PAC611 for a few reasons: 

• I prefer unfinished/satin necks (the 600 series have a gloss finish).
• I prefer natural headstocks (the 600 series have matching headstocks).
  
• I figured that the main difference between the two series besides the finish are that the 611s have Seymour Duncans, but I can swap those out with pickups of my choosing, and for less money than the cost difference between the two series. 

Anyway, here’s my take, for what it’s worth:

Acoustically pretty decent. Some guitars sound great unplugged, some don’t. Wouldn’t be dealbreaker by any means, but I do play unplugged a lot, so it’s nice bonus that it sounds good unplugged.

The electronics are cheap, but good enough (Figure 2). I would say the stock pickups (G&B – budget pickups made in South Korea, same pickup brand that is in my PRS S2 Standard) are slightly lacking (Figure 3). It might be because I prefer hotter pickups, or it might be because they are lacking. But for my purposes, I don’t need to change anything. I will probably swap in a couple of different pickups for the hell of it, but because I enjoy doing that, not because I have a major problem with the stock pickups. (I actually didn’t remove the neck pickup, so I am only assuming that it’s also a G&B.)

Figure 2. Cheap but serviceable electronics

 

Figure 3. G&B pickup

The fret ends needed attention, but it’s pretty dry this time of year, so I was kind of expecting that anyway. I got a MIM Fender Deluxe Strat from Sweetwater a few years ago that was way worse than this guitar, so this issue isn’t confined to cheap guitars. I spent 15 minutes or so taking the bite off them with a file.

I do not like the Grover locking tuners at all. Lots of slippage, at least initially. Some of that was just that I put new strings on and they had to stretch, but some of the slippage was clearly the tuners (you know the sound, I’m sure). The next time I restring it, I will probably install regular tuners, or maybe just string them with a wrap this time. I also noticed that the tuners are crooked (Figure 4). I noticed the same thing when looking at one of the 600 series, which was a turnoff for a $600 used guitar. That also informed my decision to go with the 300 series. It’s probably something I can adjust, but if I’m going to install new ones, it doesn’t matter.

Figure 4. Crooked tuners

It comes with a Tusq nut, which I like. So far, no pings when tuning.

Regarding purely aesthetic stuff, I like the looks overall. The arm contour is more of hard angle, not smooth contour like a Strat’s (Figure 5). I don’t notice the feel, but I do notice the appearance a bit (but not when I’m playing it, so I don’t care). I also hate stickers on my guitars (Figure 6). I’ll leave the little decal that says PAC311H, but I removed the CE marking/Made In Indonesia sticker (which came off easily after I warmed it up with a lighter) and placed it on the inside of the control cavity backplate (Fig. 7). Nothing I need to keep, but can't hurt to hang onto it, I guess.

Figure 5. Contour is more of a hard angle

Figure 6. Headstock sticker

Figure 7. Relocated headstock sticker

Takeaway: I like it, and I’m sure I’ll have a lot of fun with it – playing, tweaking, modding, etc. For a few hundred bucks, I can live with whatever I don’t like about this guitar (or cheaply and easily tweak what I don’t like). So although I wouldn’t recommend any guitar, let alone this one, at the new price (I think these are $420 as of this post), I paid $330 for this and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it at that price, albeit with the aforementioned caveats.

 

 

 

Installing a Pickup and Preamp in a Yamaha FG700S Acoustic

Fig. 1. Yamaha FG700S

If this post isn't all that informative, that's at least partly because I didn't take that many photos. I was so intent on not destroying the guitar that it didn't even occur to me to take photos until after I successfully cut the first hole. But first things first.

I have an inexpensive Yamaha FG700S, which is a $200 guitar new, but I got mine used for $140. For a solid top guitar, it's hard to beat for the price, and I like this one a lot. However, shortly after buying it, I wished I had bought an acoustic electric. I put it on craigslist so I could upgrade to an acoustic electric, but got no bites. So I bought a $13 piezo pickup, and a $22 preamp and input on ebay. I didn't want to spend too much, because I felt there was a decent chance that I would destroy the guitar while trying to install the pickup, since I had never done this before. And I figured if I liked it, I could always upgrade to a better preamp and pickup.

The part I feared most, obviously, was cutting two holes in the guitar. Measuring and cutting a hole in a flat plane is easy, but the preamp goes on a curved section of the guitar. I measured the preamp housing several times, placed it along the edge of the curve in the guitar body to see where it would fit best. After finding a sweet spot, I used a razor blade to make little nicks in the finish marking the border of the section to be cut out. I then marked the border with masking tape (Fig. 2).

I drilled the corners with a 1/2" bit. I started to use a jigsaw to cut the hole, but the wood was too fragile. It made a sloppy cut. I tried a utility knife to score the border of the hole, and I kept scoring until it poked through. This didn't take as long as expected, and the cuts were pretty clean. I sanded the hole and inserted the preamp. It was a little tight here and there so I sanded it again and it fit. I didn't get photos of the preamp installation, so here is the during and after shots of the input and the after shot of the preamp:

Fig. 2. Cutting the hole for the input. Installed input and preamp.

I did the same exact thing with the input. Then I plugged the piezo pickup into the preamp and stuck it under the bridge.

Fig. 3. About to place the pickup under the bridge.

I should note that the preamp came with as under-the-saddle pickup (Fig. 4). I preferred the kind that mounts inside the guitar under the bridge (Fig. 3, above), so I snipped the input off the former and and soldered it to the latter and used that.

Fig. 4. Cheap under-the-saddle pickup

Everything's in, and although I made the input hole a hair too big (so there's not enough wood in one corner for the screw to grab), it went better than I expected.