Yamaha Pacifica Series PAC12 Electric Guitar; Metallic Blue

Guitar quality is Amazing! It is was neatly packaged and kept safe during delivery!! I appreciate the effort put into delivering such a delicate item!

Best beginner bundle I’ve come across. Items arrived well wrapped. Nothing broken and the amplifier worked magnificent. Guitar is light, strings were intact, ease to tune went smoothly. All accessories listed arrived. The whammy didn’t quite align to the position it needed to be it fell loosely. But a little water pipe tape helped to make it work without over tightening the whammy.

Great guitar. I did the research. I watched videos. They said it was a great starter a great start guitar very good quality

Looks great! After a little break in I swapped out strings to fender .09 set. For first few weeks I had to re tune every time I picked it up. Now keeps tune much better. I’m guessing it just needed time to “settle in”. This is the first time I have ever dealt with a guitar in this low of a price range, so this may be common with other guitars in the price rangeI’m old, so I’m used to tuneing my low E to a note from the keyboard then tuneing each higher string to the fifth fret of the lower string. Oddly, when I do this, the higher notes are “out of tune” when compared to an electronic tuner. I don’t understand this... maybe I’m going tone deft in my old age. Anyway, when I tune using the electronic tuner, the various riffs sound great so I’ll just keep wondering why and leave it at that.Sound wise, it is very good. I would compare the tone to a Mexican strat except at position 1 and 2 on the pickups. Hard to discribe but it’s different not bad. I will be honest here, I play my strat in position 4 almost all the time. 40 years ago, we didn’t have a 5 position pick up switch so I would spend time finding the point between 2 and 3 that was “ just right”. At any rate, IMHO, pos 1 and 2 are a “Yamaha” voice while 3 and 5 are a mex strat voice.The more I play this, the more I’m thinking that pos 5 and 4 are like a Les Paul sound. At any rate, I find my self using pos 1 and 2 for most of my play.The amp is only fair. But what do you exspect at this price? I have no way of testing it, but I think the wattage on the amp is over rated. Frankly, if you plug this guitar into a Roland Jazz Chorus, it is a whole different guitar. I use Yamaha amps for my surround sound systems. Combined with Elac speakers, they are fantastic, so I guess I expected more from the amp. My guess is that this just some made in china junk amp that they nailed the Yamaha name on. I don’t believe the people that design music stuff at Yamaha had any thing to do with it. I was hoping this amp would be in the same class as THR 10 C . It is not. ( if you want a real good practice amp, look at the Yamaha THR 10C)So, should you buy this set up? YES! I will say this is the best under $500 you can buy. If someone asked what I recommend to start out, this setup is one of the best you can get. The most important thing is that someone can play this guitar for many years to come. They won’t have to up grade the guitar, but will upgrade the amp.Blind taste test. Just for the fun of it, I had some friends over, and did a sound test. They could no see which guitar I was playing. I had a guitar my Nephew had bought made by Squier, this Yamaha, and just for the fun of it, and American made Strat. I played the same riffs on each guitar. I was not suprised that all of them picked the Squier as #3. I was also suprised that they had so much trouble deciding between the Strat and the Yamaha. In the end, with a good amp, this guitar can pl ay with the much more expensive guitars.

Love it! So glad that I chose this for my first guitar

Fantastic

This review is based on the package deal for the Yamaha Pacifica and comparing it with others like the Fender Squier both comparable in price and performance. If you’re looking for the best package, you should consider all options.Both the Yamaha and the Fender are awesome packages and as a package, they are both a draw. The Pacifica comes well packaged including a paper sleeve over the strings for protection. This guitar is a tad bit thicker and heavier than the Squier Affinity by Fender yet has a smaller body. Like other models, Yamaha provides a tapered front and back for comfort. The Pacifica is not as rounded at the edges like the Squier Affinity. The Pacifica body is shapelier with a longer extended horn and more robust center curves. The less rounded edges of the Yamaha make it easier to play sitting down as it hugs the legs better and doesn’t slide down like the Strats. The Squier Affinity is a more rectangular shape with less pronounced curves and a smaller horn traditional for a Stratocaster. Both are beautiful to play and to look at so this is a real draw.The Pacifica does something the Fender Strats don’t do. The humbucker on the Yamaha actually responds to the tone control when the switch is in the position 5 setting. You can really boost the highs with a 10 tone setting using the HB position. Even at setting 4 where the middle pickup and the HB both are active, there is a noticeable treble boost with the maximum tone setting at 10. The Fender Stratocasters have an extra tone control, one for the neck single coil and the other for the middle single coil. Neither tone control on the Strats work with either the single coil bridge pickup or the HB because Fender feels the proximity to the bridge where highs are naturally accentuated and the nature of the HB pickup doesn’t need a treble boost. The Fender Strats have the bridge single coil pickup angled down at the high E string so the treble is boosted only at the treble strings since the contacts with the treble strings are closer to the bridge. Yamaha defied the wisdom of Fender and simplified the tone control to only one control to handle all three pickups simultaneously, including the HB. Hats off to Yamaha since the treble boost is always a welcome advantage.The 15watt amp is perfect for the job. It is not a professional grade amp but more than suitable for home. It is the most compact and equally powerful amp as any other in a package deal.The Pacifica package is a superbly crafted package you will be glad to own. I am an avid Yamaha fan and this Pacifica will not disappoint. As an owner of a Yamaha piano and two Yamaha acoustic guitars, none, including Fender comes close in my opinion to the quality and sound of Yamaha. Yamaha unlike any other make detail their priority. The metallic blue is as beautiful to look at as it is to play. This package except for a low quality cable is everything you will need. Remember the Swiff Audio wireless transmitter and receiver for less than $80 will resolve the cable issue and make playing this guitar a real pleasure.

Great starter