Yamaha 102

My psuedo-tele was made sometime during the early to mid 90's..I bought it from a music store in Canada for ..if memory serves me correctly...very cheap!..The sound/price ratio at the time downright surprised me!I'm not sure where it was made..but build quality was very good....no worries there..The usual Tele frets/scale, with a maple/rosewood(fingerboard) neck and what looks like alder or, something like it, peeking through the chips in the thick black paint..1 volume and 1 tone..3 position Tele type switch...tele type pickups..typical tele bridge(newer type without side ridges)with stringthrough the body ..Ok tuners(they stay in tune!)

I live in the Cayman Islands.. I can be found playing a little country, soca, calypso, classic rock, reggae,folk,blues, R&B....works fine for all of these ..excellent with country of course..I've played it through a PODll..Nice!!..and currently, I playing through my Behrenger v-tone GMX110.(another fine inexpensive item!!).the usual single coil susceptibility to hum..but i will fix that soon with a rewire/shielding excercise..The sound that you can get from this baby is VERY VERY pleasing...good as any tele to my ears..i kid you not..not good for metal or other heavily distorted types of music with the stock pickups..but for all the genres mentioned above..perfect!..I've changed the bridge saddles to Graph Tech..and in addition to using Dean Markeley Blue Steel strings..Wow..As for dislikes..there is nothing to complain about...that would be ridiculous, considering how good the instrument sounds/plays for the price

No problems here..although I did "tweek" things a bit to suite my style/likes/dislikes

I have gigged with it on many occasions...no trouble other than broken strings..a thing of the past now with the Graphite saddle and stainless strings

N/a

Playing for 30 years...still not very good ..but can entertain myself and the odd paying patron..Lots of guitars..Ovation viper,' 83 strat 87strat, 88MIJ strat..Yamaha sc600, peavey Predator, ...and the list gooes on to the tune of more than 30 guitars..accoustic and electric 6 stringers.I remember comparing it to other guitars at the time in the music store..and choosing this instrument over the others...If you get the chance to buy one of these ..go ahead and get it...and get some Graph Tech saddles and good strings..and watch heads turn when "ya stroke dem dere strings" ...

Euan in the review below is describing a Yamaha Pacifica 120 rather than a Pacifica 102. In the numbering convention for Yamahas a 2 as second digit means 2 humbuckers no single coils(as in 120) and a 2 as third digit means no humbuckers and two single coils (as in 102). So take his review as a review of the 120, and mine as a review of the 102. (Anoraks off now.)

The 102 is also a tele shaped guitar, but with a chrome single coil at the neck and a slanted single coil in a tele styled bridge. Volume and tone controls. Basic, but excellent quality for a budget price. Just what you'd expect from Yamaha. It gets a 10 from me, because I have seen so many awful guitars in this price range with more features. The 102 is now discontinued (although the 120 is still in the 2004 catalogue).

I play jazz, blues, melodic rock a bit of C&W. I have been playing this Yam tele through a Roland ST 100, a big sophisticated 100 watt combo made by Roland Europe.

It has a lovely tele tone. A real quacky twang from the bridge. A nice tubey lead tone from the neck. And a good rhythm tone from the mixed position.

Splendid.

Superb thick black finish, single ply white pickguard, cool maple neck. Didn't but it new, but bet it played straight out of the box. For the price a definite 10. Real quality.

I've only used it for recording, bu have no doubt it would be great for gigging. Built like a brick outhouse.

I've dealt with Yamaha to sort out how the controls of an active bass worked. That was the UK Yamaha Kemble folk. Very helpful.

You can pick these up pretty cheaply. You can probably pick up a higher specced 311 (one humbucker at the neck one single at the bridge) for the same price as a 102, because a Pacifica is a Pacifica to most punters. If you can find a 102 buy it. It'll be a great little guitar that will give you good tone and will last. Yamaha Pacifica guitars seem to be thought of as student instruments, but they are great guitars in their own right.

This guitar comes pretty light-on for features straight from the shop, being a cheap and apparently fairly purpose-built guitar. What it does have is excellent, maybe because a lack of gimmicky rubbish leaves lots more room for quality. Comes standard with 2 humbuckers (which I never actually heard because I put in Seymour-Duncans before I even played it), a FANTASTIC fixed bridge, and basic electronics. The main thing about this guitar is that it's cheap, and it stays in tune.

It's hard to rate this guitar for its own sounds, having changed pickups etc.

All this stuff was pretty good for a cheap guitar. The natural finish is not the highest quality, but again, sufficient. Nothing about this guitar has drawn my attention, which means everything has been running well. I've not discovered any major flaws.

I've been playing this guitar live regularly for 5 years and it's never missed a beat. All hardware is still intact and doing its job. The fretboard at the higher frets (ie >15) is deteriorating, but that's more to do with my treatment of the guitar than any inherent quality of the guitar itself. Really reliable for me; I like it because it's fairly light and sits well. Fat fretboard, too, which I like.

Great guitar - my best friend! Even though I put in new pickups and routed a space for a single coil in the middle, this guitar stands up to all tests, especially for its tuning reliability.