Yamaha Pacifica 112

Made in Indonesia
22 frets
Volume knob, tone knob
S/S/H
Strat Style

I play old-school thrash metal. The humbucker is great for power chords and riffs, the single-coil neck pickup is great for shredding, IMO.

I use a plain mini Marshall amp. I have a distortion pedal, a Vamp effects processor. Sounds great on everything. I would recommend active pick-ups once you can afford it, preferably Seymour Duncan.

Everything's great. I personally don't use the tremolo (it de-tunes the strings). The neck is also lightning fast... almost like a Jackson :O

Owned it for years... I played live a few times. I don't have to switch between my Jackson DK1 and my Fender Stratocaster. However, with this guitar you get a less quality sound compared to the high end models just mentioned. I could also play around it cuz it's cheap. It's still like brand new. The color I own, you can barely see the scratches.

Great for the price. As a previous user stated, it kills the Mexican Stratocaster (I was planning to buy the HSS one)

'07 model PAC112. Made in Indonesia. A stratocaster-style electric.

- 22 frets
- single coil pickups in neck/middle positions
- Humbucker in bridge position
- Vintage style tremolo
- 1 volume/1 tone knob
- 5-way selector switch
- Alder body
- Bolt-on Maple neck
- Rosewood fingerboard
- Chrome tuners

Included a manual, a cheap cable, allen wrenches for truss rod and bridge saddles, and a trem bar. Mine is in "Lake Blue" which is a decent imitation of Fender's "lake placid blue".

These days I am primarily a bass player but bought this guitar to serve as a cheap electric to mess around on at home. Didnt want to spend more than $200 but didnt want to get a piece of junk either. Tried a ton of squiers, lower end ibanezs, etc. but they all just felt cheap and sounded dull. Finally went to a local mom and pop store and found the PAC112 hanging on the wall for $199. I knew yamaha made decent lower end stuff so I figured id try it out. I plugged in, hit a E chord, and knew I had found the right guitar.

For a cheap guitar it does a very good job at capturing the stratocaster sound. The neck and middle pickups give some nice bright strat-like clean tones...and also have a nice bluesy grit when played with some light overdrive.

The humbucker sounds a bit dull when clean, but really shines under moderate to high gain, providing good sustain and nice chunky palm mutes.

Of course these arent hot high-end pickups but for $199 I really cant complain. Might someday down the road swap the humbucker for a aftermarket, but happy enough with the singles to leave them in. Pretty low-noise for a cheap guitar...of course theres a bit of hum from the single coils but thats expected. The HSS configuration and 5-way swtich gives you a nice variety of tones.

Instead of using a crappy body wood like what is common on many lower-end guitars, the PAC112 is a nice solid piece of alder with a good weight to it.

Factory setup was actually not too bad...intonation was near perfect, though the action was a bit on the high side. I put on new strings, gave the truss rod a quarter turn to lower things a bit, and adjusted the pickups a tad. Neck is comfortable and appears to be a one-piece maple with a very light satin finish.

Fretwork is good, hardware seems solid. Went over the guitar and tightened up the tuners, input jack, etc...but everything was mostly in order. I thought replacing the tuners was going to be mandatory, but to my surprise the stock ones hold tune pretty well. I don't ever use the Trem bar, but id imagine that might throw it out of tune. Only cosmetic flaw I could find were some barely noticeable spots of excess glue by the neck joint...but for a $199 guitar, who cares?

With a good amp, I would feel comfortable using this guitar live. Hardware and finish seem like they will hold up as long as you don't thrash the thing. Might someday put in a duncan or dimarzio humbucker and throw in some new pots, but the guitar gets the job done in stock form. The quality body and neck would make it an excellent candidate for hot rodding or customization. This guitar is definitely worth the extra $50 over the entry level PAC012 in my opinion.

Ive been playing bass and guitar for about 8 years. I own or have owned in the past various gear from Fender, Yamaha, Cort, Peavey, Crate, Marshall, Tech 21, etc. This is my third yamaha instrument and ive noticed their lower-end models are generally solid and really good for the money.

It would make a great guitar for a beginner, or as in my case...a player with some experience looking for an inexpensive guitar to mess around, a platform for a project, or as a cheap backup.

I'd had this Yamaha Pacifica 112 for many years now...I may have one of the first made...not sure. Very easy to use.

I am still impressed with this guitar after all this years. It sounds great. For the ~$200 I paid for it...it's damn good.

Very nice guitar for the money. The action, etc...was great and still is.

Again...had it for years now and the only thing I've had to do is a simple repair on the jack as an inside connection came loose. Otherwise....great.

Never had to deal with them.

I have a lot of really nice guitars and I bought this as a living room knock around...and its way more than that. I also own some other Yamaha products (not guitars) and they seem to take real pride in their work. If someone is just starting out with their playing...or wants a handy guitar that sounds great and is inexpensive...this is it. I'm not gonna fool you...my "go to" guitars are my Eric Johnson strats or my PRS Eagle...but this $200 guitar will blow you away.

Mine is a 112 YNS (Yellow Natural Satin), White Pickguard. I love the look;-)
Strat Style, Vintage Tremolo. Don??t know exactly about when this was built, I think in 2005.
To understand my "point of review", please note that this was my first guitar (started playing guitar at the age of 35). So this is from an absolute beginner??s point of view!

I??m playing that guitar through a VOX AD30VT Amp Modeler and also through my Laptop (NI Guitar Rig 2). I??m trying my best at Blues and Rock and the guitar is never the limiting thing;-) This can produce fine tones from clean to heavily distorted . but I prefer the clean ones.
There??s no noise from switching between PUs.

My guitar teacher tries his best to teach me all the things that matter technically: Bend, Hammerons, Pulloffs, Slides, Chords. In the last two years I had to make some modifications to the guitar:
- Remove one of the three tremolo springs, adjust the remaining two. Reason is, this made bends a lot easier (and yes, I??m playing .009 strings)
- Adjust the neck bending and bridge for absolutely MINIMUM action. The small screws for adjusting action on the bridge had to be taken out so far, that I had to remove them, cut them with a Dremel and then reinstall them. Reason was, that I could not get any usefull right hand dampening with the screws so far out.

Both are no flaws, had to make the modifications to make playing easier for me personally.
Had some broken strings in the first few months. They broke exactly where they??re entering the body. Some filing solved the problem, no broken strings since then.

Well, don??t know about live playing, but I think this should withstand "normal" stress. I??m trying to treat it not too badly, and apart from the beforementioned string problem, I haven??t had any others.
As I still consider myself a beginner, I haven??t played a "gig" - but certainly I would NOT depend on it without a backup. Not because I don??t trust the guitar - simply because s... happens. No need for any risk.

Don??t know about warranty, really doesn??t seem that I would need any. Didn??t have any contact to Yamaha yet.

As I said: Bought that guitar as an absolute beginner, didn??t have a guitar in my hand before, so I had to completely rely on the words of the dealer - and after two years I feel that I got a lot of guitar for a VERY moderate price! I also own another Strat-Copy (Vision) just to have a guitar for practising, when I??m away. Well, the Pacifica is 2 times the price and 4 times better;-)
Also own a Ibanez Talman for those simple 3-5-Chord-Songs;-)
If lost or stolen, I would definitely buy another Pacifica 112, and again in the YNS-finish, which I think simply looks better than anything else.
I also play a lot of my teacher??s guitars, mostly Fender Strats - and there??s only one which plays better for me. Ironically it??s his cheapest Mexican Strat;-) So, forgetting about the price, the Pacifica would get an 8 or 9, but for the price this is a 10!

A no-frills basic strat-style electric with a solid alder body that sounds great unplugged. In fact, I didn't even plug it in before I purchased it. I personally like the one volume, one tone pot configuration, nice and simple.

Came with two single coils, one humbucker which worked, but I eventually changed. I tried to use the whammy system, but finally gave up and I don't touch it. Seemed that no matter what I did the tuning went out of whack. I even put a locking nut on it.

One of the first things I did was replace the saddles with Graphtech String Savers as the originals were cheap and ate strings.

Don't know what year it was made and don't care, I've had it for two or three years. Neck is maple with a rosewood board. Plays very well.

Like I said, it sounds great unplugged, that and the way the neck plays convinced me to buy it. The pickups sounded OK, but no character to them, very mid-range with no definition. I found the same thing with both the humbucker and the singles, although they worked fine, maybe just my own bias.

While my real love is blues, I play a lot of different styles depending on the gig and this axe functioned as a backup quite nicely before I changed out the electronics. I use it with a Fender SuperChamp and a Musicman RD 112 (running simultaneously). Effects vary but usually a couple of Tube Screamers, delay, chorus and a Trace Elliot compressor/boost. The guitar was a bit noisy when I got it but I shielded the hell out of it and it worked fine. The other thing I finally did was replace the three pickups with two el cheapo (price-wise) P-90's off e-bay. I had to shield the pickups too, but now the guitar really sounds great, especially with both pickups on. Rather than a just a backup to my regular axe (a home-made FrankenTelly with an extra mid pickup and a series switch for "humbucking" mode), it has its own sound which I tend to use for blues and heavier rock stuff. Now that I've re-worked it I can't think of anything I dislike about the sound. It doesn't sound very country, but that's OK, it kicks ass on rock 'n roll and has plenty of growl and bite on the blues.

It was set up very nicely from the factory, surprising in a low-budget guitar. Pickups were set up decently and action was great. Work "under the hood" looked fine, routing and all that. The volume and tone pots looked kind of cheap so I changed out the volume pot and will eventually change the tone when I get around to it. The only complaint I had was that the neck was very slightly off kilter to the body so that the strings were a little too close to the bass side of the fingerboard, especially higher up the neck. A lot of people probably wouldn't notice, but I found that every once in a while I'd push the low E string right off the neck when playing high up on the neck. My solution was to put a little brass shim in the neck cavity which pushed the alignment over ever so slightly. Haven't had a problem since.

Oh yes, the output jack is set into a plastic plate which seems to move a little and I've had to re-solder the jack wires. I'll probably replace it with a metal jack plate at some point, you can get replacements for a couple of bucks.

I've played gigs with the guitar lots of times and the only problem I've had is with that jack plate. Otherwise it's been good.

I think the hardware will last, its not the best, but it's fine for the price. I don't have any problem with the finish at all, tough and looks like it'll last, although I really wouldn't care anyways. As long as it plays and sounds good who cares about the looks. (Besides, don't dings, scrapes and peeling paint add MOJO?)

Strap buttons are OK, although I think I glued wood slivers into the screw holes to tighten them up.

Yeah, I think I can depend on it, although I generally don't gig without backup.

Warranty, hmmm... nobody said anything about a warranty... Seriously, I used to do repair work for a music store, so unless it's something way out of my league (or a really expensive or vintage guitar) I would just repair it myself. In this case, not expensive and definitly not vintage - I can do anything I want to it and I did. That's the beautiful thing about owning a low budget replaceable guitar!

I've been thrashing away for about 40 years now, I should have stopped a long time ago, but people keep offering me money.

Other gear: Yamaha AEX 500, '62 Guild C-100, "73 Ovation acoustic, '83 Fender Elite Strat, Frankentelecaster, Fender electric mandolin, Harmony arch-top, 12 string Fender piece of crap with an electric pickup and whatever else I can hide from my wife in the closet.

Yeah, I'd probably look for another if it was stolen or lost. I'd probably look for a used one this time, although I feel I got a good deal. The thing about this axe, and the reason I'm writing this review, is that for the price, it's really a great guitar. I've built a few solid bodies in the past and I don't think I could build one for any cheaper than what I paid for this.

All in all, despite the things I've mentioned, I really like the guitar a lot, in fact it's my main practice guitar. It sits beside my spot on the couch and I play it every day. I'd say that if someone wants a beginner's or intermediate axe, you almost can't go wrong with these things. Plus, if you want to do a shield job and swap out some of the parts like I did, you can have something pretty nice for a low price. Another thing is that the pickup cavity is one big rectangle, so if you want to change out pickups you can do any configuration you want without having to router out the body.

The only other thing I should mention is that the neck, while it feels really nice and everything, seems to bend a little easier than my other guitars. If I play an open low E and bend the 2nd or 3rd strings, the E takes a real dip in pitch. I don't know if the truss rod needs a little tweak to counter that because I've never touched it, but otherwise it plays really well. Not a big deal, but it seems to be more pronounced than my FrankenTelly. When you consider the price, at least a solid 9.

Made in Indonesia, 2003 I believe. Standard natural finish, S/S/H configuration. Alder body and rosewood fretboard. One of the most comfortable necks I've ever played on.

I never really noticed how good this guitar sounded until I played it again a few years after I put it down. I had used the Pacifica as a starter guitar and transitioned on to a Yamaha RGX 420, a Tokai Talbo, and a Fernandes Ravelle. I dusted it off one day when none of my other guitars were available, and I was amazed at the cleans that came from the neck and mid coils. Absolutely awesome for cleans/blues. The humbucker is a little weak when compared to my other guitars, but it's perfectly good for a starter guitar.

Setup is great, though a few years after buying it the input jack is loose. I'm not sure if this is due to a cable or what, but I have to get it fixed. Not that big of a deal though.

Very dependable, and I'm not afraid of banging up the finish like on my Ravelle.

No idea, though guitars are guitars. Usually they won't fall apart on you, since it is just a big slab of wood.

I've been playing for a few years now, and I consider myself to be fairly knowledgeable about guitar hardware. This is a great starter guitar, probably one of the best you can get. Yes, it definitely has it's problems. The humbucker is a little thin sounding and the single coils are noisy when distorted (single coils are noisy anyways, but some are less noisy than others). However, the hardware is great, as good as anything Fender can throw out. That's the most important point. You can always throw in some new pickups/tuners to get a guitar that sounds as good as any top of the line Strat. As for me, I'm doing just that, and scalloping some of the upper frets. Cheap Yngwie Strat, here I come.

-Strat-Style
-22 Frets
-SSH
-08/15-Tremolo-system
-1 Volume and 1 Tone-knob

A better tremolo and one more tone-knob would be nice.

This guitar suits 99% of my style:
- Funk-Rock (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
- Alternative Rock (Incubus)
- Blues Rock (Cream, Eric Clapton, Big Deal, Jimi Hendrix)
- Hard Rock (AC/DC, Led Zeppelin)
This guitar is very good for everything except for very Heavy Metal. I'd recommend a Jackson or Ibanez for those music styles.

The Neck-Singlecoin gives you a very beautyful clean sound.

If you use the Neck in combination with the middle you can get some very nice sounds like Hendrix on Castles Made Of Sand.

The middle pickup also gives a nice clean sound but with less bass. I use it for funky-stuff. Very cool.

The middle pu in combination with the bridge pu (which is a humbucker) also is cool for funk. If you pull up your gain you will get a nice vintage-distortion.

The bridge humbucker on his own gives you a great distorted sound and I mean really great for vintage and for heavier distortion.

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The guitar isn't noisy at all.

Everything fine here.
The input started to get loose after a week, but this is a really easy fix and now everything is perfect.

I bet I could go play some golf, beat up some punks use throw it from the 5th floor and still would be able to play a gig. (I never really tried though ;))

Once my guitar fell from the wall because I didn't assure it right. Didn't change anything, this guitar IS durable.

Never got that experience.

Been playing for 2 years (atleast 2-3 hours a day).
I played guitars that cost three times more money but don't sound that great and are that easy to play.
How the hell can this guitar cost 230 bucks? If I would have bought that guitar for 400??? or more, it still would be great for that price!

If you search a guitar for less than 300 bucks and you DON'T play heavy metal, here you go. BUY IT!

made in indonesia
22 fretz
ssh
maple body
translucent green looks best
strat style
i wished it had another tone knob

kicks mexican fender's ass. kills squier. beats epiphone

sound very good 4 a cheap guitar.

hmm, it sounds like a american strat. i am not lying.

i dont kno how yamaha sells this crap so cheap

perfect. own it 4 about a month now. i have experience with american vintage guitars. d body is just as good as any of them. another thing is the neck, betta dan d fender jaguar which i thought has d best neck

i played at a gig once. it buzzed and my frens laughed. its unpredictable when its goin 2 buzz annoyingly but hey, everything else is perfect

nah

i am playin for 3 yrs
i would buy 2 more if it was stolen - keep 1 for a spare
i love d neck
i wanted 2 buy a cheap guitar so i wont have 2 use d vintage ones. i compared it 2 every mex strat and every epiphone.
my family owns a les paul, fat strat, sg and a jaguar. pac112 is just as good as any of them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dont know the year it was made, i suspect around 2000, or more recent...my model is the 112MX which is the natural finish available with black pickguard as opposed to white and a maple fretboard instead of rosewood. standard pacifica stuff otherwise

This was my first guitar and i bought it off a friend for #80 which was a bargain really, and straight off the sounds were great even through a crap little practise amp. neck pickup perfect for funk and blues stuff, bridge pickup great for rock. i mostly use this guitar to play metal and hard rock, and if this is what you intend to do i can certainly recomend this guitar, and what i did to it - i swapped the stock bridge humbucker for a kent armstrong motherbucker (ceramic ultra high output double humbucker) and put locking tuners on it, and set the bridge up so i had some headroom to move the whammy bar upwards. it now stays in tune almost as well as a floyd rose, and the pickup made a huge difference, im now considering taking it out and putting it in my les paul.

never had a problem with any of it at all, and i rele dont look after this guitar, seems to manage fine by itself

its never ever broken

never had to deal with them

if i had this stolen, altho i hav moved over towards gibsons i would probably buy another simply for the versatility

A very VERY nice guitar for the money, I tried a lot of squiers etc.. before getting it. Cost #170ish from Sound Control in Bristol.

Obviously nothing completely different from most guitars (first appears to be standard S/S/H not-quite-strat-copy), but what there is is brilliant.

Proper solid wood body (even sounds good unplugged), very nice mellow neck singlecoil that still is very clear, more trebley middle pickup, and bridge humbucker which is very good for distored tones (although i reccomend using neck for cleaner tones).

Out of the box was very well set up, plays incredibley, flawless finishing, stays in tune very well.

Big variety of sounds, it copes with everything i play (mostly rock, modern stuff, old stuff, even rare bits if jazz).
Neck pickup is favourite, can get almost any tone out of it. Its warm but also clear enough for notes to stand out, and its dynamically responsive.
Middle/Neck position gives slightly warmer bassier tone (pickups wired like humbucker) which is nice for rythmn parts
Dont use middle pickup much, its another nice singlecoil, and is slightly more aggressive, but still well balanced.
I used to use the humbucker most, as its very good at distorted tones, and is again responisve to playing dynamics. But now i use it less as my musical taste has changed, and it can be a little noisy and too strong in mids (can be sorted on amp eq easily though)

I believe that Yamaha set up all guitars they make as they leave the factory, and from this example they appear to do a brilliant job of it. Action was perfect, finish was flawless, pickups balanced just right to provide wide variety of sounds. Volume pot is a little noisy, but it doesnt notice unless you arent playing.

Built pretty solidly.
Never gigged it but in two and a half years of bedroom and rehearsal use its never broken.
A few minor straches from general clumsyness (smashing it into various objects at people) but Ive found you need to hit it pretty hard to even mark it (it remarkably wasnt even scratched when i dropped it down a staircase).

Only problem ive ever had is when i broke the output jack by bending lead (easily fixed though, simply unscrewed jack and bent metal back into place).

Never dealt with them. Never had to.

Brilliant guitar especially for beggingers or anyone wanting a very versatile guitar.
Superbly desgined and built, excellent value (beats many guitars costing over #400)
If it were stolen i would purchase another as soon as i could, this guitar is most worthwhile purchase ive ever made - i definately recommend it.