Yamaha Pacifica 311 Mike Stern

You can basically read all of the other submissions for all of this. A

I play anything from jazz/blues through to stoner rock and it suits everything quite well, more so the jazzy and bluesy than the heavier stuff. No noise at all yet (fingers crossed). Really crispy blues tone and a beautiful warm jazz tone suit me fine!

Set up is OK straight out of the box, but I will be changing to a higher gauge of string (I think these are 9's). The wood is nice and you get a truckload of sustain outta this baby.

Used it live without backup and it's stood the test well. I have literally had no problems at all with it. I think it will last too!

Never dealt with em.

I have been playing for 3 years and this is my second electric (first one was a piece of crap ashton.) I would buy this again if it were stolen or lost without any hesitation. I compared it to a mexican telecaster and whilst the fender played better - i like this sound much more.

Guitar manufactured during 2001 in Taiwan, tele body style in transparent orange. 22 frets, laminated top, one volume, one tone, three-way switch. Neck pick-up is a full-sized humbucker and the bridge is a single-coil sized hotrails style, no particular make indicated on the pick-up themselves, passive electronics. Maple top on alder body. Tele style bridge, no-name tuners of good quality. The neck has an excellent shape that is fairly thin, but not flat. Allen wrenches provided along with the standard cheap cable.

The guitar has an aggressive mid-range sound that works well with both clean and distorted tones. Primarily played through a Marshall JCM 900 half-stack, Behringer Blue Devil, with a Johnson J-Station serving as the pre-amp. Sound is less twangy than a standard tele due to the pick-ups and has a great deal more mid-range. However, there is just enough brightness so that a bit of the traditional tele sound remains. (A tele on steriods would be an apt description)

Fairly well set-up, but had to be adjusted. Equipped with 9's which immediately were changed to 10's. Overall the guitar was set-up quite well, no flaws and no major adjustments were needed. Top is bound rather nicely with no raised areas, gaps, etc.

Solid guitar as are most Yamaha's I have ever played. Good hardware, no corners cut. Excellent glossy finish with no flaws.(I checked thoroughly) I would have no problem playing this guitar at a gig with no back-up. Solid enough to serve as a canoe paddle, table, club, etc.

No experience with Yamaha.

I have been playing for 10 years. I have a wide variety of guitars and amps.(Marshall, Red Bear, Charvel, Behringer, SWR, and Laney Amps. Ibanez, Gibson, Kramer, G&L, Tobias, OLP, Danelectro, Yamaha, Gretsch, Tacoma, Ovation, Rickenbacker, Squier, and various other guitars that I put together using a variety of parts) If lost or stolen I would replace immediately. For $200 you cannot go wrong.

This is a year 2000 Mike Stern series yamaha. Comes with 2 standard humbucker pickups.

I play alot of stuff ranging from Jazz to Metal and this guitar really cant handle much variety. You can get a decent metal sound out of it, but theres one drawback; this guitar has loads and loads of feedback. I find it difficult to jam with my band sometimes which sucks. Besides that though the clean is great. It sounds very bright and clean but the bridge pickup is a little muffly for me. If you like blues, then this is a excellent guitar for you. You can get some sweet Jimmy Page sound out of it. The sustain is excellent on this thing too. It has a very nice feel to it.

The action on it is ok. Straight from the factory, it is a little high, but with the right tweekin it is pretty nice. As i said before the sustain is great on it. You can really get some good blues jams out of this guitar. The finish is ok on this guitar, nothing special though.

Well, here is the bad part. So far i have had 2 problems with it, luckily they werent anything major though. The ground wire for the pickups came loose and created a very annoying hum. I am not sure if this is a re-occuring things with this model or not. Also my bridge pickup fell out. The screws werent put in correctly and it just fell right out durin a jam session. Besides that though, everything seems to be fine.

havent messed with customer support

Overall this guitar is not bad (very good for the money), but i didnt like how it got so much damn feedback. And, its not your usual feedback, its the loud high-pitched kind. grrr. i am off to other bigger and better axes.

Year 2000 Mike Stern, Tele body, Korean axe. 22 medium frets with laminated maple top over alder body. 3 way selector with volume and tone pots. Humbucker neck, hot rails bridge no-name pickups. Ashtray bridge/string thru body. No name tuners but awesome neck (the best feature) Kind of a flat U shape but perfect. Cheap cable included.

I purchased this axe for the blues but the stock humbuckers have made a Brit of me fast. Push this baby through a Tech 21 Sansamp. Wanted the Tweed sound but can't stop playing the Marshall settings. Nice an quiet due to better than average stock humbuckers. Rich and thick on the neck, thin on the bridge lead but nice compliment to the neck for a unique sound. Makes people turn their heads who expect the Tele twang but get the humbuckers mids. Not a hell of alot of variety but I'm looking for the best sound the axe can give me.

Action was good for me. (A little high but I play slide). PU's were fine. No noticible flaws except the lack of sting trees. Cheap nut but it's black so it doesn't look that bad. (Nothing worse than a cheap white plasit nut) The key to this axe being a worth it is the neck. Perfect for me. (To each his own) Nice sustain with the neck and the Alder body. I put some Thomastik Brite Wires on it and it made all the difference.

It's a solid body Tele body so it's, well, solid. The hardware is solid as well. A sure headbuster in a bar fight.

Yamaha is the biggest music company on the planet. I haven't dealt with them yet but I know how to get what I want if there's a problem. I'm sure their customer service sucks at the first level but if you push (with patience) you can get them to act.

I'm real happy. I like to let the guitar find it's best sound. This is a Brit axe in Fender drag if you let it find it's own way.

Stylized tele body, maple on maple neck, 25 1/2 inch scale length. Mine is the orange see through finish. I love it. Tele style bridge, full humbucker in the neck position Duncan hot rail in the bridge position. I too purchased mine from Musicians friend on a web blow out. Probably the best $199 guitar I have ever owned.

I really like the sound of mine, it did take some tweaking to bring things in balance. The neck pick up was way too loud, I lowered it a lot. Raised the bridge pick up but found out it shouldn't be too high on the treble side, the tone really changes if you play with this a bit.

This is the worst part. Straight out of the box it needs a lot of work. Way too much relieve on the neck, action unbelievably high. with a little bit of love and care, and a hell of a lot of adjusting, every thing fell into place nicely. I am rating this as a 1 as an indication of how it came out of the box, it is not indicative of how it eventually set up. With the work I put into to it, it now rates a 9. I do like the neck shape and the flat radius fret board.

Who can tell? It seems well built, nothing wimpy here.

No idea about the support Yamaha offers but I have full faith in the guys at Musicians Friend.

Again there are two aspects to this, the way it was delivered and the way it set up with a little work. I really do like this guitar, I don't mind tweaking a guitar a bit, this one needed a hell of a lot of tweaking but it came out great! I like the sound the feel and the look.

Bought this about a month ago on the Musicians Friend web site. Web blowout for $199. What a deal! Alder body (I think...due to light weight) with laminated top and very nice binding (mine's blonde). Two pickups. A full sized humbucker in the neck and a hot rail style single coil sized humbucker in the bridge. String through body design. Tuners seem fairly stable, although I always install Sperzel locking tuners on guitars that I keep (this one is a keeper). The body style is tele....but much more comfortable than a tele. Sculpted in the back. This guitar just feels great in your hands.

The neck pickup has a nice round tone. No complaints here. The bridge pickup was (to my delight) nice and bright for a humbucker, tight lows, rounded out mids, and nice highs....nice airy tone....HOWEVER, once I turned up the volume and added some distortion this thing made my Jazz Chorus 77 amp squeal like a stuck pig. I will be replacing the bridge pickup with a Bill Lawrence pickup soon (perhaps the L-280). Warning you can not play this guitar at gigging volume with the current bridge pickup unless you stay completely on clean tones for the entire gig. By the way, this axe does very well in the sustain department.

Impeccable. More of what I would expect from a $1000 guitar.

Guitar appears to be very well built. No problems yet. Nice job on the bridge, chrome knobs, stunning finish. Stays in tune fairly well, I expect adding the Sperzels and a graphite nut will make it even more stable than it is.

No exposure to Yamaha tech support.

I've been playing for about 15 years. I play classic rock to metal depending on the gig. This guitar has been a pleasant surprise. If you can get one on the $199 web special do it.....you won't be disappointed. I believe this guitar lists for about $550. I love the neck on this guitar the most........simply incredible!

Made in Taiwan. Orange Stain Finish. Ash veneer/alder body. Maple neck. Standard size humbucker in the neck. Dual-blade in bridge. Fairly light weight.

I think the guitar sounds great with the stock pickups! The neck pickup is great for rock and blues and the bridge pickup has that familiar twang. When used together, they are well balanced. They are fairly high output. This guitar would useful for a wide variety of sounds including rock and blues. Even country. The only thing it won't do is shimmering clean stuff. You would need a single coil guitar for that. For those who want to upgrade, a Dimarzio in the neck and a Bill Lawrence in the bridge would probably sound awesome.

This guitar was perfectly set up out of the box. Action is great. The finish is far better than I expected with binding on top. The tuners are fine. The controls feel solid. The neck is wonderful. What I have come to expect from Yamaha instruments. They do a quality build and set up.

I believe this guitar is rock solid and is built to last a long time. I would gig without a backup (though it is good to have one in case you break a string).

I haven't had to use customer support. It comes with a limited lifetime warranty.

This guitar is a STEAL at $199.99. Retail is $549. Usually selling price is $379. You can't go wrong. It blows away most guitars selling for double that!

Brand new, Maple neck w/ medium jumbo frets, satin finish. The body is "orange stain", Telecaster style single cut away. High gloss finish w/ binding. Finish is acceptable. Ash veneer top. Decent sealed Gotoh style tuners. Humbucker in neck position, single coil in Telecaster style bridge w/ string through body feature. One volume, 1 tone control w/ 3 way switching.

I was hoping for something that looked a little different than my Tele and the price was right. I play Rock, Blues and some C and W stuff. My main amp is a VOX AC30 (doesn't belong to me yet...long story) and a VOX Pathfinder.

I am not happy with the sound of this guitar. The bridge pick up is acceptable, but the neck humbucker is cheap, hollow and has no low end or shimmer. It sounds like a very inexpensive, crappy pick-up w/ enough mid range to make my cat get horny. The worst tone I've experienced to date. The 99 dollar strat copy I bought for my kid has more thump than this piece of shit.

This folks is my biggest bone to pick! The neck socket doesn't fit properly. I can insert a Fender Heavy pick between the upper side of the neck and the body. The strings do not cross over the neck centered. When I removed the neck to shim (due to bad out of box set-up, no big thang..) I was amazed to find no neck pocket at all! The back end of the neck pocket is open to the pick-up cavity. There's a little scrap of wood glued in place, to butt end the neck in place.
This was a first for me. The nut width is smaller than expected. Hard to finger chords w/ larger hands.

Also a first...the string saddles are the wrong width. The bridge is designed for the same width as an American Strat. The saddles provided are the narrower import width. Again I can insert a pick (thin) between the saddles. They float all over, there's isn't even a little trench for the adjustment screws to travel in. The underside is smooth. A set of Graftecs(sp?) will run 40 bucks, no thanks...

The fret work is pretty good and the action is nice. To bad the rest of the guitar is junk. I really wanted to like this thing...

Due to the above mentioned flaws, I wouldn't leave the house with this guitar. It might make a nice kayak paddle however.

I'm sending it back for full refund.

I have been playing off and on for 20 years. I currently own a Fender Tele, a DeArmond M72 and S73 (recent acquistions), a Fernandes Strat, a Fernades Native and a Fernandes Retro-Rocket. I also have a Yamaha 12 string that I've had forever.
I would not recommend this guitar at any price. It's possible that I may have received a dud, but how can you have faith in a company that has this level of QC? I would keep your money and buy a MIM Tele or even a Squier. I see some paid around 350(OuCh!*#$). That would more than cover a good MIM.

Most likely a 2000 model. Alder body/Ash veneer top. 22 fret maple neck with a maple fretboard. Full size humbucker in the neck and a "Hotrail" type bridge P.U., 1 vol. 1 tone and a 3-way switch. Just like all tele-types what ya' see is what ya' get.

I use this with many amps (i.e.) a Sunn T50C, Fender Princeton Reverb II, Fender Super Champ, Marshall Studio 15 and a Laney 30 watt Pro Tube head. Out of the box it sounds fairly good, though I do feel as with most players that the pickups are a bit lacking. But stock it has a pretty full sound. Strings thru body gives it pretty good resonation. New P.U.s will most likely boost my rating

Factory set-up is not that impressive, but me like most other players will always get it professionally set up. Out of the box it is very playable. The finish is exceptionally smooth and even, though the grain on the veneer top does look very "manufactured". The neck is exceptionally straight but the frets are a little sharp on the edges (a good set-up will take care of that). Hardware is acceptable though I do plan to change the tuning machines, bridge saddles and most likely the pots and 3-way switch. Those are usually the items that manufacturers let suffer when keeping "budget" in mind. But Yamaha makes the best of the "budget" type guitars.

Haven't had it long enough to tell, though I take very good care of all my gear. I see no problems.

I purchased this used, actually the guy I bought it from barely used it. There was no signs of use on it at all, in fact the plastic was still on the pickguard and control cavity cover. The strings were original too. All this with a Yamaha hardshell case for $199.96 shipped to my door, what a steal! I have played for 12 years now and have owned more than 30 top end electrics. I currently own 4 Gibson Les Paul models of various vintage, along with a Fender Strat (USA). You name it and I've pretty much had it, not to be boastfull, I've just spent too much $$$ on gear. I work on Amps and guitars so I can spot quality when I see it. I think Yamaha is the MOST UNDERRATED manufacturer around. This is the only Asian made guitar in my collection, and though it doesn't have the appeal of the more sought after brands I'm still very proud to play it. These have to be one of the best "Bang for the buck" tele-copies around. If it were stolen I wouldn't hesitate to buy another. Once I swap out P.U.'s I'm sure this will make a great guitar even better! Helluva' Deal, Thanks Mark!

I believe this guitar was made in Korea. It has 22 frets, a master volume and master tone with a three way selector. It has a telecaster style body with a humbucker (Yamaha stock) in the neck and a "hotrails" style in the bridge. It's a tele style fixed bridge. It has an alder body with ash veneer and a maple neck with a maple fretboard. Tuners are non-locking, and I'm pretty sure they are a stock used by Yamaha. No acessories came with the guitar when I bought it.

My previous style was classical guitar, but I wasn't having too much fun with it, so I decided to take a break and go electric. I've played electric for only six months, but I've played guitar both classical and rhythem for 16 years. I'm currently learning songs with riffs but staying close to my rhythem roots, some Metallica and Creed, with various other alternative and hard rock groups as well. I was using a cheap Crate GX-65 with the guitar, but to get a good sound I had to turn it up too loud for my roommates tastes. Now I run it through a Bose Lifestyle (really awesome, I have great tonal control, and a sub-woofer) with a somewhat crappy Zoom 505 II pedal. Plugging the guitar directly into the stereo provides a full sound on the humbucker, and a twangy thinner sound on the bridge pickup. The bridge pickup lacks output. Mixing both pickups provides an even balance in bass/treble and doesn't cut the output very much. The guitar is not extremely bright with the humbucker, but it has enough to make due. I like the humbucker, it provides enough kick to sound similar to hard rock, but it's not quite up to the task. The bridge pickup needs more output, and I rarely use it. It's very trebly, and attempting to use the tone control knob merely cuts into the output.

The strings are through the body, and I had a problem with my high E-string, it kept breaking. I had to have them sand down the action adjuster (I forgot the real name, sorry) to keep it from cutting the string. It no longer has that problem. The action was fine for me, although there was some slight fret buzz that needed to be taken care of.

I don't do live playing yet, so I can't give that great a prediction. I haven't had this guitar long enough to predict it's reliability, but Yamaha in general makes good products. I wish the strap buttons were a little bigger, and the finish seems very solid. The hardware looks solid as well.

Haven't dealt with them yet. I am unsure as to the length of the warrenty.

I have been playing for 16 years, but I just bought an electric 6 months ago. This guitar is really great for the price and makes an excellent first guitar. It's a little more than some of the other starters, but at $340 it isn't that expensive. I am going to replace the pickups in this guitar because I believe that they are its weakest links. That and I need to get a better pedal than that Zoom, but for 80 bucks on a college budget, it's not bad. The "hotrails" style in the bridge needs to go, it's not very useful. It's sound is just plain weak and thin. I compared this guitar to Washburns of similar price and found the sound of the Yamaha to be much fuller, even it's bridge pickup beat the Washburn's humbucker. I highly recommend for your first electric to spend more on your amp than your guitar. Also remember, this is a great beginning guitar or a great budget guitar, but there are better. For the price, this is an excellent value. If it were stolen/lost, I would replace it if I had only 340 bucks.