Yamaha Pacifica 311 Mike Stern

Bought in 2000,tele style body,tele style bridge,transparent blue finish with a confortable thin maple neck.One humbucker at the neck and a "Hot rail"type at the bridge.It comes in a very very cheap gig bag.

now that's where I know what I'm talking about. This guitar sounds great. I mostly play at home on my 8 track homestudio and occasionaly have friends over for jam sessions.I will play directly in the recorder headphones through a Sonny VF-1 preamp/effect or when playing live through my old dependable Korg A-5 and in a 60 watt Peavey amp.I don't use it when I want a clean sound,for that I use my Godin ST-IV, but for a beautifull bluesy sound it's what I was lookink for.I am more impressed with the neck humbucker,it really purrs and you get get a lot of sound fidling with the tone and the 2 p/u.

The factory set up was so so and I am experimenting a lot with the adjustments(you can afford to do that with a relativaly cheap guitar)
but even so as soon as I tried this guitar at the shop it felt and sounded great in my hands and that is still the most important thing when you buy an intrument.It is realy good looking

Being originaly a Bass player I find the thin neck a bit fragile but it may be just an impression.So I realy can't teel how it would last on the road. The chrome plating looks good and I expect this guitar to give me yars of good company

I love this guitar .I have quite a few basses and guitars and for this kind of price you can't beat it.

You can read about all those things at www.yamahaguitars.com or elsewhere so I won't bother...

this telecaster clone doesn't sound like a telecaster at all. It has two humbuckers so the twang of Leo's first idea is long, long lost. Nevertheless is a wonderful sounding guitar. The neck humbucker is flexible, fat and round. Truly a humbucker and a lovely one this is. I've played VERY expensive P/Us and this one is not miles off. It sounded a lot better through my Fender Bronco Tweed amp than through the Crate combo I've got. The Crate has always sounded pretty dark so neck humbuckers never been its cup of tea. The Fender sounded rich and jazzy. Wonderful.

The Hot rails copy in the bridge position didn't impress me though. It is nice with a twangy mid range bias but the personality of the former made this one sound a bit lacklustre. Good for Rock and blues but not awesome. In my experience I've realised that neck P/Us are more forgiving than bridge units so getting a better one for this one is a must for the pro.

Suming up, a lovely neck humbucking pickup to use with a good quality bright sounding amp and a decent bridge unit.

good finish and good hardware up to Yamaha standards. If you're on a budget and you live in Europe I'd only recommend either Yamaha or Cort guitars, Epiphone aren't bad but a tad expensive and Squier could be awful sometimes.

Well made and reliable

Great sounding guitar in a well presented package. I'd recommend it for anybody looking for a good traditional guitar offering something extra. Not for country though yet great for blues, Rock or even Jazz. Good enough for Mike good enough for me...

Tele clone, but with neck humbucker and stacked humbucker thingy at bridge.
Nice finish, transparent white showing through to grain, pale maple neck and (seperate) fingerboard.
Very comfortable rib-cage countour, which I find makes a huge difference to gigging comfort.
It comes with a rather flimsy gig bag, which is just about better than nothing, and a neat little tool kit!

I play mostly 60's 70's covers and a bit of blues. My other guitar is a Tele Fender Japan 50's re-issue, which I stopped gigging due to the weight (I'm only a little guy!), and a growing dislike for vintage style necks. The neck 'bucker give a lovely rich and full sound, I use it for more bluesy lead breaks. By playing with the tone control, a surprising variety of sounds can be acheived. The bridge gives some of that tele twang, and the mix suits me nicely for most rhythm stuff. Altogether very versatile.

Set up and finish was really good, fantastic considering the price. Fret edges could be smoother. I've been spoiled by my tele, though, which is super smooth for barre chording up and down the neck. I'll probably invest in a pro set up to smooth off the rough fret ends, and fine tune the action, which is ok, but can be improved.
Neck radius is quite flat, I think, and frets are medium, which I like.
I really like the neck profile, it fits my (not too large) hand really well.

I've had it 4 months now, rehearsing weekly for 2/3 hours at a time. It stays in tune, and nothing has or seems likely to fall off. Knobs and selector are smooth and crackle free.

By reputation, Yamaha and their UK distributors, are rated very highly, though I've no experience of them.

I had been looking at this guitar for 6 months or so, tried it a few times at my local shop. I couldn't believe the "special offer" price when I saw it, and rather reluctantly bought it mail order, which was actualy no problem at all. Even at full price (#250-#299) this is an incredible value guitar. I love the sounds, its comfortable to play, and with a pro set up it will be superb. How do they do it?

This is a 1999 Mike Stern Model Tele made in Taiwan. It's your basic Tele with a 22 fret maple neck and fretboard, Alder body with Ash venere top. It has a humbucker in the neck position and a "Hot Rails" type pickup in the mounted directly into the bridge plate. One volume, one tone and a 3 way selector switch. The guitar is an transparent orange satin finish with chrome hardware and a black pickguard. The frets are medium and that is my only real complaint about the features. I prefer jumbo frets. The neck is thinner than most Tele's but that's a good thing in my book.

This guitar sounds really good for a guitar under $300. I play everything from Blues to Classic Rock to Metal. I mainly wanted a Tele to mess around with open G tunings i.e. Rolling Stones, Black Crowes, or Bad Company and it really fits the bill. The humbucker is the neck puts out a smooth bluesy tone. The bridge pickup has a little of that Tele twang but it's pretty hot since it's a humbucker. I plan to replace this pickup with a Duncan Classic Tele Stack to get more of the classic Tele tone without the noise. I'm really impressed with the tone and the low noise this guitar offers right out of the box

The action was a little high from the factory. Once I lowered it I noticed that the screw heads in the bridge saddles have very ruff edges. This isn't really a problem unless you rest your hand on the bridge while you play. Anothere flaw I noticed was the absence of a string tree on the middle strings. The only string holder on the headstock is for the 1st and 2nd strings but the 3rd, 4th, and 5th strings don't always rest flush against the nut unless you a careful how you wind the strings. This isn't really a major flaw but it's kinda annoying when you are changing strings. Yamaha should either increase the headstock angle or provide a 6 string tree.

I don't forsee any problems. Tele's are pretty much indestructable. I would bring a backup incase I broke a string but I don't think anyting else will ever fall through on this guitar.

I've been playing for over 10 years now and I have owned a Charvel Model 2, a Gibson Les Paul Deluxe, a Carvin Bolt-T and right now I have a Gibson Les Paul DC Standard and A Kramer Ferrington Acoustic. This isn't the best guitar I have owned, but it's definitely the best value. It totally blows away the Fender Mexican Standard Piece of Crap and the 72 Reissue and it sounds and plays better than the American Standard Fat Tele and this thing cost about 1/3 of the price. If you can't afford a G&L ASAT Blues Boy ($1200) and you want a good Tele with a Humbucker than this is a great guitar. I would buy it again in a heartbeat.