The Yamaha Pacifica is one of the legendary brand’s most popular guitar lines, but it was originally conceived in the exclusive climes of the firm’s US custom shop in order to meet the needs of LA’s demanding session players.
The Pacifica Professional and Standard Plus once again weave together both of these threads in a new collaboration between the Yamaha Japan luthiers and the US custom shop designers.
The result incorporates decades of feedback from pro players into a refined, cutting-edge design that features some genuine industry firsts – not least, Rupert Neve Designs pickups.
From the carved neck heel, to the bevelled body and new slim-C neck – you can tell this is a model that has been developed from the ground up to meet the needs of actual guitarists, rather than price points.
The body design maintains its iconic double-cut outline but has been sculpted into one of the most comfortable playing experiences available. Meanwhile, it has been cleverly chambered underneath the hood using 3D modelling techniques.
“We were able to find out the best way to chamber out parts of the guitar for resonance purposes,” Yamaha Guitar Marketing Manager Brandon Soriano told GW, at this year’s NAMM.
“So there's some slits underneath the pickguard area on the top of the guitar, and those are serving to reduce the stiffness in that area of the body, but if you turn it over and look inside the control cavity, there's actually a wooden bar running through the middle of it that increases stiffness.”
The result is a contoured alder body that offers the optimum combination of resonance and weight.
This is then paired with a supremely comfortable slim-C maple neck (available on both models with a choice of rosewood or maple ‘boards) and, in the case of Pacifica Professional, a 10-14” compound-radius fingerboard – allowing a little more real estate for those bends at the high-end, but still giving you a nice basis for chord work back towards the headstock.
This is the sort of spec list that you can actually feel – that makes a noticeable difference in your hands and ears, as a player.
We experienced this when we got hands-on with a Professional at the recent NAMM show, but the tone from the Rupert Neve Designs Reflectone pickups really sealed the deal for us.
Neve is a name that is second to none when it comes to studio-grade audio but this collaboration with Yamaha represents its first foray into guitar pickup technology – and the results are fittingly hi-fi.
Indeed, our roving NAMM reporter – Editor-in-Chief, Michael Astley-Brown – reported as much from the show floor, recently.
“The balance and clarity of the Professional’s Reflectone pickups are extraordinary,” he commented of the HSS setup. “In fact, these pups are some of the cleanest I've ever heard outside of fully active designs.”
The hardware elsewhere is also suitably high-spec, with a Gotoh two-point tremolo, locking tuners and roller string trees ensuring a silkily smooth operation that can handle all the whammy theatrics you might throw at it – and still stay in tune.
It all looks the part, too – with the finishes mirroring the models’ unique blend of Japanese and Californian craftsmanship, inspired by both its sun-drenched SoCal locale and the vibrant pop art of Japanese cities.
Meanwhile, the Japanese-made Pacifica Professional features a Yamaha medallion in the headstock and we love those sleek-looking fretboard inlays.
When EiC Mike got his hands on one of the first builds at NAMM, he felt it ranked among the best guitars he’d ever played, commenting it reminded him of custom shop builds from some of the top names in US luthiery.
As he concluded then: “Ignore the Pacifica Pro at your peril: this is a world-class instrument.”
To find out more about the stunning new Pacifica Professional and Standard Plus guitars, head to Yamaha.
