Yamaha Pacifica minor mods

I've had this Yamaha Pacifica 112 for years. A great go to $150 pawn shop guitar, but I always hated the sound of the bridge humbucker and wished for more traditional single coil. Recently spotted on the web some replacement guards in a SSS configuration, for a measly $24 shipped from the UK. Always wanted a pearloid version as well, so I ordered. Couldn't decide to bite the bullet on a full set of toneriders or hold back on the cash outlay. $s won and I just bought a single Entwistle from Pitbull.

Put it together yesterday and I'm very happy with the visual improvement. The bridge pick-up sounds great and what I was hoping for. The split position combining the bridge and stock middle coil isn't working so happily, more on that later.

Edit for future reference - someone who has done it before https://guitarmodding.wordpress.com/
- scratch plate source http://www.guitarselectric.co.uk/pro...ssscratchplate

I've noticed that some pickups don't tend to play nicely with others, especially if they are very high-output types, or they are wired-up out of phase from the factory, here's one mod that I could suggest, which is to buy a set of three Kent Armstrong Dual Blades (they are actually Single-Coil sized Humbuckers that sound a lot like Single-Coils), and try installing them on your Pacifica, they only cost about $55.00 each from Realtone Music, but they do sound great, I've got two black ones installed in my HotRod Strat, the advantage of going with the Dual Blades is that you get the Single-Coil tone without the hum.

http://www.realparts.com.au/pickups/...kup-white.html

Ahhh the pacifica....brings back memories

I've been seriously thinking of buying myself a Pacifica, maybe next year if I get the chance to.

A second opinion to the Doctor and I concur. Got a Kent Armstrong Dual Rail in the bridge of my Tele and it sound great. No hum, plenty of tone and power, cheap as chips too. They come with a 4 wire lead so some fun can be had with wiring options.

I will say that the Kent Armstrong Dual Blade pickups are initially a tight fit for the standard Single-Coil scratchplate mounting hole, which I found out, but with some perseverance, they can be installed relatively easily, I have so far been really happy with the two Dual Blades installed in my HotRod Strat, in fact I'll go as far as to say that they are one of my favorite types of pickups, and I will definitely be buying more of them, I'm seriously considering putting three white Dual Blades in my Gold Strat once I have finished getting the body sorted out.

A shame the Pacificas suffered from a rather awkward looking shape as they were certainly the benchmark to judge other budget-end guitars by for build quality. A lot were bought as first guitars, but very few people then went and bought a higher-end Pacifica (or any other Yamaha solid body) as their next guitar.

Good old Pacificas. Always very well put together, but just a bit lacking in personality. I'm sure they're great to learn on, not sure I've ever seen one played in an actual live performance. Maybe tucked away behind the french horns in high school band. Since I was the kid somewhere off to the side of the Pacifica guy, playing a trombone (halfway between when ska was cool, and when ska randomly became cool again, briefly - so at the exact point in time when it was least cool to play a trombone), I shouldn't stir too much.

I like where this project is going and would love to hear it once you've sorted out the switching.

Thanks for all the comments and ideas guys. While I love the "big name" guitars and have owned examples of most of them at some point (far beyond my actual paying abilities), the Pacifica is an amazing guitar for the money and my intended use for it.

The problem with this new setup is the bridge and middle sound, and I'm a big fan and using of the "2&4" position sound when playing clean, which is most of the time. Currently the output just drops away and sounds like the guitar is unplugged, but still "out of phase". The new bridge pickup sounds great, but does have a lower output and markedly different sound to the stock middle and neck.

At this point I'm considering getting the matching Entwistle middle & neck pickups for $72 or stretching for a full set of Toneriders for $140. I'm really after that vintage clean '57-'62 Strat sound. Any opinions on the two brands compared, considering the $ difference on a budget guitar?

Of course the next consideration is the replacement of the switch, pots and capacitors :rolleyes:

So, the 4 position middle & neck is OK, but 2 pos bridge & middle is too low output and out of phase sounding? Have you tried reversing the connections on the bridge pup?

I did re-check the wiring. Black to ground (pot body), red to switch as per the instructions and in-line with the existing humbucker wiring. I thought about reversing the wiring to the "wrong" way but didn't, maybe I will give that a try first.

When you mix and match different brands of pickups you can get often phase issues when they're combined, so reversing the hot and ground on the bridge pup would be a good first step.

Bingo! Thanks WeirdBits all sorted now. Reversed the polarity, had to extend one wire, now all is working fine. Just wish I had ignored the instructions and logic in the first place.

No need to spend any more money as she sounds just like I wanted the bridge and bridge/middle to sound.

Thanks again for the advice :)