Pacifica Project.

CeeJay

Dipping my toe into the money pit that is upgrading a guitar, I have acquired a 2009 Yamaha Pacifica 112 in natural for the measly sum of £50. I was going to go down the Harley Benton Kit route as a first attempt, then this came up even cheaper. I know from experience that the Pacifica is a decent standard guitar for the money, so I thought, what the hell, lets take it apart. 
The neck is decent, with nice level frets that are in dire need of a polish, and a fingerboard as dry as a stick. 
So, the plan. If I can source a scratchplate that fits, (I'm pretty certain the 611 scratchplate is identical in size, but has the correct hole for the P90) I plan to replace the middle and neck single coils with a P90, and replace the stock bridge humbucker with a half decent replacement. 
 I plan to replace the pots with CTS models, and have done some research into the why's and wherefores of 500k v 250k pots. The general , (and I mean general) rule of thumb seems to be 500k for humbuckers and 250k for single coils. Now As you're aware the Pacifica 112 only has one tone pot, so, which to go for? The 250k or the 500k? Or would it be best at this stage to add another tone pot and have 500k for the humbucker, and 250k for the P90. I should add that I'm not a fan of bright jangly sounds, preferring a warmer tone. There is plenty of room for another pot, so maybe this would be the best way forward.
Your thoughts appreciated.

nick79

I cant really give much advice, except to say i've got a Pacifica exactly like yours and i've often thought i should upgrade the pick ups and wiring on it. Somebody gave it to me for nothing, so it owes me nothing. Very good guitar though, and very very lively - is yours the same? 

steamabacus

I would go with straightforward 500k vol and tone for 1 humbucker and 1 P90.

I upgraded a friend's Pacifica 112 of similar vintage some years ago. It's definitely worth upgrading the pickups and electrics - the stock volume pot on his guitar didn't fully mute the output at zero. With that guitar, I replaced the stock pickups with some spare pickups I had rattling around in my spares box - a pair of passive EMG stacked singles and an old Seymour Duncan JB humbucker to which I added series/split/parallel switching on a mini-toggle switch. Big improvement.

Upgrading the bridge can be problematic as the stock unit is narrower than most replacements (both in string spacing and fixing screw spacing).

Out of interest, Guitarist Magazine had a 'Pimp My Pacifica' article many years ago where four staffers took a Pacifica 112 and a budget of a few hundred quid and were tasked to come up with the best modded guitar. I still have a copy somewhere - I could probably dig it out and scan it if anyone was interested.

CeeJay

steamabacus said:

I would go with straightforward 500k vol and tone for 1 humbucker and 1 P90.

I upgraded a friend's Pacifica 112 of similar vintage some years ago. It's definitely worth upgrading the pickups and electrics - the stock volume pot on his guitar didn't fully mute the output at zero. With that guitar, I replaced the stock pickups with some spare pickups I had rattling around in my spares box - a pair of passive EMG stacked singles and an old Seymour Duncan JB humbucker to which I added series/split/parallel switching on a mini-toggle switch. Big improvement.

Upgrading the bridge can be problematic as the stock unit is narrower than most replacements (both in string spacing and fixing screw spacing).

Out of interest, Guitarist Magazine had a 'Pimp My Pacifica' article many years ago where four staffers took a Pacifica 112 and a budget of a few hundred quid and were tasked to come up with the best modded guitar. I still have a copy somewhere - I could probably dig it out and scan it if anyone was interested.

I'd be very interested in having a read of that, If you can lay your hands on it. Obviously don't trash the house looking for it though 

CeeJay

nick79 said:

I cant really give much advice, except to say i've got a Pacifica exactly like yours and i've often thought i should upgrade the pick ups and wiring on it. Somebody gave it to me for nothing, so it owes me nothing. Very good guitar though, and very very lively - is yours the same? 

I found the humbucker really weak, in comparison to my Epiphone SG400Pro. To be honest it was only in the house an hour before I'd turned it into 3 boxes of parts!
Tonight is earmarked for sanding the body.

Funkfingers

The wooden parts of the PAC112 are as well manufactured as their top of the range version, just not as pretty. Production cost corners are cut on the hardware and electronics. These are simple to upgrade.

I have a 311. The 611 has a Duncan Custom 5 Trembucker so I tried one. Lo and behold, it suited my instrument perfectly.

For what it is worth, I am contemplating installing a ‘Tron or Dyna-Sonic type pickup in my PAC311. Hence, its 4-ply red torty scratchplate could become available to trade.



EDIT: My PAC 311H scratchplate is the same outline as the revised PAC112. (Humbucker in a mounting surround. Any other pickups through the reduced scratchplate.) This will not suit a 2009 PAC112.

gary_mac

Worth checking out this site: https://www.yamahapacifica.com/

CeeJay

Funkfingers said:

The wooden parts of the PAC112 are as well manufactured as their top of the range version, just not as pretty. Production cost corners are cut on the hardware and electronics. These are simple to upgrade.

I have a 311. The 611 has a Duncan Custom 5 Trembucker so I tried one. Lo and behold, it suited my instrument perfectly.

For what it is worth, I am contemplating installing a ‘Tron or Dyna-Sonic type pickup in my PAC311. Hence, its 4-ply red torty scratchplate could become available to trade.

I'll watch this space. I'm currently scouring the internet without much success. I've found someone that makes an upgrade HH configuration scratchplate, but in the old style pre 2007 scratchplate shape.

steamabacus

CeeJay said:

steamabacus said:

I would go with straightforward 500k vol and tone for 1 humbucker and 1 P90.

I upgraded a friend's Pacifica 112 of similar vintage some years ago. It's definitely worth upgrading the pickups and electrics - the stock volume pot on his guitar didn't fully mute the output at zero. With that guitar, I replaced the stock pickups with some spare pickups I had rattling around in my spares box - a pair of passive EMG stacked singles and an old Seymour Duncan JB humbucker to which I added series/split/parallel switching on a mini-toggle switch. Big improvement.

Upgrading the bridge can be problematic as the stock unit is narrower than most replacements (both in string spacing and fixing screw spacing).

Out of interest, Guitarist Magazine had a 'Pimp My Pacifica' article many years ago where four staffers took a Pacifica 112 and a budget of a few hundred quid and were tasked to come up with the best modded guitar. I still have a copy somewhere - I could probably dig it out and scan it if anyone was interested.

I'd be very interested in having a read of that, If you can lay your hands on it. Obviously don't trash the house looking for it though 

Well, they're all neatly stored - if a little neglected - on shelves. The only problem is which issue? Thankfully, the internet came to the rescue and I found mention of the article on an old Harmony Central discussion - issue 304, July 2008.

I'll get on the case.

For bespoke scratchplates, Jack's Instrument Services come well recommended on this forum (not used them myself) ..

http://www.jacksinstrumentservices.com/custom-scratchplate-cutting.html

CeeJay

steamabacus said:

CeeJay said:

steamabacus said:

I would go with straightforward 500k vol and tone for 1 humbucker and 1 P90.

I upgraded a friend's Pacifica 112 of similar vintage some years ago. It's definitely worth upgrading the pickups and electrics - the stock volume pot on his guitar didn't fully mute the output at zero. With that guitar, I replaced the stock pickups with some spare pickups I had rattling around in my spares box - a pair of passive EMG stacked singles and an old Seymour Duncan JB humbucker to which I added series/split/parallel switching on a mini-toggle switch. Big improvement.

Upgrading the bridge can be problematic as the stock unit is narrower than most replacements (both in string spacing and fixing screw spacing).

Out of interest, Guitarist Magazine had a 'Pimp My Pacifica' article many years ago where four staffers took a Pacifica 112 and a budget of a few hundred quid and were tasked to come up with the best modded guitar. I still have a copy somewhere - I could probably dig it out and scan it if anyone was interested.

I'd be very interested in having a read of that, If you can lay your hands on it. Obviously don't trash the house looking for it though 

Well, they're all neatly stored - if a little neglected - on shelves. The only problem is which issue? Thankfully, the internet came to the rescue and I found mention of the article on an old Harmony Central discussion - issue 304, July 2008.

I'll get on the case.

For bespoke scratchplates, Jack's Instrument Services come well recommended on this forum (not used them myself) ..

http://www.jacksinstrumentservices.com/custom-scratchplate-cutting.html

Fantastic. Thanks for your efforts, and the link. 

Jonathangus

Coincidentally @steamabacus ;, I had these scanned already.  Here you go:

steamabacus

Haha - I've just this minute scanned them ..... but I have a 10 page article 

steamabacus

Here's the full article. I seem to remember there being video of Mick Taylor scorching his guitar but the cover DVDs are long gone.

Download from here ...

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/yvmu6dhvz9zyx/

CeeJay

Wow thanks all. Just having a break from sanding the body so will have a read now. 

CeeJay

Having decided on the pot resistance, I'm now confronted with a choice between Audio or Linear. The internet, is of course split down the middle over which to use........................

BeardyAndy

I've just swapped out the tone pot on a buddy's Pacifica because the center spindle fell out! It plays ok, the neck has a bit of a bow in it and the truss rod seems to do nothing so I had to pack a spacer in the neck pocket to lower the action. Sadly, even with new strings it feels like a cheap guitar. I guess as with all guitars there are gooduns and baduns, this one is the latter so I certainly wouldn't advise him to throw any more money at it. Fwiw the pickups sound pretty good though but compared to the Epiphone LP Studio I picked up for £150 it feels like one of those Sponge Bob Ukuleles!

normula1

Tone should always be log; the BareKnuckle CTS pot has a great taper. I play clean to mid dirty most of the time and recently tried loads of supposedly "special" taper log pots and in the end came to the conclusion that I simply prefer a linear volume pot.

Funkfingers

CeeJay said:

Having decided on the pot resistance, I'm now confronted with a choice between Audio or Linear. The internet, is of course split down the middle over which to use........................

I habitually use Audio/Logarithmic taper for both volume and tone. The exception is the roller pots in the "Rhythm" circuits of Fender Jazzmaster and Jaguar guitars.

Roland

Don’t forget that a treble bleed network affects the effect of the taper

CeeJay

Roland said:

Don’t forget that a treble bleed network affects the effect of the taper

I think I need to do some more research.............

prowla

If you can't make your mind up between 250k & 500k, then you can do what Rickenbacker did and opt for 330k... :-)