Yamaha Pacifica 120H VW

The 120H is one of the rarer Yamaha Pacificas. I found Thomann while searching for a place to buy the 120H. The Yamaha Pacifica 120H is such a versatile guitar and really nice looking too! (mine was vintage white) This was my first guitar was really surprised by many different kinds of sounds I could get out of it. Now having played many different guitars, and I can say that this guitar really is one of the best of its price range! I've received countless compliments about how great it looks, sounds and plays.

Feel: It feels great, the satin neck is smooth and the body is contoured and comfortable to play both sitting and standing. I could keep playing it for hours. My friends agree that it is really fun to play. The guitar feels very rigid and sturdy and could last years. In the five months I've had it, I also could not see any scratches or signs of wear, aside from a little on the scratch plate. The tuners are firm and resist going out of tune, never had any problems with it. Very well built.

Sound: This guitar's layout is great for learning how to create a guitar sound. The humbuckers are versatile and allow you to achieve metal and jazz tones, but when tapped, allows you to achieve many rock and blues sounds. It has a good metal sound, because the bridge humbucker has a really fat sound through distortion. I never noticed any hum with the split coils. The sustain is pretty average. Overall, it doesn't feel like a guitar tailored or limited to any genres.

Cons:
Because this guitar wouldn't specialise in any music, but rather generally manage any genre, this is where you may fall short. I found myself limited with this guitar in trying to replicate an exact sound. You wouldn't be able to match a fender's brightness, or a Les Paul's tone, or a jazz guitar's mellowness. I'm no metalhead but one thing I feel it did do better at was high gain metal. If you're a beginner looking for a very particular sound, definitely go for a Squier, or Epiphone.
Aside from this, very few downsides to the Pacifica. For one, the scale length felt a little on the long side (probably personal preference), having to stretch my fingers a little. Also, the input plug seemed to be coming loose at one point, but is easily fixed by rotating it back in to place. Also the pickup selected is poorly placed because when strumming you can accidentally change the pickup position, but it didn't happen too often.

Other Pacifica models: Its counterpart the 112V is a little different where the neck Humbucker is replaced with a middle and neck single coil, along with a whammy bar. While I considered the 112V at first, the 120H's Humbuckers and coil tap appealed to me a lot more, and I don't regret this decision.

To summarise, the Pacifica 120H is a very versatile, comfortable and sturdy beginner guitar that really helps you develop and improve your guitar playing and find your own sound. While it may not specialise in any department, it will manage most of everything. However, if you really want a specific sound, I would go for something more tailored like a Squier or Epiphone. Otherwise, I'd really recommend this guitar to anyone just starting out.

Build quality is very high as for this price point. Vintage white finish is a thing of bueaty. Intonation is perfect. Tune stability is very good. Low E string is sometimes hitting frets but is because low action that I prefere to have.
The only one thing that I suggest to change at first place are those small screws responsible for string saddles height. After change for shorter ones, comfotr is much better.
Still searching for second guitar thuogh...

Sound und Charakter:

Strat-Typus mit SG Setup - so kann man das Teil zusammenfassen. Grundcharakter durchs Holz (Erlenkorpus, Ahornhals) bestimmt. Spricht schnell an, runder, aber leicht nasaler Charakter. Saiten werden durchgefädelt - was man am Sustain merkt (d.h. viel).

Humbuckersound ist erwartet fett - der Brücken-TA liefert ein amtliches Rock-Brett und der Hals-TA lässt das Teil schön singen. Oh ja, das geht! Höhen wegdrehen hilft... Zwar hörbar kein Mahagoni-Ton wie bei ner SG, und den superwarmen Charakter wie ne Paula kann die Pacifica nicht haben, braucht sie auch nicht, denn sie klingt!

Im Singlecoil-Modus schön spritzig und wenig störungsempfindlich - halt brauchbare Tonabnehmer. Tremolo brauch ich keines - lieber stimmstabil. Auch ohne dritten TA sehr variabel im Sound - wie gesagt: Kann Strat, kann auch SG. Ok, jeweils nicht ganz, aber dann muss man sich halt 2 Gitarren zulegen (und mitnehmen)...

Verarbeitung:
Daumen hoch, obwohl in Indonsien gebaut und kein Japanteil. Die QC passt aber offensichtlich. Lack ohne Makel, Bünde sauber eingepasst und entgratet, da kratzt nix. Einzig der Brücken-TA könnte nen halben mm weiter oben platziert sein, dann wären die Saiten genau über den Pole pieces (am Hals gings ja auch...). Und so wie sie ankam, war die Axt "nur" 98% oktavrein. Saitenreiter eingestellt - jetzt passts 100%ig, kein grosses Thema, Hals und Saitenlage sind tadellos. Aber bei dem Preis ist das alles ok. Wie erwartet waren die Originalsaiten nicht mein Ding, aber das ist ja eh ein Glaubenskrieg, was einem da am besten gefällt.

Unlackierter Hals - fühlt sich gut an. Recht rund, aber kein Prügel, auch nicht superdünn. Passte mir auf Anhieb. Hab für mich genau richtig viel in der Hand. Korpus: Die großzügigen Cut-aways lassen einen die hohen Lagen gut erreichen, und dank des Bodyshapings hängt sie schön vorm Bauch, am rechten Unterarm drückt nix.

So - genug gelobt. Für das Geld eine Hammergitarre. Empfehlung!