Yamaha Pacifica 212 VQM Electric Guitar

the Yamaha Pacifica 212VQM been really wanting this guitar for quite a time... This guitar is a strat copy which is very cheap. and the features is quite good for a guitar priced around 250 - 300 $.

features:
made in Indonesia, my beloved country :)
it has a solid alder body, 3 piece if my eyes are not mistaken.
maple neck with rosewood fingerboard, quite flat radius (13.75") compared to a strat (9.5")
3 alnico V pickups, 2 single coils and 1 humbuckers...
very beautiful quilt maple top (it's a veneer I presume...) or flamed maple for the 212 VFM model.

this guitar is not very much different than its famous strat copy sibling, the Yamaha Pacifica 112 v. Yamaha puts quite a bit cosmetics to make it into a 212 series. they only put a quilt maple (or flamed maple) veneer on both body and headstock. and this cosmetics totally worth for the 50 bucks difference.

I tried one on my local guitar shop, and totally in love with it.
the single coils sings... got the quack, even bluesy feel...
not to impressed with the humbuckers. planned to swap it with an aftermarket pickups.

and yeah. This guitar is very ideal for modding. it has a good body and neck template. all you have to do is swap the pickups with a better ones and its a tone machine. I could probably beat an american strat tonewise. dunno, haven't tried it.

Here is what I plan to do if I could get one.
1. swap the pickups, change the single coils with a fender texas specials. the humbucker with a Suhr SSH+ (check out their guitars.. www.suhrguitars.com it's awesome. not just your typical strat copy, it totaly beats it)

2. change the electronics, switchcraft jack and switch, CTS potentiometers for volume and tone knob. an orange drop capacitors.

3. change the nut. this guitar has a plastic nut if I'm not mistaken. either graphtech or a bone nut would be a good replacement I guess.

4. change the bridge. oh yeah... this would be very expensive... half of the guitar price I guess. hahaha. the stock bridge looks cheap in my opinion. the calaham vintage bridge or Gotoh 510 series offers a great upgrade based on what I learned on forums.

5. change the tuning machine. they are non-locking on stock. sperzel locking tuners I think would be nice...

that would be it I guess... some people would think it's not worth for the upgrades. Totaly understand. upgrading the pickups only could get me another piece of the guitar considering the price. the bridge and tuning machine would get me another one. hahahaha... but I just in love on how they look. so many people out there using Fenders, but I just like being different. I guess it's my character.

here is a video of a Yamaha Pacifica 112vcx, it's basicly has the same specs as the 212 series. the 112 don't have the maple top veneer. Played by Jack Thammarat, the winner of Guitar Idol 2009 :) enjoy

this one played without the backtrack. it gives you a view about how it sounds purely form the guitar.


this one has some backing tracks. the pacifica cuts through quite well :)