Yamaha Pacifica Series PAC012DLX Electric Guitar; Old Violin Sunburst

Just a great value for a beginner guitar
I bought this guitar because I thought that learning the guitar would be a good activity to keep busy during our coronavirus quarantine. I did a lot of research to determine the best way to spend a small amount of money to see if this was something that I would enjoy.I ordered the “old violin sunburst” and received it a few weeks ago.The guitar is beautiful. It looks REALLY nice in person and those that have seen it always comment on how attractive it is. Once tuned, the guitar has remained in tune without much, if any adjustment. The fit and finish appear to be flawless. Everything works the way it should. All the switches and knobs are responsive and feel like they are of high quality.The guitar sounds great, all the frets appear to be cut well and the strings ring properly at every position. I have an old amp that I use and all the pickups work and sound great to my ear.I have no complaints at all. Without scouring garage sales for a rare mint condition used guitar at a killer price, I cannot imagine getting more for your money than this. It does not feel like something marketed to beginners or children or casual players at all.My considerable research led me to conclude that Yamaha guitars at this price-point are considerably better than those put out by the bigger “guitar brands” for similar prices. Having purchased and used this guitar, I see no reason to argue with that conclusion. I am very pleased with my purchase.

Great guitar but only a fair amp
Looks great! After a little break in I swapped out strings to fender .09 set. For first few weeks I had to re tune every time I picked it up. Now keeps tune much better. I’m guessing it just needed time to “settle in”. This is the first time I have ever dealt with a guitar in this low of a price range, so this may be common with other guitars in the price rangeI’m old, so I’m used to tuneing my low E to a note from the keyboard then tuneing each higher string to the fifth fret of the lower string. Oddly, when I do this, the higher notes are “out of tune” when compared to an electronic tuner. I don’t understand this… maybe I’m going tone deft in my old age. Anyway, when I tune using the electronic tuner, the various riffs sound great so I’ll just keep wondering why and leave it at that.Sound wise, it is very good. I would compare the tone to a Mexican strat except at position 1 and 2 on the pickups. Hard to discribe but it’s different not bad. I will be honest here, I play my strat in position 4 almost all the time. 40 years ago, we didn’t have a 5 position pick up switch so I would spend time finding the point between 2 and 3 that was “ just right”. At any rate, IMHO, pos 1 and 2 are a “Yamaha” voice while 3 and 5 are a mex strat voice.The more I play this, the more I’m thinking that pos 5 and 4 are like a Les Paul sound. At any rate, I find my self using pos 1 and 2 for most of my play.The amp is only fair. But what do you exspect at this price? I have no way of testing it, but I think the wattage on the amp is over rated. Frankly, if you plug this guitar into a Roland Jazz Chorus, it is a whole different guitar. I use Yamaha amps for my surround sound systems. Combined with Elac speakers, they are fantastic, so I guess I expected more from the amp. My guess is that this just some made in china junk amp that they nailed the Yamaha name on. I don’t believe the people that design music stuff at Yamaha had any thing to do with it. I was hoping this amp would be in the same class as THR 10 C . It is not. ( if you want a real good practice amp, look at the Yamaha THR 10C)So, should you buy this set up? YES! I will say this is the best under $500 you can buy. If someone asked what I recommend to start out, this setup is one of the best you can get. The most important thing is that someone can play this guitar for many years to come. They won’t have to up grade the guitar, but will upgrade the amp.Blind taste test. Just for the fun of it, I had some friends over, and did a sound test. They could no see which guitar I was playing. I had a guitar my Nephew had bought made by Squier, this Yamaha, and just for the fun of it, and American made Strat. I played the same riffs on each guitar. I was not suprised that all of them picked the Squier as #3. I was also suprised that they had so much trouble deciding between the Strat and the Yamaha. In the end, with a good amp, this guitar can pl ay with the much more expensive guitars.

Wow this is my first guitar ever and after a few days using it I’m already getting the hang of it especially when it’s hooked to an amp. It sounds amazing and also has amazing build qualityAll though I had to replace the strings as the default strings are to weak but any way it’s the best guitar I ever had.

Good looking, plays well.