Review: Yamaha Pacifica 112

Japan. Land of Karaoke, Sushi, and sexually explicit cartoons. And, once, not long ago, land of cheap guitars. Yes, in terms of guitar manufacture, the land of the rising sun has come a long way since it was a byword for shoddy imitations of American models that crumbled to dust in your hands and sounded like an egg whisk entangled in barbed wire. Rising quality of craftsmanship and experience means that serious musicians would be mad to overlook the likes of Takamine and Ibanez for professional-quality instruments.

With rising quality comes rising prices, and that has meant that Japan is no longer the nation of choice for building entry-level guitars. Take Fender for example. My first ever electric was a Squier Strat, built in Japan in the late 1980s. This guitar still stands up as a quality, playable instrument, and only excessive fret-wear and a troublesome pickup saw it retired from my collection. To save money, production was moved first to Korea, and then to China. I picked up a Chinese-built Squier Strat about 5 years ago and I can say that without doubt it is the single worst piece of musical equipment (I wouldn’t go so far as to call it an “instrument”) I have ever interacted with (I wouldn't say “play”). The dreadful fretwork and badly-adjusted action conspired to cut my left hand to shreds, and the sound, such as was audible between the hiss and feedback, sounded like a tennis racket being played by a chimpanzee.

I don’t know what the hell Fender are playing at, quite frankly. Since they acquired Jackson and Guild, they have become the biggest player in the world guitar market, bar none. There is barely a guitarist on the planet who will not purchase one of more of their guitars, amps, gigbags, t-shirts or fridge magnets at one point or another. Their fortunes will rise and fall with the market for guitars. Market share is no longer relevant, more guitarists is good for Fender, full stop. So why on earth are they producing an entry-level guitar that is so utterly, irrevocably awful that it will put most potential guitarists off the instrument altogether? One of the two things I have learned in my years as a musician (the other being never to buy recording equipment off Ebay when you’re drunk) is that a bad instrument will sound bad, no matter who is playing it. Joe Satriani may be able to stroke his fingers across the razor-wire fretboard of a Squier Strat better than you or I, but it will still go out of tune every 2.4 seconds and have that horrible frying-pan sound quality. A whole generation of potential Satches could pick up one of these contraptions as their first guitar, make a dreadful, atonal cacophony, give up the guitar for good, and go out and mug old ladies instead. They will be blaming their lack of talent when the guitar is at fault. That’s not only a shame for rock music (and old ladies), it’s also a disaster for Fender, who might otherwise be selling them a Custom Shop Strat or Custom Soloist twenty years down the line.

So, the moral of the story is, don’t buy a Squier Strat (or for that matter a Squier anything), even if the entire Chinese army attempt to torture you into doing so (by making you listen to one). They may be cheap, but you’re throwing your money in the bin.

There are plenty of alternatives. Unfortunately, many of them are just as bad. Even Ibanez, the iconic Japanese guitar maker, has outsourced its entry-level (and even some of its mid-range) guitars to Korea, and the quality of those instruments has dropped through the floor. They will sound and play better than the Squier (then again so would a plank of wood with a piece of string nailed to it), but they have a horrible tendency to fall to bits alarmingly quickly.

So is there a company that still makes its entry-level guitars in Japan, and hasn’t employed a semi-trained baboon as its head of quality control? Well actually there is, its name is Yamaha, and I have in front of me its basic entry level model, the Pacifica 112.

It’s a pretty-looking thing. This one comes in natural wood with a black scratchplate and pickups, which to my mind looks pretty sharp, but Pacificas are available in a range of colours so wide Dulux would accuse them of being excessive. It keeps the basic Strat shape, but is seems to have lost a bit of flab around the edges, looking more sleek and businesslike. It also has a well-proportioned headstock (Squier, for reasons known only to themselves and the various primates in Fender’s marketing department, have readopted the hideous bulbous thing from the 70’s that makes the guitar look as if its headstock has contracted dropsy). So the good news for self-conscious teenagers is that you won’t look like a berk while playing it (Squier, meanwhile, have produced a bright pink Fat-Strat featuring “Hello Kitty”, as the men in white coats circle ever closer). The intonation and action are great straight out of the box, the hardware looks in good nick and it’s lightweight and comfortable.

And the sound. My God the sound. Once you start playing this instrument, you have to look again at the price tag to make sure you’ve got it right. It’s just about the only guitar in its class to feature both a Bridge Humbucker and two single coils. The humbucker, whilst it’s not going to give Seymour Duncan any sleepless nights, is tuneful and versatile. It can even handle some pretty extreme stuff; one of my favourite guitars is a 112 modified for baritone tuning (B-B), and the depth and power this cheap guitar can deliver through a decent amp is astonishing – I recently played an £800 ESP 7-string through the same setup and I swear the little Yamaha sounded better. The two single coils are bright without a hint of fizz, and great for strumming or bluesy lead lines. This guitar can handle just about any style except the extremes of shred and ultra-high gain metal, as the humbucker doesn’t quite have the output, and the neck isn’t quite fast enough.

For the record, its RRP is £180, but you’d be doing badly if you didn’t find it new for about £140. That’s a lot these days for an entry-level instrument, but the extra pennies get you a guitar that has not been assembled by slave labourers or crazed gibbons, but by one of the world’s most advanced manufacturing concerns, who have been assembling everything from radios to motorbikes, with ruthless production efficiency, robust build quality and the famously obsessive Japanese attitude to quality control, for decades. That Yamaha can deliver an instrument of this quality for this price should cause all other manufacturers to hang their heads in shame. This is a £350 guitar for £150, and will last you through your guitar apprenticeship through to intermediate level and beyond.

If you are starting to learn or buying a beginner’s guitar for someone else, accept no substitute. From the first time, as a total beginner, you pick it up and play those tentative first few notes, it will sound good. You will only be fighting your own learning curve, not the instrument itself. Yes, you could save £40 or so and get a cheap piece of crap. But you will sound like a hacksaw and you’ll need to spend more money on buying a new guitar after a year anyway. This guitar, in terms of both its playing quality, which means that your ability will not be hampered by the guitar’s limitations for many years, and its build quality, which means that the guitar will stay intact while you do that, represents value for money compared to both cheaper and more expensive alternatives. And that’s as good as it gets.

Verdict: 5/5

At this price, perfection.