REVIEWYAMAHA PACIFICA PROFESSIONAL & STANDARD PLUS
YAMAHA PROFESSIONAL PACP12 & STANDARD PLUS PACS+12M £2,166 & £1,259
CONTACT Yamaha Music Europe PHONE 0344 811 1116 WEB https://uk.yamaha.com
What You Need To Know
1 More generic ‘SuperStrats’, then!
Yamaha is far from the only brand splashing about in these well-swum waters. And while the HSS super-S is pretty much a generic recipe these days, Yamaha’s take is very carefully considered and beautifully executed.
2 The two models look identical. What’s the difference?
As we’ve seen with the recent Revstar II models, the Standard level are made in Yamaha’s huge Indonesian factory; the Professional models are made in smaller numbers in Japan. There’s an obvious cost difference there, but on paper – with the exception of the Professional’s compound ’board radius compared with the Standard Plus’s single camber – they do seem very similar.
3 What are Reflectone pickups?
They were co-developed with Rupert Neve Designs, a brand known for its pro audio products. But that’s about all we know…
Improving on the design of the 70-year-old Stratocaster is a quest many makers – large and small – have undertaken over the years. From simple mods, such as plonking a humbucker in the bridge position to adding bigger frets and a wider travel vibrato, the so-called ‘SuperStrat’ is really the result of hotrodding by both maker and player. From today’s perspective, it’s a classic recipe, with each version of the dish offering a subtly different flavour.
Developed in the very early 90s by Yamaha’s fledgling Hollywood R&D centre, the original Pacifica models were an attempt to show the Japanese parent company what this US
