A Session-grade Pacifica
The Pacifica has been Yamaha's answer to the working guitarist since 1990, and the Standard Plus PACS+12 brings the beloved lineup into premium-grade territory. Designed by Yamaha Japan alongside Yamaha Artist Services in Hollywood, this guitar features a chambered 3-piece alder body with an HSS set of Reflectone pickups developed in collaboration with Rupert Neve Designs, delivering thick, snarling leads and shimmering cleans with the character of prized vintage windings. A bolt-on maple neck and a 12-inch-radius maple fingerboard carry medium-jumbo stainless-steel frets, crafted to retain their smoothness even through years of hard playing. Gotoh locking tuners, a Gotoh vibrato bridge with compensated brass saddles, and a Graph Tech TUSQ nut keep performances stable through the most aggressive whammy work. A control set designed around working musicians completes the package, with a Master Volume with a highpass capacitor, a Master Tone with a push-pull Focus switch, and a five-way selector. The result is a Pacifica built to professional standards every player can appreciate.
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Refined for working playability
Countless Sweetwater guitarists point to the PACS+12 Pacifica Standard Plus as a working player’s guitar, built for those who put in hour after hour with their instrument. Its 3-piece alder body is contoured for comfort and strategically chambered to shed weight while enhancing the guitar's resonance. The bolt-on maple neck follows the fast profile that made the Pacifica a session-scene staple, finished in a smooth satin polyurethane that keeps your hand moving. Capping it off, a 12-inch-radius maple fingerboard offers a natural feel, with medium-jumbo stainless-steel frets that resist the divots and flat spots common with less durable fret materials.
Vintage character with modern precision
Rupert Neve built his reputation on consoles that defined the sound of '70s rock, and his company's first move into guitar pickups reflects the same engineering rigor. Reflectone pickups emerged from deep research into what makes prized vintage pickups behave as they do, with windings spaced at a carefully controlled gap to produce a bright, effervescent top end. Each pickup is magnetized front and back to a specified flux density, yielding a clear, loud, articulate voice with a balanced relationship between saturation and output. Strong lows and sparkling highs come standard, but it's the dynamic sensitivity that stands out, tracking the smallest shifts in your picking hand. Coil wire tension, magnetization strength, and peak frequency are all held to the highest standards in production, ensuring the set in your guitar performs exactly like the ones Yamaha designed.
Performance-focused hardware and controls
Every component downstream of the pickups is designed to keep the PACS+12 stable and deft. A Gotoh vibrato bridge with compensated brass saddles anchors the strings and sets intonation precisely, while Gotoh locking tuners and a Graph Tech TUSQ nut hold pitch through heavy vibrato. On the electronics side, a five-way selector switches the HSS layout, moving from the bridge humbucker's thick snarl to the chime of the neck and middle single-coils. A Master Volume with a highpass capacitor keeps the top end intact as you roll back, so cleaning up your tone with the Volume knob doesn't dull it. Finally, a push-pull Focus switch on the tone knob helps dial in the tonal shape of your bridge pickup, completing a control set designed to help you adapt to any performance.
Yamaha PACS+12 Pacifica Standard Plus Features:
- Premium Pacifica, designed by Yamaha Japan with Yamaha Artist Services in Hollywood, built for working guitarists
- Contoured 3-piece alder body, strategically chambered for lighter weight and greater resonance
- Bolt-on maple neck with a smooth satin polyurethane finish for fast movement across the fretboard
- 12-in.-radius maple fingerboard with medium-jumbo stainless steel frets that resist wear
- Rupert Neve Designs Reflectone pickups in an HSS layout: HH7B humbucker at the bridge, HS7N single-coils at the middle and neck
- Reflectone design delivers strong lows, sparkling highs, and dynamic sensitivity to every nuance of your picking
- Master Volume with a highpass capacitor preserves the top end as you roll back
- Master Tone with push-pull Focus switch for the bridge pickup and 5-way pickup selector
- Gotoh vibrato bridge with compensated brass saddles and Gotoh locking tuners for tuning stability
- Graph Tech TUSQ nut for consistent tone and smooth string travel
