2024 Yamaha Pacifica Standard Plus | The best value HSS workhorse guitar out there? Review & Demo

This is the 2024 Yamaha Pacifica Standard Plus – a new take on the brand’s iconic double cut Pacifica model in stunning Ash Pink!

Get the Yamaha Pacifica at Thomann: https://thmn.to/thoprod/584320?offid=...
At Sweetwater: https://sweetwater.sjv.io/JznE9N

Pretty much every guitarist will have played a Yamaha Pacifica at some point. These unassuming and affordable double cutaway guitars – a top alternative to a Squier or Fender Stratocaster – have been around for decades.

Now here's the 2024 version! There’s a premium quality made in Japan Professional model, and this, the Standard Plus – which, at around $1,349/€1,250, is going to be a real competitor to the likes of the Fender Player Plus and American Performer series… or is it?

The Pacifica Standard Plus is a brilliant guitar on paper. You get an alder body and a maple neck with a rosewood (or maple) board rocking 22 medium stainless steel frets. The vibrato bridge and the locking tuners are by Gotoh, while the pickups – in a move that shocked the industry when this guitar was unveiled at NAMM 2024 – are designed in collaboration with Neve. Yes, the Neve you know from the world of recording studios and music production!

The Reflectone pickups, as they’re called, come in an HSS configuration, with a coil split on the bridge humbucker accessible via the push/pull tone pot.

All in all, then, the Pacifica Standard Plus looks to be an exciting proposition – just like the revamped 2022 Yamaha Revstar. But, how does it perform in reality? And can it genuinely compete with the massive competition from the likes of Fender, Ibanez, Schecter, and so on? Because pretty much everyone makes great HSS Strat-types for around this money.

In this video, we’re going to find out, as I put the Pacifica through its paces in as many different musical styles as I can, from country, folk and indie, to pop, rock, punk, metal, and more.

Here are some links to the various playing samples and info bits:

00:00 Hello!
00:14 Introduction to the 2024 Yamaha Pacifica
01:24 Specs and info
05:48 Today’s rig and plan

Clean Sounds
06:29 Clean tone reference chords on all pickup settings
07:00 Grungey droning chords
07:18 Soul pop riff
07:31 Country ballad arpeggios
07:43 Country lead sound
07:50 Poppy barre chords
08:07 Ascending droning indie chords
08:20 Blues progression
08:31 Funky rhythms
08:44 Atmospheric indie arpeggios
09:02 Cowboy chords/tone control test
09:51Strummed folk pop chords

Light and Medium Overdrive Sounds
10:07 Garage rock riff
10:24 Choppy barre chords
10:41 Kings Of Leon inspired riff
10:56 Southern rock picked arpeggios
11:16 Poppy indie barre chords
11:22 Indie octave chords
11:48 Upbeat indie barre chords
12:11 Volume control roll off test
12:32 AC/DC inspired riff
12:47 Quacky rock riff
12:55 Driving rock riff
13:09 Airbourne inspired rock riff
13:21 Hendrix inspired riff
13:39 Groovy classic rock riff

Heavy Overdrive Sounds
13:57 Van Halen inspired riff
14:17 80s rock riff
14:37 Melodic hard rock lead
14:58 Classic hard rock riff
15:16 Foo Fighters inspired modern rock riff
15:34 Alternative rock riff
15:57 Pop punk riff
16:10 Pop punk melodic lead riff
16:26 Green Day inspired punk rock riff
16:39 Less Than Jake inspired punk riff
16:51 Progressive rock riff (Drop D tuning)
17:07 Pop metal riff (Drop D)
17:17 Modern rock palm-muted chords (Drop D)
17:41 Rage Against The Machine inspired groovy riff (Drop D)

Heavy Distortion Sounds (all in Drop D)
17:58 Metal chugging riff
18:15 Hardcore punk riffs
18:42 Heavy metal lead sound
18:57 Rammstein inspired industrial metal riff
19:10 Classic heavy metal/sludge riff

19:52 My thoughts
20:38 First impressions and looks
21:08 Weight
21:43 Build quality and hardware + truss rod issue
23:07 Playability, neck and balance
24:13 Sounds and pickups discussion
27:48 What other similar guitars are out there?
30:05 My conclusions on the Pacifica and why you should buy it

Here’s the Yamaha website link with more info: https://usa.yamaha.com/products/music...

My setup was as follows: I ran the Pacifica into my Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 head, also using my Greer Lightspeed and my Revv G3 pedals for overdrive and heavy distortion sounds. The amp went from the Red Box DI straight into my Focusrite Scarlett 2i4, which went into Logic Pro X. That's it. No post-processing on the sounds was done.

Get all this gear at Thomann: https://thmn.to/thocf/jkhog8l06m
Get all this gear at Sweetwater: https://sweetwater.sjv.io/LXqdE0

---
Backing music from the YouTube Audio Library: Duck In The Alley – TrackTribe.

#YamahaGuitar #YamahaPacifica #YamahaGuitars

Note: certain links in the description are affiliate links. If you click said links and purchase anything as a result, I will receive a small commission. This doesn’t cost you anything extra, but it does help to support the channel. So, if you do that, thank you very much!

‪@YamahaGuitarsOfficial‬