Yamaha Pacifica 611HFM

Summer 2011 Guitarist 73
The PRails provides a wide array
of tones and gives out plenty of
grunt for full-sized rock chords
£579, £479 & £399
ELECTRICS
that we saw in the market,”
continues Ward. “We
determined a target player’s key
style influences fairly easily –
heavier blues-rock and crossing
into some classic hard rock: Def
Leppard, not Creed. It sounds
like an obvious target of
guitarist to go after, but there
are surprisingly few choices if
you’re that guy and you don’t
want something ‘standard’.”
All three models have a solid
alder body that’s the same
dimensions as the bread-and-
butter Pacifica 112, and the
general spec also includes
Grover locking tuners and
Graph Tech Black Tusq nuts.
First in the team’s sights was a
no-nonsense rock g uitar that
bore an unashamed
resemblance to classic custom-
made LA rock machines…
Yamaha 510V
“We really wanted to make a
single-pickup Pacifica,” states
Ward. “When we started to
think about why we were so
drawn to this idea, all we could
come up with was that single-
pickup guitars were cool!”
He’s right, of course, and the
510 is the Pacifica’s first single-
pickup design. However, there’s
more to it than that, as the
pickup in question is a new
version of the Seymour Duncan
P-Rails – which has impressed
us in previous encounters –
providing both humbucking,
single-coil and P-90 tones in an
individual package.
“The only problem [with the
P-Rails] was that we needed a
wider spacing to go with the
Wilkinson vibrato we’d
selected, and that wasn’t
available from Seymour
Duncan. So we worked with
them to develop a Trembucker
version and, as a result, have
exclusivity on the Trembucker-
spaced P-Rails for OEM use.”
The three pickup modes
are selected via a standard
three-way lever switch and the
expanse of barren scratchplate
feels almost like it’s mocking
the absense of a neck pickup, to
prove a point. The choice of
three-ply vintage mint green
makes it so much easier on the
eye than stark white.
One thing for which ‘boutique’
guitars are renowned is their
playability. The 510’s maple
neck feels the fattest of all three
Pacificas, but none is in any way
clubby. It’s finished using a
gloss top coat over a vintage
tint; Yamaha aimed specifically
for a more modified vintage
feel. It’s certainly comfortable
to play, but perhaps a bare or
lightly satin-finished neck
would have suited the ‘custom
tweaks’ ethos more effectively.
The vibrato tends to stick on
occasion; it’s easy to sort out
with a tweak, or you might
prefer to set it up for downward
movement only a-la Mr Van
Halen. Whatever, this is a very
enjoyable rocker to play.
Sounds
The P-Rails provides a
wide array of tones and the
humbucker, while too hot to
be classified as ‘vintage’ in
character, gives out plenty of
grunt for full-sized rock chords.
Forgive us, but as men of a
certain age, the temptation to
go all out on eighties-style riffs
is just too great. We soon found
ourselves bashing out Mötley
Crüe’s Looks That Kill and
plenty more besides – this
guitar positively begs for that
kind of playing as you grin like
the naughty teenager who
lurks (not so) deep within.
Growing up again, the P-90
tone is not as fat as the genuine
article fitted to both the 611
and 311, but it’s more than
usable in rock and bluesy
settings where you can use the
volume and tone pots to eke
out a wider variety of voices.
Yamaha 611HFM
& 311H
A single-pickup guitar isn’t for
everyone of course, hence the
team’s decision to consider a
second option. “We decided on
a two-pickup design to suit
bluesier players primarily, and
we chose a P-90 for the neck
position,” confirms Ward.
“An under-used pickup, in our
minds at least, the P-90 seems
to be the one everyone loves,
but almost nobody has…
especially on a non-Les Paul-
style guitar.”
Our example of the 611 is
finished in a hue called ‘root
beer’, a colour that’s attractively
subtle and shows off the body’s
maple veneer very nicely
indeed. The headstock is
treated in the same manner and
The Wilky vibrato is the six-screw type
An 8.75-inch radius. Now that’s unique
GIT345.rev_yamaha.indd 73 7/18/11 12:37:09 PM