Yamaha Pacifica 611HFM
74 Guitarist Summer 2011
£579, £479 & £399
ELECTRICS
the vintage-tinted maple neck,
which feels slightly shallower
than the one present on the 510,
isn’t too far away from that of a
fatter sixties reissue Strat.
The pickups are again
Seymour Duncans: a
Trembucker-spaced version of
the full and powerful Custom V
and the vintage-correct SP90-1
at the neck, selected by a
three-way lever switch and
augmented by a pull/push
switch on the tone control to
split the bridge humbucker.
“We originally planned to use
the Duncan SP90-3, but when I
tried the first prototype at a gig,
the mid-range just seemed too
closed and hard,” offers Ward.
“There was too much gain, the
high-end seemed a little harsh
and it just didn’t sound right.”
As we’ve stated, the 311 is a
more affordable version of this
design, with its unfinished neck
and headstock mirroring the
stage-ready vibe of the 112, and
the spec includes Yamaha’s
own custom-wound versions of
both a hot-yet-vintage-voiced
humbucker, complete with coil-
split, and a P-90.
The alder body is fashioned
from a five-piece spread – the
510 and 611 are both three-
pieces – and the vintage white
finish of our example looks the
business in tandem with the
tortoiseshell pickguard.
The feel of the 311’s neck is, to
us, slightly different. It’s
certainly more rounded at the
edges than either of the other
two and, as we alluded to
earlier, the unfinished version
feels simply fantastic.
Sounds
Plugging the guitars in, it’s
immediately apparent just how
versatile the Pacifica design is.
The 611 is fuller and more
articulate all-round, with the
neck P-90 especially worthy of
a mention. It’s the perfect mix
of vintage soupy low-end and
modest treble cut, which is ideal
at low gains for bluesy bends
and smooth, almost jazzy
chords. Splitting the
humbucker and switching to
the central position gives a
lovely Strat-style, in-between
flavour akin to a warmer
version of Mark Knopfler’s
classic tone, and dropping the
coil-split adds more depth and
drive, which works well with
full chords. The Custom 5
provides a full, yet sparkly
rhythm tone with modest gain,
and although it offers a certain
level of vintage warmth, the
more strident higher-end gives
an increased modern feel.
In a direct comparison, the
311 isn’t quite as tonally
articulate – the humbucker is
lower in power and the P-90 a
little f lat. However, as a
standalone instrument it
provides an equal level of
versatility. In fact, its
humbucker is, if anything,
better suited to giving warm,
Gibson-style tones and, with a
moderate gain setting, the
reduced amount of bite from
the guitar allows for a
reasonable impression of
Warren Haynes’s fat sound,
albeit with a more transparent
edge. We prefer the feel of the
311 to that of the 611, but that’s
just our personal preference –
all three of these guitars play
very well indeed.
Verdict
We asked Yamaha if our
controversial Pimp My Pacifica
feature from issue 304 (in
which the Guitarist team
was let loose to ‘customise’
a number of Pacificas with
varying degrees of subtlety),
had been of any inspiration?
“It didn’t have a lot of influence
on the final guitars,” laughs
Ward, remembering some of
our workmanship (not least the
barbecue aging technique of
The 311 puts a P-90 at the neck position
The vintage white fi nish of our
example looks the business in tandem
with the tortoiseshell pickguard
GIT345.rev_yamaha.indd 74 7/18/11 12:37:18 PM