Yamaha Pacifica pickup upgrade and set up
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- čas přidán 18. 12. 2018
- Here I'm setting up and changing the pickups on 8 yr-old Zander's Yamaha Pacifica in time for Christmas :-) This is a great budget guitar but with the usual electric guitar problems: high action, buzzing frets, tuning instability and locked down tremolo and so-so pickup tone.
The video shows me setting up the guitar first followed by installing some new IronGear pickups (Rolling Mill for the bridge and Texas Loco single coils for the middle and neck). I spend some time explaining the reasons I'm doing certain things plus go looking for a replacement bridge to fit a spare tremolo arm that I've got. In the end, I tapped out the hole in the original bridge block to fit the arm I had spare. Result. I end up by setting the tremolo to a nice floating action - with solid tuning stability. This is a fairly rare guitar where the plastic nut just happened to be cut well enough to not need any further adjustment or replacement - and it worked perfectly well with the floating tremolo. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!
Anyway, here's hoping you enjoy the guitar Zander and if all the talk in this video bores you I won't be offended at all if you prefer to be playing the guitar rather than watching this :-) Happy Christmas!
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If you'd like to do the same precision fret-levelled set ups shown in these videos - using inexpensive everyday tools - consider buying my '5 Steps to Guitar Set Up Heaven' eBook.
Details how to get it direct from me are here:
relovedguita...
my favorite budget guitar...I just picked one up at a pawn shop 120 usd few days ago..perfect shape..plays perfectly.
Sam,
Its soooo relaxing seeing and hearing you while working on your guitar :D
Learned more in the first 10 mins of this video than in years of searching on the internet.
I'm currently fixing up a yamaha pacific that I got for free off a mate. Played for several years, but never fixed up any guitars before. This video is so incredibly helpful, thanks so much!! :)
Very interesting. Never seen the truss rod fret leveling gizmo before, ingenious!
Great video and presentation Sam. I really enjoyed this one!
Brilliant, Sam. Thanks and Happy Christmas!
I have watched this a couple of times... great instructional video. I just picked up a Yamaha Pacifica to start learning to play on. I know the setup on mine is not great (its not bad but the action is a bit high), but the guitar is in very nice shape. I want to learn how to do the setup myself. I am going to give it a try and see how close I can get it based on your recommendations and techniques. Some of it is out of my wheelhouse (fret work) but the rest looks like with some effort and dedication, I could get it sorted.
Thank you for sharing. Very interesting video and, having grown up in warmer climate, I'd feel very cold working at 13C !!! :-) I love your shed and how well you've organised it and the way you work. I'd start unscrewing by hand to minimize damaged to a worn screwhead and continue with the power tool, but you're in control.
I've got my late brothers old pacifica I think the same model as this, the frets are worn down quite alot but it is still intonating so well, no dead notes, action can be set quite low, the neck shape and thinness is amazing, so I'm afraid to replace it and get that "cheap guitar needs work neck". Was thinking bout changing the pickups which is how i came upon this video. Never bothered with the trem, missing the arm and I put 2 extra springs on it to sort of "block" it.
Well explained and very interesting.. Thanks for all the advice. Looking to take my Pacifica apart as there are loose parts and crackling issues. Might be the connection where the jack is that you mentioned..
Hi Sam, I recently was asked to set up a Japanese Fender Strat which was, if I remember correctly, a 1962 re-issue. This meant that it had a 7.25 inch radius neck, but the lady that owned the guitar really likes to bend strings and also likes a really low action. So I said that if she wanted me to, I would change the radius of the neck so that it was flatter, to allow for the action she wanted. Not quite as simple as I thought it was going to be!
What a nice manner you have about you, Sam. You're exactly the sort of chap I prefer to listen to. :-)
NIce video, very helpful for someone interested in guitar building.
A great video for beginners and more . The only thing I would take issue with is the old chestnut regarding string movement in the nut slots . This was being talked about in the 1960s when I started playing . We clamped a guitar down under a school microscope and started bending the d string . We carried on for quite a while and could not register any movement at all in the nut slot . We came to the conclusion that the bridge and nut are the 2 fixed points on the guitar and any stretching was happening between them .
I really like your presenting style and knowledge.
Great video.
Really nice looking Yamaha. Amazing that the tremolo works fantastic, coz I’ve always thought that on budget guitars your not going to get the best out of it, or to a degree anyway. But very impressive.
thank you very much for this big lessons....salud from Brazil