Yamaha 2026: SC

This got me really excited - Yamaha released the singlecut version of its Pro & Standard Plus models. I need to try these in person. Despite the rather substantial price difference there, the Standard Plus (Indonesian) might hold its own since specs are very close to the Pro (Japanese). Trying not to look at these guitars too much, it's anxiety inducing.

Pics: Yamaha

Plus discount

I have no idea if players here are still looking up to the Japanese Pacificas for a deserving throwback episode but here it is; the Standard Plus Series (made in Japan) are on sale. Just looking at the price per se, players would be asking themselves why opt for this one instead of an American Fender or even a Japanese Edwards for that matter (the latter for less). The glorious, shred-tastic Pacifica days are well over, yes? But these are good guitars (do take time to try them out) albeit an absence of that 90s Pacifica vibe. 

Pics: Yamaha SG

SPlus promo

I have no idea if anyone finds the Yamaha Pacifica desirable these days but in due fairness, I'm sharing a good deal - The Standard Plus (Indonesia) is now $2,079 $1,660. An Ibanez Premium model lists for more & these are made in Indonesia as well. I'm sure there are players among us who won't mind paying a sum in this price bracket for a Chinese Epiphone. No subliminal advocacy here, just putting things in perspective price-wise.

Pics: Yamaha SG

Up - Yamaha

My respect goes to Yamaha for this endearing effort in playing a part for the environment. The other aspect of wood sustainability involves the use of unused / spare wood parts to construct an instrument. It has to be playable & desirable at the very least so as not to demean itself as a glorified piece of junk. The frankensteined Pacifica you see above is a glorious example of research & effort into manifesting such an instrument. Wood blocks / pieces were salvaged from cut waste which were high quality / premium cuts to begin with.

This Marimba model was constructed using pieces of leftover rosewood used to manufacture, you guessed it, marimba. 

My personal favourite has to be this Piano model consisting of spruce, beech, birch & maple favoured for pianos initially. The fact that Yamaha could easily construct quality instruments of this nature shows that upcycled wood materials are no less desirable than their unsullied counterparts. At our end (players), we need to stop equating unparalleled quality with exotic woods costing way much with marginal contributions to tone. Also, players tend to couple looks with tone so upcycled wood pieces would easily be defeated in this aspect - visual appeal. Wonder if any of these interesting instruments would make it here...

Pics: ifdesign/ designboom 

Old

This had been a tough one. I had difficulties sourcing for parts (tuners / bridge) due to incompatibility; this guitar is more than 40 years old. Also, this model does not include a truss rod so curing the bowed neck without thermo treatment is impossible.

A complementary set of 11s (Cristofori brand) went into this one. I like the tone, just that the instrument is not in an ideal playing condition. The owner just wish for a re-string & minimal restoration; sentimental item, this one. 

PAC @ SG

The new (2024) Yamaha Pacifica Professional PACP12 is now available at the Yamaha stores here. Price: $2,079 because it's a higher tier, Japanese instrument. It's enticing the Ibanez AZ Premium campers to cross over & embrace some Japanese goodness for less. Yield / resist?

 

Pic: Yamaha Corp

Pathway

Interesting - This is a solid body, electric tenor ukulele by the brand Flight. This model is the Pathfinder & it's available at Yamaha ($305). Body is basswood with a flame maple veneer while the neck is a roasted maple unit. Those HS pickups are interesting & suggest the fact that this instrument is not assigned accompaniment duties exclusively. The idea of a solid body electric ukulele isn't new. Agile did this back in 2016: CLICK

Pic: Yamaha SG

Seq & you will find

I must admit that I've got bitten by the beat-making bug in the mean time. Folks, these are the newly launched (NAMM 2024) Yamaha Seqtrak, a beat-making workstation which is a standalone unit unlike majority others that require a computer pair-up. Quite obviously, Yamaha is giving the Teenage Engineering OP-1 a sucker punch in terms of price; it's about a quarter of what the OP-1 lists for. In the mean time, only the grey-black version is available at Yamaha's Beat Spot store. I am unable to finance this purchase in the mean time but if there's a definite piece of gear that I'd acquire this year, it will definitely be a Seqtrak. Em... anyone wants to sponsor? 😅

Pic: Edgadget

Yamaha 2024: Pac Pro

This year, Yamaha returns the Pacifica to the top tier selections. The guitar you see above is the Pacifica Pro (Japan). It looks very much like the typical Pacifica with added visual tweaks: Truss rod adjustments moved to the heel end, line / strip inlays, modified pickguard & that embossed logo at the headstock. 

The manufacturer also offers the rosewood fretboard version if you prefer a darker hue at that part of the neck.

Pickups - Yamaha went with Rupert Neve Refelctone this time for both the humbucker & single coils. Looks the works but do note the price: USD3.7K. Yes, we acknowledge the fact that this guitar is up there in terms of quality. However, people are already saying, for that kinda money, frets could have been more substantial & maybe include some roasted wood in there. Hmm...

Pics: Yamaha USA

The good Rev

This was sent to me last night - Yamaha Revstar RSS20. Was impressed with the overall QC less some tooling marks on the fretboard. I believe this should not have happened, wonder what took place along the way. Action was re-set based on a set of 9.5s & it was easily / quickly done due to the very straight neck. Also, not much re-conditioning fluid was applied to the 'board as well; it still looks good. Will give this one a quick review shortly, do not wish to say too much.

Meliora

Pic: Strandberg IG

Latest from the ergonomic landmark brand, Strandberg - Boden Meliora. Essentially a solid center part with a skeletal wing frame. Sounds familiar?

Pic: Yamaha

Yamaha Silent guitar was there before & done that. OK, so theirs was an acoustic take but what goes round, comes round.

Air tech

I've not touched this one for a while so it got a re-string last night & some playing time. I got this during one of Yamaha's sale event where I could actually be there early before everything got snapped up. This was the last piece in store & it's dinged at the bass side of the fretboard edge. I like everything about this guitar less the pickup selector switch which is a rotary knob there. You need at least two fingers to turn it & gets very challenging when you are holding a pick at the same time. Also, I've stopped using a battery for this guitar as all it does is power the pickup selector light which I can do without. 

This is a super light guitar due to the layered body construction that houses air, mostly. AIR here refers to Yamaha's patented Alternative Internal Resonance. Supposedly, it lets the body vibrate via metal tubes that are fixed under the bridge. I'm trying to reconcile the fact that body resonance is an awesome acoustic feature against the pickups' inability to pick this up (pun intended). Whatever design engineering is involved here, the RGX A2 has a good semi-acoustic voicing that sounds more solid than the average semi. 

I'm also glad to have TESLA pickups in there instead of the default pickups as these are higher output units, more responsive to distortion. Seriously, I wish Yamaha would adopt this design tech into their Pacifica models.

Sale... ex...

Sale extended... but the good stuff were all snapped up. Visit their home page & click on the pricelist too see if the remainders are worthy of your attention. 

Yamaha SALE: 26/2 - 28/2

Happening this weekend at Yamaha Plaza Singapura (Beat Spot) store. Be informed that, in accordance with safety procedures, entry is strictly by pass / ticket admission. Please click this link to book your slot: CLICK

Pic: Yamaha SG

Selling: Yamaha Guitalele (GL1) [SOLD]

That's right, chemo funding continues. Letting this go... 😔 It's a ukulele-sized guitar, best used for chord works more than anything else.

• Selling: Yamaha Guitalele GL1 (bag included)
• Self-collect: CCK / Yew Tee mrt station
• No reservations / trades
• Queries / confirmation: subversion.sg@gmail.com
• Price: $90 (final)

Pac up

Good to see some developments in the Yamaha camp. Come January 2021, these PAC612VIIX would be the premium models in the Pacifica range. With branded components by Wilkinson, Grover & Seymour Duncan, these will easily be the preferred Pacificas in terms of feature & performance so prices would be in the $1K - $1.5K bracket. I think the only vital characteristic in making these guitars on par with their equally enhanced counterparts (LTD/ Ibanez/ Fender/ etc.) is having them made in Japan. This will contribute to a privileged appeal because the current Pacificas are all offshore models so to speak. Fans would want to see the Pacificas back to its level best, being handled exclusively by Japanese hands. 

PIC: Musicplayers

30th Attitude

 

Yamaha commemorates its 30th anniversary collaboration with Billy Sheehan with this bass. The colour is a little boring but it's the colour of Sheehan's first P-bass (aka The Wife) so it's a walk down memory lane. Yamaha makes good basses, really. If you've handled an upper tier model, you know it's the works; everything so classy from one end of the instrument to the other. If you don't already noticed, Yamaha invests more time, resources, R&D & marketing for their basses than their guitars (in the mean time). However, many of us do not look up to Yamaha as a formidable name in musical instruments, we are distracted by their motorbikes, boat engines & pianos. 

Selling: Yamaha PAC510V (SOLD)

Thought long & hard but decided to let this go. The P-Rails in the bridge position is something I should consider more often. In coil split mode, it's a P-90 & it's a constant reminder of how commanding a single coil could be. 

• Yamaha PAC510V (no mods, bag included)
• Self-collect @ CCK MRT station
• No reservations/ trades
• Queries/ confirmation: subversion.sg@gmail.com
• Price: $450 (FINAL, non-nego)

Why?

Folks, you might have recalled that I have highlighted the safety issues pertaining to the LINE 6 relay products & made it clear these were not to be sold in any way (Click HERE to refresh). It's an international re-call & not discriminatory. It concerns safety & it's the standard protocol even for other products, the more obvious ones coming from the motor vehicle sector. We read countless recall notices of cars with faulty air bag system, brakes, etc. & these were removed from the market. It entails costs, no doubt, but safety is the bigger cost considerations here. Those showing diminished understanding of such issues reflect who they really are; merciless commercial entities with disregard for human considerations by putting profit first, everything else can go to hell.

As on Tuesday, 31st March, Yamaha S'pore is still selling the LINE Relay system through its web store. I'm putting Yamaha under the microscope here because they own LINE 6 & they are the main distributor of the items. The recall exercise happened about two weeks ago. The fact that Yamaha is still selling the Relay system with no major recall announcements at their homepage, speaks a lot about them.

Personally, I do not wish to marginalize any commercial entities here because our relationship with them is largely symbiotic. You'd agree that we would have forge a special relationship with them once we become regular customers; it's simply human nature. We reciprocate others' good intentions to keep things going. We don't benefit from having negative relationships with the dealers. Bypassing them & going straight to source is an expensive ordeal for many of us. 

I would like to thank Sound Alchemy & City Music for being very responsive to the matter in hand, They are re-sellers of LINE 6 products & (ironically) react way faster than Yamaha. Please understand that I have no personal motivations to undertake this scrutiny; I'm not being paid to do so & there's a high probability of straining relationships while at it. Currently, what takes place in the music market here is  below the authority's radar. If it involves safety & consumer consequences, I would like the issues to be resolved amicably. Doing the right thing is sometimes unpopular & I don't mind losing some friends along the way - it helps me define who my real friends are.

Ibanez AZ - feeling different

Folks, we've seen these before; the Ibanez AZ2402. The tri-fade & ice metallic blue versions are the initial models. The white & two other pastel hues came later. I had been assuming that they were all the same less the colour differences. However, be informed that there's a difference in neck feel. No, it's not about the neck profiles but the finish treatment. The three later models sport a satin finished neck while the initial two releases has a raw treatment, something close to that unfinished IKEA chair.

This isn't a unique interpretation when it comes to neck finishes. The Yamaha Mike Stern model had been about that raw treatment all along. Rest assured that this type of neck finish preserves the playability of the instrument, there's nothing to worry about. After years of playing, the raw treatment would eventually satin out giving you the smoother feel. From a production perspective, it's only prudent to engage in the satin treatment at the start. The thing about letting time & repeated handling do its job is that of consistency; the more handled surfaces of the neck would be smoother than the rest which are not.

I only realized this difference after trying the newer AZ2402 models (before deciding to buy one). I have no idea if the manufacturer omitted this detail intentionally or they might have decided to observe this finish migration entirely. On that note, the newer tri-fade & ice metallic blue finishes might have the answer but in the mean time, the ones in the stores are still sporting that raw treatment. I might give the serial number a cursory glance the next time I'm there to check things out.