2024 Yamaha Pacifica Standard Plus vs Fender SSS and HSS Strats | Which is best? Tone comparison
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- Опубліковано 30 лип 2024
- Today we’re comparing the 2024 Yamaha Pacifica Standard Plus against the two standard Fender Stratocaster variants: the SS and HSS pickup models!
Get the Yamaha Pacifica at Thomann: thmn.to/thoprod/584320?offid=...
At Sweetwater: sweetwater.sjv.io/JznE9N
The new Yamaha Pacifica is a great guitar, but the natural question many players will be asking is: for this price why wouldn’t I just buy a Fender Strat instead?
And I think that’s a great question! The new Pacifica is not cheap, at $1,349/€1,250, and at that price range there’s so many different Fender - or even Squier - Strats you could consider instead (and this is without even considering the myriad other brands who also build this kind of guitar!).
So, in this video we do just that. I don’t own a newer Fender Strat like a Player Plus, but what I do have is two great - and radically different - Strats to showcase. First up is my 1993 Lake Placid Blue Fender Japan Strat. This is a very traditional Strat - three vintage-voiced single coil pickups (they’re actually Fender Custom Shop Texas Specials in this one!), and a rosewood board with 21 medium frets on a 7.25” radius.
By contrast, my 2011 Fender Modern Player HSS Strat - in stunning Silverburst - is a much more contemporary affair. It features an HSS set of Fender Modern Player pickups (with a coil split on the bridge humbucker) and has 22 jumbo frets on a 9.5” radius rosewood board.
This makes the Modern Player a closer affair to the Pacifica Standard Plus, which leans slightly into Superstrat territory. The Pacifica has a slim, satin maple neck and a rosewood board with 22 medium stainless steel frets and a 13.75” radius. It also features Gotoh locking tuners and a Gotoh trem/vibrato bridge, and it comes with an HSS set of Rupert Neve-designed Reflectone pickups (with a coil split for the humbucker too).
My goal with this video is to play the three guitars in as many musical styles as possible for you (from country, folk and indie, to pop, rock, punk, metal, and more), so you can really hear how the Pacifica compares against a more vintage sounding SSS Strat, and a hotter, more modern sounding HSS Strat. Let me know which one you think is best in the comments!
Here are some links to the various playing samples and info bits:
00:00 Hello!
00:20 Intro and what we’re doing today
02:02 Yamaha Pacifica specs and info
04:04 Fender Modern Player HSS Stratocaster specs and info
06:05 Fender Japan SSS Stratocaster specs and info
08:40 Today’s rig and plan
Clean Sounds
09:25 Clean tone reference chords on all pickup settings
10:44 Strummed country chords
11:02 Surf pop riff
11:33 Ringing open indie pop chords
12:12 Blues riff
12:45 Funky rhythms
13:09 Ascending droning indie chords
Light & Medium Overdrive Sounds
13:35 Indie rock rhythm chords
14:04 Indie octave chords
14:30 Upbeat indie barre chords
14:53 Choppy barre chords
15:11 Garage rock riff
15:27 AC/DC inspired riff
15:42 Classic rock riff
15:56 Quacky rock riff
16:12 Groovy classic rock riff
16:39 Hendrix inspired riff
Heavy Overdrive Sounds
16:56 80s rock riff
17:15 Melodic hard rock single note riff
17:46 Classic hard rock riff
18:03 Glam rock riff
18:24 Alternative rock riff
18:47 Pop punk riff
19:19 Punk rock power chords
19:32 Modern rock palm-muted chords (Drop D tuning)
Heavy Distortion Sounds (all in Drop D)
19:56 Metal chugging riff
20:29 Heavy metal lead sound
20:44 Mastodon inspired metal riff with country twang
21:06 Rammstein inspired industrial metal riff
21:20 My thoughts
22:01 First impressions and looks
23:16 Price
24:30 Build quality and hardware
26:43 Playability and necks
28:02 Weight
29:24 Sounds and pickups discussion
32:27 Which one should you buy? Which would I buy?
My setup was as follows: I ran the three guitars 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: thmn.to/thocf/jkhog8l06m
Get all this gear at Sweetwater: sweetwater.sjv.io/LXqdE0
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Backing music from the UA-cam Audio Library: Duck In The Alley - TrackTribe.
#YamahaGuitar #Fender #FenderStratocaster #FenderStrat #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
@fender
Get your Yamaha Pacifica at Thomann (EU): thmn.to/thoprod/584320?offid=1&affid=1250
At Sweetwater (USA): sweetwater.sjv.io/JznE9N
And here's your timestamps:
00:00 Hello!
00:20 Intro and what we’re doing today
02:02 Yamaha Pacifica specs and info
04:04 Fender Modern Player HSS Stratocaster specs and info
06:05 Fender Japan SSS Stratocaster specs and info
08:40 Today’s rig and plan
Clean Sounds
09:25 Clean tone reference chords on all pickup settings
10:44 Strummed country chords
11:02 Surf pop riff
11:33 Ringing open indie pop chords
12:12 Blues riff
12:45 Funky rhythms
13:09 Ascending droning indie chords
Light & Medium Overdrive Sounds
13:35 Indie rock rhythm chords
14:04 Indie octave chords
14:30 Upbeat indie barre chords
14:53 Choppy barre chords
15:11 Garage rock riff
15:27 AC/DC inspired riff
15:42 Classic rock riff
15:56 Quacky rock riff
16:12 Groovy classic rock riff
16:39 Hendrix inspired riff
Heavy Overdrive Sounds
16:56 80s rock riff
17:15 Melodic hard rock single note riff
17:46 Classic hard rock riff
18:03 Glam rock riff
18:24 Alternative rock riff
18:47 Pop punk riff
19:19 Punk rock power chords
19:32 Modern rock palm-muted chords (Drop D tuning)
Heavy Distortion Sounds (all in Drop D)
19:56 Metal chugging riff
20:29 Heavy metal lead sound
20:44 Mastodon inspired metal riff with country twang
21:06 Rammstein inspired industrial metal riff
21:20 My thoughts
22:01 First impressions and looks
23:16 Price
24:30 Build quality and hardware
26:43 Playability and necks
28:02 Weight
29:24 Sounds and pickups discussion
32:27 Which one should you buy? Which would I buy?
You make the best side by side guitar comparisons videos on UA-cam. Thanks for your hard work!
Thanks so much! Really glad you appreciate the vids and the effort... these multi-way comparison ones are indeed a good few hours of slogging to get done, even though most of it is fun 😅 So I'm always extremely happy to get such positive feedback - thanks again!
Totally!
A buddy of mine regularly travels quite a distance to pick up pretty pacifica’s . Such beautiful instruments especially for the price. And as always if it has a triple pitchfork on it it’s probably awesome.
Yeah, Pacificas have always traditionally been amazing value for money. It is interesting that the new ones are much more like 'modded Pacificas'... almost like they took the old ones and added parts people would swap out before. This one is awesome too, but it's in another price class. Pitchforks at the ready ;)
@@RichWordsMusic 🤘🏽
Does he happen go to another country to get color options not offered in the U.S.?
This was a fantastic overview, thanks for the effort!
Thanks a lot, really glad you enjoyed it!
I like the design and construction of the Yamaha.
Me too, I think it's a really well done update/upgrade to the Pacifica. Would love to see some more affordable Fenders going in this direction.
My favorite in this comparison is the Stratocaster from Japan. It just has the sounds I like. I already have two Stratocaster Professional hss with the same specs, same settings, but they sound different and I will customize these guitars in different ways. One is a bit quiter than the other and has a bit more bass, the other sounds a bit brighter. These 3 guitars in this comparison sounding also different and that's completely OK. It's just a matter of taste. I think the best way to find the right guitar is, when you get inspired by playing a guitar and if you start to smile and when you get happy, just buy this guitar (if possible)... Often I get inspired by guitars with a good quality, because the feel of the the neck, the fretwork, and the resonance of a guitar is important to me. It's difficult for me to buy a guitar that I never have hold in my hands. A lot of good guitars are now in the same price range like this Pacifica and this makes it a bit complicated to choose the right guitar.
Great comment! I agree with all of it... comparisons like this are a lot of fun, and they are useful, but I am with you 100% in that I think it's always best to play a guitar in person before you buy it, if possible. Especially when you're up at higher prices like the Pacifica. Because you're also right... you might try five with identical specs on paper, and they all feel and sound a bit different! So in the end it's about the inspiration, finding the one that connects with you. Once you feel that, you know it's the right one. Even if it's the cheapest ;) The Japanese Strat here simply inspires me to pick it up and play it, and a lot of that is down to the looks. That's why I mention in the video that the Sparkle Blue Yamaha may have had the same effect. Thanks for the great comment, and enjoy your Strat journey! I would be very interested to hear what you choose to do with the customizations...
Wow I like the sound and tone of the Yamaha ...... Thanks for the comparison
Thanks for making this video. I was actually weighing up the pink yamaha or a silver burst hss fender player plus. I know it’s not exactly apples to apples but it was enough for me to see and hear them side by side to pull the pin. I went with the Yamaha 😊
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! That's exactly the Player Plus model I'd get if I was going for one of the new ones... I must say though, I've seen two in shops now and the Pau Ferro boards have been dry and nasty on both of them 😕 Which is a real shame, and makes me wish they did this model with a maple board, like they do with the Meteora. But anyway, I do believe you've made a fantastic choice with the Yamaha... enjoy it! It's a wonderful, versatile guitar.
I've never liked how the vol knob are so close to the pickups on Strats. They are awesome sounding guitars along with Pacifica.
Yamaha makes good shit!
They certainly do!
👍🏻👍🏻
Thank you good sir!
Less Talk more play
That's what timestamps are for! You can skip the talking with one click if you don't want it :)