[Repair] Making This YAMAHA Pacifica PAC312 Playable

Good morning to everyone viewing the Sound House column. This is DJ Owatani. It's been quite a while since my last update—almost six months, in fact.

As mentioned in the title, this article is a kind of report about repairing a guitar. However, I have no real experience in guitar repair, so I’m at a level that’s just “child’s play”, so to speak. That said, I wanted to make use of the points I earned from my previous posts and document the process, including how I gathered the necessary materials, which is why I decided to write this article.

The guitar I repaired this time is the YAMAHA Pacifica PAC312, an entry-level model in the Strat-style Pacifica series.

Its retail price is 37,000 yen (excluding tax, as of October 2021), making it a reasonable price for this guitar. It features an alder body, maple neck, and rosewood fretboard. The pickups are arranged in an SSH configuration, a common setup for budget guitars. The controls consist of a 5-way selector switch, master volume, and master tone, which makes it very convenient for someone like me, who is used to the Telecaster-style layout.

↑ The photo is before getting to the repair work

Actually, I wasn’t the one who bought this guitar. A few years ago, my father won it on Yahoo! Auctions for about 10,000 yen. According to him, that's how much he paid for it. I used to play it quite a lot back then, and although the sound wasn’t bad, the string height was unusually high, and the jack had a poor connection, making it quite hard to play. As a result, my father wasn’t too keen on playing it, and after about three years after the auction, he ended up buying a Fender Mexican Stratocaster. After that, the Pacifica was pretty much left untouched and became an unfortunate guitar.
I'm sure many astute readers are thinking, "Couldn't the string height be adjusted with the bridge saddle's screws?" And yes, I thought that too, so I asked my father about it. His reply was, "The saddle screws are rusted and won't turn." Sure enough, when I checked it out, they were indeed rusty. With that condition, adjusting it to the desired height was impossible. One way to fix this would be to replace the saddle with a compatible one (and that’s exactly what I did), but since my father mostly plays acoustic guitars, he wasn't very motivated to go through with it.

So, why did I decide to repair this Pacifica? I certainly had a feeling that the sound could be good and the guitar could turn out nicely, with proper adjustment. However, what truly motivated me to start the repair was the character Natsuki Nakagawa from the anime Sound! Euphonium.
https://twitter.com/yamahaguitar_jp/status/1142447280143785984

After being deeply moved by the 2018 movie Liz and the Blue Bird (http://liz-bluebird.com/) and the following year’s Sound! Euphonium: The Movie – Our Promise: A Finale (http://movie3.anime-eupho.com/), I couldn't shake the image of Natsuki Nakagawa playing the Pacifica. Of course, I also watched the compilation films of the previous two seasons (I still haven’t finished watching the TV show—sorry about that), and after researching more about her, I found out that she listens to a number of Japanese bands. And then I thought to myself, “Tatoeba, Ano Ko ha Toumei Shoujo.” (For example, That Girl is a Transparent Girl).

So, as someone who only owned a Telecaster-type guitar, I was determined to repair this Pacifica and try playing the "Tamaki Tabuchi" part of Transparent Girl in order to feel closer to Natsuki Nakagawa. With this strong desire, I set out to repair the guitar. First, I removed the strings, wiped down the whole guitar, and removed any dust. I managed to remove the bridge saddle (which went smoothly, much to my relief). Then, I polished the frets with metal polish and applied lemon oil to the fretboard. The first photo was taken after reaching this point.

■ Fret Guard (This is not the exact one I used, but it’s very similar.)

FERNANDES / Fingerboard Guard 3P

■ Lemon Oil

DADDARIO / Lemon Oil

■ Fret Polishing (I used a regular metal polish.)

dmiguitarlabs / FRET BUTTER Fret Polishing Cloth

I also polished the metal parts of the bridge, and while the pickup covers had some dullness, the Pacifica was beginning to look much better.

First, I measured the width of the removed bridge saddle and ordered a 10.8mm saddle (I chose a nickel version made by GOTOH. The color is different, but I didn’t mind that). I also ordered replacement strings, a strap, strap locks to prevent the strap from falling off, and a missing arm. After assembling everything, here’s what it looks like.

■ Bridge Saddle

GOTOH / S108 Nickel

■ Arm

FERNANDES / RST Arm CR/SW Cap '16

It’s looking pretty good, isn’t it? I skipped over most of the work steps, but you can easily find a ton of information online if you search for things like "synchronized tremolo adjustment." So, I think you’ll be fine. Since I finally got a guitar that allows for proper arm adjustments, I’ve been really enjoying my shoegazing days.
https://twitter.com/o_w_t_n/status/1396664212324118530?s=20

It’s not Number Girl, right? But I think Natsuki Nakagawa also likes My Bloody Valentine. So, I highly recommend you all watch Liz and the Blue Bird and the Sound! Euphonium series! That’s it for today!

■ Pacifica 112V (The same model that Natsuki Nakagawa plays)

YAMAHA / Pacifica 112V OVS Electric Guitar

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