First Look: Yamaha Pacifica SC

One of my favorite Yamaha guitars is the PAC1611MS Pacifica Mike Stern Signature model. If you’ve followed my postings here for a while, or subscribed to my Youtube channel, you’ve seen me extol the virtues of this amazing single cutaway electric guitar … and heard just how good it sounds.

In January 2026, Yamaha launched two new electrics that take this classic shape to a whole new level of aesthetic and musical expression. The Pacifica SC Professional and Pacifica SC Standard Plus come in a wide variety of California sun-drenched colors, along with modern features unique to the Yamaha brand of guitars.

Let’s take a closer look at these excellent guitars in more detail.

TONEWOODS

Pacifica SC Professional guitars are hand-crafted in Japan, while Pacifica SC Standard Plus guitars are made in Indonesia. The SC Professional features a two-piece alder body, while SC Standard Plus models have a three- or five-piece alder body. The body has a beautiful arm dress to the upper bout, and a substantial “tummy-cut” on the back for additional playing comfort.

The SC Professional body has also been I.R.A. (Initial Response acceleration) treated, which essentially relieves the tension and stress within a new guitar body to allow the tonewoods to resonate and sound more “played-in.”

The neck is maple: custom-tinted satin on the SC Professional, and a natural smooth satin on the SC Standard Plus. It has a rounded C-shape that is slightly larger than those found on Pacifica Professional and Standard Plus double cutaway guitars.

FINGERBOARDS AND FRETWORK

Both guitars are available with a maple or rosewood fingerboard, and the frets for both are stainless steel medium jumbo. The SC Professional model features a compound radius fretboard from 9.5″ at the bottom range of the guitar to a 12″ radius at the upper range, while SC Standard Plus models have a 9.5″ radius throughout.)

The fretwork on the SC Professional model I have here in my studio is flawless; the fretboard edges are smooth and the intonation is perfect along the entire fingerboard length, including the upper register. You’ll hear just how good the intonation is in the video below, where I play all the way up at the 22nd fret.

Both the SC Professional and SC Standard Plus have a unique truss-rod spoke wheel at the neck heel/ body joint. This allows you to make precision truss rod adjustments quickly, without having to remove a truss rod cover on the headstock or unscrew the neck. Having the truss rod at the treble end of the neck also allows for more headstock mass, which equates to increased sustain, tuning stability, and a richer sound.

PICKUPS

Both models have two pickups: a single-coil in the bridge position and a humbucker in the neck position. This, as you may well know, is a classic pickup configuration for this style of single cutaway guitar.

The pickups are both Reflectone, developed in collaboration between famed audio manufacturer Rupert Neve Designs and Yamaha.

The single-coil bridge pickup can be further enhanced by using the “focus switch” feature. Simply pull up on the tone control, and you’ll enjoy a mid-forward passive boost to the tone — more on this shortly.

HARDWARE

There is a three-way pickup selector switch, along with a volume and tone control to blend the pickup tones. In addition, the aforementioned focus switch pull-pot can be used to add extra versatility to the bridge pickup. If you select the neck and bridge pickups (middle position on the selector), you’ll also enjoy the focus switch blended with the humbucker, so in effect you have five onboard pickup variations.

Both guitars offer Gotoh locking tuners, and the nut is black Graphtech Tusq XL. There are two string trees on the headstock, one for the top E and B strings, and one for the G and D strings.

The bridge features a classic stainless steel plate that houses three brass compensated saddles. The SC Professional comes with a hardshell case, and has a lovely chrome inlet logo on the headstock. SC Standard Plus guitars come with a gig bag and a blackscreen printed logo.

COLOR OPTIONS

I love the new Pacifica SC colors. The SC Professional is available in Ash Pink, black Metallic (maple fretboard versions only). Breeze Metallic Blue, Sunny Orange, and Shell White are available on the rosewood fretboard models.

SC Standard Plus guitars are available in Ash Pink and Peppermint Green for both maple and rosewood fretboard models. Desert Burst (sunburst) and Shell White finishes are available for instruments with rosewood fingerboards, and a Metallic Black is available on instruments with a maple fretboard.

All Pacifica SC guitars are extremely appealing aesthetically, which I think goes a long way to wanting to play them. Speaking of which …

PLAYABILITY

I’ve had an SC Professional in my studio now for a few weeks, and I really enjoy playing it.

The body contours allow you to quickly bond with the instrument, as more of your body gets to connect physically with the guitar, and you therefore feel the resonant frequencies it produces.

The neck, although a bit chunkier than other Yamaha electric models (in a good way) feels extremely stable, positive, and resonant with the body. Because it’s super thin and satin-finished, it’s smooth, fast, and easy to navigate. I love the medium jumbo stainless steel frets too. These fret wires won’t need dressing for a long time, which means your intonation will remain crisp and clear for years to come. The fret edges are dressed perfectly, and the compound radius of the Professional model allows for precise chordal passages in the lower register and expressive bends, without choking in the “dusty end” of the fretboard.

The tuning remains stable even after hours of playing, which I appreciate greatly. We want to play our guitars, not spend time tuning after every song.

TONALITY

I usually like to play a new electric guitar acoustically first, to see how it resonates unplugged. You can tell if a guitar will sound good amplified if the body, neck, and headstock feel like they are connected, and vibrating as one element — and the SC Pacifica easily passes that test. It sounds clean, warm and clear, allowing chordal detail and single-note clarity, even without amplification.

I paired my SC Professional with a Helix Stadium XL amp/effects processors to audition the electric tones, and I honestly think this is the best-sounding setup I’ve heard in ages. I’m a big fan of Reflectone pickups anyway as I feel they have the perfect balance of clarity, character, and warmth guitar players crave from their instrument.

All five pickup selections delivered classic pop, blues, and R&B tones, allowing each of the amps, cabinets, and effects in the Stadium XL to “speak” clearly in tandem with the guitar. Overdriven tones retained clarity, even when playing complex chordal passages, and delivered super sweet melodic lines, that sat perfectly in a busy mix, without the need for further equalization (EQ).

THE VIDEO

For this video, I wanted to create a piece of music that would showcase complex chords, arpeggiated overdubs, and a nice melodic solo using the various pickup selections on the SC Professional.

For the main rhythm guitar part, I used the middle position humbucker and single coil pickups, with the focus switch engaged. This gave me a distinct a mid-forward tone that perfectly complemented the chords being played. The amp had a touch of tube breakup to create more Blues than Jazz in the tone.

The overdubbed arpeggiated lines follow the harmonic structure faithfully, except I’m using upper voicings for clarity, and to define the voice leading within the progression. You’ll notice that I added a subtle harmonic tremolo effect to the clean arpeggiated tones. I used the bridge single-coil, combined with the focus switch, to allow for a well-defined second guitar part.

For the solo, I wanted to create a warm, sweet tone that would sit nicely on top of the chords, so I engaged the neck humbucker throughout. I also added a touch of overdrive using the Minotaur overdrive model to a Matchless amp model within Helix Stadium XL. The dual delay adds a really nice stereo spread to the tones, and the hall reverb helped blend everything into one ambient space.

THE WRAP-UP

I believe Yamaha have hit a home run with the Pacifica SC line. The classic body design, paired with contemporary tones, give the discerning player everything they’d desire, within one incredibly versatile workhorse instrument. These guitars are visually stunning, feel like an old friend to play, and sound impeccable through multiple amp setups.

Having a classic sound from a well-designed state-of-the-art instrument blends the best of both worlds: vintage plus modern technology to enhance the stylistic vision of today’s discriminating guitarist. You owe it to yourself to check the new Pacifica SCs out.

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR.

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