Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
This is the 2026 Yamaha PACS+11S Pacifica SC Standard Plus in Shell White – a new take on the classic Fender Telecaster body shape with a few original twists up its sleeve!
Get it at Thomann: thmn.to/thoprod/634985?offid=1&affid=1250
At Sweetwater: sweetwater.sjv.io/5k5Jb9
As a massive Telecaster fan myself, and a big proponent of Yamaha Guitars’ recent output – I love both their revamped Stratocaster-esque Pacifica double cuts and their hugely underrated Revstar line – I was rather excited to see the Pacifica SC model finally see the light of day at NAMM 2026.
You can get this guitar in two versions: the Japan-crafted, $2000+ Professional model, or this – the $999/€969 Standard Plus, which I think most people will want to look at first.
Even though the Pacifica SC might look like a classic Tele on first glance, there’s plenty more going on under the hood. But some traditional features just have to be there on a guitar like this: so you get an alder body, a maple neck and a rosewood fingerboard. You also get a wonderful Gotoh BC-TS1S vintage-style ashtray Tele bridge with three compensated brass saddles, which Tele traditionalists will love for the looks and the twang!
So far, so Standard (Plus). But look more closely, and you’ll start to see a few more distinct choices. The body is slightly more offset than a standard Tele, the scratch plate’s a different shape, and the controls are at a more ergonomic angle than on a traditional Tele.
We also have a set of Yamaha x Rupert Neve Designs Reflectone pickups here. There’s a humbucker in the neck and a Tele-style single coil in the bridge, and we get a Focus Switch here too: this is a passive, transformer-based boost that only works on the bridge pickup here. It gives you a bump in your mids and low end, and gently rolls off the highs, resulting in a fatter, almost humbucker-like tone.
The neck is a more modern feeling thing. You get a super comfy satin modern C profile here, not too fat and not too thin, and the rosewood board is rocking 22 medium jumbo stainless steel frets. Fingerboard radius is 12”, the scale length is a Fender-approved 25.5”/648 mm, and you also get a Graph Tech TUSQ nut and a set of Gotoh locking tuners as well.
The final well-thought-out detail is truss rod wheel access where the neck meets the body – an excellent and welcome addition indeed.
Add in the really nice, chunky gig bag, and you’ve got quite the package here for sub $1000! But how good does the Pacifica SC sound? Can it replace the Fender Telecaster that’s been my go-to guitar for over a decade It’s time to find out! In this video, I put the Pacifica SC through its paces in as many different genres and styles as I can, from country, folk and indie, to pop, rock, punk – and of course some downtuned heavy stuff too!
Let me know what you think of the Pacifica SC in the comments!
Here are some links to the various playing samples and info bits:
00:00 Introduction to the Pacifica SC
01:16 Specs and info
06:55 Today’s rig and plan
07:29 Clean tone reference chords
08:05 Clean tone samples (folk, country, pop, indie, blues, funk, etc.)
10:35 Tone control test
11:34 Indie and alt rock tones
14:14 Volume control roll off test
14:39 Classic rock tones (AC/DC, Hendrix, Airbourne, etc.)
16:57 Hard rock tones
18:17 Alternative rock tones
19:27 Punk rock tones
20:37 Progressive and modern rock tones
21:45 Metal/chugging/heavy distortion tones
23:01 My thoughts
24:01 First impressions and looks
24:35 Weight
24:54 Build quality and hardware
25:35 Playability and neck
26:00 Sounds and pickups
29:23 What other similar guitars are out there?
30:47 My conclusions on the Pacifica SC and why you should buy it
My setup was as follows: I ran the Pacifica SC into my Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 head, also using my Greer Lightspeed, Crazy Tube Circuits Heatseeker, and my Revv G3 pedals for overdrive and heavy distortion sounds. The amp went from the Red Box AE+ DI out straight into my Zoom H6 recorder. 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 YouTube Audio Library: Duck In The Alley – TrackTribe.
#Yamaha #YamahaGuitars #Pacifica #YamahaPacifica #PacificaSC #YamahaPacificaSC #Telecaster #RichWordsMusic
*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
This is the 2026 Yamaha PACS+11S Pacifica SC Standard Plus in Shell White – a new take on the classic Fender Telecaster body shape with a few original twists up its sleeve!
Get it at Thomann: thmn.to/thoprod/634985?offid=1&affid=1250
At Sweetwater: sweetwater.sjv.io/5k5Jb9
As a massive Telecaster fan myself, and a big proponent of Yamaha Guitars’ recent output – I love both their revamped Stratocaster-esque Pacifica double cuts and their hugely underrated Revstar line – I was rather excited to see the Pacifica SC model finally see the light of day at NAMM 2026.
You can get this guitar in two versions: the Japan-crafted, $2000+ Professional model, or this – the $999/€969 Standard Plus, which I think most people will want to look at first.
Even though the Pacifica SC might look like a classic Tele on first glance, there’s plenty more going on under the hood. But some traditional features just have to be there on a guitar like this: so you get an alder body, a maple neck and a rosewood fingerboard. You also get a wonderful Gotoh BC-TS1S vintage-style ashtray Tele bridge with three compensated brass saddles, which Tele traditionalists will love for the looks and the twang!
So far, so Standard (Plus). But look more closely, and you’ll start to see a few more distinct choices. The body is slightly more offset than a standard Tele, the scratch plate’s a different shape, and the controls are at a more ergonomic angle than on a traditional Tele.
We also have a set of Yamaha x Rupert Neve Designs Reflectone pickups here. There’s a humbucker in the neck and a Tele-style single coil in the bridge, and we get a Focus Switch here too: this is a passive, transformer-based boost that only works on the bridge pickup here. It gives you a bump in your mids and low end, and gently rolls off the highs, resulting in a fatter, almost humbucker-like tone.
The neck is a more modern feeling thing. You get a super comfy satin modern C profile here, not too fat and not too thin, and the rosewood board is rocking 22 medium jumbo stainless steel frets. Fingerboard radius is 12”, the scale length is a Fender-approved 25.5”/648 mm, and you also get a Graph Tech TUSQ nut and a set of Gotoh locking tuners as well.
The final well-thought-out detail is truss rod wheel access where the neck meets the body – an excellent and welcome addition indeed.
Add in the really nice, chunky gig bag, and you’ve got quite the package here for sub $1000! But how good does the Pacifica SC sound? Can it replace the Fender Telecaster that’s been my go-to guitar for over a decade It’s time to find out! In this video, I put the Pacifica SC through its paces in as many different genres and styles as I can, from country, folk and indie, to pop, rock, punk – and of course some downtuned heavy stuff too!
Let me know what you think of the Pacifica SC in the comments!
Here are some links to the various playing samples and info bits:
00:00 Introduction to the Pacifica SC
01:16 Specs and info
06:55 Today’s rig and plan
07:29 Clean tone reference chords
08:05 Clean tone samples (folk, country, pop, indie, blues, funk, etc.)
10:35 Tone control test
11:34 Indie and alt rock tones
14:14 Volume control roll off test
14:39 Classic rock tones (AC/DC, Hendrix, Airbourne, etc.)
16:57 Hard rock tones
18:17 Alternative rock tones
19:27 Punk rock tones
20:37 Progressive and modern rock tones
21:45 Metal/chugging/heavy distortion tones
23:01 My thoughts
24:01 First impressions and looks
24:35 Weight
24:54 Build quality and hardware
25:35 Playability and neck
26:00 Sounds and pickups
29:23 What other similar guitars are out there?
30:47 My conclusions on the Pacifica SC and why you should buy it
My setup was as follows: I ran the Pacifica SC into my Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 head, also using my Greer Lightspeed, Crazy Tube Circuits Heatseeker, and my Revv G3 pedals for overdrive and heavy distortion sounds. The amp went from the Red Box AE+ DI out straight into my Zoom H6 recorder. 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
---
Backing music from the YouTube Audio Library: Duck In The Alley – TrackTribe.
#Yamaha #YamahaGuitars #Pacifica #YamahaPacifica #PacificaSC #YamahaPacificaSC #Telecaster #RichWordsMusic
*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
