My new guitar arrived this weekend 😀
It’s a Pacifica 112V, and I picked the Old Violin Sunburst finish. I’m really impressed by the quality of it, considering this is a beginner / intermediate guitar and will leave you with change out of £200. Everything feels really solid, and there are nice little touches like the polished fretboard and the chunky, satisfying chrome tone & volume knobs. Even the guy in our local guitar shop (who has a ton more experience than I do, obviously, and is a high-end Strat user) commented on how impressed he was with the quality, since this was the first of the newer model they’d had in. That made me feel better about deciding to order the new (slightly more expensive) model rather than take the older version they already had in stock and had trialed earlier.
The main difference with this model apart from the slightly revised looks is that it has upgraded pickups (Alnico V instead of ceramic as in previous models) and the ability to turn the bridge humbucker into single-coil mode so it can replicate a traditional Strat sound. Having played with the various options I was quite surprised at the number of sound variations you can get without ever touching the amp settings.
I’m having a little trouble with keeping it in tune for the moment, but that’s normal considering it’s brand new with brand new strings, it’ll no doubt take a few days to settle in. Plus I do need to get a plug-in chromatic tuner; I’d been using Tuna Pitch on the Mac with my accoustic so never bought a separate tuner, but that doesn’t work so well with an electric so I’ve been doing it by ear, which is not that reliable. I’d anticipated this and ordered a tuner last week but Amazon seem to be being slow these days; hopefully that will turn up tomorrow.
Now, all I have to do is become worthy enough to play without headphones 😉