I'm still on a quest for a new strat-like guitar and since my first guitar was the Yamaha RGX 612A, another Yamaha line, the Pacifica series came to my attention. I read some good stuff on the internet about Yamaha Pacificas, they have quite the reputation of being solid guitars for a good price. That's also the reason many guitar teachers reccommend the Yamaha Pacifica to their students who are just starting to play the guitar. And If you search for Yamaha guitars on eBay, there are a lot of Pacifica's out there.
The popular Yamaha Pacifica 112 seems very interesting for me to buy second hand and to upgrade because of it's price. But I am also looking for the higher end models so I don't have to upgrade the guitar myself. So I started my quest for a Yamaha Pacifica with slightly better parts than the 112.
Because I'm looking for a (fat)strat-like guitar. I had a few predetermined criteria for this particular mission. The guitar has to have an alder body like most strats. This time around I want a guitar without a Floyd Rose. This will make drop-D tuning easier for if I want to play "Killing in the name of" by RATM. I heard this phrase once regarding drop-D tuning: "Avoid the Floyd". And perhaps I'd prefer better pickups than the Yamaha OEM pickups.
So after some searching I came accross the following guitars and summed up how they differ spec wise in an infographic. What's also worth mentioning is that they all feature locking (Sperzel) tuners. Hope this info might be useful to you guys who are looking to buy a Pacifica on ebay. Check the guitar's own page for more information on specifications.