If you think about a Yamaha Pacifica, you think about a Stratocaster copy with a traditional tremolo and an HSS pickup configuration. The Yamaha Pacifica 112 introduced in 1994 is one of the most popular guitars for beginners and is often recommended by guitar teachers to their students because of its versatility. The earlier Yamaha Pacificas, developed by Rich Lasner however, featured Floyd Rose tremolos, height-adjustable locking nuts, DiMarzio-made pickups, maple tops and neckthrough constructions among other things. I already wrote a post about some differences between some higher end Yamaha Pacificas where I focused more on the Pacificas with a standard tremolo. In this post I'll focus more on the Yamaha Pacificas featuring a Floyd Rose like tremolo.
The Yamaha Pacifica 1400 series were instruments that Rich Lasner imagined would have come next after the Ibanez JEM and RG Guitars, would he have stayed at Ibanez. They however had features like carved-tops, neck-through construction and the Pacifica 1412 had a 7 piece maple/mahogany neck and chambered areas in the body. The pickups on these, like in the 1200 and the 900 series were either DiMarzio's or made-by-DiMarzio pickups. At the neck joint, these yamahas featured a recontoured heel and to top it off they featured Yamaha's RM-Pro II Floyd Rose like double locking tremolo.
The Yamaha Pacifica 1200 series are Square edged, bolt-on guitars with DiMarzio-made pickups and a Floyd Rose like tremolo. Most of these had (super)strat bodies while some had a more tele like bodyshape (Yamaha Pacifica 1221MS and the Yamaha Pacifica 1230S) . Most had rosewood fretboards while some had maple fretboards. The bolt-on construction was achieved by Yamaha's Total Access Neck Joint system. The system eliminates the heel block to give easy access to the highest frets and the joint is also enhanced with an aircraft aluminum plate that eliminates the slightest lateral movement.
The Yamaha Pacifica 900 series looked a bit more strat-like than their square-edged Pacifica 1200 counterparts but still featured DiMarzio Pickups and the Total Access Neck Joint System. Some had double locking floating tremolos and some had a more standard tremolo bridge. There were also some made especially for the Japanese market (Yamaha Pacifica 912J and the Yamaha Pacifica 912JM)Necks on these guitars have a compound radius and are from Warmoth.
Just like the Yamaha Pacifica 1200 series, the 800 series are square edged guitars, bolt-on guitars with Floyd Rose-like tremolos. Most had (super)strat-like body shapes, the Yamaha Pacifica 812S had a telecaster like bodyshape. The Pacifica 800 series didn't have the DiMarzio made pickups. Instead they had Yamaha Live pickups. And the bolt-on construction was done using the Access Angle Neck Joint so you're able to reach the higher frets. The system didn't have the aircraft aluminum plate which the Total Access Neck Joint system did have. The Yamaha Pacifica 821D and the Pacifica 821DX that came out later in 2000 DID have DiMarzio pickups and also featured another neck joint. The Yamaha Pacific 821DX in particular also had the Yamaha RM-Pro II bridge as opposed to the other Yamaha Pacificas of the 800 series which had the TRS-Pro tremolo.
The Yamaha Pacifica 721was more like the Yamaha Pacifica 900 series but had Yamaha Pickups instead of the DiMarzios. It still featured the Total Access Neck Joint. The bridge however was a Takeuchi TRS-101 tremolo.
Well, that kind of sums up all of the Yamaha Pacificas featuring double locking floating tremolos. There might be a few other (Japanese) models that I haven't included. But for the most part it's all in there. Hope this information is useful to you all.
