Pacifica tuning issues

[Tawm!]

Hey everyone,

I've got a yamaha pacifica 112J, my first guitar, my back up guitar, and I love it even though it refuses to stay in tune. Ive loaded it up with extra springs and blocked the trem, its more the tuning machines... I think? Do you recommend a locking nut? Or new machines? I've got fantastic pick ups in there, so I don't want to toss it.

Oh and can anyone recommend a really nice fender strat neck that I could put on it? The pacifica neck feels too close to a les paul

[dwagar]

are you sure it's not a nut issue? have you had it looked at, or at least tried some lube/graphite in there?

[Tawm!]

Lubricating the nut? Im not sure I follow... You mean applying lubricant in the string grooves??

[ed2000]

Do you have enough windings around the tuning posts? Is the bridge floating or is it bottomed out on the body>...may need to screw in spring retainer further into body. The guitar may need a setup by a pro...probably a few small things causing tuning instabilty.

[Tawm!]

The bridge floats about half a centiemetre off the body, windings are very good, atleast 3 per. Any advice on dropping the bridge down? Wooden blocks?

P.S. Any recommendations for a nice neck? I want to make my pacifica really slippy :)

[Greg Ellis]

A good neck will cost you a couple hundred. There's no guarantee that you'll find a Fender neck to fit a Yamaha, either.

AND you've got tuning problems?

Why don't you unload this beast and buy a guitar that you actually like?

[fraser]

Lubricating the nut? Im not sure I follow... You mean applying lubricant in the string grooves??

check to make sure the nut slots are nice and smooth, and the string does not bind in them- you may want to use some fine sandpaper to smooth the slots-
if the strings are sitting all the way into the slots, you want to sand the top of the nut down, so that the wound strings strings are only sitting 1/2 way into the slot.
make sure the slot is nice and smooth with no sharp edges to grab the string-
then take a pencil and colour the nut slots with it. this is graphite, and will lubricate the nut nicely.

as to the bridge, heres a couple links for tremelo blocking.
http://www.fretnotguitarrepair.com/blocktremolo.htm
http://www.sweetwater.com/expert-center/techtips/d--12/12/2005

i prefer just adding springs myself.

[Tawm!]

Thanks very much for the responses guys!

I'll definetly try the things that you've suggested as soon as I get the chance, I'll let you know how it goes.

Greg, Im curious - lets say I unload this guitar and get something different... Im on a budget though, Im just a university student with little amounts of cash haha, having said that, what do you recommend? Any decent strat/strat copies for a good cost?

[Greg Ellis]

Best advice I can give you is "go play some guitars".

Work out a budget in advance. Maybe you can get $150 for the Yamaha. Add another $100 for the neck you were planning to buy, and say $50 for the tuners. That's $300 or so. If you've got some other bits and pieces you can sell off (pedals or an old amp or whatever) maybe you can push that up to $400 or so.

Go play a bunch of guitars around that price point. I think you'll be surprised at what's available, and how good it is compared to say 10 years ago at the same price point.

If you don't find anything, no harm done, just a pleasant afternoon playing guitars. If you do, well, you've got your answer. If you find something that's just a bit more than you can afford, maybe you can find a used one on the boards here, or on ebay or something.

Don't take it the wrong way - if you really love the Pacifica, then by all means fix it up. But don't do it just because your budget is slim. Sometimes it's better to start over than to keep trying to fix something you don't really like anyway.

What's your #1 guitar right now?

[Tawm!]

#1 guitar right now is a 2001 gibson les paul studio, LOVE it. I want a strat though, I could really take advantage of a guitar with a very different tone to that of a les paul. My les paul has phat cat p-90s in it, I love the single coil sound and response.