Yamaha Pacifica PAC120H Black

The Pacifica 120H is the two-humbucker, hardtail take on Yamaha's long-running Pacifica 100 Series — the same lineage that's been quietly winning over players since 1990, just pointed at a different kind of tone. Where the 112V splits the difference with SSS pickups and a vibrato, the 120H commits. Two Alnico V humbuckers, a fixed bridge, and a push-pull coil tap on the tone knob for when you want single-coil clarity without swapping guitars.

Under the hood, it's the same recipe that's made the Pacifica line a genuinely hard instrument to beat at this price: solid alder body, bolt-on maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, 25-1/2" scale, 22 medium frets. The coil-split pulls a single-coil voice out of the bridge humbucker — useful if you want to cover more ground than a straight humbucker pair usually allows. Yamaha specifies the rear humbucker is body-mounted rather than pickguard-mounted, which they credit for a fuller tone by capturing more body resonance.

It lands where the Pacifica has always landed: a well-built, honestly-specced instrument that an intermediate player can grow with and a beginner won't outgrow in a month. For anyone who knows they want humbuckers and a hardtail — and doesn't feel like paying double for it — this is the shortlist.

Specifications
Construction: Bolt-On
Scale Length: 25-1/2" (648 mm)
Body Materials: Alder
Body Finish: Gloss Polyurethane
Neck Materials: Maple
Neck Finish: Satin Polyurethane
Fingerboard Materials: Rosewood
Fingerboard Radius: 13-3/4" (350 mm)
Fret Wire: Medium
Number of Frets: 22
Nut Materials: Urea
Neck Width @ 0 Fret / 12th Fret: 41 / 51.4 mm
Thickness @ 1st Fret / 12th Fret: 20.9 / 22.9 mm
Neck Pickup: Humbucker / Alnico V
Bridge Pickup: Humbucker / Alnico V
Controls: Master Volume, Master Tone (Push-Pull Coil Split)
Pickup Switch: 3-Position Lever Switch
Bridge: Hardtail Bridge
String Spacing: 10.5 mm
Tuning Machines: Die-Cast
Pickguard: 3-Ply Black
String Gauge: 0.009–0.042
Finish: Black
UPC: 0086792953625