Cheap Guitar Upgrade - How to Turn Crap into Cool (Yamaha Pacifica Electric Guitar Project) 

I thought you were nuts burning the body, but I really like the effect you achieved. Cheers from Alberta, Canada

Very helpful video, I picked up a $60 squier! Disassembled it (which was so fun), I bought new pickups for a total of $120 (3 single coils), a new bridge $30 and new tuners $70 (don't really know why I spent so much on tuners but it was an impulsive buy haha). The body repainting process was so fun! I flamed the body and then sanded it down, then I did a black stain and sanded it. After that I did the same thing as you did with the red color, but I used a deep sea blue, turned out beautiful! I made a pickguard myself, which also turned out awesome! Followed your instructions and the end result is an awesome playing and looking guitar! In total it cost me $300! Thanks for the video!

the song in the background is from "Tekken 3"

Really enjoyable to watch - a likeable presenter always helps - and very informative. Thanks!

As a guitar tech myself, I can appreciate the upgrades. I like the burnt red finish. Nice job! #guitarfinish #yamaha

I can vouch for the pickups. I used a set of 3 single coils to my parts-caster and they sound amazing. I wasn't impressed with the wilkinson humbuckers though. Also try Iron gear pickups if you are after quality humbuckers.

Very nice tutorial, thanks for that! I'm especially impressed by the flame job on the grain, I'd never seen that and the effect turned out really nice!

Nice video. That's an interesting grain accenting technique you've chosen. I hope you opened your the windows in your car for a while after taking the guitar out. Those evaporate solvents won't dissipate on their own.

I can highly recommend anything made by Wilkinson. I have a great experience with their tuners and bridge. They are actually on my Melody Maker.

THANK YOU. THIS VIDEO SHOWED ME, REBUILDING BASICS AND THAT ITS NOT AS HARD AS MOST OF US THINK IT IS. ROCK ON!

As I am about to upgrade a cheap squire this video is really encouraging . Thank you Ninh .

The idea of just modifying a cheap guitar is extremely appealing to me, good fun little project to pass the time and to see what one might be able to make. I’ll probably do this with my strat copy!

Super job! Love the results. Just told my brother about one to mod in town!

Just the guitar I have been thinking of upgrading.. HSS configuration... perfect! Thanks.

I didn't go into as much detail with my Ibanez GRG121DX. It already looked great. So I rewired it, added Seymour Duncan Invaders, push/pull pots to tap the coils, new three way selector, new input jack, Fender locking tuners, and a heavier, stronger Wilkinson bridge for increased sustain. It's a beast! You could take it straight to any stage in the world. NEVER loses tuning. That guitar absolutely sings!

That looks really really cool. At first I thought it wouldn't look that great no matter what you do because I don't really like the stratocaster body much but with the torching and the red finish it looks beautiful. Nice job

Nice job man! I'm soon going to be making a straguar, so I'll definitely try the wilkinson single coils. Ive got an epi LP studio in a similar red finish and I love it. Ive always noticed that even the cheapest Yamahas are brilliant, especially if you compare them to other guitars of the same price.

The Pacifica (112V) is an excellent bang for the buck guitar and fully usable straight out the box no matter your level, built like a tank, decent pickups etc... but if you take the time to do some slight upgrades it becomes a cheap monster of a guitar.. Yeah, who needs overpriced fenders...

First of all,Yamaha Pacificas aren't ''crap'',back in the day,they were the only decent budget guitars on the market and nowadays they're even better in terms of quality.They use really quality woods and are build like a tank,literally.Put some S.Duncans,DiMarzios or other aftermarket pickups on them and they will sound as good an US Strat,which costs 3 times the money.Put also a Wilkinson/Gotoh trem or a Hipshot bridge(if you don't like trems),a Graphtech TUSQ nut and some mini-locking tuners and you will have a reliable,gigable guitar.Just check out Jack Thamarratt,who's playing modded Yamahas in this videos and sound's amazing.

That looks really good and sounds great. you get a thumbs up!

Hi Ninh, Thank you for the great review! I'd like to recommend one extra tip for modifying a YP: the position of the middle pickup. Namely, if you compare that position with a Fender strat, you'll notice that the position in YP is closer to the neck. I found when changing a strat's pickguard to a Pacifica that the middle pickup sounds much better in the new position! The strat's pickguard needs some fitting to a YP, but it can be done easily with a suitable file.

Looks n sounds very cool. Now I cant wait till I get my kit guitar finished in a couple weeks or so. Don't tell my family but even thought of doing a tele sometime afterwards with a set of the wilkenson pickups.

this is fantastic! thanks for making that vid mate!

Great vid man. Good stuff.

I Like to build guitars from scratch, You can try out different woods and other materials cheaper that way. I personally have taken a liking to the tone you get from Finnish birch with a maple neck.

Hey, Thanks, I have an 18 years old guitar needing some work. After seeing your video I am encouraging to go for it. Maybe I´ll start sanding everything before anything else. BTW I´m following you now.

Oh my god! A fast,easy,simple tutorial!!

Wow, you sound like Major Zero from Metal Gear Solid games, cool voice!

Absolutey smashing. well done.

thanks for the video as it was quite useful for me. for future videos you make, it might be cool to have a minute or so of you playing it pre-mod and then another minute or so at the end playing it post mod for comparison. I can see you like Wilkinson parts and wondering if your video is sponsored by them? no big deal, I really enjoyed this and am now more inspired to do some of my own work versus just sending to the luthier as done in the past -- Cheers!

Really enjoy that. Another great video.

nice video man! the guitar turned out fantastic!

Good work love the finish. All Wilkie products are great.

Hi Ninh, Great video, I subscribed, love to hear more about the electronics and the pickups...maybe how to change out the nut to a brass nut and other cool modification...Thanks again

wow ... I'm impressed with yamaha body cavities ... so clean and smooth ... unlike my 90s made in Mexico strat ...

I did something similar. I got a Westfield stratocaster type guitar for £11.50 from eBay. I went for some Entwistle ASN-57 noiseless single coils which are excellent, wilkinson tremolo bridge, TUSQ XL nut, 19:1 ratio locking tuners, roller string trees, orange drop capacitor, alpha pots, with a oak Grigsby selector switch and shielded the guitar. I bought a cheap 22 fret maple neck from Amazon for just over £20 and finished it myself. The result was a strat that looks awesome, doesn't go out of tune when I use the tremolo and cost me less than £100. I copied the USA strat wiring scheme as well to get as close as possible to the real thing. If you have a decent level of common sense, I highly recommend going this route.

Hey Ninh, cool vids. Your quit the handyman on guitars ha! I play bass. I've got a Toby by Tobias and for $250 it was very much worth the money but I was thinking about doing some modifications to it to give a more a look and maybe some sound. Just wondering if you'd considered any bass modification videos. That would be cool and helpful. Anyway thanks! Keep on rocking on man!:)

Awesome video. Dat sound test though...

Nice concise video, takes some of the mystery out of guitar modding. You've ended up with a ot of guitar fro your money ! Is that a Maclaren F1 shirt you're wearing ? Hopefully they'll get on top of the new Honda engine and be back fighting for wins again soon. Well, we can dream ! Cheers, Robbo.

Wow that turned out really great.. good job! :)

Fantastic video, helped me out a lot.

10:29 plot twist: you do all that and like the stock pickups better (of course, you can go back to what you had, but now you spent extra cash) you can change the ceramic magnets for alnicos on the stock pickups

Awesome finish!

Great advice dude

I got a Squier Standard Strat for peanuts recently. Hoping to turn it into a good wee player I can take anywhere instead of my Fenders and Gibsons and still have a great axe to play on! Good video, great presentation and I've subscribed too. I've shared it on my Facebook as well! Kudos, sir!!

Great vid, Ninh! I can SO sympathize with how much of a tedious drag sanding can be (building a parts Tele at the moment.) And I like many cheap pickups just as much as the megabucks brands. Oh, and you don't need the expensive neck tools, I got a fret crowning tool for less than $10 (US) and a radiused sanding block for about the same, from Ebay. (Yes, you'll need to know the actual radius of your neck, but that's easily determined with a simple radius gauge ... you can actually find these on the 'net, print 'em out, glue 'em to a cardboard backing, and you're done.) Yep, your Yamaha now looks and sounds great!

Nice guitar.. The finish came out pretty good.

LOVE this video!!! The Yamaha Pacifica was my first ever guitar, and I have somewhat of a soft spot for these guitars! Your modified one looks amazing! If you want to sell it, do let me know!!!

That looks ten times better than the original great job! Think I'll do the same!

Great work!! that looks awsome now!

Good video. Too many people take a cheap strat & just pop on new pups but leave the original bridge in it. It's good you changed it, those cheap whammy bridges can ruin a decent build; they're nearly unusable.

Nice video man! Great advice.

the most unbelievable thing about this video is that you found a "nice day" in the UK regarding weather ;)

this helps with my current 'ratocaster' project ;) thanks. and your tip of the vishay orange drops and warman pickups have served me well! (see my channel for those guitars)

Love that he used this tune. Nina on da bass.

Good video! I build guitars from scratch and this is a very good idea for someone without a lot of money... Never used Wilkinson pickups but they look pretty good for cheap P/Us

Awesome video!

Great video. Changing electronics and Pickups on mine. Would like to change pots but don't know the size of pots needed HSS configuration.

And a legend was born.

dam thats a sexy axe man, congrats you really turn it ti something amazing and yours

Awesome Clip! Thanks!

Also, you're gonna want the foil to be connected to the ground wire one way or another, otherwise it wont do much of anything. I use the foil tape and fold one corner over so it contacts the next and connect any kind of wire to the ground. Works good for me!

Love the vids. Subscribed

Cool video, looks great!

Make a sound test xd with distortion. Clean etc . To make sure that the guitar sound great. Good job ;)

thanks very much man

anna williams theme from tekken 3! this is a great choise man!

Hi there, I just came across your video and really enjoyed it! I’m about to upgrade my Pacifica and was wondering what model Wilkinson tuners your installed and whether you needed to ream out the post holes.

Great vid mate, great project...... I've got a new hobby brewing I think👍

Wicked video guy. Enjoyed much. Thanks.

i dont have a car I ride a motorcycle can I use it as a spray paint oven?

The Yamaha Pacifica is a great platform to mod because most of the models have real wood bodies.. The Pac012 is a nice entry level guitar much better than a bullet squire... However the pickguard will not fit with a standard squire/fender pickguard, you will need to purchase a Pacifica cut pickguard. I changed one of my Pacifica's from HSS to a HH. To make a shredder guitar, i spent on a expensive bridge which was a good investment(Vega-trem) which turned this guitar into a high-end gig ready guitar. I like that you found one with a maple neck those are a bit harder to find.. Either way with rosewood or maple neck the Pacifica surpasses most squires...Even the eg112 are good!

Thank you, and here's a subscription for you good sir ;)

Thanks for sharing the process, where did you get the new pickguard? Did it fit straight away on the Pacifica or did you have to drill new holes?

That's Amazing! I have the same guitar - now I know I don't have to buy a new one when I'll need to upgrade :D

Hey Ninh was wondering if you could do a vid on making a double neck guitar bass out of two full cheap guitars, like Squires or something. Love the vids!

wish there were links for new stuff but has a beginnerr next year it won't matter i want a telecaster but these have best of both worlds with both pick ups

nice vid .. I will go and check those willkinson pick ups...

Great video, thanks... one question... when you hammered the posts in, did you use the existing holes from the previous trem?

great job sensei

Hey Nin! I've been whatching your videos lately, and you really helped me out. Can you tell me or make a video about buying a not expensive but with a nice smooth neck, and what pickups to put on it. What I mean is I want to buy a guitar and upgrade it with really good pickups and maybe paint it. So can you recommend me some pick ups with smooth and quality sound (Like John Petrucci's normal guitar sound). The pick ups can be any price, please tell me the best ones. All in all, can you tell me how to make a really good sounding guitar?

Great work and video. I have a Samick Stages 3 (strat body) electric guitar and just has one mid-range pickup. I want to upgrade it with all new components and string tuners. Does Wilkinson sell a complete kit with everything or do you have to buy all separately? Thanks :)

Will be interesting to see customized Ibanez GRG140. They sounds well, but none try to change their style. Anyway respect Bro. Subscribed

Belcat pickups sound awesome! you can get 2 sets for around $50 us. I get the gold ones and you can buff out the gold so its regular chrome in seconds, or take the covers off if you dont want the gold color. I build guitars and always go for the cheap stuff, because I'm a cheap ass. lol but I have had some really terrible luck with other cheap pickups, and Cheap Floyd Rose knockoffs also. Belcats sound awesome. I put EMGs into one of my guitars and I play live a lot and literally everyone tells me the belcats sound way better than the EMGs.

Very useful video, I'm about to take apart my girlfriends old Pacifica and basically do what you did in this video. All new hardware ordered, except the bridge pickup. If I understand it correctly, the one in the video is a Wilkinson? Where did you get it? I can't find any white Wilkinson humbuckers anywhere, only white singlecoils. Will probably go for DiMarzio if there's no decent budget alternative (in white!).

Hey Ninh, great project. I have the same guitar and am thinking of upgrading too. Would be great if you post the links for the pickups, capacitors, electronics you used. Cheers.

I totally agree with the Wilkinson pickups I swapped a bridge one out for a hand wound one name beings with B and there was no noticeable difference .

Looks pretty damn cool

Just found your site... and enjoyed the video very much. I did my first mod on a squire last year... I took the easy route and used a loaded pickguard from guitarfetish.com. Changed a couple of other things and it turned out pretty good. It will be a better first guitar for my grand-daughter than it would've been before. I just happen to have a Pacifica sitting here waiting on something wonderful... and have another grand-daughter picking up guitar ...so I think I'll try the Wilkinson pups this time along with the bridge. Thanks again for the video... now a subscriber.

wow that was really hellpful grate vid :)

I use my car as an over too lol for drying blue jeans thoroughly lol

Hi Ninh, great video. Really has me wanting to upgrade one of my old cheap guitars. My only question is where can I find a legitimate Wilkinson dealer online? I live in the US and I really want to give the WMSH pickup series a try. Thanks in advance!

thanks for this

Something about this feels super 2009. Not a bad thing, just getting those vibes.

Looks good

I liked the torching idea! Did you have to special order the copper tape? I like how you used Wilkinson hardware and pickups. I didn't know they made pickups. I recently put Wilkinson tuner on a guitar I redid for my son. I took an Epiphone Les Paul special and Refinished it in Silver Sparkle. I have it on one of my videos.

Overall, well done! Clear and easy to understand, and you hit all the high points. I'm sure some of us might have done it different, but you ended up with a fine instrument thats sounds and feels right for you. That's the ticket!

Thanks for video, you have to enlarge the holes for mount the mechanical? My Yamaha ERG 121, stock has 8mm holes :(

There's no reason for the bar string retainer unless you have a locking nut. It's there so the strings don't go wildly sharp when you lock them down. It will just add tension and reduce tuning stability on a regular guitar. Just use height compensated tuners and you don't need any string trees.

GFS pickups are also great budget pickups, and there are Chinese pickups by Tooyful on Ali Express that sound as good as Dimarzios for 1/5th the price.