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As the latest addition to Yamaha’s long running Pacifica line, the 611VFMX has a lot to offer players who want the performance advantages of a hot-rodded S-type guitar.
As the latest addition to Yamaha’s long running Pacifica line, the 611VFMX has a lot to offer players who want the performance advantages of a hot-rodded S-type guitar. This bolt-neck design plays super easily thanks to its slim, satin-finished neck, which sports a relatively flat, gloss-finished fingerboard carrying 22 well-shaped frets and mother-of-pearl position dots. A superb setup assists in the intonation department, and similar attention to detail extends to the Wilkinson trem bridge, which, adjusted to float on our test guitar, had a butter-smooth action and excellent return-to-pitch capability (Yamaha informs us that the factory trem setup is for detune only). The locking Grover tuners also help stabilize the tuning, and a precisely cut Graphtech nut ensures the strings glide smoothly over it when you’re working the bar. Lastly, the string path is arrow straight from the six-in-line headstock. A translucent Matte Blue finish graces the 611’s maple/alder body (other available colors are translucent Matt Black or Matte Root Beer), and the flamed laminated maple top and black anodized aluminum pickguard are nice touches. The contour on the back and the upper wing make this guitar very comfortable on a strap, even though our test model was a little on the heavy side at a shade over 8 lbs.
The pickups are well chosen here, and the Duncan SP90-1N in the neck position is a good match for the high-output Duncan Custom 5 humbucker in the bridge slot—and while the 3-way selector only provides neck, neck + bridge, and bridge settings, there is a push-pull function on the Tone pot that splits the humbucker’s coils to give a wider variety of