hss guitars - i get it now
I used to hate HSS electric guitars, but now after owning one I actually like and play regularly, they do make sense...
...if designed correctly, which certain Yamaha Pacifica models are.
This is how to do controls right for an HSS:
I have the second-to-lowest cost Pacifica guitar for this, the PAC112VM (seen above). The lowest cost is the PAC112V, with the only difference being that model has a rosewood fingerboard instead of maple. The highest cost model for this particular part of the series is the PAC612VIIFM (which includes the highfalutin options of Seymour Duncan pickups, Grover locking tuners, Graph Tech TUSQ nut and a Wilkinson VS50 6 vibrato bridge).
And no, the PAC612VIIFM is not the most expensive Pacifica Yamaha makes. The two highest tiers are the Standard Plus and the top of the line Professional.
Although, in all honesty, if I do buy another Pacifica in the future, it would be the two-pickup PAC311H (or maybe the 611H). That one is a humbucker + P90, and also has the split-coil option, meaning I can split the humbucker and get twangy Telecaster-like sounds out of it.
The two big problems with the vast majority of HSS guitars...
...is that the humbucker is too loud, and the potentiometer used for the volume control makes the single-coil pickups "screech" too much.
Usually it's the case where the humbucker's output dwarfs the other two single-coil pickups. This means the volume effectively "drops off a cliff" when you switch from humbucker-alone to anything else.
Humbuckers work well with a 500K potentiometer as the volume control because it brings out more treble response. Switch to anything other than humbucker-alone, and the treble is now too high.
The Pacifica thankfully mostly gets around this by having a lower output humbucker, and a volume potentiometer that for whatever reason doesn't "screech out" the single-coil pickups when in use.
I say mostly because yes, the humbucker is still louder than the single-coils, but not in a way where it dwarfs them. It's plenty usable enough, which I appreciate. And I can split it to single-coil whenever I want to get a Strat-style sound on the bridge side.
Sometimes, you just want a humbucker
I also used to hate humbuckers before getting my Pacifica PAC112VM. Prior to Pacifica, every guitar I ever bought with humbuckers just didn't sound right no matter what I tried.
Using both coils sometimes works out really nicely, and not just for rock. Going clean with a lower volume works fantastically well for soft jazz chords. No, it's obviously not the same as using an ES-335, but still, nice to have.
What I needed was the right HSS
The PAC112VM is the first HSS I've ever actually liked. Perfect? No, but darned close.
What the Pacifica has shown me more than anything else is that an HSS doesn't suck when actually designed right.
The only unfortunate part is that in the under-$1,000 range for electrics, Yamaha and Ibanez are the only two brands that make HSS axes that don't suck.
For example, the Charvel Pro-Mod DK24 HSS is great (and the truss rod adjustment at neck side is brilliant), but it's over a grand. G&L Fullerton Deluxe Legacy HSS? Also great, but also 4 figures. Suhr Classic S HSS? Again, great, and prepare for sticker shock on that one.
It's either go Yamaha, go Ibanez or put together your own custom wired HSS guitar if you want to stay under a grand.
HSS can be great, but you have to do your homework on it to get the right one. Yamaha and Ibanez thankfully make getting a good one easier without putting you in the poorhouse.
Published 2025 Jul 24
