greg42

Thanks for the comment, BigRalphN. I'll have a look for the Hipshots, though I haven't had any big problems with tuning

I have a Pacifica, which I bought online which was pretty much perfect (apart from the intonation - so few people seem to bother!) and I've known at least other people who have bought Pacificas at one time or another and they were good too. I've never known anyone with a Variax but I thought they would be good too so I was a little disappointed. I rubbed the frets down with stropping compound and they polished up fine. Neck is perfect, fret ends are perfect, all other hardware clean and shiny. The nut and bridge seemed fine but the action was set quite high which was a worry in case it had been done to cover up uneven frets. No need to worry, the fretboard is fine. There was no warping of the neck, string relief about right so no need to adjust the truss rod. The electronics were perfect apart from the volume knob - again a bit of a diaspointment. Also, while I'm being critical, the plastic film on the scratchplate is a pain to remove - had to loosen the pots to get it all out. Of the other guitars I have at the moment: PRS SE - perfect in every way; Washburn Mercury - slight gap at the edge of the scratchplate in places, otherwise perfect; Steinberger Spirit - fine, basic but built like a cricketbat; Yamaha Pacifica 112 - perfect if a bit basic too.

Actually having had a bit more of a play with the various tunings, especially through an amp, I admit "terrible" is the wrong word. It's as good as my Boss GT-001's harmonic pitch shifter AND it is a separate shifter per string so it's very good for a live pitch shift. I still wouldn't record with it, though. Anyway back to the original question: have these limited edition Variaxes, the Amethyst and the Onyx, a reputation for arriving with problems like rough frets or dirty fretboards?

By "terrible" pitch shifting I mean it's real-time pitch shifting: it sounds like a multieffects pedal pitch shift rather than an offline DAW shift like Élastique or Melodyne. It's adequate for live use, perhaps, but you wouldn't record an exposed track with it. It has that modulation you get as little sections of signal are stretched and put back together.

Hi I recently bought an Amethyst Standard Ltd from GAK. Generally it is OK but the fretboard was filthy, the frets really rough and the volume knob just went round and round on the pot. I don't know how bad the strings were as they went straight in the bin so that I could clean the fretboard and polish the frets. I have received a replacement volume knob via Yamaha and it's all working well (though the pitch shifting is terrible but I knew that). The action was a bit high but I don't mind that, neck seems perfectly functional and the relief is correct, finish generally good and the electronics all work. Just disappointed with the fret condition and the dirt. I was wondering: I've never seen a new Pacifica this bad and couldn't find any similar coments after a quick search here. Are the limited editions usually this bad? There were no signs of use so I don't think it is ex-demo but have these limited editions been out a long time (guessing it might have been bad storage)?