A recent enquiry about a Yamaha Pacifica 821DX led me to looking into some replacement parts for these electric guitars. Cue the usual routine; find the original technical document, get the catalogue number for the parts, order those part from Yamaha. Initially, I only had the 821D document available. Now at first glance, the specification would suggest that these two “Super -Strats” are exactly the same instrument. And they pretty much are, aside from one thing: the tremolo. (There’s also the 821DX’s quilted maple top but we’re only interested in guitar parts here)

The Pacifica 821DX uses the RM-Pro III whereas the 821D uses the TRS-Pro. These tremolos bridges are both licensed Floyd Rose but each have a slightly different specification. This does mean that they aren’t interchangeable. The TRS has been used on a number of RGX and Pacifica guitars as well as other manufacturer’s instruments; Jackson, Washburn, Ibanez. The RM-Pro however appears to be limited to just the 821DX (please let me know of any other guitars with this tremolo).

There’s some other things to watch out for, when it comes to the older Pacifica 821. These guitars, manufactured between 1991 and 1993, do not share many of the same parts; the tremolo is a RM-Std and they use Yamaha’s own humbucker and single coil pickups as opposed to DiMarzio on the later instruments. The 821-R has a reverse headstock and therefore treble side/left handed machine heads.

Both the 821D and 821DX are around £770 ($1000) in mint condition (value in the Blue Book of Electric Guitars) so it’s well worth investing in the original parts where possible. I have both of the original technical documents for these guitars and can easily check part numbers, availability and pricing. Contact Us (me) to order the parts you need.