eldegas.com

In the middle of fixing up my El Degas LP another project guitar fell into my hands. I went a took a look at a Yamaha PAC112J in yellow natural stain. I have always loved the look of these and being a solid alder body and maple neck and fret board it seemed like a good project guitar.I almost walked away from it as it was so messed up it wasn't playable and it was filthy but definitely fixable. It was owned by a 16 year old kid who looks like he tried turning every screw he could find until he couldn't play it anymore and on top of that the neck bolts were loose. Long story short I was about to walk away when he said I could have it for $75. Deal !!!
I have spent the last few days cleaning it up and basically setting it up from scratch. Fixed some inop pots, volume scratchy as hell and tone completey inop , tightened the neck and soaked the bridge in cleaner just to free it all up - yes it was a mess. A lot of scrubbing and cleaning, new strings , set action and intonation.... you name it. Here a couple of pics before I ask my question.



Nice looking , plays great. I love the neck feel and everything but here is the problem. Any time I hit the open G string and lets say then muted the string, the second I stop muting the string , this ungodly howl/screech appears? If I just touch the G string again it goes away. I have done some searching online and I think this is what they refer to as a wolf note (at least Cellists do) I have tried lowering the pickups as I have heard you can get string pull but it didn't really help. It is really bad on the humbucker and not as bad on the single coils. I also notice the angle of the G string from the nut to the tuner is really shallow.

The B and E strings have a tree pulling them down and it seems like I need one for the G string. My old Squier Strat had two trees and I wonder if there isn't enough pressure on the nut to keep the string from resonating and howling. If I touch the G string behind the nut the howling doesn't happen either. Any ideas?

Get another tree...Simple as that...Ironically, some people end up taking them OFF...Or get a hair scrunchie, or something to pull it down.

You might want to try a makeshit solution like the scrunchie telefunkle suggested, and if it works, perhaps then purchase another string tree.

Unfortunately I am little or no help with strat-style guitars. I don't currently have any.

A temp fix was a couple of elastic bands behind the nut. Noise is gone , looks like hell though. The more I read , the more common this problem seems to be on alot of guitars. I think I 'll just get a 2 pack of the roller tree's they have a GFS next time I order something. Hmmm, a pair of hot rails would sound good in this guitar wouldn't they......

mikedem wrote:a pair of hot rails would sound good in this guitar wouldn't they......

Nice job on the resto!
I've never had one of these but they're a popular model around these parts, and regularly come up on Kijiji and Craigslist. New, they sell in the $230-290 range so you got yourself a pretty good deal in exchange for some elbow grease!

As for the howl, yeah stick a tree in there and that should take care of the problem quickly and easily. I'm surprised it didn't come with one, looking at that shallow angle.

It was unplayable and so dirty. You would think people would clean stuff up before trying to sell it. Oh well , his loss - my gain.

Locally most of the shops have them for @$340 for the YNS. The Yellow Natural Stain models are the most expensive ones. Painted models are under $300. I supposed the natural ones need the best bodies and more finishing to look good., The painted ones can hide a lot of defects. Since they are solid Alder and maple necks I figured I can't go wrong no matter what I decide to do with it.

mikedem wrote:It was unplayable and so dirty. You would think people would clean stuff up before trying to sell it....

'Never fails to amaze me how damn filthy most of the used guitars I have bought were...and they expect top dollar too! You'd never think of selling a used car covered in dirt. Even if you're not technically inclined, you can at least wipe it down after playing and put it in a case or bag. I don't get it.

Since they are solid Alder and maple necks I figured I can't go wrong no matter what I decide to do with it.

Yup. good score!