The Electra Forums

Hi guys/gals - nice to find a forum for Electra guitars. I bought my X150 in the early 90s, from a pawn shop (where else?), back when I was first getting into guitars seriously, and back when what I paid was a lot of money. I've carried it with me ever since, and I've always enjoyed playing it. Right after I got it, I replaced the ugly knobs with black speed knobs (reversible), and the ugly bridge with a Gibson-style tune-o-matic/stop tailpiece (not reversible, but I was young...).

Last week I completed a 12-string conversion of this guitar, using a Warmoth neck. It turned out really well, and I've been playing it a lot over the past few days as a result. I've always been amazed at the unamplified acoustic tone of this guitar, and it got me thinking about the body woods involved. It's the "faux neck-thru" look, with the dark brown body wings and the multi-laminate stripes running down the center. Does anybody know what woods these are? The tone is so bright and full, that I'm thinking perhaps walnut for the wings, and maple (with others) down the center?

The electronics on this thing are also amazing, but you already knew that!

-ctmullins
Electra Phoenix X150, Washburn Idol WI64DL, Tobias America bass, Yamaha RBX200F fretless bass

1984 catalog lists the X150 as; Maple/Ash/Walnut. Interesting combo!

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fantastic! I'd love to see pics of your one-of-a-kind 12-string Phoenix!

And that laminated strip combination showed up in a lot of guitars- compare for example the middle red Skylark, and the Westone Thunder. Same pattern exactly! it does seem to be a very resonant combination. And I always wished they'd handled it so it looked less like they were faking a neck-through, it's a great guitar, no apoologies needed.

I wish I had your old knobs though- those are hard to find nowadays. do you still have the active electronics installed?

Thanks for the wood info, electrasrus! It's neat to know that my guess was rather close to the mark!

I took some snapshots this morning, and loaded them up on my web space. The Warmoth neck is really nice. I bought it off of their showcase (meaning I didn't have to wait for them to make it from scratch), and it's your basic maple with rosewood fingerboard and dot inlays. I coated it with tung oil, then bolted it on. The neck pocket on the Electra body is a little deeper than the Warmoth neck, but the gap is hidden by the fingerboard extension. Also, because of the tune-o-matic, I had to shim the neck slightly to bring the action within tolerance.

I love the figuring in the walnut!

The original knobs are long gone - they were pretty bunged up, anyway. I do still have the original bridge, though, which is also fairly gnarly. Anybody want it?

All of the electronics are original. I never use the active preamp (I dislike relying on batteries), but even running passive the pickups are clear and full, and the coil split and phase switches provide a wide array of tones. By comparison, the Washburn sounds muddy and indistinct (a pair of Seymour Duncans are on the way to fix that, though).

I'm never going to part with this guitar!

you gonna hold on to the original neck?

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I think so. It's the only place I can run my fingers over the original Electra logo (so cool), and it's got some nicks in the headstock, and the frets are pretty seriously worn down in spots, and I'm coming to realize the advantage of originality.

But if you throw loads of cash at me, it's yours...