The Electra Forums

This is one of those stories like some of the movies you catch at the film festival, where first it's good and then it's bad and then it's good and you really have no idea how it will all end because it's flip-flopped so many times. But just so's the younger members of our audience don't get scared, here's a picture of how it all came out well in the end:




So I scored this Howard Roberts project on ebay last year, got it for an OK price considering on one hand, these things are pretty scarce, and on the other, this one was trashed. Bad.

In fact, this is so far the worst guitar I've taken on in terms of what it's been through, because this one got caught in Katrina. I don't know any details except it obviously floated. I hope the previous owner got an insurance write-off because it was totalled, all the hardware and electronics wiped out in teh salt water. Somehow it got in the hands of someone who decided to glue the neck back on (!) From what I can tell, the clear finish kept any of the rest of it from coming apart. The finish was... beyond anything I'd taken on. Imagine the finish cracking and then a lot of moisture getting underneath and making bubbles under the clear finish...




So I got it and then my life got really busy and like most projects it went on hold. This summer I've had some time off for rest and recovery and I finally got around to looking at the old Howard Roberts. If it could be put back together it would be a cool guitar to play!

So... first I got some 3M hand rubbing compound and to my surprise the outer grody layer yielded a fresh new shiny surface when i rubbed it out. That made the bubbles way less prominent.

(Somewhere in here I'm wondering where the tuners came from- I'm pretty sure they weren't with it when I got it, I put them on sometime inbetween, but honestly I don't remember.)




I tried stringing it up with an archtop bridge, and that's when disappointment struck. The angles were... well, way wrong. I couldn't adjsut the bridge high enough to get the strings off the last fret. I looked at it and it became apparent that whomever had glued the neck back on had done it all wrong, and the neck was far too high off the top. (I've seen some early import guitars like this, you barely can get an action that's playable at all)

So the X510 went back on its stand as a pretty thing that after all, would probably end up hanging on the wall. Sure, I could probably remove the neck and re-set it correctly, but that was way more than I was willing to take on. (at this point my energy level was not much above the level of doing a telecaster).

And then last week, heh. For some reason I ran across another bridge, one I'd bought on ebay trying to get one that would fit another body, this one was the one that didn't fit. For some reason I stuck it on the X510, and lo and behold... it fit perfectly, and the string geometry was right and holy smokes, it's a hell of a hice guitar!


Well that got me completely fired up, because, see, I study jazz guitar, and this thing is jsut perfect for what i play- in fact, from the moment the bridge went on it took up residence in the living room as the guitar I pick up every hour and play.

So I wanted to take it down to the jam on thursday nights, try it out with a rhythm section and show the guys. That would mean getting a pickup on it.

Now, I have a really nice pickup I've been saving for the right project. It's a (get this) MMK75, with a gold pickup cover drilled for exposed pole screws!

So... I looked and looked and looked at it... and thought about how I could possibly move the mounting feet without damaging them... and concluded I couldn't... and finally I stopped and considered that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to use this pickup, if it was such a hassle to mount it. I mean, the X510 originally had a neck-mounted pickup, that's what I should put on it. I looked around and finally wound up at the Kent Armstrong website, and ordered a really nice gold floating pickup, the mini kind, with exposed pole screws like the X510 had originally had.

And so I waited, and waited, and waited. No offense to the folks who sold me the pickup, but I was watching the mailman everyday since I ordered the dang thing. And playing that unplugged X510 and loving it!

And then finally the pickup arrived, and I was all excited to get it mounted, but that was thursday night and so I packed up the Deluxe Reverb and an MPC guitar and headed out. And... it happened that my teacher was there, and I told him about the guitar. I told him about the pickup and he said "Yeah, it's got a full-sized pickup, right? Howard hated those mini things, so that's why he designed it to have the strings so high, so he could fit a standard humbucker under there.

And I went home, and damned if he's not right. I looked closely at photos of original Electra X510's, and it was clear they had standard, not mini humbuckers.

Here's where it gets weird though. If you look up pictures of Original Epiphone and Gibson Howard Roberts models, they have mini floating humbuckers! And then it struck me... I looked at pictures of Howard Roberts himself with hsi own guitar, and it appears he did in fact have standard humbuckers installed on his own guitars. Which means that somebody at Electra (Tom Presley???) was hip enough to know this detail about Howard and to incorporate it into the guitars they ordered.

OK, now I was all fired up, and that MMK75 was going on there. I boldly took a pliers and snapped off the mounting feet and took a deep breath. There was no going back now. I didn't take pictures, sorry, so you'll have to imagine all the fun I had making up a wiring harness and then installing it in the guitar. Ever install a wiring harness inside a hollwbody guitar? There's a reason Gibsons cost more than Fenders to assemble, that's all I'm sayin'.

But I had fun with it. The original X510 was wired like the others (there were nearly identical lawsuit-era copies branded Ibanez and Greco too) which meant master volume, normal tone control, plus a midrange-rolloff knob using an inductor coil, which is a trick I love in teles. I use the excellent midrange rolloff controls made by Rothstein guitars, it's easier than soldering up my own (and it's hard to find choke coils). SO I put another one of those on order. And waited. And waited. And you know how impatient I'd already been!

So I said to hell with it, I'll assemble the harness into the guitar without the third knob, I jsut put a dummy pot in there to hold the knob, and wired a volume and tone pot. But gee, I've got these nice pull-switch 500K pots, and the MMK45 is wired with 5 wires, how can you pass up fun like that?

So I wired it with a pull-switch on the volume knob that switches from series to parallel mode between the two coils of the humbucker, big difference in sound- big and warm vs. thin & crisp. And the tone knob pulls out to coil tap the humbucker... and I do believe when it's tapped the series/parallel switch switches which of the single coils is used. So despite being a single-pickup axe, it's got way lotsa tricks up its sleeve.

And finally finally I got it all together and plugged it in and let me tell you, it's just gorgeous. Everything you want it a jazz guitar- warm and sweet and round and responsive... the action is great and I love to play it. I have to say it- it's my #1 guitar right now, for serious playing and everything else!



The serial number is 'Ibanex style', which means for certain it came from Hoshino and 95% certain it came from Fujigen. In that case the serial number tells us that it was made in January of 77. The Tailpiece isn't original either, it's a west german piece, maybe a Hohner? The original Electra had gold speed knobs, but i really like the amber top hat knobs, and this guitar isn't accurate'ly original, it just plays well! And all the damage is fine, I'm leaving it like this, it's relic, it bears proud scars of its hard life and it deserves to sing so sweetly now.




So that's the happy story of my X510 Concert Professional, Howard Roberts style Electra. Now to live happily ever after!

This is a great story; truly to be savored by those of us who swear by the the Electra brand - for playability, workmanship, and price this line of guitars is enjoyed by few and is not really known by many others;
For you to have had the patience and skill to bring this one back like a phoenix rising from the ashes says a lot;
I have always lusted for one of these! You are a lucky man!

Thanks for sharing,
RCSBlues

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RCSBlues

Wow, sweet story. Glad your got it playing again. Those guitars are a testament to how truly awesome electra's are.

OK, followup: I took it out this evening to the thursday night jam. If you're ever in the North of Seattle area, drop by the Oxford in Snohomish on thursday nights, there's a great blues jam featuring a number of players from various bands who come together to play just for fun with their friends. There's a wide variety from rank beginners to some of the best musicians I've ever heard on any stage, and after the first set we mix it up and people who come to jam get up on stage. It's a real positive atmosphere and everyone is really supportive. I've been going every week for the last year and a half, and it's remarkable to hear everyone's abilities grow- even my own.

Anyway- I got to play a set with my teacher, who is a phenomenal jazz player- what a treat! I was running the X510 with nickel wound strings through my Fender Deluxe Reverb (reissue), which sounds good when you plug anything into it. IN this case it was a match made in heaven- the X510 fairly sang, it was remarkable, and inspiring. You know how it is when any even single note sounds so sweet that all worry dissolves and you can just let it flow? To be fair, a hollowbody guitar like this is not meant for the high volumes we were running, but it did fine. That meant I had to keep the strings muted constantly when I wasn't playing them, because they'd leap into spontaneous vibration in a few seconds. As the bass note changed I could hear the gutiar body pulse and vibrate in different places. But it wasn't a problem, at that level it was easily controllable and didn't interfere with playing.

SO I had a blast. When I was done, uncharacteristically I was greeted by at least a dozen people who clapped me on the back and said I played so well tonight, that guitar sounded so good, keep up the good work! It was a little surprising. At the end of the night I got an even more accurate assessment from J., who said "tonight the way you played that guitar was something else- you didn't play any better than usual, but that guitar sings so much, and it matches your style so well..." [I usually play less rather than more notes] "...that you could just let it sing- you NEED to keep playing that guitar!" I assured him I was certainly going to, the X510 would probably become my main performance axe at least for jazz/blues.

You just proved that a well made guitar can go through just about anything and be brought back to life. Next time I'm out there, I'll have to come check it out.

Well X, I don't need to tell you that you did a great job, because you know you did. Meh, I will Great job! But finding "your" axe is the real belle of the ball. Couldn't be happier for you man. Congratulations and keep up the good work on the projects!