The Electra Forums

Hey all, I recently acquired an 73 Electra 2259. love the guitar, an SG with a Bigsby thingy on it, but since I have an Aria 1922, wanted something a little different. So I put in some hum sized singles, for that twangy middy tone. (Pickups were 16 bucks on feebay for a set, and sound great!)
So I pull out the pickups, and on the bottom are "Maxon". ok, Maxon's were used in the early 70's for Ibanez.... uhhh, does that mean my Electra isn't an Uncle Matt, but Terada made? A Fuji Gen Gakki?

What does the script look like on the head stock? A 73 Electra would have most likely had large block letters or the slanted script. Either way the Maxon should be a good pick up, I'd hang on to them. Can you post a pick of the front with the head stock and the neck plate?
Does it look like this


http://www.rivercityamps.com/electrapag ... 006-034244


that will say a lot. Also, this guy here can probably tell you anything you want to know,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzFiFgf45Ko Known as Proendorser around here.

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SlmGuy

Here you go, including the back of the head stock, and control cavity cover.

If I understood Tom Presley correctly (and Tom if you read this please feel free to correct me) most of the later made electras (phoenix-era and some others, such as the endorsers I had, as well as specific vulcan-type models) were Matsumoku. Earlier models and copy models were frequently Kasuga or Terada. That isn't a bad thing, they made many of the other well-known Japanese brands. One of them was the maker of the high end Japanese-made Gretsch guitars more recently. Most pickups on the Matsumoku-made guitars seem to be marked with MMK and a number, such as the infamous MMK 45 or 53s. I have seen several numbers. Guitars with MMK pickups are Matsumoku-made guitars.

Those without those labels on them generally are not. Who actually made the models if they were not Matsumoku? Tom said generally they were Kasuga or Terada. Those pickups? Not certain, they look like they may be Maxxon pickups, but it could be Gotoh, or any other Japanese pickup maker at that time. They are pretty good pickups compared to most Japanese humbuckers from that era - and comparable to maxxon. I don't know definitively. I would venture that some models would have possibly been made one, the other, or even both Kasuga and Terada prior to the Phoenix era. I have seen same model guitars have different enough construction that they were likely made by different manufacturers.

Others are probably just as experienced as I am or more on this so you can listen to their explanations.

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Thorny