The Electra Forums

A friend of mine gave me a Electral Guitat a while back and I have been trying to find out something about for several months. I "stumbled" across this site today and I was hoping someone could help me out. After looking at the photos I believe it to be a Phoenix X189.

As a follow-up to my earlier post requesting info on the x189 (I think). I am an acoustic player an I wanted to try an electric so my friend gave me this one to try. I play left handed so I restrung it. But there are three (two position knobs) that I have no idea what they do. Also there is a 3 position toggle on the top I assume switches between the pickups. Any info would be appreciated.

I'm beginning to feel like I am at a Home Depot, Can't turn around without stepping on an employee, but can never find one willing to help...

There are a bunch of people here that are willing to help, some are even obsessed with the exact model guitar you're describing. They all have day jobs, though, so sometimes you've got to wait a bit before they have the time to type out free advice...it's worth it, so sit tight.

Chances are your "three position toggle" is a pickup selector (neck/both/bridge I'd guess), and the "two position knobs" you mention sound like you might mean small switches, which are normally coil taps (make the pickups sound thinner, cleaner, brighter) or a coil tap and a phase switch (depending on wiring, can make the "both" pickup option sound funky/nasal/hollow).

I'm willing to bet there's a lot of X189 info already available on this site if you'd take some time to poke around, including possibly a wiring diagram with some descriptions of function. Start here:

http://www.therathole.org/guitars/visitors_axes/x189player/x189player.html

Good luck,

je

Thanks Squid Head, I'll look around and see if I can find something out. The guitar sounds good and I like the action, but would like to have more sustain.

obsessed? really? is it anyone we know???

heh.

The switch is a 3-way selector for neck pickup, neck + bridge pickup, and bridge pickup. The knobs are volume, neck tone & bride tone, as you probably surmised. These knobs are also pull-switches- the top (volume) knob is a coil tap, which switches the humbuckers to single coils. The middle switch turns on the middle pickup, and the bottom knob switch phase reverses the bridge pickup. (rotating the knobs does the same thing regardless of the position of the switch)

For improved sustain first thing I'd suggest is new strings if you haven't swapped them already. also, is the bridge flat against the guitar body, or raised up a little? (it's probably flat, but if not adjusting it against the body will net a little more sustain).

There were lefty version of this and most models, but they're somewhat unusual. what year is yours? 83? (check the first digit of the serial number).

Obsessed? me? with the best guitar ever made, why do you say so?

What color is yours?

Thanks x189player,
The serial number is 3063735 and it is red (it looks just like the one in your picture) I'll try the suggestions you made. I did put new D'Addario XL's on it last night.

Since it's fairly certain it's an X189 (at least an Electra anyway) the thread has been moved here to the Electra forum where more Electra fans might join in.

the XL's might be part of the equation too- heavier gauge strings will give a bit more sustain too.