The Electra Forums

I found this guitar in my grandfathers basement after his passing. Any ideas to its model type? Serial number and other stickers missing from guitar.... =(

The picture link didn't work... try again, or you can just post the link so we can try to help you out. We love ID'ing weird Electras!!! Mike.

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Electra Guitar Videos ===> http://www.youtube.com/user/mjm33mjm?feature=watch

here ya go.

Well Jon, I am going to take a stab at it and say a PCM model, 1970's era.

Closest thing on our archive pages is a 2229 Super Professional which you can see here...

http://www.rivercityamps.com/electrapag ... 002-045431

What I am assuming are 2 sliders for on-off function of the pups do not match the one in the link. The pups themselves are those thicker single coils found on earlier builds.

These are just guesses. A more experienced set of eyes (or two) will be along eventually.

Welcome to the forum.

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...throw me a frickin' bone here, people...

thanks man, yeah they two sliders toggle both pickups on and off.. too bad the bottom pick up isn't working.

Do you know the pup itself is dead? Possible a worn wire or lost solder joint?...

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...throw me a frickin' bone here, people...

I took it to a friend who owns a shop and he did a electrical test on it and said the actual pick up was probably dead seeing as he couldn't get any signal from it. The top one works fine though.

Jon, the rule of thumb among collectors is that anything with a Electra plate (as opposed to a painted or pearl logo) on the Headstock was distributed by PCM (Pacific Coast Music). Most of the Electra's we know about were distributed by SLM (St. Louis Music) who were pretty good about putting out catalogs and advertising which we can now refer to. PCM on the other hand rarely advertised or printed catalogs, so information is sketchy.

So we can't refer to a specific model number or name. It is most like the 2229 in the SLM world, but the wood seems to be less flashy and the sunburst is different colors. Probably made by the same factory, not certain. A lot of people (Sellers!) claim that these are Matsumoku, although I am not so sure. There were many, many Japanese factories.

Generally speaking, the PCM offerings varied wildly in construction and quality. Some were actually nice, but many were pretty cheesy. The one thing we hear often about these Hollowbodies (not semi) with bolt necks, is that the neck pocket warps, causing the string height to be virtually unplayable. This happens with both SLM and PCM examples. It probably can be repaired, but many owners don't want to sink money into a $250 guitar. Yours looks very clean, and not too beat up, so maybe it escaped this fate. Do you have the floating bridge? I'm thinking you may have removed it for cleaning and picture taking purposes. Looks good, tell us how it plays once you get it all together, Mike.

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Electra Guitar Videos ===> http://www.youtube.com/user/mjm33mjm?feature=watch

Here is a pretty rare Hagstrom II copy (also PCM) that looks to have very similar pickups:



This is what they look like from the back:



I would put them in the 'Primitive' category... Probably sound pretty bright, and are arguably very microphonic (pick up lots of different noises, not just the strings). The Electronics are what gave many of the early Japanese offerings a bad reputation, replacing them wouldn't be a terrible thing. Always keep the originals though, for us collector geeks. Cheers, Mike.

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Electra Guitar Videos ===> http://www.youtube.com/user/mjm33mjm?feature=watch

i actually didnt have the bridge so i had to order an aftermarket one, also a spring for the bar. Im looking to get it set up sometime around the end of august. Thanks for your help guys. Ill let you know how it sounds as soon as it "functioning"!

The styling and color do remind me of my Hagstrom II model pictured above. These have been documented as early as 1967 according to this discussion - viewtopic.php?f=15&t=4295

I would not be surprised if it came from the same 1967-1971 era. I also have a PCM bass that is from the same era - see this discussion: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5916

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"This is the way that pop ends, Not with a BANG but with a box set whose fourth disc you never get around to playing” - Simon Reynolds

"My guitar wants to kill your Mama" - Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention