The Electra Forums

New guy here! Picked up a Crate Electra Standard at a pawn shop a couple years ago. Very pristine condition. It is a black Les paul copy with Crate Electra on the top of the LP style headstock (doesn't have the dip at the center). It is a set-neck with white pickguard and "speed knobs" with dot inlays on the fretboard. Back of the headstock at the top is a little sticker with a number and at the lower part of the headstock where the neck joins is a "made in Korea" sticker. Not looking to sell it...it's cool. Would like to know any history available though. All help is appreciated!!!

i collect these. I pick them up for around $80 and do them up. Put grovers, bone nut, pickups etc.

If you ever get bored of yours, give me a pm. I can trade you or buy it off you etc.

They are made in S Korea but I don't know much about them. If anyone can chip in?

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Hey,
Thanks for the feedback. Still not particularly interested in selling. Mainly curious as to who sold these (how were they marketed....local music stores?), and/or how this particular one came to end up in the Charlotte, NC area. And of course any other little known info about these models. Obviously not a lot of these around....doesn't necessarily make them valuable, just little known!

The Crate Electra brands were the last of the line of Korean built guitars and Bass Guitars offered up from St Louis Music for sale. They are fun to play but are much different from their earlier Japanese cousins and the early Korean Electra models. Most times the hardware, pickups etc were lower quality to save on cost as it was an introductory level beginner guitar price range. As stated in this thread they do have good qualities as well and are a great guitar to upgrade and improve on. Welcome to the forums and enjoy.

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Always give thanks for everyday, It may be your last so Rock On Semper Fi!!

To add a little to the above, based on your marketing question, my understanding is that the Saint Louis Music Company had some reps who'd build relationships with local stores. I bought my first guitar--an Electra--at a piano store in Augusta, Georgia when I was 17, so they were definitely moving them down south. It's been a long time, but I recall them having several models, and I bought the least expensive one.

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X260n Blonde Invicta! (1980)
Gibson Les Paul Studio (2007, walnut with black hardware, active EMGs)
Alvarez Yairi (1992)
Art & Lutherie 12 String

THANK YOU to all for the info.

St. Louis Music Supply was a wholesaler and distributor that carried pretty much anything you might need to open and run a musical instrument store. Electra was their own badged line of electric guitars, Alvarez the acoustic line. So as a retailer, the store might sign-on as a dealer for Gibson, Fender, Martin, etc., but all the accessories (picks, straps, sheet music, capos, polish, band instruments...) they could purchase through St. Louis Music Supply. This is in the pre-internet days, things worked on a different business model.

There were also related companies:
- St. Louis Music that owned and marketed the Crate and Ampeg amplifiers, imported Alvarez and Alvarez-Yairi acoustic instruments, Omnifex pedals, among others.
- St. Louis Music Electronics, that designed and built Crate, Ampeg, Audio Centron p.a. gear, etc.
... probably some others that I can't think of right now.

SLM was very strong in the midwest and near-south. Many music shops relied on SLM, and so carried Electra and Alvarez instruments as their entry and mid-level products. If they moved enough product to justify the rather large buy-in to carry the big brands, that's great. But many smaller stores couldn't afford to commit to the minimum up front orders that Gibson and Fender wanted them to make. So they might buy part of the new stock from stores in larger cities. That's why your local small town shop might have only had one or two new Fenders or Les Pauls at any time. The rest of their new stock would be from their distributor like SLM, and then used equipment that came in as trades or outright purchases.