The Electra Forums

I just picked up (what I'm pretty sure is a) X640NT bass that I took a total flyer on. What a cool bass! It does have two broken micro switches. Any magic in replacing these (do I need something specific?), or will any similar looking micro switch do?

The two that are broken are the two closest to the bridge (the bottom and middle). If anyone knows what all three of these switches do, that would be of interest.

Thanks,

Billy-Bob

I've replaced microswitches on a couple of same-era Matsumoku-made instruments. A standard DPDT switch will do the trick, but the difference is modern (Radio Shack, etc) switches have flat paddles instead of the round ones the original had. Otherwise, they're fine.

If someone knows of a source for round-handle microswitches, give a shout.

I don't know how the basses were wired. On guitars, one is often a phase reverse switch, to reverse the leads of the bridge pickup. You can recognize these by the way the corner lugs are connected together in an X shape. SOme even had little PC boards attacehd to the back for this wiring. Still a normal DPDT switch under there though.

How are the switches wired, what are they connected to?

Thanks for the help, X189-P.

A cool tech at SLM sent me a wiring diagram, so someone who actually can read it (not me) can figure it out. The one switch that does work seems to be the phase, although the diagram says it is series/parallel. The sound gets pretty thin on one setting, whatever that means. The middle switch should be phase, and the bottom switch is EQ. Hard to tell what all is going on with the two broken switches still in the loop. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.

I'll go buy some new switches and have the bad ones replaced. I suspect the Electra is going into the gigging rotation once I get it working right, it is a very cool bass.

Billy-Bob

If you'd want to post that schematic, we'd sure appreciate seeing it, and would be glad to help interpret it.

No problemo. Send me your e-mail address and I'll forward you the diagram so you can post it.

Billy-Bob