The Electra Forums

Anyone know anything about these? I'm hoping they're pretty nice.

Can't say that I have but the wood pup rings are a neat touch!

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

Ash cap and back , mahogany core. push/pull coil tap. One piece maple bolt on neck. That's about all I know. Pretty certain the pups are SD jazz and jb.

A local jazz guitarist plays them. They sound good in her hands.

This guitar has still not arrived - on the way and maybe tomorrow. I'm thinking of adding a push/pull for coil splitting - it sort of screams to me that it needs one. Any suggestions on whether a P/P is better on volume or tone pot?

I have had some correspondence with Mr. Till and he seems like a great guy and a pretty fine player - actually encouraged me to add the coil split. There's a number of youtubes of him and his guitars.

I'd put it on the Tone pot, just because it is less likely to get bumped or damaged when in the 'out' position. Also the knob can twist when you're pushing or pulling, so seems like the tone is less likely to cause any problems in that scenario. The push/pulls add another inch or so of depth, but with a semihollow that shouldn't be an issue. Good luck, Mike.

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

The guitar arrived yesterday late afternoon and I haven't had more than about 1/2 hour to play it. Happy to report that it plays as well as any guitar I've ever had - I thought the thin frets might bother me but not the case - in fact I seem to like them. I've pretty much decidded if I go the coil split route it'll be with a mini toggle dpdt on/off/on. When I get a few minutes I'll take a look at the electronics and pickups. Lots of treble roll off on the tone pot and whatever pups are in there are quite nice - nice enough that I may not do athing to the guitar - nice thin neck too. This one is getting a big thumbs up from me!

Nice axe -

Post some pics if possible.

Congrats.

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RCSBlues

Here's a few pics - I checked stuff out today. The neck pup is an older Ibanez Super 58 - 7.4 ohm 2 wire - pretty nice but a little bassy. I switched the orientation so the screws were toward the neck - that should have 0 tone/sound effect - cosmetic only. pup height and pole pice adjustment fixed up the boom pretty well. Bridge pup is unbranded 4 wire - 11.4 ohm. Fairly mis-matched set - personally I'd think switching the neck and bridge would work better for me but it's really pretty good as is. I've toyed with putting a set of cream MMK45s in but I doubt I will. This guitar plays fantastically well and I'll continue to dial it in but I think I'm pretty much there. There's plenty of room in the control cavity if I want to add a coil split toggle - but again, I don't think I will.

Turning the pickup around will change the phase, which you'd only hear when both pickups were selected. When the pickups are out of phase the sound is quieter, and sounds a little 'quacky' because of the cancelled frequencies.

Usually you want a weaker pickup near the neck, where the strings vibrate more, and you don't need as powerful a pickup to produce the same amount of signal. Likewise, you usually want a pretty hot pickup in the bridge position, where the strings vibrate less, to compensate for this bit of physics. I always thought that the 'Keith Richards' school of Telecasters was backwards, with the Humbucker in the Neck and a single-coil in the bridge position.... but that hasn't stopped them from selling millions of them! Cheers, Mike.


P.S. I really like the wood pickup rings... sweet!

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

I've been reading up on phase and, as usual, there's lots of diametrically opposed info on the web. From what I understand, the screw or slug position makes no difference in phase or sound at all. To change phase the coils within a bucker either need to be wound in reverse to each other or the magnet flipped. There's a way to wire a switch to reverse polarity and affect phase too.

I'm running with this guys explanation.....( From Seymour Duncan forums)
Mounting a pup in your guitar at 180 degrees changes nothing except which poles interact with which strings. To get RPRP (reverse phase, reverse polarity) you have to flip the magnet and reverse the flow of current through the pup by exchanging the connections of the wires.

I've also read that sometimes the screw coil is more magnetized than the slug side - nominally.

I built a Keef type tele with a 5 way switch - a real brain teaser to wire it and I wish I had written it down, but I could get just about any sound imaginable out of it.

I'm not sure I like the idea of the bridge having almost twice the output of the neck - I'm much more accustomed to much closer outputs - but it does seem to work...

So I'm thinking the bridge pickup just sounds thin and it needs to go away. I reckon I'll put in a black hex screw mmk45 4 wire and stick in a coil split for that pickup only since the Super 58 is 2 wire. Now I need to decide whether to pot the mmk45 - I think yes, mini switch or push/pull for splitting - I think p/p - and get reacquainted with wiring.

I was gassing pretty hard for a burstbucker A2 magnet for the bridge but I think the mmk45 w split might be a better and more versatile option.

Opinions?? Anyone know what kind of magnets are in MMK's?

Well there is no doubt that it looks really nice but i haven't heard or read good reviews about a Joe Till.

I like this one very much. It's very low key and no frills compared to his current guitars but it's a real nice job.

The overall body shape is somewhat reminiscent of the late '70's Martin solid body guitars:

http://www.myrareguitars.com/1979-marti ... ric-guitar

But the more I look at the Till it seems like he started with a basic tele thin line body and modified the shape, mostly on the bass side. Looks like a very nicely made guitar.