The Electra Forums

I just purchased an Electra ES-335 copy. Don't know anything about it except what I have seen here. The headstock logo is black on a rectangular metal plate and it has abalone X's on the headstock and pick guard. It has a trapeze string retainer, white binding and the selector switch is in the upper right near the top of the pick guard. No model number or anything else besides the logo. It has two single coil pickups in humbucker size mounts.

I was attracted to it because it is light, seven pounds, and plays extremely well. Sat down with it in the store and played for an hour and a half before I noticed what time it was. I will try to post some pictures this weekend.

First thing I did was put new 12 gage strings on, it had nines when I bought it. The tuners bound up, especially the D and G. I need to install new tuning machines. The ones on it are the same size as the ones on my 71 Yamaha acoustic, except they are enclosed.

Will standard Grovers fit without altering the headstock? Stewmac also has an economy set that more closely match the ones on it.

Any ideas would be welcome. I bought this guitar to play, but would like to keep it as close to stock as I can.

An Electra with an X on the headstock is called a 'PCM Electra'- the name Electra was actually used by two different companies (owned by brothers) and in the early pre-lawsuit days they even ordered guitars from some of the same factories. (PCM= Pacific Coast Music; SLM= Saint Louis Music; two distributors that still exist today. The guitars picutured on this site are all SLM Electras.

Now, you will find very little on the PCM Electras because people have dismissed them as junk- I haven't seen one firsthand but they are described as equivalent to Teiscos and such- cheesy old discount guitars. Often people will post about them appearing on ebay, and most Electra collectors warn against them.

However, the more i learn, the more I think that this is likely to vary from model to model depending on factory, just like the SLM Electras. Certainly if you're looking for one of the fine Matsumoku-built Electras of the late 70's and early 80's, this isn't one of those. But... could there be some that are pretty good, just like there are some really neat old 335 copies branded Elger or Crown or Greco? Certainly!

So who made your guitar? My guess would be the factories Kasuga or Terada, who made many early 70's Electras and later became the official makers of Epiphones and Gretsches. If you are a fan of this kind of guitar, there's no denying that all these copy era guitars are significant pieces of history- and some of them are good players too, or can be made to be.

I'd love to see pictures of your guitar, including details of the headstock, neck plate, controls, and pickups. My guess is that your PCM Electra will match details of some other branded guitar, possibly the early Greco in my collection. The more we can piece together like tis, the more we can learn about exactly what's what. I'm sorry to break the news- we don't have definite answers, but in fact your guitar can help us figure all this stuff out.

It sounds like this one is an excellent player, and that's very interesting, as many of them are not. That means it was either high quality to begin with or else someone has set it up very well, which certainly a competant tech should do. In many cases major action problems are solved not with the truss rod, but by shimming the neck, in fact many guitars came from the factory that way.

Whether yours was always excellent or whether along the line somebody gave it the care to do a really good setup- in some ways it doesn't matter. I would like to break this assumption that PCM Electras are no good, obviously yours is living proof.

Let me know if I can help with posting pictures. Also, I'd like to add a PCM Electra section to the model listings, as we really ought to be covering those models here too.

X189, any validity to the notion that some ES335 copies were made by the Fuji-Gen factory (the same one who made most Ibanez guitars)?


billy-bob

Probably some were! I wouldn't be surprised if they all made 335 copies at one time or another.

Generally we consider the Fujigen and Matsumoku guitars to be the highest guality of the MIJ guitars. But considering the big names these factories went on to make, they could all be pretty good. MAtsumoku made Aria Pro, Fujigen made japanese Fenders, Kasuga went on to make later Epiphone, and Terada went on to make Gretsch.

Having said that, I've also seen some fairly shoddy guitars put out by all of the above as well. I guess they all had their premium and discount lines.

Shoot, I should have been more specific (but thanks for the answer, I learned something about some factories I wasn't aware of). My question should have been : Did Fuji-gen Gakki make any Electra branded guitars? There is some discussion about this on the Ibanez board; my feeling is "no", but that is just an educated guess from what little I know about Electra.

Billy-Bob

Absolutely yes. I am still working on clear evidence, so I'm hesitant to make claims and be wrong, but let me suggest some possibilities.

Fujigen and Matsumoku both made instruments for Hoshino, and SLM got some Electras from Hoshino.

I have several Crown guitars which I think are pretty clearly known to have been made by Fujigen and distributed by Hoshino. They are identical in many details to several early Electras- the SG copies for sure, and I am pretty certain some of the telecasters as well (that one I want to wait and get firmer evidence- because that's pretty interesting, and it would make some of the early Electra teles predecessors to MIJ Fender teles, like the Ibanez and Greco ones are). There are also a couple of other candidates for Fujigen, including the red Vees and some of the basses. For now I'd point to the SG's for sure and say the jury is out on the others.

IF your Ibanez friends are doubtful, show them the headstock lettering on this example and compare it to the style of the early Ibanez lettering-
http://www.loudgrinnin.com/electra.htm

That is wild, X189, thanks for your insight!

Billy-Bob

No problem! That's part of why Electras are so much fun- the mystery aspect of figuring out who made which!