The Electra Forums

Not exactly all Electra related, but here they are just the same. Keep in mind, I SUCK at photography. Judge the guitar, not the picture
My baby:


Not the nicest Electra I've ever played, but she's mine and I love her just the same. Finish still needs some love, but when I got her only one pickup worked and it sounded like I was playing the skinned cat at that.

Next up:


This little lady looks like an angel and plays about the same. That whole ambience look and all the blemishes that appear are purely illusion, but it's a neat look for her none the less. Just imagine an older epiphone acoustic slimmed up for slide with three resonating cones and a 100% chromed finish. The Regal RC-51 is worth every penny!

Without flash:


Moving on:

1937 Kay archtop. Originally got this guitar intending to strip off it's finish, get creative on the thick veneer, and amplify it in a custom airline fashion. Just couldn't find the heart to do it. This guitar has a ton of history in every string and it already plays just like a 70 year old guitar should. Wise and mellow. Almost feels like it plays itself. I couldn't get a good picture of it, but it has a VERY old paint carpenter-type stencil that is all but faded that says "Fayetta Wunley". I can only imagine she was an owner at some point, no luck finding out anything about her. (p.s. The lightspots near the neck and where a pickup might be are merely image imperfections)

Last but not least, I plead guilty:

Very nice! I have a soft spot for old Kay guitars for some reason, I have several of them in pieces. Good job preserving the name, a little history always adds to an instrument.

That's one of the cleanest Slimlines I've seen- well, cleaner than mine, which are really rough. Those are single coil pickups, you realize, mocked up to look like humbuckers before people knew them enough to be bothered by the fakery. Sometimes those old singels have an amazing tone IF you plug them into the right amp- ever tried a low-power tube amp, like a little vintage 5-watt or something?

The resonator looks properly road-worn. You play blues on it, I bet?

And no need to be ashamed of any brand, even Gibson. I play a Gibson Vee as one of my main axes. People like to cheer for the home team, and there's nothing wrong with that, but I don't think we need to put down any brand, even if they're popular.

But I have to ask... have you ever played any of the Matsumoku or Fujigen SG copies? Just curious what you thought of them. I'm not an SG fan myself, so I wondered how they stack up for someone who is. Many of the early (like late 60's copes of all shapes had really thin bodies like an SG too.

Kay's in general: We are two of kind in this region of the musical psyche

The slimline:
I do indeed play it through a vintage amp, and the pickups friggin' rock! My amp of choice, though (not vintage) is a pretty old Washburn with a couple of the pro effects. I play all forms of rock on that girl; modern/alternative like Shinedown, Crossfade, and Seether to the classics like GNR, Poison, Cheap Trick, and Bon Jovi. My favorites are Led Zep, Clapton, Seger and Bobby Dylan. The selling point for me on my Electra is it's versatility. I can play anything from "Wonderful Tonight" to "Sweet Child of Mine" to some racier Lenny Kravitz with just a half turn of the reverb and the flick of the Overdrive switch. I won't go so far as to say that it's spot on, but people seem to think I'm close Most people are thorougly impressed by how it can rock (being a 335). It's got something of a blues connotation worldwide, but it can do so much more.

The resonator:
Right again! . I sometimes get into a bit of a B.B. King/Clapton blues gone acoustic mood. It also handles rock ballads like a dream. The common complaint is volume, but I have never had any problems. What I think gets overlooked most on resonators, especially this one, is the action. I love to hit the lead on an acoustic, and on this you can pick out anything from a minuet to Angus Young with the speed and precision of a high-end electric. Many people would probably shoot me for this, but I play it with my own little concotion of electric strings. One day I tried it, and the cones actually pick up the strings clearer and louder. Somehow it just works.

As for Gibson's, I have no hate for them (or else I wouldn't own one). The "shame" is that the vast majority of the time, one can buy an equivalent or nicer axe for substantially cheaper if one only looks. I think you probably are in concurrence with me on that point. I have not played any of the "copy" SG's, but I would very much like to. I *am* an SG man, but a bit of a weird egg in that I have no love whatsoever for Les Paul's. It can be a challenge as Page was on of the biggest reasons I picked up a guitar, but we have an unspoken agreement to stay away from each other, LP's and I. As a beginner, I struggled with a Les Paul, and have always found them to be overrated. I have played probably 20 Gibsons and never had the urge to keep one. So for me, the LP 'role' so to speak has fallen onto the SG. It fills in the lightning when I need to let out some emotion. I'd also like to give an x189 a try. Unfortunately, best kept secrets are rarely passed on in their entirety, and I'd never even heard of a Phoenix before this site.

I JUST bought an Aria model 1922 SG copy. What a sweet axe! Looks wise, it's classic 60s SG with the big pickguard. It's natural finish. Looks like 5 peices of a light colored wood, swamp ash mabye? with a thin layer of ?maple? between the 2 peice top and 3 peice back. It is quite a bit thicker than a gibson SG, like 1 3/4" or so. Bolt on bound neck with a VERY gibson-esque headstock. Someone swapped out the stock bridge pickup for a (now) vintage Gibson T-top humbucker with the cover removed. Soundwise, it's awsome! TIGHT across the entire freq range. HEAVY lows, but super tight - no flub here. The neck is BIG to, like a 50s les paul. I give it a 7.5, but that may change after I gig it..

Very Nice collection of axes! I bet that Dobro makes Robert Johnson sit up and take notice. lol I'm going to get around to taking pics of my basses one of these days.....I hope.

It's actually a Regal... which I suppose is a step down from Dobro so I probably shouldn't have said anything ...But in my opinion (in this particular case) Regal is to Dobro as Electra is to Gibson.