The Electra Forums

Hello All, I've enjoyed reading the discussion threads here and thought that I would share my pair of Pro Endorsers with you. I bought the wide flame example about 5 years ago, and picked up the thin flame one last year. They are both in pretty respectable shape and are both completely original except someone put strap locks on the thin flame, and I had the Pickups on the wide one waxed a couple of years ago because they would squeal at stage volumes.

With Single coil and Humbucker sounds available at the flick of a switch, it quickly became my main stage axe. I'm man enough to admit that I have small hands, and I love the thin necks and the scooped out 'heal' on these guitars and was happy to find that the necks on both of mine are virtually identical. It is interesting to compare the Flame tops on them, and worth noting that these guitars were built years before PRS started making their now iconic 'Liquid Flame' over-the-top flame tops.

I would guess-timate that only 300 or so of these guitars were built before Electra Phoenix became Electra/Crate/Westone, but I have no facts to back this up, anyone out there have any production figures? There is also an urban legend that there is a brass block under the bridge, which without an x-ray or carving one up is hard to verify... can anyone substantiate this? Also including a picture of both Serial Numbers, does anyone know if the 3rd digit could correspond to production month? It's fairly well accepted that the first digit is the production year. Has anyone seen a X935cs (Cherry Sunburst) that WASN"T made in 1983?

Finally, I'm including a picture of the backs which show that the wide flame Endorser has a bookmatched body in addition to the top... I've never seen another one like this, but as I said, there arn't that many to begin with, and frankly not many people photograph the backs of them! Thanks for looking, Cheers, Mike.
Separated at Birth!

Thin Flame
Wide Flame (insert drool here)
Serial Numbers
Bookmatched Body...? pretty neat

very nice!

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My Electra Pages
I have too many projects!

what he said!

no production numbers are known.

HEY i HAVE THE SAME GUITAR

By the way,I fixed the pick up guard on my guitar.
your twins are very nice.

Once I figure out how to post pictures I'll show you mine. I've seen the Cherry Sunburst everywhere. What I haven't seen is my Pro Endorser in Black. How many of the non Cherry Sunburst were made.

I would love to see pictures of a black endorser Tim, contact Paul (x189) to get the streamlined instructions for posting pictures. The Black one pictured on the 'Old Electra' site doesn't have the scooped out heel or Phoenix logo on the headstock. It also has some curiously placed switches down by the volume pots, which may not be stock, and has big fret markers (X935cs's I have seen have really tiny dot markers, which on the dark fretboard [ebony? rosewood?] look pretty classy). All of these things differ from what I've seen on the Cherry Sunburst model.

Jury is still out on how many Cherry Sunbursts were made (or any model production figures really), but I doubt more than 300 or 400. I think that they are just so strikingly topped that most people simply can't resist photographing them, I know I couldn't! Enjoy, Mike.