The Electra Forums

I love my 1981 X935 Endorser for so many reasons. Here are a few.

1. I love the neck shape. I hate the thick half round neck style of the Les Paul, but I also dont like a fret board so wide you could land a small plain on like, lets say like an Ibenez. My Endorser has a thinner neck front to back but still has a fret board with a traditional width.

2. The sound quality and sustain are every bit as good as any Les Paul I've ever played. In fact I would say that my Endorser sounds better then most Humbucker guitars I've played because I get all the balls and warmth in my tone with out the mud or tin. I've gotten many compliments on my tone over the years from other players that have out spent me on gear by a long shot. One guy couldn't believe it when he came on stage during a break and saw I was playing an Electra through a Digitech RP5 processor out of an Peavey Session 400 steel guitar amp.lol
I think the whole rig including my guitar came to around $700.00. And believe me, it wasn't my half ass'ed playing that impressed him.

I've owned a few dozen guitars over the years, some American, some Japanese, even a Swede or two. I come from a pretty modest upbringing, so unlike some of my 'School Chums', mom and dad weren't about to help pay for any new fangled electric guitars at my house. Currently I own zero Gibsons, and the only Fenders I own are a couple of 50's Duo Sonics (ahh, what a cool little insturment!), oh and a beater accoustic. Over the past four years when the mood hit me, or I had a gig, I almost invariably reach for the Endorser.

I love the small neck and scooped out heel, why the American manufacturers are so infatuated with baseball bat necks, I'll never understand.

I like the option of Single-Coil or Humbucker sounds at the flick of a switch, again it seems that the American Manufacturers were way behind on this innovation.

I have to admit I do like the flashy Flame-Top. Obviously it has little or no effect on the tone, but it sure does stand out, and inspiration can be a fickle thing, anything that can inspire shouldn't be discounted.

I also like the looks and glares I get from other players... many I know have never seen a Pro Endorser, or heard one sing through a Mesa Boogie.

While no japanese guitar is ever going to enjoy the huge financial appreciation of 50's and 60's American guitars, they WILL be within finacial reach for us mere mortals who actually want to play guitar as opposed to those who 'Speculate' or 'Invest' in vintage guitars. It is unlikely that many of us will ever see a (real) '59 Les Paul Standard actually being used in concert anymore, even by artists, they're just too precious. I think the Electras offer one of the best performance/cost ratios around (currently...who knows about the future!), and it has in one respect been their undoing. I say this because it seems to be tougher and tougher to find Electras that haven't been modified. Well, there you have it, I hope I wasn't too long winded. Thanks, Mike.

Many of the things I love about my Electras have been touched on above, but... yeah. On my Vulcan X-950, I love the tortoiseshell binding, the sweet tobacco sunburst (all wood, no flame!), the perfect neck, the sound of the Super-Magnaflux pups, the surprisingly great sounding MPC effects, the scooped out neck heel, the extra cutaway on the upper bout. It's just a sweet guitar all the way around.

On my Electric Oak SG, you gotta love the Tree of Life! It's just cool, and the carved leaves on the top are really cool, IMO. In fact, the Electric Oak was my first Electra, just because it caught my eye on eBay. I didn't know anything about Electras until after I got that guitar. It sounds great (I droppped Harmonic Design Z-90s into it) and plays great; nice and slinky, great for bends, really slim and fast neck.

I have a Leslie West X-120 as well, but I can't gush as much about that one. It's a project that I haven't gotten around to finishing yet. But it's got a great silhouette and I'm looking forward to restoring it someday. It, by contrast, and for obvious reasons, has much more of a LP Jr. baseball-bat neck profile.

In general, the Electras are just a little bit more unique and, IMO, cool than their Gibson counterparts. Any time one of my musician friends sees one of my Electras, they definitely take a second look. I've never had anyone disparage them at all; quite to the contrary. They are cool guitars that look great, sound great, play great, and cost essentially nothing compared to their more accepted American cousins.

What's not to love?

Matthew

In a straight up nutshell, I love my the way my X260 feels as I play it.

Low action without buzzing and it's nice and round compared to the wider flat Ibanez necks I've always been playing. It's completely comfortable!! Also, I love the shape of its headstock.

_________________
Peavey 5150 w/Bias mod
Custom 4x12 birch cab w/Celestion G12T-75's
Ibanez TS808 OD w/Monte Allums mod
ISP Decimator
Electra X260 Invicta
Ibanez RG320DXQM

Well, I'm feeling a bit chatty, so I'll chime in.

First of all, Tvinje, it's "plane", not "plain."

Okay, that smart-ass remark aside, here's what I have to offer to this discussion:

I own 9 Electras and 5 Vantages. The Electras include three (3) X270's, a mint Jazz Strat (looks like NOS), a literal NOS x420VS, a mint Vulcan X950, a very nice 2245 and a Burgundy Pro that I've posted ad naseum about, which I think is really just a re-branded Ibanez 2454 (kind of) and thus not a real Electra and thus not out of the Matsumoku factory. Nevertheless, the quality of my so-called Burgundy Pro is at least equal to what Matsumoku was putting out; namely, consistent with circa 1975 Ibanez guitars.

To see pics of my red Vantage VP795 check this post -

http://www.rivercityamps.com/electrafor ... ght=#18053

and to see pics of my Vantage VA800, see this post -

http://www.rivercityamps.com/electrafor ... ght=#18092

The reason I bring up Vantage in this discussion is that I have been playing that Red VP795 a whole LOT lately (I play only at home for my own entertainment) and the other day I got out one of my three (3) Electra X-270's (the nicest one), which you can see here. I put it on the sofa standing next to the red VP795 and was struck by how similar these guitars are. They are both circa 1980 or 1981 and (I assume) both out of the Matsumoku factory and are like twin brothers of different mothers (or maybe in this case the same mother) (R.I.P. Dan).

Point being, these guitars have a quality and workmanship about them that's just simply awesome. In particular, the neck and frets on the VP795 make this guitar a special instrument to play. It's apparent to me that the folks making these guitars from ~ 1976 to ~ 1984 (inclusive) were really trying to make guitars that were very special. There's a certain pride that's evident in each guitar, and that's why I love my Electras (and Vantages) so much.

I have some other guitars that are also very nice, including a nice old vintage (late 60's) violin body Conrad (see pics) that is also a great axe and a wonderful guitar, but the bit extra that was put into these Electras and Vantages is evident and shows through. I just love 'em.















Oh what the heck, here's the X950 too -







And the X420VS -









And the Jazz Strad -







(click on any of the thumbnails to get a full-sized view (duh!))

Wondeful! Great to see the Conrad, too.

Ya, I got very lucky on that Conrad. I think you can see from the pics that it's just about mint. Dating Conrads is a bit of a challenge, but this one is probably circa 1967 or thereabouts. To find one of these in this kind of condition -- on ebay no less -- is a rare event. And I got it for a very nice price as well. All of these guitars I've talked about on this site are ebay guitars acquired from February 2005 to the present. I think I'm up to 23 or 24 guitars now (I just bought another one -- an acoustic Conrad -- that I've not yet received). That's way too many guitars for a non-collector who's not wealthy to own, but I don't care. When I think about selling any of them, I just can't bear the thought. I'd rather put out the effort to work my way through the collection playing and cleaning them just so that they aren't neglected. Maybe one of these days I'll start selling them off.

Fact is, if you totalled up what I've spent on them, it probably wouldn't get you a vintage Stratocaster.

As far as Conrad goes, that violin body job is one really cool guitar. The quality is quite surprising. It's very well made and very playable. The pups are very cool-sounding and there's just nothing to criticize about the guitar. I was surprised to find it to be such a high quality instrument since I really knew virtually nothing about Conrads when I bought it.

I also won (at about the same time) a 12-string model that wasn't as clean as this one, but the seller turned out to be a fraud, so I never got it (but I did get my $$ back).

I was so impressed with the quality that I eventually picked up an acoustic Conrad (see the pics) that's also VERY nice. Again, this is a very high quality instrument. The pics are auction pics and don't really show how nice it is, but the one of the back gives an idea. Also the shot of the rear of the headstock gives an indication of how nice the maple neck is (note the vintage cigarette burn!). A very sweet guitar that only cost me $87.00, including $30.00 shipping! Do the math! I couldn't resist that price. There was another one at the same time very much like it but with gold hardware and clearly a more expensive model, but it went for quite a bit of $$ so not to me. I really wish I could have gotten my hands on that one because I bet it was really special.

Point being, at least some of these vintage Conrads are very very nice guitars. I suppose there are some cheapo ones as well, but there are also these great finds out there.

Thus I just recently won a Conrad Hummingbird copy that I don't yet have. You can see it on ebay for as long as he keeps the pics up -

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=021

I'll let you know about the quality (and actual condition) when I get it, but I expect to be pleased with it.

Was it you who mentioned how nice some of the Crown acoustics are? I've been checking those out on the 'bay as well but haven't found anything that's caught my eye yet. And I really need to quit buying guitars.

But I have to say, I have been VERY fortunate in my ebay guitar purchases and have gotten some very sweet guitars, all at very good prices and some at absurdly modest prices.

Here's the Conrad acoustic model 40229. If anybody has any info on the vintage of it, give a shout.










P.S.: Just editing this now to mention that when I said my violin body Conrad was nearly mint, I was forgetting about the broken pickup rings that can be seen in the photos. This is VERY common with these pickup rings (how does that happen anyway -- vigorous pick technique?) and I suppose that I should be more alert to picking one or two up on ebay.