The Electra Forums

i hear a lot of people on this site talking about elctras like they were the holy grail...i own a X185 electra westone and yes it is alright but i wanted to know from the opinion of someone who knows beter: wtf is so amazing about these guitars????

One persons' Holy Grail is another's POS, so that point of view is not exactly valid but as to why we like Electras - and the other Matsumoku, Fuji Gakki guitars et al. is possibly because they offer what the big boys do plus a little extra for way, way less than those others will now cost you to buy. And I would hazard a guess and say that most of us are of an age where the only 'proper' instrument available to us to gig with were these high quality, Japanese guitars so nostalgia is probably an issue as well but by and large we just like quality instruments at realistic prices; I have a Westone Spectrum GT which is exactly like your X185 and I love it to bits; it is just SO versatile with the h/s/h setup, coiltap and phase switching it is pretty much capable of any sound you want to produce - I gig mine and will gig my X195 rather than my strat simply because of the versatility; simple really!
And any enthusiast is going to sound a little over zealous to the uninitiated when talking about his pet subject, so you may want to show just a little respect...

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"... and on the eighth day, God created New Zealanders.

Because even the Australians need heroes."

I would second all that Corsair had to say and add that many of them are different from what you can otherwise find. The MPC's clearly had the effect modules but many other models have unusal or harder to find features such as coil tapping and phase switching. In addition, some of the Westones have unbalances coils in the humbuckers. Corsair has already mentioned the H-S-H configuration. My Outlaw Bass in addition to having neck through construction, all of mahogany, has abalone inlays and binding, a mute on the bridge (like a Rick), mpc modules, and the following pickup options: 1)both pickups in phase and parrallel, 2)both pickups in phase in series, 3)both pickups out of phase in series, 4)bass pickup only, and 5)treble pickup only. I no of no in production bass that offers all of this (even with out the modules). You would probably pay many thousands of dollars to get a custom bass with these features. I paid under US$200.

so what are they waiting for to raise the prices???

Simple answer? Guitarists as a whole are remarkably conservative and tend to stick with what the bloke next door is using; in most cases Fender or Gibson. You'll notice, however, that prices for Matsumoku guitars are creeping ever upwards on the auction sites which would indicate that people are waking up to the quality inherent in them.

What I suggest you do is find a strat from the same era as your X185 and compare the build quality and sound performance - it'll surprise you I'm sure!

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"... and on the eighth day, God created New Zealanders.

Because even the Australians need heroes."

A lot has to do with the excellent necks, they really are very good, and so are the nuts. That latter is a big deal, often overlooked.

And Tom Presley fine-tuned the MMK pickups into superb unbalanced coil innovations, to this day rarely duplicated.

and they were sold by a midwestern company which was undercutting the big names by 50% and moving more product and arguably better product (the Fujigen-made Fenders of the 80's a re great, but not better than a Matsumoku-made Electra). I think there was some delight in that- they were the ones really pointed to in the lawsuit issue, and they made good by selling original guitars that were even better than what had been imitated.

Why was Matsumoku so good? It was owned by Japan Steel, but it was originally a family shop, and I think that has a lot to do with it.