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http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Electra-Pro ... 286.c0.m14

So what do ya think? I think it's an Omega X210? I've never seen a Pro Endorser with an "OMEGA" truss rod cover and the "peace sign" head stock logo. I could be wrong though (it wouldn't be the first time).

UPDATE 10/22/08: It should be noted at the time of the original post the photographs of the guitar as advertised on ebay did not include a clear shot of the back of the headstock and hence the X935 stamp was not visible. Also the additional photo of the collection of X935's was not originally part of the ebay posting. Now read below and enjoy.

Dont be silly ! Of course its a pro endorser.......smooth heel, push pull, endorser shape, Trans Black Finish, 60th anniversary brass plate with model number....

http://www.rivercityamps.com/electrapag ... 923-033358

If you scroll down just a tad on the above link. They mention that the Omega X210 changed body styles in 1982. Also if you scroll all the way down the brochure describes the "New bevelled heal/double cut away design with coil tap splitter and phase reverse" of the Omega X210. Also, the inlays changed from a block style to the "dot's". Basically, it looks like a Pro Endorser except for the headstock logo. I agree the original X210 looks like a Les Paul clone but when it was changed in 1982 it resembled the Pro Endorser quite a bit don't ya think? Dave G, I'd love to see a close up picture of the back of the headstock with the model number not that I don't believe you but I just having a hard time with the fact that the guitar says "omega" on the truss rod cover and has the "peace" logo on the headstock? Sorry but I'm obviously obsessed (and it's not healthy) with the Pro Endorser.

Nonetheless the guitar up for auction is a very nice guitar. Has anyone here besides the owner (dave G) of the guitar ever seen a Pro Endorser with an Omega Truss rod cover? It just doesn't make sense to me.

Lars

Lars...My guess would be that the TR cover is from a different guitar, no ? I have 4 of these guitars in the Trans Black color and two of them have the 60th anniversary plate on the back of the headstock with the correct model number on it.....Interesting enough, the three Cherry Bursts that I have all have the Phoenix logo on the headstock.......

The x210 is a Jet Black finish, not trans Black and the x210 has either splitter switches on it or the basic Omega electronics-its a completely different set up. The Pro Endorser has push/pull pots to engage the coil splits...

I'll add a pict of the plate to the auction for clairity

Couple of things gentlemen, Firstly I'm not sure you'll ever see the term 'Pro Endorser' on any Electra (or Pheonix Electra) literature. I don't consider myself a historian, or claim to have seen every catalog and pricelist, but I strongly suspect that the term was coined after the fact by fans and collectors (I'm sure someone will come up with a scan now to prove me wrong!). Anyway, there's the X-935 (Blackburst) and the X-935cs (Cherry Sunburst) Endorsers that we know of for sure.

There are construction differences in the top at the very least, the Blackburst has a Maple block top that is three or four pieces laminated together, whereas the Cherry burst has a micro-thin Maple Flame vaneer on top of a Maple Block. Also, Matsumoko wrote in Magic Marker inside the Bridge Pickup route during manufacture to help identify the bodys in house.... BlackBurst has a '48':


Cherry Sunburst has a '60':


I would be curious what is written in the Bridge Route on the guitar in question?

All of this is discussed and better photodocumented in this forum link:
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3654

The Omega listing in the catalog scan (link in previous post above) does have some interesting information as far as noting the smooth heel and coiltap/phase push pull switches, something that I hadn't noticed before on an Omega offering.

The guitar in the Auction listing if not a Endorser is surely a close cousin or fore-father of what would become the Flagship Electra. The scoop, brass control covers, brass nut, brass bridge, coiltap/phase switches all correspond with the Endorser design. The inconsistancies would be the 'Omega' truss rod cover, large fret dot markers, Electra tuners (Endorsers have unmarked tuners...), the earlier headstock logo, and almost impossible to tell from the photos, but it doesn't look like the Fretboard has been stained black to simulate Ebony as all of mine are. Just observations on my part.

As George Gruhn will often write in his column, especially about Gibsons which seem to have lots of variations and "one of" features, Guitars can't always be specifically identified, and will usually stand on their own merit. We can safely say that no one has spent time trying to 'dress' up the guitar and misrepresent it, as it would be much more lucrative to do this on a Fender or Gibson offering, not a Japanese cult-fringe brand such as Electra (no offense members!).



The Earliest known (to me) Endorser is Scott Lewis' S/N 2122685 built in December of '82 seen here:
http://www.rivercityamps.com/electrapag ... 922-003933

If this guitar was manufactured earlier in 1982, maybe the Endorser Model hadn't even been set in stone yet. It certainly is a curiousity, and unique, and may deserve the asking price, but it's a little bit steep for my wallet currently. Cheers, Mike.

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Electra Guitar Videos ===> http://www.youtube.com/user/mjm33mjm?feature=watch

Pro...While I have the ultimate respect for you and all your comments, I must respectfully disagree with you on several points.

"The guitar in the Auction listing if not a Endorser is surely a close cousin or fore-father of what would become the Flagship Electra. The scoop, brass control covers, brass nut, brass bridge, coiltap/phase switches all correspond with the Endorser design. The inconsistancies would be the 'Omega' truss rod cover, large fret dot markers, Electra tuners (Endorsers have unmarked tuners...), the earlier headstock logo, and almost impossible to tell from the photos, but it doesn't look like the Fretboard has been stained black to simulate Ebony as all of mine are. Just observations on my part. "

The Trans Black Pro Endorser does exist-its NOT a forefather, but a PRODUCTION x935...If you go to the auction in question you will see a picture of 7 pro endorsers, four of which are Trans Black. I know they are x935's because three of them are 60th anniversary models with the model number and corresponding LE series number incised on a brass plate on the back of the headstock ( I have #001, 142, and 160)-these 60th anniversary models have the traditional Peace sign and Electra LOGO.

There are several variants of this guitar regarding the headstock. The earlier ones had the typical "peace" sign headstock and the later ones have the Phonenix. The earlier ones also have slightly larger dots.

The tuners used on these guitars varied by date of manufacturer-earlier ones are Gotohs and the later ones are Electra Logo (probably Gothoh too).

I think that much of the confusion regarding this model is that it is so rare. There are very few pictures anywhere of these guitars-and no mention of the 60th anniversary edition.....Take another look at the auction pictures-its probably the largest collection of Pro Endorsers together outside of the factory !

Hello Dave, well the back plate says it all... 'X-935' I stand corrected. Obviously there were more production deviations than I knew about.... and more Blackburst Endorsers out there than I thought! One of these days I'd like to put together a Serial Number registry. Can we assume that the Blackburst was in production before the Cherry Sunburst now? While not earth shattering, this would be new information. Now I have to keep my eyes peeled for a Cherry Sunburst with the peace sign logo...

Curious if any of your Endorsers have a bookmatched body as one of mine has:






Welcome to the forum, and a very nice collection of 'Endorsers'! You should post some Photographs on here for the masses. (got any Blonde Invictas Laying around?) Cheers, Mike.

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Electra Guitar Videos ===> http://www.youtube.com/user/mjm33mjm?feature=watch

Actually I have 2 blonde and 2 brown, I love the Invicta....

Id love to share some picts, but how do you post them ? I'm pretty good with computers, but I just dont see an easy way of posting......

The bookmatch back on your Pro is unique-Ive never seen something like that that wasnt showcased with tint/laquer.........

BTW I noticed that the older x935's (60th ann) do not have a belly cutout like the newer (phonenix) ones. Also regarding the tuners, only the 60th anniversary issue has the LOGO tuners-the Phoenix ones all have the plain tuners.

Looks like as the model matured it gained a belly cut and lost the logo tuners !

I have not seen any mention of the 60th anniversary editions anywhere (I have seen this plate on a couple of other models of Electras too). Do you know anything about it? Is there any advertisements from 1982/3 that promoted the anniversary ?

Hello Dave, you can host your images with basically any image hosting service, although if you peruse the older forum topics you will often find that the image links are broken, more than likely because that service has 'cleaned up' their older files, or the user never resubscribed or whatever. I prefer to email my pics to X-189 (one of the admins on this site) and have him host them, my theory being that they will always be good if the website still exists. Once you have them 'hosted' it's just a matter of clicking on the 'Img' button at the top of the posting window, which will insert a img /img command into the body of your post, and you simply cut and paste the link for the photo in between them. (or that's what I do)

I once saw a really beat up Blonde Invicta on eBay with a well worn Maple board, and I've been kicking myself ever since for not winning the auction, kinda reminded me of the Relic Telecasters they make now, beat and yet somehow very desirable looking.

I've seen lots of those brass '60th Anniversary' plates on the back of headstocks, all from '82 obviously, not sure if I can recall anything in print about them. I believe they are comemmorating St. Louis Music's 60th year, not guitar manufacturing (or distribution) per say. You have one with "0001" on it? Yikes! I would guess they were put on anything that happened to be made that year, and not neccessarily considered a special anniversary edition of a particular model, but I don't have any facts to back that up.

So you are saying that the 'Big Dot' peace sign Endorsers don't have a belly cut? Well, there is yet another fun fact about these I didn't know, thanks.

I don't know if the Bookmatched Cherry Sunburst I own was a special order or NAMM peice or what the story is, but I can say that it weighs like 2 lbs more than my other two. It's really pretty, but I can't play it for more than an hour before my back starts complaining. Looking forward to peeking at your collection, enjoy, Mike.

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Electra Guitar Videos ===> http://www.youtube.com/user/mjm33mjm?feature=watch

Yep, no belly cutouts on the older ones...

Well, I've learned one thing I don't know much about Electra's. I guess it is a Pro Endorser or at least a model X935 before they started calling it a Pro Endorser. As I said at the beginning of this post "I could be wrong". Not to beat a dead horse but the headstock and truss rod cover really confused me. Anyway, Dave G nice collection of Electa Pro Endorsers and my appologies for doubting the authenticity of your guitar. Best of luck with your auction.

Lars

P.S. One more thought; Scott Lewis' brother purchased a X935 Black Burst at the same time Scott bought his X935 CS. I'd be curious is Scott's Brothers guitar had the old Electra head stock etc....

Hey Hey My My there's more to the picture then meets the eye.

Lars....I have been collecting guitars for around 30 years or so now and one thing I have learned-especially with the imports-is that you cannot rely on the catalogs to tell the entire story.

My collection is full if "non catalog" guitars, especially Ibanez-but I think the same is true of Electra. It literally takes longer to photograph a guitar and produce a full glossy catalog (especially if your printing in Japan) than it takes to produce short runs of prototype/non stock guitars. I think that , back in the day, the importers were doing a LOT of experimenting and learning while they ran their buisness so there are a lot of "to be discovered" models and colors and variants-Im just never suprised at what gets unearthed. Right now is a great time to troll EBay for interesting items as this tight economy is getting people to pull that old guitar out from under the bed and turn it into cash !

Thanks Dave, for all your reply's to this post. I'm certainly getting an education on the black burst Pro Endorser.

By the way, check out this link http://www.rivercityamps.com/electra/endorser.php This Endorser seems to have a couple extra switches and a glossy black finish. Also is that an old style "Electra" logo on the headstock? darn how many variations of this guitar are there?

Dazed and confused in Wisconsin

Lars

Lars, that webpage is from the 'Old' Electra page, probably four or more years ago, and that site doesn't get updated often, if at all. I've commented on it myself a few times... and I don't think it's a X-935: No scooped out heel, extra switches, plastic control covers. I used to be able to say the logo type and big fret markers are incorrect, but after this weeks revelation, I can't use that argument anymore. Yet another example of the many variations made by Electra, but I don't think it's a X-935 Endorser.

I would be tempted to say that it may be one of the later Solid Black Omega's, but I think you pointed out that they supposedly had a scooped out heel... ah, isn't this fun? Mike.

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Electra Guitar Videos ===> http://www.youtube.com/user/mjm33mjm?feature=watch

That guitar is NOT a Pro Endorser, its the wrong color. The guitars look black, but its a really cool see thru black (trans Black) that allow you to see the grain. One of the interesting things about this model is that the CS version has a book matched flamed veneer and the Trans Black one has a normal Maple top.....