The Electra Forums

I thought some of you may be interested
Long story somewhat short, I picked up this guitar a ways back


I believe this is a 72-74 PCM Electra, the hardware and electronics are completely shot, the only usable pieces are the body, neck and amazingly the v/t knobs
I stuck it away for future ideas... meanwhile I've met some great techs here local, and while I think they do great work it was hard to get the sound I was looking for.. I recently had a guy off cl take a look at another guitar and was highly impressed at the time he took to sit down and go through different configurations till it was what I wanted (vs me dropping it off and getting it back a couple weeks later and not knowing what I'm getting till I get home)
so we've spoken a few times and I've decided to basically let this guy build this guitar to my specs, it's not going to be super high end, just something I can be happy with
the body is chambered and the neck profile is 2nd only to my Ghostrider for perfect fit for my hands
have the tuners off my SZ, and using the neck pup from it on this one as well, using a SD SH-3 for the bridge
the 2v2t will give way to 1v2t with the fourth hole used for a coil tap
picked up new bridge/tailpiece, new 500k pots I should have on Thur or Fri
in a couple weeks I should have a like new guitar

Sounds good. Let us know how it works out.

You can't even tell that's an old guitar in those pictures, hard to believe the electronics are in such bad state...
Good luck, and if you find a ghost living in there let us know.

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Addicted to Matsumoku.

she's back for a test drive...
plays like butta, the pups are certainly bright, the coil tap gives me 6 potential combos and they all sound great
all that's left of the original is body, neck, backplates, pickguard and v/t knobs

Looks good. Enjoy. It's no fun if it can't be played. Does your builder do this full time or spare time?

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SlmGuy

he's a part-timer, but darn good

I would've tried to keep the pickup covrs so you couldn't tell, but osmething tells me they probably wouldn't fit.
Looks nice iether way, shmae it was so totaled you had to get so much replaced.

What happened to the original pickups?

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Addicted to Matsumoku.

the original pups were garbage, single coils in a double shell...
check out these #s
neck: 2.92k.... bridge:3.05k
more like a half coil if you ask me... I saved all the original parts
my biggest thing about this build was getting a guitar that I could take and play anwhere without worries, yet sound great
I got it for sure, cost me a bit over 100 for the original guitar, 50 bucks in some new parts, a few spares laying around, and I traded the carcass of my SZ for the work
my builder thought I was nuts at first to swap in the coil tap in place of the 2nd volume.. but he has a much better opinion now
being able to have 6 diff options at the tip of a switch is great

Why not keep the second volume using a push/pull pot for the switch?

because I can't stand push/pull pots

Good reason. I only have one and it is a bit of a pain but I atributed it to the floppy pickgourd it is mounted on. You realy have to pull to get it to switch. Nice reconstruction btw.

Nice Guitar w/ very nice upgrades.. Enjoy.