The Electra Forums

Thanks, and boy that's a weird selection from it.

The grecos are a pair of coils- and they're switcheable, some models allow you to select neck and bridge pickups for high and low strings seperately (duh, makes sense)

I couldn't tell you how the greco is wired. Did you notice the selector switch unit? there's three layers of point-to-point wired circuit boards in there jsut keeping the switches connected. I faint at the idea of tracing such a thing for a wiring diagram.

The switch unit for the Jolana Irises is the same- I reckon there's some fancy serie/parallel switching going on, but the thing is such a nightmare of wires and connections that I'd be afraid to pry it apart.

You might be surprised that with this collection my usual insturments for playing onstage are Fenders and Gibsons. That's a sheerly cosmetic reason- guitarists are tremendously conservative, and if you arrive with something unknown, it is likely to get judged and frankly I never wanted to associate a great brand like Electra with my own possibly weak playing. That's finally changing and I'm getting around to bringing in Electras as kind of secret weapons.

Well, I'll clarify that. Despite their huge popularity, I'm not against Fender or Gibson, though I resist the hype. I appreciate that they're both making good affordable instruments these days- MIJ teles are great, some of them. I've got two main player teles, a Korean Fender that's relicked and a MIJ tele with a Lollar Charlie Christian pickup in the neck- that thing smokes! I also pull out a 66 Fender Musicmaster, a single pickup full-scale model, CBS era but still built to older specs (the 'student models' didnt' get updated). That's a very playable guitar, with a gorgeous period Fender pickup.

Otherwise I often show up with a modern red Gibson Vee with a (fake) abalone pickguard- I can't stand the white Vee pickguards, they look like varsity sweaters. That's a warhorse performing instrument for me. Lately also I've been playing a Korean Fender P-90 custom thing, thinline shaped but whatever.

When I play an Electra it might be the X910 Explorer with a flanger module, maybe a compressor. Or an Electra Phoenix, like an X140.

I guess that's all about playing onstage which around here is generally blues, which actually isn't my main thing either- I play jazz, and at home I play one of several nylon stringed classicals- it's what I grew up on, and it's home in some ways. I do have at least one Matsumoku classical upstairs, nice, but lately it's going to be one of a couple modern chinese with cutaways so i can reach the higher stuff.

And then there's the Howard Roberts', those are the thing for amplified jazz. Such nice tone, lots of sweet acoustic dig but then pretty much the expected tone qualities of the pickups- some kind of Kent Armstrong clone on one, sweet but a little muzzy, and the crystal clear MMK75 on the one I rebuilt. I'll tell ya, I'm really seriously considering drilling the headstock for a 7th string on that one... it would go right through the peace sign logo! You can understand why I hesitate.

So I basically practice on either a classical with medium nylons, or on a tele (or X130) with 12's, nice and stiff. I like to practice on a treadmill sometimes while walking, it makes it MUCH easier to play when I stand still after that! Pretty interesting way to leverage your skill.

Since this is going off on my own personal tastes, I could get off into playing jazz, but I'm not sure that's everyone's cup of tea. I've actually been thinking of posting a personal (musical, guitars) blog one of these days too.

Oh and um, since I'm going on abuot me, amps I use are pretty much three, small medium and large. The small is an original Princeton, which is unbelieveably sweet, though limited to practice room volumes, maybe a coffeeshop. Medium is a modern Deluxe Reverb reissue, which is the go-to workhorse for playing jazz live. For more rowdy blues, I run an old 70's Musicman 210, which has nearly twin-like power if you crank it up, plenty of spank. The fourth amp in reserve is a modern Vox modelling amp, which is good for playign with a cover band, when you want a whole battery of useable effects and amp sounds easily. There's also a nanohead up in the studio, which is good for a small room. And then a whole lot of weird old tube amp stuff, lots of it marginal or noisy. I should get around to thinning that stuff out.

X, I had meant to mention long ago that your no-name red 335 looks practically NOS! If it plays half as nice as it looks you've got a real winner there =) You have quite the smattering, and I can't even count on both hands how many of them I'd like to play =). If there were an award for sweetest collection on the forums, I'm pretty sure you'd win it hands down . Sorry to hear about your sickness, hope all is improving. Looking forward to seeing some other odds and ends from the collection!

I was thinhking of posting pics of just the projects sometime- I don't know that this is the largest Electra collection in the world, there's probably wealthy obsessive collectors out there who have way more than me... but I may very well have the largest collection of broken Electras in the world!

What exactly do you people do for a living? How can afford to spend that much?

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Addicted to Matsumoku.

Wow X189! Thank you for making it easier to keep my little collection. Whenever the wife starts to complain, I'll just show her this thread! LOL!

Not the best pic... My Jazz Strad is hidden behind an Aria Pro II...

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Stay young, y'all!!

I feel so dirt poor....
Your couch has cupholders!

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Addicted to Matsumoku.

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Free Your Mind and Your A$$ Will Follow......

In the batcave, far below stately Wayne Manor...





That's my '65 Jazzmaster in the foreground.

Below, a bunch of headstocks, Electras are not quite a majority. Old Kraftsman, National. One of those Fenders is a fake, really a Pearl by Vorg (Matsumoku sold in germany). In the front forground is an X130, one of the earliest made and with the most amazing flamed neck I've seen on an Electra.





Personal hall of fame stuff here: my first guitar (my dad's old classical), my original X189RD, a parlor guitar I got in Praha, The Electra Explorer whose neck I glued, an X110NA, an X150, and a pair of japanese teles- Pan and Crown I believe.





A messy desk is a sign of a disordered mind- so what does a music studio mean that's so cluttered you can't even walk through it, let alone play music?

At the time I bought most of these, I was a teacher. Most of them were $200 or less, and most of them were (and in many cases still are) broken. Some I've repaired, some are future projects, and a few are really nice already.

Nice collection there, Squint! I'd love to find a Jazz strad someday.

X

... and there's another one I REALLY like, that probably no-one else will; that X110NA - there's something about the Spectrum/Phoenix line that really does it for me!!

Is that a Vox teardrop a-hanging from the roof?

Good to see you back and glad to hear your playing is light years better, too; I wish mine was... I didn't bring any of my beloved Matts away with me...

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

Because even the Australians need heroes."

I'm trying to remember if it's a real Vox, I think not. I have the neck and back and half the side, it shouldn't be too severe a reconstruction.

My advice is: get a travel axe. I also have an Oscar Schmidt 3/4 nylon cutaway that just lives in hte car, for whenever I'm waiting. Or get an Austin Hatchet if you prefer an electric.

The X110NA is such a stealth axe. You'd think it had no tonal range, and you'd be wrong. 1983 was a very good year, too.

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Free Your Mind and Your A$$ Will Follow......

...I've been on the hunt for an affordable single p'up Matt for ages and any of the 110s would've done, but finally hooked up with a 1984 Vantage Avenger 310 courtesy of a Matt forum member with a single MMK 45; oooh, I can't wait but the catch is I have to pick it up from him!! Not too much of a problem, as we'll be in Vancouver early next year for a year or so and plan quite a bit of traveling about... hmmm; Seattle ain't too far away from Vancouver either, eh!!!

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

Because even the Australians need heroes."