The Electra Forums

It's an Electra 2257 Slimline project!


This guitar started life as a green 2257 Slimline. Somewhere along the way somebody decided green wasn't as nice a finish as hacking off the paint in big chunks with a butter knife, leaving all sorts of divots in the wood. I sanded it to bring it back to a reasonable smoothness, but it's rough, and it's never going to be perfect.

The best thing would be for this to be an art guitar, with drawings all over the body. I thought of drawing lines all over it like the lines on a globe, or a topographic map or ocean chart.



Somewhere I have part of hte hardware for this, the pickups for sure, but you may want to use modern replacements. Certainly a generic modern bridge would be better than the original. So think of this as a blank canvas. I'm personally really fond of painted guitars like Clapton's Fool or Page's Dragon Tele. Something like that would be a natural here.

I like this one too. I can get my hands on a good Bigsby or simuilar vibrato for her, clean up the top with some new graphics, and maybe get some MMK45s and good pots to keep it up and rocking.
Maybe go all out with coil tap and such.

You really aren't helping the GAS at all, buddy.

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Addicted to Matsumoku.

I dunno, you ever play a guitar with a Bigsby? They're so cool, I had to have one but... man they go out of tune fast. Me, I'd use a solid trapeze. Hollowbodikes are good for jazz and blues with clean tone and spank, you don't need a trem for that.

In the 2nd chance drawing, UltimaX960 has decided to take the deep plunge with this baby. This is higher in the 'Draft' than I thought it would go, great news, I'm glad this didn't turn out to be the last pick 'white elephant'. He tells me he has a buddy who's a Luthier and a contact at Stu Mac, so he's going at it with a 'No Fear' attitude! Congratulations Ultima, please show us how she shines when you're done, Mike.

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

ahhhh looks I have your blessing, not sure of a time frame on this puppy and I welcome any insight or ideas. I was just gonna go pretty straight forward lose the trem and maybe a sunburst it's hard to tell how bad it is. I'm a novice but my buddys a good teacher. Maybe some nice handwound pick ups in there as well. Let me know what you think and I'll take lots of pics and give a progress report. thanks!!!!!!!! will get out my addy tomorrow thank you Mike and thanks X189 player and all the electra lovers out there! I accept this challenge

It's solid, and I've done a pretty good job of smoothing the worst of the damge to the wood. There's one spot on the front where the top layer of plywood is worn through, but this could be worked with.

I'll try to find the rest of the hardware (maybe a neckplate!) and send it to you.


I like your sunburst idea. Ever use Reranch laquers? I did this Old Kraftsman with neck amber and Gretsch orange:

Ohh thats nice like the colors. Well I'm sure it'll be a learning experience I've seen my buddy do some pretty nice things so I reckon he'll lead me in a nice direction when it comes to fixin her up

All Right!! got it I'll have to take a trip to my buddies in a bit and start taking pics and get to work thanks again!

So it showed up already? See guys, I really did ship them out! The others should start to show up soon too, Ultima is down in Ohio, so it makes sense that his would show up first. Good luck man, I put my vote in as a greenburst with a 'Marvin the Martian' airbrush graphic. (do whatever you want man!) Mike.

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

...there's an APII finish which is a greenburst over black which looks really cool, but what an opportunity to do something really personal!!! Not too sure about Marvin the martian...

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

Because even the Australians need heroes."

That's what this guitar originally looked like!

What; Marvin the Martian!?

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

Because even the Australians need heroes."

alright I'm at the guitar shop right know heres some progress pics







alright last ones an action shot

So alittle binding patch that I did all right on but you can tell it's there when it was all said and done. Ahh I'm a first timer. My buddy bursted it up. The center tear drop got small pretty quick in order to cover some spots, but it looks real nice.
Now I might have to put a gold trapeze with that color? Maybe this one http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bridges,_ta ... piece.html ?? They got one laying round the shop. Well right now dilema is I need a bridge plate and some screws forgot these electra ones are longer, so if anyone has one or any options let me know, welp thats it for now.

That's beautiful!!!

I recommend a simple trapeze and a floating bridge. That's what the original had and if you avoid a trem bridge it solves mass problems.

The finish is grea,t good choice! This guitars was very rough when I got it, I hit it hard with very fine sandpaper and it's great to see someone take the next step. With that dark finish you can lelvel it perfectly in the varnish.

bravo! i can't wait to see what's next!

The real beauty will pop when you scrape the bindings. Take the guitar now, and use a sharp single-edged razor blade to scrape the varnish off the plastic binding. YOu can get real meticulous and doa great job, and it looks so pro when you do that. Scrapign bindings is one of the greatest pleasures of refinishing guitars, IMHO. take a look at that OK above and compare it hanging, being sprayed, to the finished version with the sharp binding.