The Electra Forums

As promised, a few pics of the newest member to the family, a Blue Burst x199.




















She's a pretty clean specimen. A couple of dings here and there, but nothing severe. The neck is great, and I absolutely love the Blue Burst. After a quick string change and setup, I played it for about a hour. This thing is a beast! The tonal variations are nearly endless with the coil tap and phase reverse, although, admittedly, I'm not exactly sure which knob does what, but it sure was fun playing around with them! Pretty sure that the center pull turns on the single coil, but the rest I'm not clear. Is there a manual somewhere for the control scheme?

I don't have decent means to weigh the girl, but she's heavy. I'd say on par with the Burn Vic. Heavy, but not overly so, just solid. Well balanced, too. Neck is 1.7" wide at the nut, and 2.35" at the 12th. Pretty slim and feels darn good! Being a set neck, the upper fret access is awesome as well.

The tremolo is solid and stays in tune very well. I set it up to fully float, and after full dives and pull ups, it comes back to within a few cents of center on the tuner. I'd say that's pretty good for a non-locking trem!
I did run across one problem with the trem, however. Anyone have a spare one of these lying around they wouldn't mind parting with?




It's a cruddy picture, I know. It is the mechanism that the trem arm snaps into. But that's the problem, it doesn't snap. There are threads on the arm, but I don't think it's supposed to thread into the trem. It doesn't appear that there are any threads in the tremolo itself to accommodate the same sized threads on the arm. There are recessed rings on the arm as well, and it 'kind of' snaps in, but looking inside the cylinder, I can see where the ridges are worn away almost completely. I don't know. Maybe it's the wrong arm? At any rate, if anybody has one they are willing to part with, I'd be happy to make it worth your while.

A picture of the trem arm for reference :



All in all, I'm quite happy with her. Definitely a nice addition to the fam. She'll be making trips to future Electrafests - be sure.

A really beautiful guitar! Good score!

RCSBlues

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RCSBlues

Yet another great score man, any room in the music room still? I was gonna ask if it had been played at all because the paint is in such good shape, but then I noticed the light patches on the fretboard, so someone was having a good time with it.

There may be control details on the Forum somewhere, but I do remember reading that the center knob pull is for the center single coil pickup on/off. I would assume that the coil tap is the first knob, but it's pretty easy to determine which is which. The coil tap will affect either pickup when pulled, and generally the tone should get brighter (read as trebly) and there usually is a little loss of volume when you're in single coil mode. The phase switch will only make a difference if more than one pickup is selected, and when on it should be a little less signal volume, and get a 'boinky' kind of sound because of the frequency cancellation going on. The phase control is typically connected to the bridge pickup, and if that is the only pickup selected you'll hear a slight click when you turn it on or off, but the tone of the pickup won't really change unless you're using another pickup at the same time (if that makes any sense).

Not sure what to tell you about the wang bar mount, never owned that bridge so I'm not familiar with it, although the bar itself looks to match the bridge color pretty closely, so I would assume it's stock. Anyone else have one of these? Is this the tekglide bridge?

I always liked the blueburst paint scheme, have fun, Mike.

P.S. When in single coil mode the pickups will hum a little bit, because you're not in humbucker dual coil mode anymore...

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

Thats Beatuful! My X189 has that same trem. The arm threads in, doesnt snap in at all. I have the same adaptor etc. I believe that the arm threads into the block below the adaptor bushing in the picture, and the Adaptor bushing is to adjust the tension, so it cam either swing free, or stay in place. (If that makes any sense at all)

Paul

Robot_dr, you are absolutely correct, sir. Thanks!

I couldn't for the life of me figure out why the heck the arm had threads on it if it wasn't supposed to thread in. After reading your post, I pulled it apart again to find out that the bushing was set so high out of the trem plate, and I was too chicken to push the thing in far enough for the arm threads to reach the bottom of the block. The threads I was looking at that seemed too big were for the bushing itself. The arm threads are deeper down in the block, and the bushing was just set too high to allow the arm to reach them.

It's all sorted now though, although it's still a little tight. But that's OK. I'm sure it'll work itself free with some use.

Thanks again, and please disregard my request for a replacement. Seems that I just wasn't on the same wavelength with this technology.

And thank you too, proendorser, for the tips on the controls. I did indeed have the PU selector in the bridge only position when trying out the phase knob, and again, didn't have the brain engaged. From what I can tell, the first knob, closest to bridge PU, is master volume, and pull for coil tap. Second is neck PU tone and pull to activate center PU, third is bridge PU tone, and pull for phase reverse.
I am just loving messing around with this thing! It can go from chimey sweet to swamp mud with a few knob twists and tweaks. Great fun!

It is getting a little crowded in the studio. May have to sell off a few of the case dwellers....

My Westone Spectrum GT has the same bridge and I think it's the forerunner of the Bendmaster series of locking trems. It's not too bad a bridge really; well, I like it... I've got 2 bluebursts - Phoenix X195 and the GT; pretty pretty pretty....

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

Because even the Australians need heroes."

That is indeed one cool and lovely guitar. The Blue Burst finish is awesome and it is indeed a bonus to have the set neck version. Great score and I am glad thar someone here got it so we can all share in its beauty. That does look to be one sweet player and it should be enjoyed. Congrats

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Always give thanks for everyday, It may be your last so Rock On Semper Fi!!

corsair, that GT looks like a dead ringer for the x199. Is it set neck or bolt? I know the x199 continued under the Westone-only name, did it turn into the Spectrum GT?

Nice twins BTW.

Nope; the Spectrum FX is the set-neck version, the GT is a bolter. I find mine in the UK and had a friend send it over to NZ so I'm glad it was a bolt neck really!! Also, from memory, the back of the neck is not blue, like yours - that's a sweetheart you've got there, mate; I looked at it but couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger - glad someone in here did!

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

Because even the Australians need heroes."

Hey Corsair those two look great together, I like the juxtaposition of H/S/H on one guitar and S/H/S pickups on the other. Isn't the X195 one of the more exotic and rare of the Phoenix line? Good stuff.

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

Thanks, man - I'm not sure about rare but the X195 is definitely exotic; it has a completely different set of sounds to, well, just about everything else, really!!
The whole Spectrum/Phoenix range does it for me in a big way; can't wait to get closer to the source....

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

Because even the Australians need heroes."

...

...I supposed all of you eagle-eyed fans out there will have noticed the tapered Westone knobs on Redeyes' X199? They're about as common as chickens lips but are very very good for activating those push/pull pots....

JMM; are you gonna show and share???

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

Because even the Australians need heroes."

...

That's the way it is on my x185 and x189. I like to select both bridge and neck pups, then pull out the top and bottom knobs. Gives it a strange "quack" sound.



That is a sexy beast. I'd like it if one of mine was other than red.