The Electra Forums

Picked this up a few weeks ago and I thought it would be fun to see if you could guess what it is.









I will post a picture of the head stock in a few days.

Paul

WOW! Sorry, the pictures are way Huge! If one of you guys can fix it,,,,please do. It was all I could do just to get them up there.

Paul

I'd say it was a skylark..? I thought it could be an Aria until I saw the back of the headstock. You get the award for the biggest pictures EVER! Mike.

optimal size I've found is around 1000x750 give or take, usually end up being around 200K when they're that size, do you have a utility for resizing pics? There are a bunch out there.

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

Wow! Mike got it in 4 minutes. I thought it would be up there for a while. This is a semi rare guitar since it was only made in 1981. It seems to be put together very well. Of course the 3 way switch was broken off when I purchased it and the 3 mini switches were bent bad enough that they broke when I attempted to correct them. So, they all got replaced. It plays well and has MMK53 pickups. Its a bright sounding guitar. My normal habit is to clip the tone caps and let the pickups come to life. But on this one I soldered them back in and its still bright, but not overly so.



Paul

Ok, I jacked my pictures all up trying to fix them. I will try again tomorrow. Time for bed.

Beat ya to it!

There are three Skylarks, this is the most common of them (still pretty rare). The blue one is rarer and the solid red one (although a stripper model) is really scarce.

The laminated-body thing... it could also be a non-SLM Westone model or an Aria Pro. All three had the same lamination pattern as an X149 or X150.

Great score!

Sorry man, didn't mean to steal your thunder. Truth be told I've bid on a couple of these Skylark's, they have Mat written all over them, and I bet she's a solid player. I'm the jealous one now, Cheers, Mike.

P.S. my X150 was made in May of 1981 also, have to see how close the serial number is. Paul, do the serial numbers represent all of Matsumoku monthly production, or are they brand specific? (meaning numbers could potentially used more than once, which I doubt is the case)

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

Ohhh Geeez, No problem Mike. As with all Matz I have played the action and playability is fantastic. Sustain is amazing. Im thinking the brightness is caused by a combination of the Brass nut and bridge, Im sure the maple center and ash wings are a factor as well. Done beat me up to bad, but Im thinking about replacing the pickups with something a little darker, maybe toneriders. Of course I will hang on to the MMK53s to stick back in later if need be. I have a pair of tone riders on the way now to put in the black Westone that I scored at Electrafest 09. I dont really know whats in there now, they look like MMKs from the top, but the base plates are plastic. Im thinking they are transplants from another guitar. So, Im going to use it as a test bed for a pair of zebra tonerider rocksongs.

Paul

They can't be all of Matsumoku, think of all the Aria Pros and Washburns and and and... ?

Well here's my X150's serial number, so I'm not sure if they were made within a couple of days of each other (68 numbers apart!) or if the different brands all had separate sequences going? We know that by 1982 they would go to seven digit serial numbers on most Electras, so that could be a whole different scheme being used by then.

The laminate blocks are identical if you ask me, and unlike my Phoenix yours is set neck, I bet it's a great player, and not a bad looker! It reminds me of a Gibson Melody Maker I used to have, only the Skylark is a lot cleaner, and way more versatile, good score.

I'd leave those pickups in if it were up to me... I know you'll keep them around and could always switch back. If she's too bright, experiment with the tone control. Are the controls Vol/Vol/Tone or Vol/Tone/Tone? Do as you see fit man, don't listen to me, I'm poor with a soldering iron, so I try to do as little as possible! Mike.

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

Its Vol / Tone / Tone. Im going to put in sone 250k pots and see what that does before I choose to swap out the pickups I think. I want to keep the MMKs in there. Having the tone cap in the circuit chokes the life out of most pickups. I love the thing though. It plays super nice.