The Electra Forums

I was looking at two clean Electra SG's and was struck by how many differences there are on them, and thought that maybe some other collectors might be interested. Both are definitely Electra 2259's, possibly even made by the same manufacturer, and probably made a few years apart. I lifted the pics from their auctions, I hope the sellers don't get mad at me, I just think its a fascinating study. Firstly what I believe to be the older of the two, a 2259 with the bigger pickguard:


Next up a similar, but completely different 2259 that I think is the 'newer' of the two, a 2259 with small pickguard and pickup mounting rings:


On the surface they look alike, but just about every part (except for the knobs!) is different.

Headstock inlay: SG1 has the smaller crystal inlay, SG2 has the familiar Gibby 'Diamond' inlay
Headstock shape: SG1 almost flat sides, SG2 has a more curved sides where the tuners stick out
Truss Rod Cover: SG1 'Rocket' shaped, SG2 more familiar Bell shaped 'Custom' TRC
Tuners: Different size tuner grommets, both appear to have the faux keystone covered tuners
Inlays: SG1 Block Markers only go to the 17th fret on both fretboard and top of binding, also these markers are slightly rounded at the corners, SG2 has larger and squarer Block Markers that go to the 21st fret.
Bodies: SG1 has the bigger pickguard with pickups mounted directly to it, SG2 has smaller pickguard with pickup mounting rings, more than likely there are routing differences in the bodies because of this
Bridge: SG1 has plastic saddles, SG2 has metal roller saddles (sweet!)
Tailpiece: Again at a glance these look similar, but SG1 has a separated bar in front to lower the strings before the bridge, on SG2 this bar is part of the tailpiece.
Output Jack: SG1 located slightly lower, SG2 located slightly higher with respect to knobs
Neck Plate: SG1 has a serial number in addition to the 2259 model number, SG2 only 2259

As far as similarities, they both have a seven screw control cavity covers, neck plates with odd screw spacings and this unique heal 'shelf' on the neck at the junction:


I guess all these dissimilarities are to be expected when you have multiple manufacturers supplying SLM in the 70's, but I just never looked that closely before now. Supposedly there are stop tail and set-neck versions also, so there are many 2259 variations out there. For the seasoned collector, this may be old news, and to others just boring minutia, but I thought it was pretty interesting! Cheers, Mike.

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

These are indeed the grab bag (never know what you will see) models of the electra line. They are all well built and sturdy guitars but they are all different in many ways. I have one of the early 72 or so models and it is simular but different also. It is a stop tail model but is a laminated wood body model. That is what makes this model interesting to watch and collect. Nice comparison.

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

Do you know if any of these came without "Electra" on the headstock?

Keeping in mind that these were made by Japanese manufacturers who would build for just about anyone, it's almost certain that you would find ones with Greco or Ibanez (as well as others) logos on the headstock that would be very similar to these. It's a good bet that you could find one with no logo as some distributors would put a sticker or plastic emblems on the headstock. I've never seen one, but it's certainly plausible. Not sure if that answers your question though! Mike.

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I saw an ad for an SG that looked identical to the one above including the Bigsby trem w/no logo on the HS. The seller only wanted $100 for it...

Identical is a powerful word, especially after seeing all the differences in the two examples above. I did a quick search for Greco SG's current and past on the bay and found a plethora of models, some set-neck, some bolt-on (without the 'shelf' like the above pictured examples), hard tail, bigsby... just a whole lot of variations. I am beginning to agree with mortarman that these are the "Box of Chocolates" of the copy world, you never know what you're gonna get. Jam Forest, Jam!!!


Arthur, do you have any pictures of your Hardtail you could add to this thread? Pics of the headstock and neck joint in addition to the body would be great, Thanks, Mike.

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excelent observations... those are the types f differenes that when you start looking around at other MIJ copies, can help point to a specific maker

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Been wanting to get a 2259 for some time now....just waiting for the right one to come along, I guess.

This has been an eye opener though, Mike. I'm going to have to really pay attention to what I'm looking at it appears......

Would love to get one with the faux Bigsby, and the smaller pick guard.....

Thanks for your observations!

I will get some pics posted later tonight of my 2259 so we can all see the tremendous differences of the available parts and models they produced.

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

Here are a few pics of my very early model(most likely PCM) model 2259 that will add even more diversity to the model in question.
http://www.rivercityamps.com/electrafor ... 0_3148.jpg
http://www.rivercityamps.com/electrafor ... 0_3150.jpg
http://www.rivercityamps.com/electrafor ... 0_3151.jpg
http://www.rivercityamps.com/electrafor ... 0_3152.jpg
http://www.rivercityamps.com/electrafor ... 0_3153.jpg
http://www.rivercityamps.com/electrafor ... 0_3154.jpg
http://www.rivercityamps.com/electrafor ... 0_3155.jpg
http://www.rivercityamps.com/electrafor ... 0_3156.jpg
http://www.rivercityamps.com/electrafor ... 0_3157.jpg
http://www.rivercityamps.com/electrafor ... 0_3158.jpg
http://www.rivercityamps.com/electrafor ... 0_3159.jpg
http://www.rivercityamps.com/electrafor ... 0_3147.jpg

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

Thanks Arthur, I took the liberty of resizing those so we can look at them without opening another window!






I really like the stop tail on these! Yeah, that one has got lots of unique things going on too. It has the 'rounder' Block Markers to the 17th fret, what I would call a standard neck plate, a more traditional control cover, and the Laminated body really sets it apart, and is kind of cool if you ask me!

It almost looks like they designed this one from looking at pictures as opposed to having one in hand, if you look at the upper horn, its not quite as long as it should be, and the pickguard is a little bigger than a real gibson, and they added some beveling to the rear at the cutaways. Very cool stuff, that if I didn't have something to compare it to, I wouldn't have noticed it before. Thanks for sharing Mortarman!

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Thanks for the re-size as I have not gotten that task down to well. This one I thought was unique when I saw it on Ebay and in great shape so I grabbed it . It is a laminated body and I was skeptical and leary at first but when it arrived and I found out how lightweight it was and how big the tones were rolling out of this one I was very happy. Plays fast and clean and has bright tone. I have not looked under the pups to check them out yet but I will get around to it one of these days. It is all 100% original and the wires are typical for the time. Not wired as good as some of the later models but compared to whats out there today it has exceptional wires and pots. No problems with the laminated body, it is super strong and shows no signs on any stress at the joints or anywhere else so I guess the process they came up with was a winner. I prefer the stop tail SG models but they are a bit harder to find. I really liked the Custom model that waas on the bay not long ago but I missed out on it. Action is nice and low and plays with ease. Overall it is a great player and I believe from the logo style it is a PCM but hard to determine with these early models. My best guess on the year for this one is from 72-74 range.

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

definitley PCM... and yes, the early copies were based off of photos... I remember reading an article where at I think the '68 NAMM show, someone noticed a guy holding each guitar for a photo, and his suit happened to have exactly 1" square block designs on it

the lam necks are usually pretty stout too... the lam bodies really are the most "true" to the design/reason for developing electric solid bodies in the first place, as they didn't want to have to worry about the wood type.... and the lam process would affect the resonance of the wood pieces.... mostly cancelling out the natural effect....

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My Electra Pages
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Well I couldn't do all this research and not get drawn to this model... I just pulled the trigger on a pretty clean example when the price fell to under $350 shipped. This is a very late model with the Wave style headstock, probably made in 1977 or 1978, but still has the 'shelf' heal where the neck meets the body, only six screws holding the control cover on, and as I suspected the model with the smaller pickguard and pickup mounting rings is the newer style:

Beautiful back with no belt buckle rash and little scuffing, body appears to be two slabs of (attractive) Mahogany glued together, curiously, no '2259' stamped into the neck plate:

Pickguard has some funky scratches on it, there's an unfortunate chip on the headstock and some other scuffs around the side, but overall I'm real happy with the condition:

Typical 2 Volume/2 Tone wiring:

Clean headstock with both Model and 'Made in Japan' stickers intact:

I've never been a big LP guy, but I've wanted a SG since I was a lad, but with 1961 Les Pauls (first SG model) going for around $10k, I knew that wasn't going to happen any time soon, so this is a real nice compromise. I really like the small pickguard, and it is nice and light weight, I only wish it was a hardtail... ah well, I can live with that! Cheers, Mike.

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That one is a keeper and I bet it growls with the best of the SG models. I like the shorter and smaller pickguard also. How heavy is this solid body one. The laminated model i have is super light and also has great sound. Thanks Arthur

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