The Electra Forums

I,ve read so many posts here over the last few years and finally bought my first Black X420 custom Pro and was so pleased that now I,m officially EGASED! Then this past Thursday I came across a Endorser on Jaxedmash, E-Bay classifieds, the gentalmen wanted 450 for it but I was on the way out my door to go to work, I thought oh well, one of you guys would pick it up easy! I got home from work and the listing was still there so I called and it was still available, I was out the door and had to make a 3hr drive across the state to at least have a better look, in the posting it looked sharp, well it is near mint! I had bid on the blackburst on e-bay the week before and passed on the 2nd chance offer as it was fairly beat up! Looked to have been dropped if anyone recalls that one. I had to pawn my 420 to help with funds as I also drive a older Dodge v-10, cant seem to find a buyer for it and I dont drive far. So I get there and my jaw dropped, I was thinking to myself in mid conversation with the seller, this thing is to gorgous to have to play it! I still am awe struck by the craftsmenship! But if not for this site I would have thought nothing of Electra guitars. I will post more later and thanks guys!

Welcome. So you sold your X420 to pay for the Endorser?? That's a tough choice there. I like the X935's a lot (have three of them), but the Semi's seem to hold their value better, and are only going up in price it seems. Show us some pictures when you figure out the image posting maze! Mike.

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

Hey Mike! I just pawmed the semi. I would keep it before the Endorser. I will post pics soon! I do have a question though, what is a suitable amp for this endorser? My custom is great thru my Lab series solid state but the endorser doesnt like it much. I also have an old westbury w-20 the tube overdrive, I havent tweeked much but the 420 can be set very nice without a bunch of retweeking all the time. Just wondering what you use!

335s.....Wow that must have been a hard choice....Im a big fan of the pro endorser (I own 9 of them), but I would have kept the semi...you should get that 420 out of pawn as soon as you can. The pro endorser is , without doubt one of the best builds that Electra produced-but the semis are pure ART..........did you get one of the Cherry bursts with the sick flamed tops ? Post a pict when you can and get that 420 out of pawn ! Congrats on the ProEndorser.....

335...sorry you had to pawn the 420 for funds. I expect those V10's are rough on the road. Was that 3 hours one way? If so...you wanted an Endorser just a bit more than I do, and that's one I don't have yet. I'm still being patient though

I agree with Dave about the semis.....beautifully crafted instruments, especially the 410's. Be sure to get that 420 back....great stage guitar.

And....welcome to the forums where EGAS abounds.

Think about using the amps you have and adding a pedal like the Line 6 POD for your tonal variances. I have two of them, I use one at home and the other in church. They are great for low volume venues like that. You can find the older ones, like the POD 2.0, for under 100. And...they are quite versatile.

jd

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JD's Electras

Tell me about the 420. What do you want for it?

The short answer is everyone's taste is different. The guitar itself is pretty versatile and should perform good with just about any amplifier, I prefer a stout Tube Amp personally, and here is a video clip with one of mine played through a Mesa Boogie Mark III showing most of its different switching capabilities:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3odEjmKMqww

Some clean passages, but also showing off its gain potential. The Endorser is probably a bit brighter than your Semi so you may want to roll the treble off on your amp, and then again maybe not! I'm kind of a cave man when it comes to distortion and have always preferred a glowing tube amp to a pedal, but everyone has their preferences.

The problem (if any...) with tube amps is that you need to crank them up to get that warm gain tone, and with a 50watt amp that is getting to be an uncomfortable volume if you're not playing with a band. The current trend is low wattage tube amps that can get meaty without disturbing the neighborhood. Many examples out there, my favorite is the Princeton Reverb, a 15 or so Watt 6V6 amp that isn't cheap, but fills that niche between practice amp and stadium Goliath. Here's my Marsh reissue in Brown tolex with Mojo built cabinet and a 12" Jensen that weighs in under 30 pounds and I've actually used it for a number of gigs, so it can get loud enough to keep up with a Drummer:



Congrats and tell us what you're not liking when plugged into your rig... Mike.

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

Welcome aboard.

RCSBlues

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RCSBlues

Un-Pawn the X420 SAP! A Fender Blues Jr should do well with both those guitars.

Thanks for the welcome! I,ve been learning from all your posts and if I had known the name Electra I would have saved alot of time and money on my 1000.00 plus Gib,S, they where fine guitars but pushed the budget to often. I love the feel of these necks better too! 1st- Yes it was a long was across Florida, right at 3hours one way, then the side trip down to my bros in Ft. Myers, another hour south. Worth it though as we are hooking up to see the last race in Homestead this Sunday! Go Tony, only because he drives a Chevy and my Dodges are out of the chase. LOL SORRY The 420 is not for sale, 2nd- This beauty is so flamed I have a hard time wanting to play it! NOT!!!!! I do need to be careful as you all know what that little unexpected bump will do to an unmalested guitar? No shirt with buttons, no BELT! I,m looking for a good strap that would go good with this one and to no avail, my black one I use with the 335 will do for now. BIG QUESTION for all Endorser owners???? Mine has Gold tops on my buckers!!! Were some of these issued with these, please say yes but not a problem as the pups are gonna get potted thanks to info from the experts here! That is the only difference I see and I have seen one in a museum site that had the gold tops?? I feel like I just won the lottery with this find so I,m sure you guys know how I feel. Pics are to come soon as I need to learn a few things on this site. I have to say I missed out on the stripped down 420 vs on ebay awhile back as I wasnt sure of the parts he had were original. My loss! One last tid-pit, a friend of mine in church brought in his Super Magnum to do some lead work with another guitarist and this is why I love these Electras now. Beautiful craftsmenship all the way! I need a USA Blues JR for sure, excellent choise, Thanks all, Tim Sr.

The Cherry Sunbursts were made from December 1982 until roughly October 1983. To my knowledge they all came with Creme topped MMK's, some of them have MMK45's, some have MMK53's. The Blackbursts were introduced a few months earlier, probably summer of 1982 (with black top MMK's) and those early ones had some differences (no belly cut, big dots, peacesign logo). So a very limited run anyway you look at it, no production figures were released, but I think that generally less than 500 Cherry's were made.

With the Cherry's there are two types of flame maple tops made, a thin tiger stripe Maple top and a fatter Quilted top, which is the one that generally gets the most ooh's and ah's. I happen to have one of each, here's the full size of my Avatar:


It sounds like someone changed the pickups on yours if they have metal covers. This isn't the end of the world, and who knows maybe you'll like the way they sound, pull one out at your next string change and try to ID them. To the purist this will lower the value, but as you've read on here already, these Japanese pickups tend to squeal at loud overdriven volumes so its a 'six of one, half dozen of the other' scenario depending on what you want to use it for. I've waxed a few of mine that I wanted to use live because of the feedback.

The bad part is that many of these that had changed pickups, the push pulls didn't get wired up afterwards, so the coilcut and phase reverse is no longer an option... do both tone pots still do anything on yours when you pull them up? Also, what don't you like about the sound through your current amp? Cheers, Mike.

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

OK Mine is the quilted top, hence my own ahhhh every time I get it out! Both pots work great, I am running thru an old Westbury W-20 tube powered overdrive into a solid state Lab series L5, I,ve just went thru a 10 minute tweeking between all three and still didnt like what I was hearing so I plugged straight into the amp and whala! Sounded great, but this has me thinking on the lines of the diffrent pick-ups, 420-935. As I implied before that the 335 sounds great thru all phases between the o-d pedal and amp. When I had the 935 straight into the amp I wound it up a notch, master at 1/4 and volume just past that and she made me smile, I,ve only ever had one tube amp, a fender prosonic head w/ the cheaper fm 4/12. Alas I sold off all my Gibbys and the Fender stuff when the economy hit bad. I used a Ibanez m340, all maple acoustic for quite awhile till I saw my friends Super Magnum, I put an add in c-list for the 335 and probably paid to much but the reviews on harmony central were great so that was another trip to the west coast of Florida, in retrospect these are the only guitars I have bought that I played before buying, all others were ebays. I talk to much!LOL It took me awhile to learn the sweet spots on the 335 so I need to give some time into the endorser, I beleive I,m just not used to the push pulls yet, I will try to get picks of her in the next few days. Thanks for all the info!