The Electra Forums

Holy Happy Black Friday, Batman!!!!!!

Picked up on and purchased yet another combo package, but there seems to be a question on what exactly I have here.

The seller is adamant that it is an x650jb. His father bought it new for him in 1984 and that is how it was displayed at the store he got it at. However...

Neck pup is a split-stack, bridge a standard single coil and it does have the modified coil / active gain function. According to the archives this would then be a 695??? It did not come with the fretless neck though, and the case is original and form fits the body.

Ideas folks??

The amp (immediately claimed by my wife) is a Yamaha, 180 watts with a single 15" speaker and looks newer than the bass, which itself is 96% NOS to my eye anyway.

Will attempt to get pics up later today but any thoughts at this time on the model are appreciated.

Ice

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...throw me a frickin' bone here, people...

You're certain it has the modified coil/active gain? Because the pickup layout is the same as on the X650. The case doesn't have a place for a second neck? If it's anything like the Westone version (Spectrum LX) you could get it without the extra neck anyway... hmm.

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Who needs a Fender Jazz when you can get a perfectly good Spectrum bass for $50?

Here is a link to a PB account I setup. The amp is there as well and the high input side works surprisingly well for 6 strings too...

http://s1221.photobucket.com/albums/dd4 ... 343475.jpg

Just 3 shots so far. The bass itself I already dropped of at a buddy's shop who is a luthier and is setup to properly tame the up bow that was in the neck. It was too pronounced to call it controlled relief. It is obvious to me glancing thru the pics that this axe was built in late 1983 (if Electra serials follow the same conventions as Westone), the headstock logo is a sure tell also on that, right?

If this does not have the modified coil setup then what is that single micro-switch for? When you flip it the tone and volume on this thing is absolutely magnified by a factor of about 3 or 4.

Not being very familiar with this model perhaps it is just a standard x650. The catalog info on the archive side makes no mention of the added circuitry however. Maybe a transitional example then?

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...throw me a frickin' bone here, people...

I'm just asking questions man, the only Phoenix bass I know anything about is the early version X640. Anything I say about the X650 would be speculation. But... doesn't Arthur have one? Maybe he could fill us in!

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Who needs a Fender Jazz when you can get a perfectly good Spectrum bass for $50?

...and I am very appreciative of the points you raised. I checked over at Westone but it appears no Spectrum model there reflects this bass, maybe the model was not carried forward as a Spectrum after 1984?

This makes 4 basses now for me in the last year... gotta really start practicing now, huh??

One more facet to this gem. The seller told me when he was at the store they picked it up from the salesman asked his dad if he wanted to add the "optional" fretless neck to the package as well. I will not know for sure for a week or so (when I get it back) if the neck screws are allen head machine screws, but the case candy did include what looks like a 4 or 5 mm shortnecked allen wrench.

...and so the plot thickens...

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...throw me a frickin' bone here, people...

That is in fact an X650JB. I have one also and they are a good solid bass that usually sell for ridiculously low prices. I forget exactly what the mini switch does - it might be a phase reverse for the hb's. Mike probably remembers as he's usually encyclopedic about all things Electra.

Thanks jead! Hopefully Mike will be by in a day or 2 to see this.

That microswitch could be a reverse, but I know it causes a great deal of gain as well. I don't have the bass in hand so I cannot check the compartment for batteries at the moment.

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...throw me a frickin' bone here, people...

No batteries in there that I recall. The active 695's have 3 mini switches I believe. You're right about the gain though. One of the settings seems much fuller than the other. That bass has a surprising amount of variation in possible tones. I think it's a real winner.

Ok - I pulled mine out and the switch is for in and out of phase for the pickups - It gets some pretty good Rickenbacker sounds out of it as well as P-bass. It is indeed a winner in my book.

The Westone version is the Spectrum GT bass. I have one. The volume knob is a push/pull for phase reverse. The main difference between Phoenix basses and Spectrum basses is that Phoenixes all had single or split coils while Spectrums had humbuckers. If you look at the buckers on the Spectrum GT, you will see that the pole pieces are placed to emulate the PJ setup on the Phoenix X650. In fact, the Spectrum GT bass is ALSO numbered X650. The Westone instruments just used letterings on the instruments themselves. DX bass = X635, GT bass = X650, LX bass = X695. The ST bass is essentially the same as the DX bass, but with 21 frets instead of 22, glide trak bridge instead of the heftier Magna Cast, different paint colors, and silver hardware as standard (black optional). The ST also has a Magnabass I pickup vs the DX's Magnabass II, but I have no idea what the difference is. They both have P-bass pole positioning.

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Who needs a Fender Jazz when you can get a perfectly good Spectrum bass for $50?

Thanks jead and Warrn. All of that makes sense to me. So the difference in the respective x650's is what type of switch is used for the phase shift, as this Phoenix definitely has no push/pull.

Are we in agreement about my thinking on the headstock logo, that being it points it to late '83 to early '84? Also, did they offer the fretless neck as an option on that bass during that time frame?

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...throw me a frickin' bone here, people...

Blue Book says switch from Electra to Electra/Phoenix occurred in 1983 - that's an 83 s/n too, I think........ I've got a left-handed Westone Spectrum with the same body - allbeit different pickup - from 1985 (well, a mirror image of the same body !!) -- I've also had a E/P with an 82 s/n, so personally, I think the switch was prob late 82

Fretless neck was an X695 thing, but the store was probably willing to offer it on other models for the additional money.

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Who needs a Fender Jazz when you can get a perfectly good Spectrum bass for $50?

I have the same headstock and figured 83. AFAIK the 695 was the only bass with the interchangeable neck - I doubt you could have gotten a 650 fretless. I had one for awhile that someone had pulled the frets on the stock neck and then filled the slots.
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