The Electra Forums

Hello all,
I am a new owner of an Electra Outlaw X620 Bass.
It was givin to me as a gift from a friend who knew I had been wanting to get back to playing bass after a 30 year hiatus.
I never knew about these but man is it a great bass, just picking it up and feeling the neck and action.
The looks are pretty cool too. I really dig the neckthru design, inlays, and solid mahogany.
It has the foil tag on the back, a hardcase, and the phasor and overdrive modules.
The serial number is 18228 so I am assuming it was produced in 1981?
There is no date on either of the battery pull straps.

A question I have, which I have a few, is what is the open book headstock.

Another question I have is should I keep the oxidized bridge and tuners on it? They are still functional but it would be nice to have nice shiny metal on it.
I just dont want to take away from the value of this fine piece.
Thanx,
Jeff

Got pics up, Thanx Iceman

http://i740.photobucket.com/albums/xx47 ... dstock.jpg

http://i740.photobucket.com/albums/xx47 ... 0_Full.jpg

http://i740.photobucket.com/albums/xx47 ... Case_1.jpg

Welcome to you, J.

Open book is a commonly held description of the shape of a Les Paul headstock, the symmetry of the top line looking somewhat like a open book when viewed at an upwards angle from table level. Many Japanese copies early on used that same shape until Norlin sued Ibanez (??) in the 70's as a matter of copyright or some such nonsense. Look thru the archive section of the site at some Electra models before and after 1976 and you can see the change to the "wave" headstock that they changed to, wave being an ocean wave I suppose. The terms open book and lawsuit are used interchangably when you see listing of Japanese copy guitars.

Funny thing is that calling them copies in Electra's case holds only as to shape and design of some models.. IMHO, Electra made guitars head and shoulders above the majority of what Gibson was passing off as guitars in those years.

As far as pictures you can post them online to a Photobucket account and then paste the. url links directly into your posts here. Or email them to me and I could set that up for you if you have not done that before.

In any case, welcome again.

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

Here are two links. The first is a 2252 with the Electra "wave" headstock and the second a 2254 with an "open book" headstock.

Which looks more like the shape Gibson would get their panties in a pinch over?

http://www.rivercityamps.com/electrapag ... 414-051045

http://www.rivercityamps.com/electrapag ... 922-233927

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

Welcome aboard Jeff. The foli tags are totally useless in dating Electra guitars. The only serial numbers that seem to work are the ones from 80-84 that are stamped onto the rear of the headstock. First digit (0-4) denotes year produced. Second two digits are the month produced. And last digits is sequential serial number.

_________________
"This is the way that pop ends, Not with a BANG but with a box set whose fourth disc you never get around to playing” - Simon Reynolds

"My guitar wants to kill your Mama" - Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention

If you change anything be sure to keep the original parts - everything - screws, washers, etc. You can most likelt find tuners that would mount properly without new holes. I don't know about the bridge though.

Welcome!

Pics posted !

So might this be pre 80's then?

Pre-1980 is a very safe bet. Here is a link to the model index for you, Jeff...

http://www.rivercityamps.com/electrapag ... 002-072707

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

Thanx man,
Even more interesting.
Ordered a set of Rotowound Swing Bass strings today.
Cant wait to get em on there and set this thing up!
Jeff

Welcome Jeff. I'm still wet behind the ears myself, but I got into the family with 3 Electras in one swoop.Anyway, I saw a post of your bass on the Talkbass forum. Again, I think your a very lucky guy. I'm hoping I can run into a nice Electra bass of some sort one of these days. By the way, these guys on this forum are very helpful and know their stuff. See you on the boards.

Thanx texsunburst,
I'm very lucky indeed.
And welcome to you as well,
Jeff

I dont know if it would help with dating this bass, but the rear MPC compartment cover has a single hinge, right in the middle.
http://i740.photobucket.com/albums/xx47 ... 0_8773.jpg

Would anyone know, most of them I have seen has 2 hinges.
Thanx in advance,
Jeff

it's definitely one of the early MPC basses. becayse you have the single hinge plus your pickguard only has 3 screws across the top.
so probably yours is a '77.

the later ones had 2 hinges, and 4 screws across the top....

the first thing to change was the hinges...

The Outlaw series only lasted 3 years. '77-'79.

_________________
My Electra Pages
I have too many projects!

Thank You for the reply, Mcbrat.
SWEET!

Jeff

Good one mcbrat - I didn't know about the screw thing. That sounds like a good solid indicator.