The Electra Forums

Hello there,

I just thought I should post and share that I bought a 1972 Electra SuperRock 2242 yesterday (local buy). I paid $330 for it with the case. The body is in amazing shape except that there are replacement tuners on it (and drill holes in the headstock from the back).

I love the neck and the body on this guitar, a lot! The neck pickup sounds amazing, but the bridge pickup seems a little weak to me. I just got the guitar so I haven't fiddled with adjusting the pickup height or bridge yet. As is, the action on this guitar is extremely low. I guess I am comparing the lead pickup to my other electric, a 96' SG Standard with a 498T. Has anyone ever replaced the pickups in their 2242?

I will take some more detailed pictures next week

Welcome and nice catch. We love pics. Vintage pickups are frequently a bit week compared to more recent ones. Try it for a while, it may grow on you. That said, many people have swapped out these pups and there is nothing wrong with it. Keep the originals though so you can return it to original setup.

I didn't even know these guitars existed until yesterday. I was looking for a playmate for my SG and was focusing on something with P90 pickups. I was looking at telecasters or perhaps a les paul 60s tribute with the P90s. Anyway, yesterday I saw the ad for this on craigslist, researched this forum (and the other couple of websites that have info on it).... immediate EGAS (ha ha!)

Yeah, I'm not in a huge rush to replace the pickups. If I'm unhappy in a few months time, I'll probably replace the bridge. This guitar is definitely a keeper though! I was just curious if anyone has actually swapped em out (and what you replaced them with). Since the pickups are gold plated, my options are a little more limited.

here's a not-so-great picture from my phone. I'm leaving for vacation tonight so I will want to clean this guitar up a bit before getting out the nice camera

http://i.imgur.com/3Ap6m.jpg

Welcome aboard - and congratulations on your new axe - and EGAS!

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RCSBlues

Welcome aboard. I'm not a huge LP fan, but that one, even semi out of focus, looks really elegant. Nice score. Try to lower (almost bury) your neck pickup to get a better blend between them. The strings vibrate more the farther you get from the bridge, which means more signal for the neck pickup. You can raise the back pickup, but not so high that your strings start rubbing on the cover. If the bridge pickup still sounds thin, it may have a short inside, or a bad pot, or a ton of things really. If you're good with a soldering iron that gold cover could go over just about any pickup. Good luck, Mike.

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

Okay as promised, here are some better pictures. I didn't clean the pieces of the bridge or adjust anything yet.

http://imgur.com/a/NVKT0

Ha ha you can definitely see my arm in a few shots from the gloss finish

Nice!

That is identical to the one I bought brand new in '75. I replaced the tulip style tuners with gold Grovers ............. hey wait a minute! I'd better go check and make sure mine is still there!

I paid about $100 less for it new than you did used, but I'll guarantee that you've got a good guitar for the money

I just replaced the strings and did some adjustments. I've fixed the problem with the pickup volume - by just raising up the bridge pickup as much as I could without the strings vibrating against it. I ended up throwing a pair of .11s on there and it is just a bit too stiff with the higher action. I'm halfway there though! Another sacrifice of a set of strings (or two) and I should have a happy medium between action and volume

I don't really see any reason to replace the pickups anymore. The lead pickup gives me plenty of bite now when I crank up the tone!!

I don't know what kind of tuners these replacements are - they do look like Grovers though. There is no label or any kind of markings on them.

Now the next question is... Which Electra should I try to get next? I will keep my eye open for available telecaster clones - I don't know what the cost is since I haven't seen em on ebay. The archtops look beautiful but that is beyond my price range unfortunately