The Electra Forums

Gentlemen,

A new member over at Westone posting some pics of his guitars and one of them is a black x935 (or so I thought it was. Here is a link to another thread he posted specifically to identify what it is.

http://forum.westoneguitars.net/t3536-p ... x935#31290

Your opinions are solicited...

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

This has been bandied about a number of times. The guitar pictured is a X210, even has it stamped on the back of the headstock, serial number dates it to November of 1980. Further confusing matters is the fact that the catalogue called these 'Omegas', when they did not have the five way rotary selector. Even more confusing is that THE OLD ELECTRA site has a photo of one of these for a Black Endorser, and it has never been removed or corrected.

By 1980 Electra (or SLM) was trying to get away from the copy guitar body styles, so all LP's got the one and a half cutaway treatment, strats evolved into the Phoenix body and Vee's take on a whole new dimension with the pointy models. The Endorser does not make it's debut until mid 1982, the first ones were the Blackburst or transblack model, the earliest Cherry Sunburst Endorser I've noted was from December of 1982, and has a number of differences from even the early blackbursts (no belly cut on early endorsers, peace sign logo, larger dot markers on fretboard).

The most obvious difference between the late X210 and the X935 is the scooped out heal. Also, the X210 is an opaque black finish, the Endorsers were all semi see-through (blackbursts). The X210 has two exposed micro switches (probably for coilcut and phase), whereas the Endorsers switches are cleverly concealed in the push/pull tone pots.

Yeah, they look similar, but strictly speaking they are two different animals. I hope this helps, Mike.

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

It absolutely does Mike... thanks!

I just was not able to come up with a pic or reference to an Omega without the 5-way Spectrum tone switch.

Crossposting back to Westone now...

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

So what are the mini switches? Id guess individual coil splitters. Thats a real nice X210. Very shiny

Your Westone member states:

What I have ascertained about the toggle switches is, the one closest to the bridge changes to single coil and back to humbucker or a coil splitter. The other switch doesn't do much of anything, only in the middle position can I hear any change, and it is a very slight out of phase sound, in the upper and lower position I can't hear any difference. But the amp makes a slight noise when I flip it back and forth, but like I said I can only hear a difference in the middle position.

This is totally consistent with a phase switch. It will only 'sound' different when both (or at least two) pickups are being used. You can hear a slight stutter when you flick the switch with only the Bridge pickup selected, but no real change in tone or volume. When both pickups are selected and out of phase, there is some frequency cancellation going on. Tell him to play some riffs at around the twelfth fret (ala Stevie Ray), and he should be able to hear some 'quacky-ness' then. Phase is not for everyone, but it is a nice tool to have available when playing covers live. Cheers, Mike.

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

To add on here, if the Neck pickup is set too high the out of phasedness will be less pronounced. Basically most Electra pickups have almost identical output, but the neck pickup will 'sound' louder because the strings vibrate more further away from the bridge. This is why the bridge pickup is usually much hotter in a pickup set, to compensate. I often have to lower the neck pickup to get a better 'blend' between them. Just a thought, Mike.

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

And another.....
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Electra-X-210-O ... 2ebe73d76b

Gold bridge and chrome tailpiece???? Looks like maybe the tailpiece has been changed.

yep... just like the x960 MPC, it appears the Omega's also lost the 5-way rotary near the end of their run...
all catalogs should have this footnote...
* specifications subject to change

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