The Electra Forums

I've got the body pretty well cleaned up. Luckily, the pearl is in the color and not just a top coat. I was afraid that I would end up removing the pearl when I polished it.

It's still sun faded/yellowed.

I put some gold hadware on it, and I just think it's too much.
This thing is never going to be original, but I usually try to stay with the original look. However, black hardware looks really good on this guitar.

Since I have exactly zero of the original parts for this body, i'm thinking about installing black hardware for now, and just picking up gold stuff when I find it.
I used the same method for my white zeyphre les paul copy, and while I still havent found a zephyre neck, I have everything else to put it back.
The problem is, I know that I won't ever put the zephyer back. I just like it the way I have it now.

If I do the same thing to the futura, I'll likely end up in the same place. I'll have a guitar with black hardware and a box of parts that I will probably never install.

What are your thoughts on changing these things?
All modifications would be reversible. I may have to fill and move the saddle holes, but this wont be visible in the assembled guitar.

How many people modify these things. I wouldn't be interested in major modifications, but the parts are bolt on, and easily changed back later.

I guess my real problem is that I tend to buy the really wrecked ones, and original parts are hard to come by. Since I want to play them, I use other parts with the idea of picking up the correct parts later. This will be Electra number two for me that is not completely stock. The other three are stock. There's no way I could buy one of the nice ones out there (i'm just too cheap). I can buy the busted ones though. It's just the parts that become a problem.

I think that its an instrument that should be played. If that means using different hardware, so be it. Its not like it was ever going to be a pristine collector's item.

Post some pics please

I'm waiting on a few pieces, but I'll try to get pictures of what I have.

Here's the pictures from the bay. Buying this was a gamble. If the person who spray painted it would have sanded it first, this would have been a real mess.




And one picture of the guitar mid way through paint removal. You can still see some of the black paint sticking to it in places. I used the stinky orange scented paint remover because I knew it wouldn't harm the original finish. This made paint stripping take a very long time, and it took several tries.

I now have all of the paint off except inside the neck pocket and the other cut outs. It just isn't worth removing the paint from these areas to me. Most of this space is bare wood, or poorly finished from the factory, and the risk of getting the stripper under the original finish and damaging it is just too great.





I have since polished it a bit with some rubbing compound. This lightened the yellowing a little, but it still shows a bunch of age. I could probably put it against a buffing wheel and get most of the yellowing out, but there would be the risk of thinning the finish or even burning through, so I'm going to leave the age on it.
It has it's fair share of chips and dents, but it should look good enough for my collection (I have more than one beat up old guitar).

I still don't have the original neck, but I'm thinking about installing a Squier Bullet neck that I have for right now. This will allow me to play the thing and get it setup, while I continue to look for a neck. If I run out of luck finding a neck, I can always cut the Squier neck to the Electra profile. Those Bullet necks are cheap on the bay, but they actually work pretty well. I have one on my non bullet squier and once set up correctly, it plays nice (good enough for me anyway).


I'll try to add progress pictures as the parts show up in the mail.

I got the paint off.
Sadly, there was a sticker on it in the past. The yellowing occured around the sticker but not under it. This wouldn't be noticeable, but someone scratched around that sticker as well with something sharp.
I got the paint out of the scratches, but the scratches will always be visible.

Other than the chips and dings, it looks okay. It doesn't look new, but I'll put it together anyway.

I put some extra black hardware I had on it to see what it would look like. I think I like the black hardware.

That neck is just laying in the pocket for now, but it's the one I have, so it will probably get bolted on at some point.

I only have one four wire pickup, so I'll need to pick up another one if I want to wire for coil tap, and you know I do.

I'll probably seal the bare wood in the chips rather than trying to conceal them or blend paint into them.

I would paint in Gold with the black hard ward and rosewood neck it would look great

I've never been big on painting guitars.
This one is closer than most to getting painted, but I still think it will look alright with the original finish.

It's very hard to get new paint to look good on guitars. Especially on this one. Since it should obviously be pearl white(the only color it was made) i'd likely paint it pear white if I did repaint it.

I kind of like the road worn look though. I usually prefer that the damage come from playing and travel and not from abuse, but it is what it is. Someone did bad things to this guitar. Once I get it working, I might change my mind about the paint, but I'll probably play it for awhile first.

If the body still has the poly clear coat on it that stuff is tough. You could try the stuff Electra man and JMM were talking about in another thread. Its called Eternashine and might get a shine out of it.

Something I saw a while back might save you from drilling holes for tuners,

http://www.hipshotproducts.com/content/view/ump.html

_________________
SlmGuy

Well, I found a neck, sort of. I bought a Crate Electra guitar from evil bay.
The neck has the correct headstock shape. I had to remove and reglue the finger board because it was loose, but I think the neck will work until I can find the right one.

I'm trying to decide whether I want to remove the Crate Electra logo, or just leave it. I'm leaning towards leaving it. I doubt that I will ever put it back on the Crate Electra body, but you never know. If I find a better neck, I can always put the Crate Electra back together and sell it.

I'm still waiting on parts, but it's getting closer.

I just can't buy parts guitars.
I can't do it.
If the parts guitar is anywhere near fixable, I always end up putting it together to make sure I don't like it. Once it works, I never take it apart to use the parts I originally needed.

It happened with the Crate Electra. It cost me 25 bucks. It took me a couple hours to remove the red and green striped spray paint. The original owner sanded before painting, so the original finish wasn't salvageable (or was it).
I went ahead and wet sanded it anyway. I only sanded to 800 grit. Paint wore through in a couple places, so I figured i'd add a few more wear spots to blend it a bit. Added some wax, and I now have a very ugly (but still less ugly than the red and green stripes) guitar.

So, long story short, I still need a neck for the futura.


I'm not a huge fan of the distresed look so I didn't put much effort into it. It's a shame that the original owner sanded it, more of a shame that he or she sanded through below the tremelo.

I still need to install tuners and string it, but even if I don't like it I'll probably leave it together.

I'll get the futura finished some day.

Try DR. Dave. He hangs around here and I think he has a web store now. He parts out wrecked Electras all the time and good parts too I have heard. Any neck from a 82 to 84 Phoenix will work.

_________________
SlmGuy

Fix, nice work, I once stripped blue & gold paint off an Omega, lots of work !! PM you back momentarily..... Darn it, my web page isn't up yet, but i do regularly have Electra/Phoenix/Westone parts on eBay under user name drdavelizzard (as well as many other good parts and some cool guitars and amps -- anybody need a pedal steel, I currently have 3 !!) Unfortunately, I only have an X-185 right now, and I decided to keep it, I don't part out the complete & original ones !! Save me in your favorites on eBay, I travel 4 or 5 times a month buying stuff !!


from Lubbock - Home of Buddy Holly

I'll keep an eye out, and save you as a favorite on Ebay.
I've got a Squire take off neck on it right now, so once I find another pickup, and order a couple push pull pots I should be able to get it set up.

I'm ovbviously not in a huge hurry. I got caught up in a couple other projects, but I am steadily getting this one back together.

I need to sell a couple non-Electra guitars to make some room and fund this project. I'm thinning out my Japanese guitar collection so I can make room for more Electras, when I do find them.

I haven't stopped working on this one, just on a back burner for a minute.

I got some work done today.
I've been looking at this guitar for awhile now, and black hardware is definitely the way I want to go.

I still haven't found a neck for it, but decided to put the crate/electra neck on it for now. I just put my extra Squire neck on the crate guitar.

Along with the bad paint, someone knocked the webbing between the neck pocket and the neck pickup out. I don't want to mess with matching paint, so I added a chunk of walnut that I had. The neck I used is rounded at the end, but if I change the fingerboard out for one that has a fret or two more, I think I can just hide the repair under the longer finger board. Just have to make sure the scale doesn't change.

I did find one Matsumoku pickup that was coil tapable, but while looking I found the four wire Jackson pickups you can see in the picture. Since this will never really be original again, and it's hardly a collectable specimen, I'm thinking about just wiring the Jackson pups in to sed how they sound. I really like the way they look (after removing the Jackson logo).





http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg17 ... cb1f0e.jpg

http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg17 ... 3df911.jpg

Sorry for all the edits. It's hard to do this from a cell phone.