The Electra Forums

I recently snagged one of this on ebay thinking I could make a few bucks on it. I was excited upon receiving it to discover that it was in great barely played condition! Anyway, long story short, after setting it up I just can't seem to part with it. It's an amazing guitar. Anyone else have one? Just wondered what feedback was out there for these guitars.

Those are some of the fastest-playing Electras, I think!

I have a few and love them. I have the 82', 83' and 84' models. The 82' is the heavier of the 3. I've learned to use the pick up combos to get really good tones and the neck is fast playing. for the most part the pick up rings are the only change, that and the Westone name and the Phoenix Electra and Electra Phoenix on the head stocks. They dont sell for as much as you would think and are really quite the bargan. Using the middle and the bridge together I get a good hard rock to metal tone and the other way R&B sounds all day long. It works well with the Fender amp I am using and mixes well with my pedals. Looking at it, it is set up to play anything. It came with a solid trem, not a 2 peice and the nut is graphite (if its still there), so you have tone, intune and sustain. Of course theres the Canadian rock maple body and the rose wood fret board. If you have looked at the pick ups you will see that they are a bit different than the norm. They have a circuit board base the bobbin is attacthed to. Pulling up the last tone knob gives you a different phase but only on 2 positions. It looks like just another strat copy but has so much more. If you have not played one you really need to try it. I dont know how it would size up to a 189 but like I said, for the money you cant go wrong.
I won 2 in the first Electra Fest and now have 4. I needed more parts to finsh the second and after a part here and there on bay land it seemed cheaper to buy a parts guitar. The one I chose looked kinda rough but had all the stuff needed to complete the first 2. After getting it I plugged it in and there was nothing wrong with it except some broken pick up rings and some scratches. It played better than I had expected the first 2. Compairing them it had better tone because it had the solid trem. Its a regular player now and stays out all the time. So, I saw another with a broken neck for a good price. Got it and talk about rough, the trem crumbled in my hands. The pick ups all ohm good, had all the covers and tuners. The screws were all rusted so bad they just twisted the heads off. The jack was corroided so bad its still in the body. Dont know if I will attempt to rework it or not.

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SlmGuy

It's a Phoenix; what's not to like?! I don't have a 3 s/c version - don't believe I've ever seen one!! - but have H/H, H/S/H, H/S/S, and S/H/S and a Spectrum GTBass and love 'em all!!

They are solid performers that have a little bit of TPs fairy dust sprinkled on them and quite importantly are still reasonably priced!

"later"....

.... I pulled my Westone Spectrum LX - basically a Phoenix X198 with a fine tuner floating bridge and stringlock behind the nut - out of storage and gave it beating; still a fabulous little guitar and was still in tune after many months of being cased. TPs trick switching makes accessing various tones super easy and those MMK45s are just sublime! The centre s/c is good and meaty so I would imagine 3 of them would be fabulous!

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"... and on the eighth day, God created New Zealanders.

Because even the Australians need heroes."

Here's mine! http://dbeedle.com/Guitar/

It's a 1983 model, S-S-S, purchased in '83 with grant money I was to use for school! I've made some mods though in replacing the saddles with Graphtech saddles and replacing the stock pickups with Lace Sensors. I've also shielded it and re-done the wiring and replaced the corroded screws. It has a few dings here and there but I continue to play it regularly!

For the curious, apic of the new wiring that's not in the gallery link above.
http://dbeedle.com/Guitar/X175JB%20Shie ... Wiring.jpg

Nice.

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SlmGuy