The Electra Forums

Hey people. I recently aqquired an Electra X350. (Yea, the one with the 5 way rotary switch, and the plug in sound effect modules.) I LOVE this beast! But...

\Sometime in the late '70's, the original owner replaced the pickups. Now normally I wouldn't have a problem with that, but I can't get the full effect from the 5 way switch. (The way mine is set: 1,neck 2,neck 3,both 4,bridge 5,neck.)

He managed to leave the wiring intact, but I think the original p/u's were 3 conductor, and these (DiMarzio PAF's) are 2 conductor.

The remaining wire, white, was grounded to the pickup. (The same white wire that goes to the 5 way.) I tried using this wire as a coil tap, attaching it to the white wires connecting the coils, but the results were NOT as advertised.

Does anyone know how to rewire the pickup to achieve the factory original? I believe the 5 way is still wired as factory. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

mlr_pa@yahoo.com

check to make sure the cable shielding isn't the third conductor. use a multimeter to test resistance between each pair- if one pair is double the resistance, that's the main leads, the other is coil tap.

I'm sure you know there's an MPC diagram posted on Electraman's site:

http://www.therathole.org/guitars/electra/wire.html

Yeah x189, I discovered that 10 minutes after I posted. (To qoute Homer "Duh-oh!")

Finding the tap isn't the problem however. I'm wondering how the pickup was tapped. As I'm sure you know, different companies tapped, or in general, wired their pickups differently. A standard tap produced some weirdness that, while interesting, was not factory. I want to bring the beastie back to factory spec with the 5 way, and the wiring is somewhat nightmarish. Do you have a diagram of the way the three conductor is wired from the coils?

Michael -

The guy that might know something about this is John Thornburg (AKA "Thorny");

I will email you directly with his information to keep it off of the Gallery Forum.

Later ..........

_________________
RCSBlues

coolness, thanks!

Point well taken X189player.

I have updated the Gallery Forum accordingly.

Thanks again,

_________________
RCSBlues

Peoples, I must bow the headstock to you for all the help and info you've provided! I shouldn't be surprised, but it amazes me how much the "Uncle Matt" community will go to help out one of their own. Thank you so much. As I write this, the soldering iron is heating, and the X350 is waiting patiently in th "pre-op". Thanks, and I'll post the results shortly.

PS: as of today, 3 of the 6 guitars I own, are Uncle Matt's. An Aria electric, which is the greatest guitar I've ever owned, an Aria 6812 acoustic, which my Martin snob friend is envious of, and the X350. They're like 'tato chips! Can't have just one!

Hey, it's me again. Ok, as to the wiring diagrams I got, they're the same as on the Electra site.

As for the wiring on my baby... well... The results weren't outstanding.

ok, what I got out of the 5 way switch was thus: (And if anyone has something different, please let me know.) 1) neck Hum, single coil bridge. 2) neck hum. 3) neck and bridge hum. 4) bridge single coil. 5) neck and bridge single coils.

I don't think that's exactly the factory wiring, but I didn't care for it. With the p/u's coill tapped, the hum was almost as loud as a Fender strat. (And I HATE noisey pickups.) I tried two other sets of p/u's, a set of Gotoh, and a set from a Westone, with the same results. Sooo...

I might dump the 5 way, and toss in a three way toggle, ala' Gibson. I might add 2 mini toggles for series/parallel and phase. I'm not sure yet.

Any suggestions?

Thanks a lot peoples!