Bolt neck double cutaway with maple body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, black hardware, graphite nut and Bendmaster two-post bridge, one humbucker, two single-coil pickups with three pull-switch knobs (V-T-T) for coil tap, fat (center on) and phase; and 3-way selector switch.



X195BL (S-H-S)(Blue Burst)


The X195 is arguably the oddest model in an already remarkably varied lineup of guitars. When it seemed that just about every other pickup configuration had been released, its S-H-S configuration left everyone guessing (and still does). The unusual blue burst finish added to its strangeness.


Designer Tom Presley is reported to have said he liked this configuration best of all, and upon playing it, it’s easy to see why.


The controls are intuitive, like the H-S-H, and immediately offer a wide range of tones. The difference is that the X195 offers a wider range of single coil tones, and then adds a humbucker in the middle to add a warmer tone- rather than the other way around. As a result, an X195 can do a better job of ‘passing for a strat’ although its tonal range is much wider than that.


It was the last of the new variations in Electra Phoenix. By 1984 its tekglide trem was superceded, leaving the X195 discontinued in favor of more familiar configurations.

My recently acquired 1984 X195 differs from the catalogue description in that it has only 2 pull pots - the 2 lowest ones - and a 6 screw bridge.

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