Love the X210. It was my first LP style guitar. My first one was stolen. I bought another one and I love it. These are seriously underappreciated guitars. Any possible tone you want, after all these years I still don't fully understand the wiring. All I know is that I can find any tone I want. Construction is tight, quality is tighter, it plays like a fretless wonder, except with enough fret to bend anything as much as you want. These are closet treasures for certain. It may never become a highly sought after vintage, but mine isn't for sale regardless.
Hey, enjoyed your video, I am one of the collectors and people that used to run the rivercityamps vintage electra site. I am the RiverCity Amps guy. You are largely correct. We learned a few things since some of what you read on the site. That specific model was likely made by Kasuga, not Matsumoku. Terada made some guitars for them too, but mostly their semi-hollow-bodies. However, the later version that you didn't like - that one WAS a Matsumoku. The later one has higher output MMK (Matsumoku) pickups. Some of those later styles were Matsumoku, and some were still likely Kasuga. It is no problem though because Kasuga made a lot of guitars for different companies and was a good quality company too. The 5-way rotary is like a regular les paul in the 3 middle positions. But the 5 and 1 positions are both pickups wired together in series, and both pickups wired together out of phase. The 5 can sound kind of dark and muddy to me personally - but may be good for jazz on a bright clean sounding amp. That out-of-phase sound is really useful, sounds a little like a congested P90 to me. The pickups are pretty PAF-like in output, but maybe a little more output/growl (still vintage-class output). They are generally good quality and usually are not prone to feedback (important). The big "flapper" switches toggle in a cap that thins out the sound for each pickup. That is common to break the "bats" off of those two switches. Radio Shack had one that is an excellent replacement, and so you may find them online. It gives the guitar a lot of versatility, single coil type sounds but actually fully humbucking in every position. They are well-made and good quality Japanese guitars. I still own several of them and like them very much. Later 83-87 electras (and electra transitioned to the westone brand) were nearly all made by Matsumoku - until the plant shut down. If you liked those, try out the MPC versions of those same guitars but they had two FX modules that went into the back of the guitar. Those are awesome - you'd like it.
How interesting! That’s very cool. I do love the thinner/ less bassy sounds it can produce and like you said it can do jazz stuff pretty well too. I had flat wounds on mine for a while but I’ve switched back to round wounds. Thank you for your comment and sharing the knowledge!
Nice! I've got a 75ish open book single cut, and an 82 with the double cutaway. There really isn't a lot of info on these old ones. There's a few dedicated fan website for the Electra's though. And someone tried to bring the brand back about 10 years ago.
Cool video! I recently bought a '79 Matsumoto made Memphis Les Paul copy. It's just like the one my Dad bought for me when I was 15. I was sooo surprised it actually plays and sounds better than my 2008 Gibson Les Paul!! I had to upgrade the pickups, pots and switch, but OMG!! It sounds so good!!
I've got the X220 in cherry sunburst - I've also broken one of the color switches on mine. I gave up gluing it and eventually just put a black plastic cap on it. One color switch adds a bass boost for rhythm playing and the other switch adds a treble boost for playing leads. I'm not a huge fan of the 5 position rotary that comes with the guitar because of the added complexity - my understanding of the rotary settings are that in position 1 both pickups are in series; in position 2 its the neck pickup alone; in position 3 both pickups are in parallel; in position 4 its the bridge pickup alone and in position 5 its both pickups out of phase.
Money for nothing and chicks for free...comes to mind. Btw, there's one for sale at the pawn shop, but it's the earlier "open book" headstock. $439. Is that fair price??
Love the X210. It was my first LP style guitar. My first one was stolen. I bought another one and I love it. These are seriously underappreciated guitars. Any possible tone you want, after all these years I still don't fully understand the wiring. All I know is that I can find any tone I want. Construction is tight, quality is tighter, it plays like a fretless wonder, except with enough fret to bend anything as much as you want. These are closet treasures for certain. It may never become a highly sought after vintage, but mine isn't for sale regardless.
Hey, enjoyed your video, I am one of the collectors and people that used to run the rivercityamps vintage electra site. I am the RiverCity Amps guy. You are largely correct. We learned a few things since some of what you read on the site. That specific model was likely made by Kasuga, not Matsumoku. Terada made some guitars for them too, but mostly their semi-hollow-bodies. However, the later version that you didn't like - that one WAS a Matsumoku. The later one has higher output MMK (Matsumoku) pickups. Some of those later styles were Matsumoku, and some were still likely Kasuga. It is no problem though because Kasuga made a lot of guitars for different companies and was a good quality company too. The 5-way rotary is like a regular les paul in the 3 middle positions. But the 5 and 1 positions are both pickups wired together in series, and both pickups wired together out of phase. The 5 can sound kind of dark and muddy to me personally - but may be good for jazz on a bright clean sounding amp. That out-of-phase sound is really useful, sounds a little like a congested P90 to me. The pickups are pretty PAF-like in output, but maybe a little more output/growl (still vintage-class output). They are generally good quality and usually are not prone to feedback (important). The big "flapper" switches toggle in a cap that thins out the sound for each pickup. That is common to break the "bats" off of those two switches. Radio Shack had one that is an excellent replacement, and so you may find them online. It gives the guitar a lot of versatility, single coil type sounds but actually fully humbucking in every position. They are well-made and good quality Japanese guitars. I still own several of them and like them very much. Later 83-87 electras (and electra transitioned to the westone brand) were nearly all made by Matsumoku - until the plant shut down. If you liked those, try out the MPC versions of those same guitars but they had two FX modules that went into the back of the guitar. Those are awesome - you'd like it.
How interesting! That’s very cool. I do love the thinner/ less bassy sounds it can produce and like you said it can do jazz stuff pretty well too. I had flat wounds on mine for a while but I’ve switched back to round wounds. Thank you for your comment and sharing the knowledge!
Nice! I've got a 75ish open book single cut, and an 82 with the double cutaway. There really isn't a lot of info on these old ones. There's a few dedicated fan website for the Electra's though. And someone tried to bring the brand back about 10 years ago.
Cool video! I recently bought a '79 Matsumoto made Memphis Les Paul copy. It's just like the one my Dad bought for me when I was 15. I was sooo surprised it actually plays and sounds better than my 2008 Gibson Les Paul!! I had to upgrade the pickups, pots and switch, but OMG!! It sounds so good!!
I have a black Memphis LP copy with open book headstock. Absolutely love this beast the way it is, no mods.
I got the x-240 and it sounds great.
Great playing. Sounds awesome.
Thank you!
I've got the X220 in cherry sunburst - I've also broken one of the color switches on mine. I gave up gluing it and eventually just put a black plastic cap on it. One color switch adds a bass boost for rhythm playing and the other switch adds a treble boost for playing leads. I'm not a huge fan of the 5 position rotary that comes with the guitar because of the added complexity - my understanding of the rotary settings are that in position 1 both pickups are in series; in position 2 its the neck pickup alone; in position 3 both pickups are in parallel; in position 4 its the bridge pickup alone and in position 5 its both pickups out of phase.
I had mine replaced with mini dip switches :) much cleaner look that way
Great guitar I have a x210 too. I think it's from 81. Great guitar with a Tele neck it seems!
Money for nothing and chicks for free...comes to mind. Btw, there's one for sale at the pawn shop, but it's the earlier "open book" headstock. $439. Is that fair price??
Oh yeah, with that quacky sound all day