Friday, January 30, 2009

1970's Electra Model X630N Fender P-Bass copy

I picked up this guitar in August of 2008 and it has a market value of $204.50. It is a 1980's vintage Electra Phoenix P bass style electric bass guitar. I believe this to be the X630N model from 1980 based on the serial number.

Here are the features of the X630 series:

Maple "C" type bolt on neck & Fingerboard
Solid "Ash" body~Satin Natural Poly finished
Black pickguard
Neck plate with the Electra inverted "Peace" style logo
1.5" @ nut
Weight: 7.5 lbs.
20 Fret~ 34" Scale
Single "Magnaflux" P style pickup with adjustable poles

The bass included an original case as shown in the pictures.

Electra guitars were imported from Japan by St. Louis Music from 1971-1984. Most of the instruments were made by Matsumoku in Matsumoto Japan. The Electra line replaces SLM's Japanese made Apollo and US made Custom Kraft lines. The first guitar, simply called The Electra, was a copy of the Ampeg Dan Armstrong lucite guitar and issued in 1971, followed quickly by a variety of bolt-neck copies of other brands. In 1975 the Tree-of-Life guitars debut with a leaf pattern carved into the top, and the Electra line expanded to 25 models. Open-book headstocks changed to wave or fan shape by 1978. By around 1981 ties with Matsumoku further solidified and decision eventually made to merge SLM's Electra brand with Matsumoku's Westone brand. Some Korean production began in the early 80's. In the fall of 1983, the Electra Brand becomes Electra Phoenix. By the beginning of 1984, the brand became Electra-Westone and by the end of 1984 just Westone. By 1987 or 1988 Singer Sewing Machines had bought Matsumoku and killed guitar production. SLM changed the brand to Alvarez (it's acoustic brand) and switched production to other plants, including Korea.

SLM was even competing with itself. Bernard Kornblum's Saint Louis Music (SLM) Electra brand competed with his own brother David Kornblum's California based Pacific Coast Music (PCM) Electra brand yet the two were not connected. Pacific Coast Music's Electra logo was nearly identical to the SLM Electra logo from 1972 to 1975 except instead of the SLM gold text, a black text on a white background was used. Both companies often imported from the same source. Pacific Coast often have an X on the headstock or the pickguard. In general, most favour the SLM versions to the PCM ones and the documentation and models are better represented by the SLM versions.

Picture 027-1
Picture 032-1
Picture 028-1
Picture 031-1
Picture 029-1
Picture 030-1
Picture 026-1

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

That looks just like mine but it was stolen........ was it you

Guitar Hunter said...

If it was stolen it wasn't me. I found this one at a local garage sale. I've since sold it and I believe it's in Idaho now.

Anonymous said...

I have an Elektra Clear Dan Armstrong copy and was wondering how many were made and the approximate worth. It is in excellent condition.

Guitar Hunter said...

You should check out the Electra page at http://www.rivercityamps.com/electrapage/index.php for more information on the Dan Armstrong and their value. The members there are very helpful and know more than I do.

Anonymous said...

Wow, I own this bass, only in a darker shade and have been trying to find out a little info on it for years. I bought it at a pawn shop nearly 20 years ago and a guitar repair shop guy told me a few months ago that he thought it came from the early '80s, but wasn't sure. I put round wound strings on it a couple of years ago. I actually played it last night and it's still a sweet bass. thanks for the info.
Rod

Anonymous said...

Thanks for one's marvelous posting! I seriously enjoyed
reading it, you could be a great author.I will remember to
bookmark your blog and will come back in the foreseeable future.
I want to encourage you continue your great posts, have a nice weekend!


Feel free to surf to my homepage: Online Violin

Post a Comment

Related Posts with Thumbnails