1983 Electra X185GR Made in Japan Matsumoku 1983 Graphite

1983 Electra Phoenix X185 double cut electric guitar, Graphite finish , HSH pickup configuration, with coil taps, and phase reversal push/pull pots.

The neck has an indentation above the first fret on the bass side. See pics. It does not affect playability. There is a neck pocket check on the lower side. The finish is very nice. It has a few tiny nicks in the clear, and some swirling around the rear tremolo cover. The tremolo cover is scratched and has a crack (see pics).

The bridge appears to be aftermarket, but high quality, with stamped steel saddles and a high mass block. The original should be black. The volume and tone knobs are e not original. They are chromed aluminum knobs with set screws. The rest of the guitar, including the electronics are original. 

The frets have some wear, but within the range of normal for a 40 year old guitar. The frets have just been polished and the fingerboard cleaned.

It has brand new D’Addario XL .09-.42 strings.

It will be professionally packaged and shipped with insurance.

It will need to be tuned and possibly set up your personal playing preferences upon receiving. I don’t give partial refunds for this, because it is normal.

SPECS:

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

X185SS (H-S-H)(Silverstone= metallic bronze)

The X185 marked the debut of Tom Presley�s H-S-H wiring plan, the result of his work in the 60�s on experimental wiring. It combined the best of different kinds of pickups to produce a remarkably versatile sound. Best of all, the controls were intuitive, allowing the guitarist to merely twiddle or to very deliberately shape a tone.

Other guitar companies, notably Ibanez, have also released H-S-H guitars, but none with this particular configuration before or since.

The full potential of the H-S-H was also made possible by innovative unbalanced coil pickups that Tom had developed in concert with Matsumoku technicians. Normal humbuckers have a pair of equal coils, and coil tapping one out leaves a single remaining coil that isn�t very much like the rich overtones of a strat or tele single coil, it�s just thin.

The new MMK45 pickups that were included in all the Electra Phoenix had a pair of coils with different cores, magnets, and windings. One coil was wound for rich high frequencies, the other for lower response. The effect was akin to upgrading from a single stereo speaker to a woofer and tweeter- both ends were better represented.

When coil tapped, MMK45’s drop the bass coil, and the remaining treble coil is more like a tele neck pickup- strong and sweet.

By using humbuckers that would coil tap this way, the H-S-H plan spanned a tonal range including those traditionally held by tele and LP players. This was activated by pulling out the volume knob, which in the 83 models was a nice chunky speed knob with notched edges.

The second knob activated the center pickup, which was a strat-like single coil pickup that added the rich piano-like overtones of an overwound single coil. Add that to any of the other combinations and you spanned the tonal range traditionally held by strat players.

Finally, the third knob, which was also the bridge tone knob, pulled out to reverse the phase of the bridge pickup. This was a sound that had suddenly become popular in the 80�s pop radio- think Joe Walsh- although it was a wiring trick that other greats had used. Somebody noticed that if you put the 3-way selector switch inbetween positions on a strat, it phase reversed one of them, giving this funky quack sound.