The Evolution of Dad's Electra X145
I've never modded a guitar to the degree I've changed this one. I saw good bones in the original package, but needed something that had more of surfy-look for my band, The Aquatudes. Later, I decided I needed something to sound like a Jazzmaster - without having to store yet another guitar in my crowded basement.
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Here's the guitar when I first got it, while I was still playing with See Jane Run. It had a black pickguard, plain black pickuup covers (strat-like configuration), and brass knobs and trem. It sounded fine, but I thought it looked a little boriing. Also, the brass trem was beat and worked poorly. |
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Here's the same guitar after I installed a custom tortoiseshell pickguard. I also added white pickup covers, a new chrome Gotoh trem, and gold knobs. I thought this gave the look I wanted for my new surf-rock band, the Aquatudes. This was my main guitar for the first year and a half of Aquatudes gigs. When I eventually found my MIJ Fender Jaguar, this guitar fell by the wayside, compounded by the development of a short in the cable jack. |
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Here's the same guitar today. I decided it played too well to let it languish. I also wanted a Jazzmaster, but did not want to add to the collection, so I made the decision to convert the Electra to a faux-JM - also since I didn't really see that kind of conversion being done much by others. The spark that ignited the process was the offer of a reissue JM bridge pickup for sale by a fellow member of surfguitar101.com. I snapped that up, found a similar neck pickup on eBay, and then collected all the pots, switches, jacks, and wiring that I would need. I also found a browner tortoiseshell pickguard blank and bought that, knowing that I would have to create the custom pickguard myself. I chronicled the conversion on THIS PAGE if you're interested. |