Electra X310 review.

[badpenguin]

Hey all, I am giving a guitar review here, since sometimes you need pics to get the story fully across.

 

now, let's get the elephant out of the room here: If you are looking at buying one of these, or any Japanese Paul copy, and the seller says "It's JUST like a real one" or some variation, ask him how many Pauls he has played. Let's face it, Japanese guitar can be nice, but they aren't at the same level of a real Gibson. Different neck profiles, different woods, pickups, finish, all play a part.

 

Ok, I feel better now with that little PSA.

 

This is an 1981 Electra MPC 310. The main differences between the X300 series is simply finishes. this one has a somewhat unusual headstock shape. More of an overly pronounced open book, then the usual wave headstocks. Typical 22 fret rosewood board, mated to a 3 piece mahogany neck, with abalone trapezoid markers, and medium jumbo frets.. Nice touch in my opinion. But the neck isn't the reason to own one of these.

 

 

 

The usual 3 way switch has been replaced with a 5 way knob, only slightly stolen from Gibson's L6S. 1st is both p/u's in series, 2, neck, 3 both parallell (normal) 4, bridge, 5, is both in series, but out of phase. (Thin Kansas "Carry On Wayward Son" that solo in the bridge of the song. yeah, THAT sound.) the switch is mated to 2 "Magnatron" pickups. These are medium output, and in honest opinion, kinda bland. Ok, but lacking that higher output I like. BUT I do understand why the mid output. Which leads us to the REAL reason in owing one of these......

 

 

 

The MPC modules. Imagine having your fav stompbox (from the 70's) built into your guitar. Or rather, a few of them, interchangeable on a whim! That was the selling point of this series. The modules range from clean boost, to auto wah, to envelope filters, phaser, and a few others. I had all 11 of them, and sold off 5 of them, the least favs by the way, and they paid for the guitar. (And them some!) The phaser and clean boost, or tube sound are my favs, since whenever I use them, it reminds me of Zappa. Each module has it's on/off switch, and control knob. the knob can control volume, speed, or intensity. Cool. Problem is, some people HATED the modules.

 

 

 

Great guitar overall!

[6down1togo]

Cool guitar. I have an Omega 220 (see the Matsumoku guitars thread) that had the pickups and wiring changed out to LP style. I would love to put a 5 way rotary back in it like the original but can't find a wiring diagram. All diagrams I have found are for single vol and tone w. multiple variations of PRS coil splits rather that series/parallel.

 

​I checked the Electra users site and they have a hand scrawled diagram for the OEM setup with the color switches (coil split) but can't make heads or tails of it.

 

Any ideas?

[badpenguin]

You are going to need the original 5 way switch to begin with. Other switches won't work. I suggest using a diagram I found for the Gibson 6 way switch. it's a variation on the original 6way, but much more usable.

http://alexplorer.net/guitar/mods/rotary.html

It uses a 4 pole, 6 position switch, available from ebay for about 12 bucks. And it uses a single output, so you can use a single vol/tone combination. if you need to use it for a more Paul wiring, it should be easy to use pole 1, position 4 as the neck out, and pole 4, position 5 for the bridge.

[badpenguin]

Wait, I might have misspoke here....

you want the 5 way, single vol/tone, and the coil tap switching, like the original? Generally, if your pickups are 3 or 4 conductor, use the tap wire, or the 2 wires soldered together to the switch, and the other lug to ground. that will give the coil tap. then use the below diagram as written, and there you have it. An upgraded version of the original diagram.