Electra X640 Matsumoku Electronics

Hey guys,

I am a newbie to this forum. I have recently purchased my first Electra X640N bass in which I rescued from a life of torture in a local pawn shop. It had been rattle canned blue, and the strings were 10+ yrs old. To my excitement, the neck, body, pickguard and hardware were in great shape. I payed a bit more than I wanted ($125), but was looking for a unique project bass and this was just what the Dr. ordered.

Now.....I know what alot of you will say about this next section, but in most cases I am all about originality, and being a purist with my instruments. On this occasion, the new found axe is an experiment of sorts. It goes as follows:

Stripped and sanded body and headstock
took to Davis Wallace@ Wallce Custom Guitars for an beautiful Olympic white paint job.
Davis also took the factory pickguard and made a new red tortoise guard minus the holes for toggles. Why you ask?
I am replacing the Matsumoku electronics with EMG PA-V2 pup on the bridge, and EMG Classic P on the neck with a Vol, Vol, Tone control configuration
To finish out the bass, I have opted to use a Hipshot Vintage Bridge, and Hipshot Vintage tuners, as well as Hipshot knobs all in Black finish.

I do have before, and during pics. As soon as the finished product is done, You guys will get to see the whole shabang!

All that being said....anyone got any ideas as to what the fully functional matsumoku double p 18V electronics system would be worth? Will include all toggles, pups, knobs etc....I also will have the original brass bridge as well. Any help would be great! I will post an add on the items for sale at a later time. Thanks for reading my book....lol, I mean my first post on here! :?:

Sad to hear that you're ditching the original electronics, my Electra X640's stock equipment provides BY FAR my favorite bass tone. Can't wait to see it though, and be sure to show the Electra forum as well!

I know you really don't want to hear this but it appears that your x640 is one of the rarest of the Electra Phoenix's. So much so, they only have the catalog photo to reference that it exists. Altough it's understandable that you'd want to recoup some of your 'upgrade' money, IMHO it may be wise to at least save all the guts, as you may grow soft for the old girl and want to restore it back to stock. It would be near impossible to get that stuff back. She's a cool specimen and I loooooove that body style. All the best.

http://www.rivercityamps.com/electrapage/index.php?entry=entry080216-035904

Err, the natural finish isn't the rare one, it's the snow white paint job that's hard to find, and two of them have been sold in the last year. The Electra page could use some updates. I don't even know what to call the finish on mine, as it's a natural sunburst but the edges are red instead of black...

Have we seen this beast?!!?

Warrn wrote:...I don't even know what to call the finish on mine, as it's a natural sunburst but the edges are red instead of black...

Mmm, I like that effect if it's what I'm thinking of. Sort of a big bang, light from darkness thingy.

Not sure what you mean exactly, but here it is:

Warrn wrote:Not sure what you mean exactly, but here it is:

Nope. Nice, but not it. Too bad the pick guard is so large. It covers most of the burst.

I love the pickguard, but it works better with the black or white finish. Mine is a very early model from the very first month of Phoenix production, November 1980. The serial number is incredibly low: 011063. And as I said, it provides my favorite bass tone (passive, both pickups, tone knob all the way up).

Gee, that's a real sweetheart, eh!!

I know I love it! Hoping lowgozit will post pics of his soon.