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1983 Electra Phoenix X185 Electric Guitar
Made in Japan at the famed Matsumoku Factory...

The Electra X185 was considerably less popular than the more well known guitars of the 80's. However, X185 Phoenix was competing with Ibanez, Kramer, Charvel, and other best-sellers of the day.

The vast majority of the X185s I have seen on the internet are in pretty bad shape by comparison to this one with heavy fretwear and dings, dents, abrasions and contusions all over. Not this one here… this one has only mild fret wear, a few scratches and dings but nothing ugly cosmetically. For a 34 year old it's held up well.

I cleaned the electronics, everything works as it should. The input jack may need to be replaced soon. It was crackling until I tightened and cleaned it but after 34 years it is ready for retirement.

I also gave her a polish and put on a new set of Ernie Ball 11's. The action is pretty low and buzz free. Of course you will want to adjust to taste.

Everything is original except the roller string tree and the Dunlop strap buttons I installed as an upgrade.

Here is some history.
FYI a schematic of the wiring set up is included in the photos.

In 1975, Tom Presley was hired as Electra Guitars product manager. His vision included guitars with innovative switching combinations of pickups and onboard guitar effects.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 very best of different kinds of pickups to produce a remarkably versatile tone machine. Best of all, the controls were intuitive, allowing the guitarist to randomly experiment or to very deliberately shape a tone into an artistic musical statement. Other guitar companies, like Ibanez, have also tried to master the H-S-H guitar, but none have managed to perfect this particular configuration before or since.

The full potential of the H-S-H is made possible by innovative unbalanced coil pickups that Tom developed in concert with Matsumoku technicians in Japan. 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 guitars have a pair of coils with different cores, magnets, and windings. One coil is wound for rich high frequencies, the other for lower response. The effect is akin to upgrading from a single stereo speaker to a woofer and tweeter- both ends were better represented.

By using MMK45 humbuckers that coil tap this way, the H-S-H plan spans a wide tonal range that includes those traditionally held by Telecaster and Les Paul players. This is activated by pulling out the volume knob.

The second knob activates the center pickup, which is a strat-like single coil pickup that adds 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, pulls 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.

No doubt Electra was far ahead of their time.

This Phoenix sports s bolt-on neck, double cutaway maple body, a maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, black hardware, and a Tekglide (vintage style) bridge, two MMK45 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.

Comes in the original 80's hard case that is in rough shape but still does it's job. Excuse the high shipping rate but the guitar itself is almost 11 pounds and the old school hard case is not lite either.
 
So... is it still #middlepickupfailboat? :confused: Because the way that copy reads it almost seems more like the pickups are EQ adjustments.
 
So... is it still #middlepickupfailboat? :confused: Because the way that copy reads it almost seems more like the pickups are EQ adjustments.

Yes. The unbalanced humbuckers are pretty common. These are wound to balance out as a set with the middle pickup. And really, all pickups are EQ adjustments. Location itself is an EQ adjustment. Everything gets more complicated from there.
 
Westone before they were Westone. I kinda liked, but disliked them back in the mid-80s when I started playing and then went to thinking they looked awful. I kinda dig this one now...pure nostalgia though.
 
My first thought was "That looks like an Aria Pro II", which makes sense (Matsumoku designed/made).

Wouldn't be the design I chose though.......If I were to go that route, I'd want a neck-through. Maybe this model is one of the cheaper ones?

My inner 16 year old likes it. Unfortunately, I'm not 16 anymore......
 
Middle pickup needs to be a bucker too.
And they all need to be tapped coils, split coils and have phase switches.
And an accordion chord button layout.
 
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