Electra X-640N

This is a 1984 Japanese made 4-string. It has 20 frets on a fender jass style maple bolt on neck with a maple finger board. There is a volume control, tone control and an active bass/treble control. These controls are see through type plastic knobs. There are 4-toggle switches. One is a pickup selector, two switch phases on the pickups and the other one is an on/off switch for the active electronics. The pickups are covered with black plastic. There is a split P-type pickup toward the neck and a single coil pickup toward the bridge. The body is 4-peices of ash laminated togather and has a transparent natural finish. This bass is styled like a fender jass bass but the horns curl inward to a point kind of like a gibson. It has standard fender style brass bridge with gold coating. The tuners are large uncovered tuners with a silver color. I talked the salesman into throwing in a hard shell case which fit like a glove

The sound and playability is why I bought this bass. With the active circuitry you can get a ton of different sounds out of this bass from some of the warmist to some of the trebbleist sounds you ever heard. I mean it sounds good. I've played country, southern rock, hard rock, slow song & fast songs with this bass. It is very versitile. It sounds good on most any amp.

I set this bass up when I bought it and have only made some minor adjustments in the last 22-years. It din't come with a pickguard so I've scraped the finish off in places with my fingers, there's even a couple of shallow holes where my fingernails have dug in. I almost didn't buy it because there is a little more reliefe on the G-string side as there is on the E-string side. But it plays great. A coupple of knobs and switches are getting noisy. There is some minor corrosion and the gold plating is flaking off the bridge. No biggy, still plays great. The single coil pickup is a little noisy. I put a fender thumb rest on it but the rest is as it came from the factory. The battery compartment is hard to get to. You have to remove 2-scerws to replace 2-nine volt batteries. The quality of this bass is excelent. The finish was good when I bought it and it has held up good concidering what it has gone through.

Ive mainly used this and one other bass for over 20-years without any big problems.

Didn't need it.

This bass sold for $595.00 but they had trouble selling it for some reason so I got it knocked down to $400.00 and a fender hardshell case. I've played several different amps with this bass. I have been playing for 35 years. Most of my gear is gone now. But my sixteen year old son has a 1200 watt samson amp with a genz-benz XB 410 speaker cab and a sansamp RBI preamp. He likes my bass too. I've always wanted an American made fender P-bass but I wouldn't trade my westone electra for one. I've only seen one other bass like this and that was on a country show band I don't remember who.

1982 was the year this fine bass was made. 4 strings, 2 split P pickups, toggle switches for: pickup selector, series/parallel, phase, eq on/off. Controls are Volume, bass/treble boost, passive tone control. 18 volt active eq/preamp. Knobs and bridge are cheap gold-plated. The shit just peels off. Very nice maple neck THe thing is pretty light. Killer tone. Nice growl to it. with the 2 split P's it reminds me of an SD Curlee.

It'll easily fit any style of music, be it country, blues, rock, metal. Very articulate sound, even using the neck pickup alone. The active eq really helkps, even though it doesnt need it. I havent found any noise with it at all. I'm surprised that it was an 18 volt system. I've never used one before. Sounds fantastic though.

I got it used and it had just been set up and had the electronics fixed (the eq on/off switch crapped out). The thing plays like a dream and sounds tits, even though it's got a maple neck. The gold plating sucks very badly. Otherwise there were no problems with it.

I've had potential buyers borrow it and play it out and they have had no problems with it. They just didnt have the cash to buy it. I've had no problems with the hardware and the leather straplocks I put on it are NICE. Would I need a backup? Of course. You never know when you're going to break a string. I always carry backup basses with me. The only thing I hate about it is that it's a 4 string, which is useless for me.

Cant get replacement active electronics for it. Cant get an actual wiring diagram for it. The thing's 23 years old. I was lucky someone at SLM recognised it and told me what model it was. SLM is a fantastic group of people to work with (I'm an authorized tech for them).

I've been playing bass for years. My rig is an Ampeg SVT 70s model and my cabinets are Hartke 410XL early model. My basses are a Warwick Corvette 6 string, an Ibanez SR406 that I made fretless and a Hamer CH12 12 string bass. Except for the Hamer I dont play 4 string basses. Too limiting. However, if I were playing a 4 stringer and I lost this one, it would be almost impossible to get another since I havent ever SEEN another. But I'd scour ebay to find another one.