Electra Workingman

My Workingman is the X-280 model, with a Satin Walnut stained finish. It was made in 1980 (although it was listed in catalogs as an '81 model) and is, of course, designed in America but made in Japan.
Body:
The body is 5-piece Mahogony, (very unusual for an Electra, might I add) and is matched well. It is shaped like a Les paul with an extra 1/2 cutout and a thinner, bevelled body. It has 2 Magnaflux-2 Humbuckers with seperate vol/tone for each and a 3-way selector. The switch is much better in placement than a Les Paul, closer to the controls and bridge. All passive electronics. Bridge is a Tune-O-Matic style, made of chromede brass.
Neck:
A usual Matsumoku 5-peice maple, finished to match the body. Very generic rosewood fingerboard and MOP dot inlays. Has 22 frets. Fret wire is medium. Six Electra brand tuners that I hat to tighten because of careless owner.
I didn't receive any accessories. From a trade.
While it's a low-frills guitar, that's what makes it work.

I play rock, whether classic up to metal, and this guitar can do it all, even clean. The pickups are very high quality. Not noisy on any setting. Tone is hard to distinguish on bridge end when using the pot, but neck pickup has great variation.
Very clear sound, and has a distortion you can't really find much in newer guitars. I use a Marshall amp combo with a ah, flanger, and phaser. Hold it's own with effects, or without, just fine.

I'm sure it was setup well, being what it is, but can't make any assumptions.
All routing and all construction is flawless.
I will keep a "no opinion" because the guitar is not new, and it isn't fair to judge it 29 years later.

This guitar is solid, I'd say it could hold up on its own just fine.
It was builtto last, and it hasn't even rusted (or started to rust) at all. The finish was pretty much dulled and dinged from it's age, but polishing fixed up it's lack of luster.
Strap buttons are solid, but one on mine is non-original. the originals are a weird "fluted" shape, and worry me a little. best to get a locking strap or replacement stap holders for constant gigging.
Don't need a backup, but you'd be wise to have one in any case.

Electra was gone totally by 1986, so it's safe to say I've never had to use customer service.
Came with a lifetime warranty, whic his probably not worth much now.

I've played for 5-6 years, and own a Fender Precision Bass, a Moridira Hurricane EXB-03 Bass, an Electra X-140S Phoenix, and a..um...Synsonics Terminator.
I'd be out of luck if it was stolen/lost, as these are hard to come by. I love the tone, above all else. Simple but powerful. Don't "hate" any part of it, but the fluted straplock still worries me when I play. I got it from a trade for a guitar I paid 30.00 for.

Same as others, but when I bought it, someone had installed a Dimarzio super-distortion in the bridge position, OK though I get lots of compliments on it's singing tone!Mousy brown stain, but I got it after I compared it to the SG Special faded, The Electra beats it hands down as far as smooth playability goes

Play mostly classic rock/blues this girl does it all!Using it with a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and a Home built copy of a Sola Sound Tonebender, gets a great 60's British Blues Woman Tone!! Onlyt dislike is the color, a little dull for my taste, but the Tone is the thing!

Guitar was used, But well kept, action is nice and low, no buzzing, Tuners are orig, they do OK but I really ought to upgrade 'em

I play out, alot! This guitar has never let me down, Although I don't do it often, I have played without a backup, This guitar is a workhorse, solidly built and can take a moderate beating, I hit her pretty hard!

They were bought out , I know enough not to try

Been playing 25 years, also play a Rickenbacker 340,77 Tele Custom, 97 Epiphone Dot, Peavey Generation Tele copy. If the Electra were stolen, I would'nt bother looking for another cause they are more scarce than hen's teeth, The thing I love about it is the fact that it is odd, No one in my area has one, I can get just about any sound I want out of her, and She sounds good enough to make other " accomplished" guitar players come up and ask " What is that thing and how do you get it to sound like that". only thing i can relly grouse about is the boring finish

Made in 1982. Has exposed winding humbuckers, volume and tone knobs and front/rear pickup switch. A bolt-on 22 fret neck with plastic nut and Tune-O-Matic bridge.
Mine came with a hard case.

This guitar's sound was great for the Southern Rock style music I wanted to play at the time. The only problem was not very much sustain - probably due to the bolted on neck.

This guitar was setup perfect on the day I bought it. The action is light and easy. It makes playing fast much easier. In fact, to this day this baby outplays some of my high priced Les Pauls.
The fit and finish are very good and it had the broke-in feel fron day one.
I've never had a problem with a broken or loose part. Just recently one of the volume pots has started getting noisy.

This was my only electric guitar for years. It got me through my first two bands and never let me down. It has been banged on, knocked over, gotten wet...and it still looks good. There are some scratches on the back now but the finish is so hard that it's more of a "satin" look than "scratchy" look.

Never had occasion to deal with the manufacturer.

I've been playing for almost 30 years. I have several brands of amps but prefer Gibson and Alvarez guitars. My Working Man was always a faithful companion and I'm very happy I bought it. I remember the first time I played it I thought "Wow...this thing makes me sound like a rock star".
Hey, I was just a kid then. But that's pretty high praise for a guitar. And occasionally I pick it up again - just to feel like a rock star.

Not sure when it was made, but it's definately an awesome guitar. all maple body, neck& fretboard, two humbuckers that say samsung on the baseplate, one volume, two tone, three way p/u selector, and a coil splitter switch that drops one coil out of the humbucker and gives a perfect fender tone. Mine is all natural finished, with all the original hardware and electronics, except for the nut, a one meg volume pot, and i've refretted it once. i bought it for $99.00 at a pawnshop in 1995, and it came with the original case.

I play alot of every style you can think of in different groups, and this guitar suits it all. I use one of three amps when playing out, depending on which PA i use, and the size of the room, I mostley use a 1964 blackface, white knob fender princeton, with a delay, chorus, and overdrive pedal, and sometimes a wah-wah. I alos use a 2000 vox cambridge 15, and a 1997 fender ultimate chorus amp. the guitar sounds great through all three, but I like the princeton best, since the pickups are hot enough to just slightly overdrive the front end on their own.

After the refret, new nut and my general cleaning and set-up of the guitar after i bought it, it's been my favorite and best guitar ever since. i love the natural finish, and always get amazed compliments from people who've never seen and all maple guitar before.

This guitar has been with me for 8 years of constant weekend playing, fallen off the stand at least twenty times, and been used as a sheild for beer bottles once durring a very unpleasant gig. before I got it, it had been well-worn and played enough to need the refret, but it's sill going strong, and shows no adverse signs of wear.

I have a hard time finding info about these guitars, I own three different electra's, a jazz bass, an SLP, and this Workingman model, and i love them all, my dad has had an Electra Jazz bass with two mini humbuckers for as long as I can remember, and he's the one who bought this guitar for me after we started playing together when I was still in high school. I'd been playing a strat, and dad said we should get something more solid for me to play, and we did. I can find a few sites on the web, but so far nothing horribly informative, in fact, I didn't even know what model the workingman was until today.

This is my first real guitar ( I don't care for strats, and I had an old sears peice of mid-sixties crap before the strat) and I will never part with it. I've had guys offer to buy it from me, but always turn them down. I've bought three more electra guitars after buying this one, based soley on the experience I've had with this, I found an all mahogany workingman with a bolt-on neck, but someone had really trashed it with a bunch of stickers, a woodburner and some jackson pickups, so i couldn't do much with it, by way of restoring it, so i sold it to a freind. I own many gibsons, epiphones, ovations, old old harmony's but nthing can ever take the place of my electra's.

i own a 76 mxp explorer style x 910 its unbeliveable it sounds great and i collect alot of guitars thru the 30+ yrs i benn playin this guitar sounds every bit as good if not better than my gibson explorer and i like the phaser effect it has its very disco sounding ...its a great neck/ body well made instrument that i think is very underestimated they do look literally identical to the gibson explorer except for the 2 switches and the rotary selector on the lower bout but i only paid 85 dollars for it with its case and i love it just as much as any of my other 14 +guitars i own and collect ....its finish is premo it looks exactly like my explorer color wise too bein natural mahogany and all ....i'd buy another one if i can find one out there ...set neck models only ...

its great it is literally a exact replica of my 76 gibson explorer from the front i cant tell the difference except for the 2 toggle switches and rotary selector in the lower bout ....

extremely well made it looks like new andd plays just as good as my 76 explorer

it has endured its time its like the pyramids its still around and in very pristine condition considerin its almost 30 yrs old
I WANT TO BUY ANOTHER ONE OF THESE INSTRUMENTS ITS A WORK HORSE TRUST ME JUST AS GOOD AS ANY OLD GIBSON EXPLORER ITS THE TRUTH

I BOUGHT IT USED LONG AGO FOR A SONG ITS VERY DEPENDABLE I NEVER EVER HAD A LICK OF PROBLEMS
NO NEED TO CONTACT THE COMPANY WHICH EPIPHONE MADE THIS GUITAR THA I OWN ITS A GIBSON LITERALLY IT LOOKS AND PLAYS EXACTLY LIKE MY 76 GIBSON EXPLORER THA I CHERISH

IN MY 30 YRS I PLAYED GUITAR I NEVER HAD A GUITAR LIKE THIS WITH AS MUCH FUN I MEAN WHA GTR HAS A PHASER AND A DISTORTION BUILT IN EXCEPT FOR A GIBSON STUDIO AND FOR 85$ I THINK ITS WORTH 10 TIMES THA AMT MAN ITS AS GOOD AS ANY 76 GIBSON EXPLORER I KNO FIRST HAND I OWN ONE OF THOSE GUITARS AND I LOVE THIS ELECTRA GUITAR JUST AS MUCH PLUS I DIDNT PAY THE 800$ MORE LIKE I DID FOR MY GIBSON LMAO ITS EVERY BIT AS GOOD IF NOT BETTER SOUNDIN THAN MY GIBSONS ITS THE PLAYER ANYWAY NOT THE GUITAR LOOK AT EDDIE VANHALEN HE PLAYED A IBANEZ EXPLORER DESTROYER THING ALL BUTCHERED TO SHIT IN THE 70S-EARLY 80S REMEMBER ?

Electra Workingman X290, Made in Japan c.1980, cutaway, Les Paul Special-style body with a Tele-type cutaway on top bout and contouring on bass bout. Very high quality gloss black paint job, including neck and headstock, ebony fingerboard with large frets, great radius, pearl dots. 22 frets clear, solid mohagony body and super-comfortable, meaty neck, all hardware chrome, stop tailpiece and Tune-o-matic-style bridge. Two stock passive double-row humbuckers, volume and tone pot for each, and there is a 3-way switch. Guitar is entirely stock.

This guitar suits me perfectly; I like the classsic double humbucker set-up, and the stock pickups are terrific. The bridge pickup is clear and twangy, and with the tone pot rolled off a bit, it darkens nicely. The neck pickup is very dynamic, fat and rich, barks with the big dogs. Combo setting is plucky and expressive, much nicer than the "Trini Lopez" tone I often hear in this setting. I've been a pro player for 30 years. I play a wide variety of styles, and I've owned a zillion electric guitars, including some some classics. This guitar will adapt to anything I do, and further, it feels great--solid, nice sustain, and comfortable.

This is a used guitar. The pickups were very badly adjusted, the nut slots were full of gunk, two knobs were missing, and there are a few dings. I cleaned it up, set the truss rod (which responed very nicely,) strung it up with heavy-bottoms, bought some cool knobs, blew the crap out of the pots with contact cleaner, adjusted the bridge and pickup heighs and stuck it into my Musicman HD 130 2X12. Sounds and plays great. Manufacturing quality is outstanding, beautiful finish, great intonation, nicely dressed frets, no flaws except for the dings mentioned above. It appears to have been flawless from the factory. The neck/body fit is superb, tight, and shaped very nicely.

I'bve only had the guitar for a few weeks. I can't see what would keep it from being stable and dependable. I cleaned the nut slots and the stock tuners work just fine. I'd use it as my only gig guitar without hesitation. All chrome seems to be thick, and very high quality. No spotting or flaking after 22 years. I added strap-locs out of habit.

Too late for that!

Overall, I'bve been playing guitar for 40 years, and to me, this guitar holds its own against any Gibson solid body or Japanese clone I've played. I' buy another in a New York second. I also plan to buy a few more Electra guitars. This is not a flashy guitar with flamed wood and gold hardware; it's a solid, high- quality, no-nonsense axe that has nothing to be ashamed of. It's aptly named, and I'd recommend it to anyone.

I recently picked up a '81 Electra Workingman model. The body and neck made are mahogony, with a flame maple cap (bookmatched) on the body. The body design is similar to a Les Paul Special, or Studio with a partial cutaway to the upper bout (a bit like a Tele). It's got a dark natural finish, a flat top (not carved like an LP Standard) a body contour on the back (like a Strat, to clear the beer gut) and a wild looking "fan/wave" headstock with "Electra" and a sort of "peace sign" logo. Two very "PAF" sounding humbuckers with a coil tap, 3 way selector and 1 vol and 2 tone pots. Tune-o-Matic style bridge and a cool "quick change" stop bar tailpiece. Chrome hardware. All done well but it's not a flashy looking piece.

The sound is incredible. Very versatile, it can rock with the best of 'em or deliver clean, rich jazz tones. For more of a "Fenderey" sound, split the coils for a bright, single coil tone. I use a Line6 Flextone Duo 100 watts w/ 2-10" and this guitar delivers superb highs, lows and mids. I play mostly blues so I favor the dirtier side of the sound, but it cleans up nice when I need it to.

The guitar was set up incredibly well when I got it. Very low action, straight neck, beautiful fretwork. This guitar has a very similar feel to a Les Paul Junior. The neck isn't as fat, but there is a strong similarity in weight and playability. The neck heel is blended into the body, a nice touch the Gibson's don't have. I'm sure it's a nitrocellulose finish. While this guitar is 20 years old, the finish is aging nicely.

20 years old and everything is original, save for one tuning peg which was replaced with a very similar electra tuner. The guitar feels so solid, if it had a sharp edge on the body, you could probably chop wood with it. They must have called it a "Workingman" because it feels solid like something from the tool shed, maybe an ax or a shovel. I can't say that about my other guitars (2 custom built Teles, an 80's MIJ Strat and an Epiphone Sheraton II). Firemen could break down doors with this thing... really! It has a couple of scratches and few dings through to the wood, but that just adds mojo anyway...

Why?... like these things ever break? ha ha

I've been playing only 30 years (ha ha) and I've never been one to burn money on "snob" guitars. Premium guitars are nice, but I prefer something a bit more offbeat and less expensive, yet I still want quality. The Electra workingman fits the bill perfectly. It's much more of a Gibson feeling/sounding guitar than say a Fender or a Rickebacker, it really rocks and has that good "old" quality feel to it. If it went missing, I'd no doubt scour local shops, Ebay or classified ads for another just like it.

This is a solid body (one piece, all rosewood) guitar I bought used for $125 or so in the early 80s. It has 22 frets, dual humbuckers a 3-way toggle switch, one volume and two tone knobs, and a little internal gain switch (not a full MPC module, I believe, but just a on/off gain switch) below the volume and tone controls. I don't know much more about it. It has some nice relatively "fancy" inlay on the headstock, and the nut is made of a gold metal (bronze?). I don't know what the tuners are, but they used to slip easily. For some reason, it is holding tune well now. A picture of this guitar can be found at:

http://www.mindspring.com/~cantrells/pic009.html

I used this in an early 80s band that played hits of the day and classic rock. It worked OK, and acted essentially as a bass because of its very heavy emphasis on the low end. It worked well on strummed tunes too -- Eagles, etc. This guitar was in the basement since then until a couple of years ago. It is not suitable in its current condition for much hard rythym work, in my opinion, although lead lines sound quite good on it. The bass is kind of overpowering and muddy when you play power chords. It works for some things, but it is not ideal. Interestingly enough, it sounds pretty good played clean on the bridge pickup, lightly strummed -- jazzish.

The wood looks good to me. I think it's very attractive -- more so than in the one or two pictures you can find on the web. The action is fine.

This guitar is very heavy and solid. I've put some dings in it, but the finish appears to be thick where I've gouged it.

I understand that this company was based in St. Louis and no longer exists. I never had occasion to seek customer support.

I've been playing for about 25 years, and been in a garage band or two. I also own an Epiphone Casino, an early 80s Japanese Squier telecaster, a Vox Student Prince, a Taylor 414ce and a Seagull S6+ Cedar. The electra I picked up way back when as an improvement over a Lotus Les Paul copy that is now in pieces and was a POS in the first place. I wouldn't "recommend" this guitar, I guess, but it definitely has its own character and is a better guitar than I remember. It has a lot of sustain, the neck is very straight, the action is good, and the high end on leads sounds great. The bass is muddy, but maybe that's something that could be fixed with some modifications. I'm glad I have it. I wouldn't seek out another one if it got stolen, but I'd buy another one if I ran across it.