The laminated body follows the identical stripe pattern with many other Matsumoku-made guitars of the time, including the Aria Pro, Westone, Washburn and Skylark models. No doubt one of these would be ordered as premium display attractors but the lower priced models were what sold the most. When the Electra Phoenix first appeared in late 1980, there were the standard 2- and 3-pickup models with pickguards, and there was also a deluxe model with a body of dark brown ash with laminated strips of maple and walnut at the center. From here on out, with only a few remaining exceptions, Electra Phoenixes had maple bodies in colors like white and red and black and green, with contrasting dark rosewood fingerboards, a clean look pioneered by the X155.īolt neck double cutaway with laminated ash, maple and walnut strip body, maple neck, chrome hardware, brass nut, brass hardtail bridge and dual humbuckers with toggle switches for coil tap and phase reverse, brass knobs for volume, preamp gain, and tone control. The X155 was a golden white harbringer of the styles that we recognize today as 80’s. In 1982 this was the time when New Wave and Punk were knocking at the door of mainstream awareness, driving out the last vestiges of seventies mellow. And the body, instead of ash, was maple, whose hard resonance brings a bright singing tone. It used a four-knob arrangement (‘LP style’) to control the pickups, and had notched speed knobs instead of the brass knobs of previous models. Instead of a pickguard, it had pickups mounted flush with rings into a painted body. The X155 was the first to carry many new features which would become standard for the entire Electra Phoenix line. Like other special 82 models, the X135 and X145's, it carried a special plate on the headstock with an additional serial number whose significance is not known.Ībove photos courtesy of Darren Costello. With so many Electra Phoenix models already available, it’s hard at first to see why the X155- a white two-pickup guitar- was so special, although the pearl white finish does have a gorgeous butter cream quality to it, which it shared with the X1PW which appeared at the same time.

Bolt neck double cutaway with maple body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, chrome hardware, brass nut and brass hardtail bridge, two humbuckers with four knobs (V-V-T-T) with pull-switches for coil tap and phase reverse.

Electra phoenix guitar serial number