Jimi Hendrix

Music Radar mentions Jimi's most famous Strat in this article "Fender's Artist Relations manager said there was one other instrument he'd like me to look at. This turned out to be Hendrix's most famous guitar – the white 1968 Fender Stratocaster that Jimi had played at Woodstock in 1969."

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where the original was exposed:

*Though known for playing Fender Stratocasters, Jimi Hendrix played this Gibson Flying V extensively from 1967 to 1969. He probably used it on his 1967 BBC Radio 1 sessions and 1968’s Electric Ladyland, notably for his solo on “All Along the Watchtower.” Hendrix modified the nut and strap button and painted the instrument himself using nail polish. When Hendrix gave the guitar to Mick Cox of the Irish band Eire Apparent in 1969, Cox refinished it in black and removed the original design. In the 1990s, session musician Dave Brewis acquired the instrument and restored Hendrix’s original paint job.

Technical Description: Mahogany body and neck, rosewood fingerboard; 24¾ in. scale; black finish painted with psychedelic design, set neck with pearloid dot inlays; rounded arrow-shaped headstock with gold Gibson logo stamped on truss rod cover; two humbucking pickups, three-way selector switch, two volume controls and one tone control; nickel tune-o-matic bridge, Vibrola vibrato tailpiece, pickup covers, and Kluson tuners, black plastic knobs, large three-ply white & black plastic pickguard; original sunburst refinished in black, restored psychedelic paint job, nut and strap button modified for left-handed playing*

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/754368

This guitar is also reffered to as the "Love Drops" Flying V because of the writing on the bottom right of the guitar.

"Custom built by Gibson specially for Jimi in 1969. All hardware is gold plated, and the guitar was left-handed and equipped with a tremolo bridge. Jimi played it during the Isle of Wright concert on “Red House”."

Jimi's first ever Fender Stratocaster was a white 1964 model with rosewood fingerboard. He obtained it in New York, from Manny's Music, with funds from his girlfriend Carol Shiroky. It cost $289. He actually bought it from Jeff Baxter, later of Steely Dan, who was working at Manny's as an assistant, and he remembers the incident clearly. Citation for this information can be found in several pages (including 61 and 62) of the book Jimi Hendrix Gear.

In the book Jimi Hendrix Gear by Harry Shapiro, Michael Heatley, Roger Mayer, they mentioned that Jimi owned a one-pickup 1956 model of the Silvertone Danelectro. It was one of the guitars that he had the longest, it stayed with him several years. He called the guitar "Betty Jean" after his girlfriend, and left the guitar with her mother when he went off to the Army in 1960.

According to a Christies auction, Jimi Hendrix used a 1966 Marshall Super Lead 100 Watt amplifier head in several concerts from 1967 to 1969.

According to the auction, here are some of the details of the amp head: "...Serial No. 7026, with black covering, front with white plastic Marshall logo, plexiglas control panel with six rotary controls, four inputs, two switches and indicator light, with white stencil lettering J.H.EXP. on the top in two places..."

"...this was likely to be one of the first Marshall amps that Hendrix ever owned and could have been one of three Marshall amps purchased by the Jimi Hendrix Experience on 11 October, 1966."

Marshall have used this amp as a template for their production of a limited edition handwired Jimi Hendrix Signature Super 100JH head.

Although there isn't much to be found about this guitar, it did clearly belong to Jimi Hendrix. It can be seen in his famous '12-string blues' intro to 'a film about Jimi Hendrix', made 3 years after his dead.

The guitar currently resides in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland, Ohio. Video, see 1:38 https://rockhall.com/inductees/the-jimi-hendrix-experience/video/9199/

Also note the special design of the pickguard and the way bridge is used for the octave strings and the tailpiece for the regular strings, which can also be seen in the video, and on this photo. http://www.zemaitisclub.com/hendrix-zemaitis-japan-magazine.htm People who are familiar with Tony Zemaitis will also recognize his signature 'Fleur-de-Lise' on the headstock.

As Tony Zemaitis was 'but' a man in his shop who build all his guitar by hand and not a man with a factory, not that many are around, so it is very unlikely there is one like it. Which also explains why it doesn't have a name or a type.

The song he plays, Hear My Train a Comin, can also be found on the album 'Blues'

More 'subjective' information can be found on this add for a replica, although it seems quite legit. http://www.maverick-music.com/dave-of-england-2/dave-of-england-zemaitis-replica-jimi-hendrix-1960-12-string-photos-of-tony-z

According to this Epiphone article, in the late 1960s Jimi Hendrix acquired this Epiphone FT79 acoustic guitar. The guitar has serial #62262, and was built in NY in 1951 (original source here).

The Bonhams auction site has this interesting note about the guitar: "Jimi Hendrix owned this guitar for a three-year period (longer than any other documented Hendrix guitar)..."

Jimi acquired new Fender Dual Showman amps in 1968. He would typically use three of these 100 watt amps with cabinets containing two 15-inch J.B.Lansing speakers. These amps were used in the studio, and on the 1968 Experience tour, together with Marshalls and Sunn. Source Jimi Hendrix: Electric Gypsy by Harry Shapiro.

Vintage Guitar magazine created a "25 Most Valuable Effects" list and coming in at number 3 is the Univox Uni-Vibe pedal. "Vintage" writes in this article "If Hendrix touched it, you can bet it’s enshrined as effects legend. Created to replicate the sound of japanese radios picking up radio Moscow, the ’Vibe – manufactured for Univox by the Shin-Ei corporation of Japan – was really a four-stage phaser with four pairs of light bulbs and cells for a liquid, juicy tone that hooks plenty of players from the first moment they hear it, and which caught fire big-time in the late ’60s. To hear the original, check out Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile,” “The Wind Cries Mary,” or his performance of the “Star Spangled Banner” at Woodstock.."

Jimi's main guitar for his gigs in Little Richard's backing band. Also used on at least one other occasion for his solo/Experience career. The accompanying picture was taken at the Symphony Hall in Newark, New Jersey on the 5th of April 1968.

In this photo Hendrix can be seen playing through a Sunn 100s amplifier driving four Sunn 100s 2x15" cabinets. In 1968 Hendrix had agreed to a 5 year endorsement contract with Sunn amplifiers.

Hendrix can be seen here playing his Fender Princeton Reverb (68’ Silverface) which was listed on Reverb.

From a Gibson article "Hendrix's Gibson Guitars" written by Daniel Eriksson in June 2014:

"Jimi Hendrix did own a 1955 Les Paul Custom that he would flip over and play lefty. From what I’ve been able to gather it appears as if Hendrix himself only used the Les Paul Custom briefly during a few months in 1968. It seems as if Jimi was trying out the guitar as a replacement for the Flying V. But after having gone back to the Flying V for a while, Hendrix moved on to the SG Custom. During his famous Woodstock performance you can see the LP Custom being played by Jimi’s old pal Larry Lee. The guitar is equipped with a Bigsby and 2 P-90 pickups, and it’s currently owned by the EMP Museum in Seattle."

The source photo shows the guitar as it is in the EMP Museum in Seattle.

In this stage photo of Jimi Hendrix during his days as a sideman you can clearly see a non-descript 1x15 cabinet with no logo or visible controls to his left, partially off camera. It is certainly the Supro Thunderbolt bass amplifier he reputedly used during his time with Little Richard and the Isely Brothers. The thunderbolt has a very distinct look from the front, like a speaker cabinet without a head on top (the amp is loaded on the bottom of the cab with all 2 controls accessible from the rear, not a great design, but since it only sounds really good for guitar with volume and tone at 10 it probably didn't matter to JH). In the January 2003 issue of Vintage Guitar, Christopher Tackett closed his article on the vintage Thunderbolt with the following statement, "Jimi Hendrix owned a S6420 Thunderbolt, and Jimmy Page used Supro amps for recording much of the early Led Zeppelin material. Whether or not he used a Thunderbolt is unclear, but his playing on “Heartbreaker” sure sounds like one."

In Michael Heatley's book "Jimi Hendrix Gear", he discusses Hendrix's Martin D-45, which is said to be used on the recording of The Cry of Love album, on page 106.

In the 1968 live performance in Denmark, as shown in Maxwell Hepcat's YouTube video, Jimi Hendrix can be seen using Fender 346 Medium Celluloid Guitar Picks. It's noted that Hendrix and The Experience often carried thousands of medium-gauge picks on tour.

Used for the Olympic Studios sessions of Axis: Bold as Love and Electric Lady Land. It was auctioned via Bonhams on November 21, 2004, only to be reauctioned via Julien's on April 27, 2007

Bonhams

A Jimi Hendrix Daytona red Fender Mustang guitar,

1966, serial number 126288, with guitar case, with an affidavit from John Mitch Mitchell, who was formerly the drummer with Jimi Hendrix Experience that states the guitar was used by Jimi Hendrix at the Olympic Studio, London for the recording of "Alxis Bold as Love" and "Electric Lady Land" and was used by him on these two album.

The guitar is part of the L series, which were among the last Fenders made before the company was taken over by CBS and these style of guitars are regarded as some of the best guitars made by the company.

Julien's

1966 Red Fender Mustang, serial number 126288, solid maple neck and body, 22 fret rosewood fret board, double cutaway body, the nut has been flipped to accommodate the fact that the guitar has been

Pictures of the guitar can be found here, here, here and here.

Music Radar confirms Jimi's use of this pedal by saying "For anyone too stoned to remember, we can confirm that the original Vox V846 was the wah used by Jimi Hendrix for Voodoo Chile at Woodstock in 1969."

There are couple of photos dating circa 1964 of Jimi playing what’s either a dark blue, or a black-colored Fender Jaguar with dot inlays.

Tappy Wright who was Hendrix’s roadie at the time owned another Fender Jaguar which supposedly belonged to Jimi, and was given to him by Brian Jones of the Rollings Stones. This is almost certainly not the same guitar, as this one has square inlays according to the photos from the auction.

Source: www.groundguitar.com/jimi-hendrix-gear/

Jimi famously used Marshall JTM 45/100 heads. The 100 watt version of the JTM45. Specially the 1966 JTM 45/100.

White 3-Pickup Gibson SG was played by Hendrix in Stockholm 1969. You get a perfect look at it at 0:24 (To avoid errors, click on the link to watch the video).

Also here you can see him play it on the Dick Cavett Show 1969.

He used a mix of gauges to create his own “custom set”. Rj Ronquillo has a good youtube video on the specific gauges. On rotosounds website he is listed as an artist, it seems he used rotosounds earlier in his career.

Used to mic Hendrix's guitar amp and for the vocals on Electric Ladyland, as stated by recording engineer Eddie Kramer in this November 2005 Sound on Sound interview.

When asked about the techniques used to record Hendrix's guitar, Eddie Kramer's response is concise and to the point. "I'd stick a bloody mic in front of it and hope for the best," he jokes. "Nah, generally speaking it was either a 67 or [a Beyer] M160 or a combination of both, which I still use today. It might be slightly different, of course, but the basic principle's the same — a ribbon and a condenser, along with compression and EQ and reverb. All that stuff was always added during recording." (...) Hendrix recorded all of his vocals for the album at the Record Plant, and as usual a Beyer M160 was the mic of choice while a three-sided screen provided him with the desired privacy. "He'd always face the other way," says Kramer. "He hated to be looked at. He was very shy about his vocals. The truth was, he had a great style and I loved his vocals, but he hated them. He was so embarrassed by them. 'Oh man, was that OK?' 'Yeah man, it's cool.' 'No, I've got to do another one.' 'OK.' Jimi was not a great vocalist in the classic sense, but his vocal style suited what he did to the nth degree. I mean, it was very emotional and very personal, and I can't think of anybody else doing what he did. He was eminently capable, and the singing was an integral part of what he was doing, because he would often take a guitar solo and sing the melody line in unison with that solo — which is an old jazz trick — and it was wonderful."

Used to mic Hendrix's guitar amp, as stated by recording engineer Eddie Kramer in this November 2005 Sound on Sound interview. Note that the first sentence of the following excerpt pertains to Electric Ladyland.

While Hendrix's amp was screened off in the studio and miked with Neumann U67s, Mitch Mitchell's kit was positioned on a riser within a roofed, open-sided booth to give it depth and miked with a combination of U67s and AKG C12s. (...) When asked about the techniques used to record Hendrix's guitar, Eddie Kramer's response is concise and to the point. "I'd stick a bloody mic in front of it and hope for the best," he jokes. "Nah, generally speaking it was either a 67 or [a Beyer] M160 or a combination of both, which I still use today. It might be slightly different, of course, but the basic principle's the same — a ribbon and a condenser, along with compression and EQ and reverb. All that stuff was always added during recording."

On page 48 of the book Jimi Hendrix Gear they mention Curtis Knight bought Jimi a sunburst Fender Duo-Sonic as a gift. Knight got the guitar in exchange for refunding an airline ticket for a friend. Jimi played this guitar with Curtis Knight and the Squires.

Jimi Hendrix used this guitar at the Miami Pop Festival in 1968. It was burned on stage. Later, the guitar was given to Frank Zappa, who repaired the guitar. The guitar was used on stage multiple times. Dweezil Zappa, son of Frank, now owns it.

Hendrix can be seen in this image with a Fender Precision Bass.

"In 1967 Jimi started using a Sound City stack for concert performances, it comprised one 100 watt amplifier with two 4x12" speaker cabinets."

-from "Electric Gypsy" by Shapiro and Glebeek, 1992, p. 639

Electro-Harmonix founder and CEO Mike Matthews reported seeing Hendrix's Big Muff with his own eyes in 1969. There are multiple interviews in which he states this, but the most complete account was sent to Kit Rae for his Big Muff Pi Page's "Jimi Hendrix Big Muff" section.

Since the issue of Hendrix using a Big Muff had stirred up so much controversy over the years, Electro-Harmonix founder Mike Matthews put down in writing everything he could recall about it and sent it to me as I was writing this article. Here is his full story about Jimi and the Big Muff (Mike originally recollected this around 2007 for a Japanese magazine article).

"Back in 1969...we plunged into production (on the version 1 Big Muff) and I brought the very first units up to Henry, the boss at Manny’s Music Store on 48th Street, NYC. About a week later, I stopped by at Manny’s to buy some cables, and Henry yelled out to me "Hey Mike, I sold one of those new Big Muff’s to Jimi Hendrix."

Now let me tell you a little history of me and Jimi. Back in the mid 60s I was a concert promoter. I had the Isley Brothers, Coasters, Drifters, Cadillacs, Lovin’ Spoonful, Young Rascals, Byrds, Turtles, Shirelles....and many more acts. I booked Chuck Berry for two nights, and was looking forward to this gig ...especially because Chuck traveled alone and the promoter had to get the back up band. I decided to play keyboards, and got some buddies of mine who mostly did Chuck Berry covers to back up Chuck. A week before the gig, that agent who sold me Chuck called me and said "Hey Mike, I need you to do me a favor and book another band.... I can give you one that will play three nights for $600." I said "Bob I don’t need another band. The crowd is coming to see Chuck Berry and I’d just be spending another $600 for nothing." Bob said "Please, I need this favor. You can have them for three nights for only $500, and they have a guy that can play guitar with his teeth." I figured, ok, and booked them, and in the future Bob owed me the next favor. The name of this band was Curtis Knight & the Squires.

When Chuck played, and me and my guys backed him up, I was a little burnt out after the first set and went to check to see how much money came in so far at the gate. Curtis Knight’s band was now playing and I didn't pay much attention until my guitarist that backed up Chuck, Steve Knapp, came running up to me and said "Hey Mike, you gotta catch this guitar player. He’s a gas." Well, that guitar player was Jimmy James. His style at the time was strictly loose R&B. We became best friends and I snuck out of my day gig several times a week, as a computer salesman for IBM, to go to his hotel room where we rapped music talk. Jimmy was quiet dude, and lived in a rundown narrow hotel room with no private toilet. He usually had his hair set with pink hair curlers.

One night I went to see him play with Curtis at a club in the upper west side called the Lighthouse. Now, Curtis Knight was a real gangster. Mainly a pimp, running a big operation. At that gig Jimmy hung with me at the breaks and told me "Mike I gotta get away from this dude. I wanna form my own band and headline it." I said "Jimmy, if you’re going to be the front man, then you have to sing." Jimmy said "Yeah, that’s the problem. I can’t sing." I said "If you really wanna sing, all you gotta do is practice and you’ll be cool. Look at Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan. they can’t sing but they can phrase their asses off and project dynamite soul." Jimmy said "Yeah, you got a good point. I’ll work on it."

Soon Jimmy formed his own band, The Blue Flame (June 1966). I went to catch them at the café Au Go Go in Greenwich Village. Sitting with me was my friend Bobby Colomby, who later on was a co-founder and drummer with Blood Sweat & Tears. He invited Eric Clapton to sit with us. Jimmy and The Blue Flames were dynamite ...still playing a loose blues style. At the break we all went across the street for some grub. The only thing Clapton kept saying again and again and again was "I just can’t believe how good this guy is. I just can’t believe it."(Editors note - A few months later Clapton would meet Jimmy (then Jimi Hendrix) for the first time on October 1st 1966, when Jimi played Killing Floor with him on stage at Central London Polytechnic, the first public performance by Cream)

Shortly after, I heard Jimmy ran off to England with the manager of the Animals (Chaz Chandler), who dug him. The rest is history, and it was in England that Jimmy became Jimi Hendrix and quickly developed his super unique electric space style. I was fortunate enough to see The Experience when they first came to New York City. Jimi called me up and said "Hey Mike come on down, I’m playing at xxxx (I forgot the name of this small club). Dynamite! (Editors note - This would have been the Scene Club on June 3rd and 4th,1967, the New York debut of The Experience.)

Whenever Jimi went into a recording studio in New York City, he invited me to hang out. I did this at three different studios, with the last one being Electric Ladyland, the one he funded and owned. Long story...Well here’s the rub. When Jimi invited me to hang at studio # 2, ( I forgot the name ) I went down to show him a new device I was working on. It was a 4 inch ceramic cased speaker that I screwed into the body of a guitar. It had small power amp. So, some portion of the guitar signal was bled into this little power amp and into the screwed in speaker which made the guitar vibrate and easy to get instant hot sustain. I took it to ask Jimi what he thought of it. When I walked into the studio, there on the floor, plugged into his guitar and amp, was the Big Muff. I told Jimi I made these and he said he just bought it at Manny’s and I said yeah, Henry told me. I then showed Jimi the guitar with the screwed in speaker with feedback circuit. He tried it and said "Hey Mike, I think you’ve got something here." (Editors note - Mike has said at other times that he showed Jimi an early version of the distortion-free sustainer, but I think those are two different occasions)

Now WHY did I tell you this whole story? Well, some time in the late 70s, a guitar magazine writer that interviewed me asked me "When did Electro-Harmonix come out with the Big Muff?" Not thinking too much about this I blurted out around 1971. Well, it was really 1969. Over the years, Hendrix purists took this 1971 date and said, Jimi couldn’t have used the Big Muff because he was gone by this time. Well, I wanted you to know the real facts."

You will note that Mike said this was in 1969, so I did some digging. Electric Lady Studios was not used until June 15th 1970, but Mike said it was not that location, but the second studio Jimi recorded in for the 1969 sessions. The three Manhattan recording studios Jimi was recording in were the Record Plant, Olmstead Sound Studios, and The Hit Factory. Jimi recorded in the Record Plant and Olmstead March-May, spread across thirteen days. In late August there were three days of sessions at the Hit Factory, then there were three days of sessions in November and three days in December at the Record Plant. I have been told by one Big Muff owner that he bought his perf board Big Muff in "late 1969" when he first saw it for sale in NYC. Mike says he saw his Big Muff when he visited with Jimi in the second studio, either the Record Plant or the Hit Factory. Both were in the same neighborhood. This would have occurred between August and December 1969, which is roughly when I have determined the first Big Muff was on the market.

Though I have found little printed documentation of this other than owners receipts, I have received lots of verification over the years from Big Muff owners and sellers that the V1 Big Muff was available in early 1970, and a few people have told me they purchased their early perf board versions in NYC in late 1969. In 1967 and 1968, Rick Derringer and the McCoys were the house band at a New York City club called the Scene. The Scene was well known to be frequented by many guitar legends who recorded and performed in NYC, including Jimi Hendrix. He was friends with Rick and jammed with him there often. As I noted above, Mike Matthews said the first time he saw the Jimi Hendrix Experience perform was at this same club. Interestingly, musician Johnny Winter broke up his old band in early May 1970 and began playing with a new new lineup, The McCoys (who recorded Hang on Sloopy). An original Big Muff owner contacted me to verify he had acquired his V1 Big Muff from one of the members of The McCoys at the Orlando Pop Festival in May 1970. The McCoys were Randy Zehringer on drums, Randy Hobbs on bass, and Rick Derringer on guitar. The same Rick Derringer who jammed with Jimi regularly at the scene. That is just one of several accounts I have heard that indicates the Big Muff was being used by musicians in this period.

If Jimi bought a Big Muff as Henry from Manny's recollected, and had one in the studio in 1969 as Mike recollected, this easily fits into a window of almost 18 months before Jimi's death. But memories may get a bit dodgy or foggy about events that occurred over 30-40 years in the past, and it may be easier to recall a significant event more so that the exact date the event occurred. Heck, I can't remember exact year I bought certain pedals within the last ten years or so. So, for the sake of argument lets say it was only available in May 1970 (the earliest receipt date I have seen) that is still around four months, giving Jimi plenty of time to have bought and used one in the studio.

The legend that Jimi's well known tone came from the Big Muff would not be an accurate statement however. An Electro-Harmonix brochure from 1977, shown below, makes the claim that the Big Muff was the pedal Jimi Hendrix relied on for his “electric-lady” sound. This was likely more of a reference to the Electric Lady Studios, not the record, but E-H was no doubt trying to capitalize on the Hendrix fame with this association, as had been done previously with the E-H pedals named "Axis" and "Foxey Lady". Although it is probably not the best pedal to use for most Hendrix tones, the Big Muff was certainly inspired by the Hendrix fuzz tone, as Mike Matthews has stated several times, and it does get you into similar fuzz tones at the right settings with a Stratocaster and certain amps. Whether or not any recordings exist of Jimi using it, we will probably never know. None of my research has turned up any actual syudio photos of documentation. If Jimi did use one, it would be on one of the songs recorded in those last few months in 1969 through 1970. Songs Jimi recorded in those sessions were Midnight, Trash Man, Ships Passing in the Night, Ezy Ryder, Hear My Train a Comin, Keep on Groovin, Freedom, With the Power of God, Earth Blues, Bleeding Heart, Message from Nine to the Universe (Earth Blues and Message to Love joined), Message to Love, Lover Man, Message To The Universe, Izabella, Burning Desire, Easy Blues, Beginnings, Machine Gun, Sky Blues Today, Mastermind, Room Full Of Mirrors, Stepping Stone, Dolly Dagger, Them Changes, and Power of Soul.

Unfortunately there are no studio records or photos that have ever surfaced to verify its use, so the Hendrix Big Muff mystery will have to remain a mystery. It would have been interesting to hear what sounds Jimi would have recorded with this pedal, or the later versions, had he lived.