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.

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'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.

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 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.

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.

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/

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.

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.

Music Radar writes in this article "The blond Duo-Sonic is a 1959 or 1960 model, which the 21-year-old Hendrix paid $160 for before joining the Isley's as a session man on their tour of 1964."

In this photo we can see Jimi Hendrix playing the guitar, the lights make that the colour look grey.

Jimi Hendrix was photographed playing a 1958 Gibson Les Paul TV Special backstage at Madison Square Garden while with the Rolling Stones. This guitar likely belonged to Keith Richards.

According to this product page from Epiphone, one of Jimi's early guitars was a Wilshire. Epiphone writes "though many of the early Epiphone instruments made in Kalamazoo were under-appreciated at the time of their release, numerous artists through the years recognized the unique appeal of these guitars including Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Winter, Kurt Cobain, and Steve Marriot."

In this photo, Hendrix is seen with Gretsch Corvette. The person on the left is Curtis Knight, which might indicate that this guitar was used for 1967 jam session with him.

Jimi Hendrix used a 1960s Gibson ES-345, equipped with a Bigsby Vibrato, as documented on Groundguitar's "Jimi Hendrix's Guitars and Gear" page.

According to this article from Music Radar "Jimi’s first electric was a 1957 Supro Ozark 1560S, bought for $89 from Myers Music Store in Seattle. The guitar got a run-out in The Rocking Kings, before being pinched from The Birdland Club in 1960. If it ever surfaces at auction, expect a stampede of hedge-fund managers."

In this photo, Hendrix can be seen playing the Gretsch Double Anniversary. This photo is highly likely from 1967, and possibly just used for the "hotel room" occassion.

Music Radar mentions another one of Jimi's famous Strats in this article where this one in particular was auctioned off to the tune of $575,000. Music writes "Hendrix torched the 1965 Fender Stratocaster at the end of his show at the Astoria in Finsbury Park, London, in March 1967."

In his earliest days, Hendrix played a Danelectro Shorthorn. Popularly named "Betty Jean," there have been some discussions whether this was a U-1 or 3012 model. But thanks to the color, it has been confirmed that this was actually a 3012 produced either in 1958 or 1959. This was reportedly his second electric guitar. It featured only one single-coil pickup.

This picture was taken at The Singers Bowl, in NY. It looks like an Inca Silver Stratocaster, but it isn't. Of course it's not an HD pic. This Stratocaster was first seen at May 31, 1968, in Zurich. After that, in Baton Rouge - July 30, 1968; Shrevenport - July 31, 1968; Atlanta - August 17, 1968; Utah - August 30, 1968 (The headstock broke at this concert); Seattle - September 6, 1968; Hollywood Bowl - September 14, 1968 ( Seen for the last time in Jimi's dressing room).

I looked for the closest picture I could get, although the headstock is not the same. I suspect that the guitar had the 50's style heastock, and as it was broken in Utah, Jimi changed the neck for a late 60's one, that clearly has a much bigger headstock.

Guitar Player writes in this article "Courtesy of Legends of Rock Guitar, here's a shot of the white Stratocaster that Jimi Hendrix played at his legendary performance on June 4, 1967 at the Saville Theater in London. Paul McCartney and George Harrison were in attendance. In tribute to them, the Jimi Hendrix Experience played "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart's Club Band," which had only been released three day's earlier. Later in the set, Jimi smashed the white Strat and here are the fragments today." In this video you can see the smashing in action.

Another guitar was given to Jimi’s record company Anim Limited, where it fell into the hands of James ‘Tappy’ Wright, a former roadie of Hendrix. James later sold it at auction for $360,000. Jimi played it at Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967 before switching to a different guitar which he set on fire.

There were claims that this was Hendrix’s favorite guitar. It is obvious though that this is a different Strat, featuring rosewood neck instead of maple which was on the Black Beauty.

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

In this image you can see Jimi Hendrix playing a Höfner Club 50. Secondary Source: VINTAGE HOFNER "Jimi Hendrix Club 50 (1959 See http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/8157/jhgear.html for information on Jimi's arsenal of guitars, including the Hofner." The webside geocities.com is offline now, but the guitar can be seen in this image.

You can see Hendrix, along with Keith Richards, playing the guitar.