Frank Zappa Used the Burned guitar

[Ydna]

Does anyone know if he used the burned he got from Jimi? I think I found it onstage in this video at about 0:13.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c-NMnYh ... re=related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[spaceace76]

if the guitar towards the end of the video (15 minutes in) is the one you mean, he gave it to Dweezil

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRXnPcIK1V8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Spitfire]

Wrong, the guitar Jimi burned was not a sunburst.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PShb9YiCEy0[/youtube]

[Ydna]

I'm not talking about that guitar. Jimi burned two guitars, and the first one he burned he gave to Frank Zappa, and the guitar in the video looks like it. Dweezil Zappa then fixed up the guitar and auctioned it.

[Tone seaker]

He burned more than two. I heard the one he gave to Zappa was burned in Florida. He burned the first one in Germany I believe. It is all in the McDermot book about Hendrix.

[Ydna]

Oh. Yea. I think the one in Europe was when the Fire marshall got very mad at Jimi. Dweezil Zappa said the sunburst was from Florida, and then ofcourse the infamous woodstock guitar.

[Purplexi]

I don't mean to burst any bubbles here but that guitar is widely believed to be a fake. First off, Miami Pop Festival went off without a single match being lit onstage. Second, the guitar in question was way over-burned, indicating a burn of over 12 minutes, way past Jimi's sacrificial burning curve. Also, the instrument had it's trem arm intact and according to roadies, Mitch Mitchell etc. the only other burnt Strat was from a UK show where the trem arm was broken off. Another giveaway was the 1965 date; photos taken mere hours before the UK show indicate a 1963 Strat. When Dweezil put it up for auction no one from any Hendrix camp would bid on it, a Zappa fan offered $300.000 for it and Dweezil refused the bid. The now legendary axe in question is likely an attempt by a fired Hendrix roadie to impress Zappa, who the roadie had just started working for. Probably made a great calling card and it made sense to Frank that this guy would have access to such a guitar. Just FYI, sorry.

[fillmore nyc]

From the Dweezil Zappa website:

This guitar is unique to say the least. Here's the short version of the legend of this guitar. FZ and JH were friends. They played at the Miami Pop Festival. This guitar was likely torched at the Astoria in London and it's remains were given to FZ in Miami by JH's guitar tech.

FZ rebuilt the guitar using only the body. The neck and electronics were destroyed by the fire. He added custom electronics - preamps and parametric eqs - in the mid 70's. He routinely played it on stage and in the studio from that point until the early 80's. It's very likely the Stratocaster heard on the legendary "Watermelon in Easter Hay."

It then disappeared for a spell. I found it in pieces under a staircase at the UMRK studio. I told Frank I found it and asked if he would like me to put it back together for him. He said, "Sure." The electronics were missing and the neck was damaged so I chose to rebuild it as a stock instrument from the original time period of the late 60's. Jay Black a master builder at the Fender custom shop built a fantastic neck with a flipped head stock - a nod to Jimi - and I procured some custom wound Lindy Fralin single coil pick ups for it.

I got it all finished as a birthday gift for Frank. When he opened the case he smiled and and played it for a while. A little later he said, "You know what, you should have this guitar." Of course I smiled in disbelief.

Hendrix_Strat_1.jpg (32.75 KiB) Viewed 2181 times

Hendrix_Strat_2.jpg (64.96 KiB) Viewed 2181 times

[Tone seaker]

the European guitar Jimi burned is a different one than Zappa's. The European one came up for auction a few years ago.