Hendrix Signature Strat talk with Mike Eldred

[basile865]

Hey guys,

I've been trying to get some answers from Mike Eldred over on the Fender forums. I know people here share the same questions I have regarding that so maybe you'll find this interesting.

http://www.fender.com/community/forums/ ... 454#569454" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Brandon]

I have a deep feeling they're not offering a Hendrix tribute because of Janie. It was about 10 years ago that the hendrix family started taking back control of all of Hendrix stuff, same time fender stopped making Hendrix strats, and it seems the Hendrix fam has a total lockdown on EVERYTHING that event hints as hendrix.

I have a strong feeling Janie and co. told Fender to stop making Hendrix strats, but I have no hard proof of that, but it would make sense as to why Mike Eldered said "We have a good relationship with Janie", meaning they don't want to piss off the Hendrix family and have Fender as a business in ruins and they're probably not as on good of terms with the Hendrix fam as, say, marshall who has been authorized to make hendrix equip.

Why? Not sure. Perhaps Fender is not meeting the requirements of Janie, and fender as a business doesn't see a profit in it.

But that guy mike is being less than honest about that, and pretty political, which made my solar plexus go off. I suspect that Fender probably gets asked a lot why they don't offer a hendrix strat anymore because, duh, you're FENDER and I'm betting they're embarrassed about it and trying to put up a front But these are just my gut feelings.

[FourDayAmp]

I've been trying to get some answers from Mike Eldred over on the Fender forums. I know people here share the same questions I have regarding that so maybe you'll find this interesting.

Interesting. It would be nice to at least get some specs on the pick-ups, weight, etc. I think a new reasonably priced Fender Hendrix sig strat similar to the Voodoo Strat, but with more accurate specs to match Hendrix's originals, would quickly become a top seller.

[basile865]

I'll be honest with you guys - the way I see it, Hendrix belongs to his fans, not Fender, or Experience Hendrix. Being in a position to spec out all the details on his guitar is an insanely rare, and lucky position. Whats annoying is he's hiding the information as if other people are going to profit by building copies. "Since Fender can't reach an agreement with Janie, and therefore generate a profit, NOBODY can have this information" Thats basically how I see it. Half of me feels outraged saying who are you to keep that from the fans, but the other more rational half understands that Mike isn't able to get "real" with me. He's in a very delicate situation in commenting on things like that and that has an effect on Fender as a corporation. But it is BS at the end of the day.

In truth, anybody can research the output of late 68 pickups and I'm sure really everything on his strat was stock run of the mill. But who knows maybe that guitar was particularly lightweight or heavier, or the pickups could've been particularly hot or underwound. I think the custom shop 69 pickups are EXCELLENT, I have them in my am. std. strat and love them. I love Fender. Its just when political BS gets in the way of delivering info like that it sucks! Kind of funny really

[Brandon]

I'll be honest with you guys - the way I see it, Hendrix belongs to his fans, not Fender, or Experience Hendrix. Being in a position to spec out all the details on his guitar is an insanely rare, and lucky position. Whats annoying is he's hiding the information as if other people are going to profit by building copies. "Since Fender can't reach an agreement with Janie, and therefore generate a profit, NOBODY can have this information" Thats basically how I see it. Half of me feels outraged saying who are you to keep that from the fans, but the other more rational half understands that Mike isn't able to get "real" with me. He's in a very delicate situation in commenting on things like that and that has an effect on Fender as a corporation. But it is BS at the end of the day.

In truth, anybody can research the output of late 68 pickups and I'm sure really everything on his strat was stock run of the mill. But who knows maybe that guitar was particularly lightweight or heavier, or the pickups could've been particularly hot or underwound. I think the custom shop 69 pickups are EXCELLENT, I have them in my am. std. strat and love them. I love Fender. Its just when political BS gets in the way of delivering info like that it sucks! Kind of funny really

Yeah man, totally agree. I think, perhaps, Janie and co just got jaded from all the years of everyone taking a piece of the hendrix pie except the fam, so now they're on super tight lockdown mode... and you can't blame them.

But as you say, the real losers are the FANS, and hendrix would be a nobody without loving, supportive fans... I love that the family has control over the hendrix royalties, but I think the hendrix family may have a little too tight of a grip on things.

Nobody owns Hendrix as such, not the record company, not the family and certainly not a guitar manufacturer. Hendrix's music was an expression of his being, the instruments, the records are just a means to that end... to express what the universe was sending through him.

Hendrix the man, to me, was about freedom and love. It's extremely difficult for business as such to keep that mind, thus the conflict that's been going for years between record company and artist.

It WOULD be really cool to know what the exact specs on that woodstock strat are. I'm just assuming thought that it's probably a light weight one piece alder body, with low output pups. And YOU KNOW there must have been something special about those white and black strats he had if he owned like 50 or more guitars but exclusively played those.

[Brandon]

I'll be honest with you guys - the way I see it, Hendrix belongs to his fans, not Fender, or Experience Hendrix. Being in a position to spec out all the details on his guitar is an insanely rare, and lucky position. Whats annoying is he's hiding the information as if other people are going to profit by building copies. "Since Fender can't reach an agreement with Janie, and therefore generate a profit, NOBODY can have this information" Thats basically how I see it. Half of me feels outraged saying who are you to keep that from the fans, but the other more rational half understands that Mike isn't able to get "real" with me. He's in a very delicate situation in commenting on things like that and that has an effect on Fender as a corporation. But it is BS at the end of the day.

In truth, anybody can research the output of late 68 pickups and I'm sure really everything on his strat was stock run of the mill. But who knows maybe that guitar was particularly lightweight or heavier, or the pickups could've been particularly hot or underwound. I think the custom shop 69 pickups are EXCELLENT, I have them in my am. std. strat and love them. I love Fender. Its just when political BS gets in the way of delivering info like that it sucks! Kind of funny really

Yeah man, totally agree. I think, perhaps, Janie and co just got jaded from all the years of everyone taking a piece of the hendrix pie except the fam, so now they're on super tight lockdown mode... and you can't blame them.

But as you say, the real losers are the FANS, and hendrix would be an (albeit talented and creative) nobody without loving, supportive fans... I love that the family has control over the hendrix royalties, but I think the hendrix family may have a little too tight of a grip on things.

Nobody owns Hendrix as such, not the record company, not the family and certainly not a guitar manufacturer. Hendrix's music was an expression of his being, the instruments, the records are just a means to that end... to express what the universe was sending through him.

Hendrix the man, to me, was about freedom and love. It's extremely difficult for business as such to keep that mind, thus the conflict that's been going for years between record company and artist.

It WOULD be really cool to know what the exact specs on that woodstock strat are. I'm just assuming thought that it's probably a light weight one piece alder body, with low output pups. And YOU KNOW there must have been something special about those white and black strats he had if he owned like 50 or more guitars but exclusively played those.

[basile865]

It WOULD be really cool to know what the exact specs on that woodstock strat are. I'm just assuming thought that it's probably a light weight one piece alder body, with low output pups. And YOU KNOW there must have been something special about those white and black strats he had if he owned like 50 or more guitars but exclusively played those.[/quote]


I read that as far as the black and white strats go he chose them simply because they photographed better. I know he didn't choose just ANY strat they had to feel right to him with the right balance of weight, resonance, pickup tone etc.

If you havent seen an article on his Black strat I posted a while ago you're in for a treat on this one:
http://www.electrichendrix.gobot.com/photo2.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[spaceace76]

Yeah man, totally agree. I think, perhaps, Janie and co just got jaded from all the years of everyone taking a piece of the hendrix pie except the fam, so now they're on super tight lockdown mode... and you can't blame them.

I can. And so can (should) you! Janie is adopted. She is not family. EH has not been "family" owned for quite a while now. Janie is also very religious, as was Jimi, but forces her own vision of Jimi onto the fans. This whitewashed, watered-down version of the real Jimi is not the person those adoring fans knew in the late 60's. These days, we're getting a family friendly, PG version so Janie can market him to pretty much anyone, at any price. Do you really consider Jimi Hendrix Wine and golf balls "super tight lockdown mode"?

Remember the recent disaster with the gibson made strat copy and pedals with Jimi's name on it? I don't think Janie is on great terms with fender, or maybe Fender knows Janie's game and doesn't want to be a part of it. Who knows. In the end, it doesn't matter to me or most fans what Janie does. She is not connected to Jimi in any way and in my mind never will be as long as the fans are only getting half the hendrix they're asking for.

[basile865]

getting a little heated:

http://www.fender.com/community/forums/ ... hp?t=47451" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'm not trying to bite the guys head off but I do think its fair to give real answers and be open with people.

This is probably the very reason there are so many spinoffs of Fender Guitars. They've gotten so big they cant innovate as quickly or respond to the consumer with a product because of all the major politics.

[Brandon]

getting a little heated:

http://www.fender.com/community/forums/ ... hp?t=47451" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'm not trying to bite the guys head off but I do think its fair to give real answers and be open with people.

He should, but yeah Idk, I think at the end of the day fender is a business and all of their decisions are going to be based from that frame, what meets the "bottom line"... its all about the $$.

That guy mike just seems like a dead end tool, a cog in the fender machine, and it seems some ppl have a sort of blind loyalty to fender.

There is no such thing as a "heart line" in business as such, especially the bigger the business gets the heart seems to disappear completely. If you were able to know the exact specs you wanted and that guitar was made available to you easily, you wouldn't have to travel through the fender marketing maze buying guitar after guitar trying to find what you're looking for... I suspect that a large part of companies like fender's business relies on repeat customers, a sales funnel that involves a sort of reliance of confusion on the customer's part. Could be wrong, but it seems that it does happen.

And we, the buying public, are treated as "not worthy" enough to know simple measurements on a piece of wood and metal. Absurd. It's a disrespect to our humanity and being and is against love itself.

My feelings are that companies like fender are a waste of time when other options rival or go beyond today's "fender" completely.

I think another reason for companies like Nash, Metro or other replica companies becoming successful is that a large portion of ppl simply don't trust the big companies like fender or marshall anymore to give them the guitar or amp they want - $4k custom shop guitars aside - and on some level know they're being given the runaround.

But aside from all that, I think if it were possible to ever get those specs, you'd have to go through someone like John Mayer or someone else privately who has seen the the specs who's not entirely selfish, and who actually has some balls (and heart) to give that info to the public.

The guy who bought the white strat replica should release the information about the strat. If he's got 80 grand just to blow on a guitar, he shouldn't be too sad about it. Hell, if he's got that kind of money, he should open his own guitar business and start producing hendrix strats with all of those specs and make back the money he spent, and quadruple his investment or whatever.

[basile865]

I couldn't agree more with everything you just said man. Especially the part about buying guitar after guitar blindly to just be able to find the one thats right for you. TRUTH!

[Brandon]

I couldn't agree more with everything you just said man. Especially the part about buying guitar after guitar blindly to just be able to find the one thats right for you. TRUTH!

Yeah took me awhile to learn that lesson.

[basile865]

Yeah, I mean I've always known guitars with the exact same specs vary - the thing about the Custom Shop stuff they don't make it easy to access them at all so its a pain. If my project strat turns out alright itll be the route I most likely stick to. Outside of that I'll move on to Tom Anderson or Suhr's maybe.

[Ydna]

Honestly, I think if you know all the specifics that you want, you can build a better strat at warmouth for cheaper then you can buy a Fender. Eventually, I'd like to build a Hendrix tribute strat from there, and it'll be cheaper then a Fender American Standard strat, and it will have the types of wood that I want. Fender just doesn't want to piss of the small population of people that paid tens of thousands of dollars for their guitars. Modern guitars really shouldn't cost that much in the first place.

[basile865]

The route I've taken is to buy a light weight highway one body and I'm having a local luthier build a neck. Warmoth wont do all the specs as I want it on the neck. All I was trying to do is say Fender wake up. And they said we're right, you're wrong.

Oh well