Jimi Hendrix' Gear and Mods at West Coast Organ and Amp

[OnTheFritz]

The 6550 thing.DW

Curious, before deciding on the 6550's, did you entertain the 6ca7's?

[daveweyer]

Tone Seeker,
Could you do one of those private message email things and send me the pics of the governor you copied. I don't know if I can see any West Coast mods on it, but it would sure be fun to try. I might be able to see if it had been changed back to more stock. I'm going to talk about the governor here soon. I didn't call it the governor, I called it "Big Boy" or something like that. Somebody else came up with the governor, sounds pretty British, no?

By 1968 I was modding Jimi's amps. There were less guys doing that than modding his pedals and guitars. Usually I would find my own mods in the amps, sometimes with the tubes changed or changed back to EL34s on return visits to West Coast Amp.
Lots of nice 45/100 mods.

Any more Governor stories to tell?

[daveweyer]

Onthefritz,
We did try the 6CA7. They were good, and made much more like a 6550, with the shorter plate structure and bigger bulb. In the end, the glass didn't seem to be as good. They still make a good changeover with the EL34, trouble is you can't find NOS American models very easily. The Russian offerings didn't come close.

[Xplorer]

Tone seaker, i was disapointed myself when i tried to post some pictures, but it's now forbidden, to avoid some virus attacks like last time.
but you can post your pictures on a site like photobucket ( and i guess flickr too .. ) , and post the link here.

this would be exciting and a lot interesting to mods some fuzz and amps the way Dave explains us, to hear it alive. will do some work on it when i get some time.

[swankmotee]

So Dave, from what I hear you describing, his amps were always getting regular upkeep from both coasts and there were many different things being changed back and forth due to all the wear and tear he was notorious for putting them through.its kind of comical in a surreal way that all the things that were being tried are all common place these days and very familiar to myself and other users of these old Marshalls and once again renforces to me that it was always Jimi's hands that did the most tone shaping and not so much the gear. And yes I know all to well about the holy grail amps,cabs,fuzz faces,and guitars since I can hear the subtle differences in mine too but Jimi could make anything he plugged into sound like him and that was the true magic.

[daveweyer]

Swankmotee,
You're right. You have to be Jimi.
But there are things one can deduce from various performances. I pretty well know for instance what was used at Woodstock, because the equipment had just come from West Coast.
That goes for other venues which directly followed my interventions in the equipment.
Other than that, it's anyone's guess why something sounded the way it did, except for things Jimi kept close and didn't change.
I do know there are some special amp mods which no one else did, and wouldn't even touch.
We can talk about those as we go.

[swankmotee]

Can't wait to hear about those!

[Roe]

Daveweyer,

do you remember seeing any JTMs or superbasses among Jimi's amps - or were they all superleads?

[stalkertwo]

Somebody saw Hendrix settings AMP,FUZZ,WAH,UNIVIBE and set up? REALLY.

[shakti]

What about the bias grid resistors - were those changed to accomodate 6550s?
Did you change any resistors in the bias supply? Typically a 6550 would require much more negative bias voltage than an EL34, wouldn't it?

[stalkertwo]

Hey somebody knows HENDRIX SETTINGS

I HAVE DREAM MARTIN LUTHER KING:

[Tone seaker]

I will try and send the pics or link them. I have seen articles on both the white and black strats and they were stock. I recently read a article of a interview with Roger Mayer and he said that the pickups in his strats were stock and using some math equations explained why there were no need to modify. What kind of mods are you talking about on guitars

[VelvetGeorge]

Outstanding thread! Thanks for weighing here with this info. We are eating it up.

Regarding the amp serial numbers, the original source I'm aware of id the book Jimi Hendrix, Electric Gypsie.

Page 684 lists 6 Superleads, 2 Super Tremolos and 9 cabinets with serial numbers. Also a Fender Dual Showman and a Champ. Says they were made in March 1969 and shipped to West Coast Organ.

george

[stalkertwo]

Give me, give me to me. I look forward to.

[VelvetGeorge]

Looking at the serials, 1 Superlead and both Super Tremolos have the "A" postfix on the number. Which by all accounts makes them metal panel and starting in July '69. They also use the model prefix from that era, with the slash mark. i.e. SL/A vs SLA.

SL/A 5273A

ST/A 4329A

ST/A 4360A

Who wants to search for late Hendrix photos showing metal panel and Super Tremolo amps?

george