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

[daveweyer]

Well, let's see:
Crosby Stills Nash, Janice Joplin, Vanilla Fudge, Three dog Night, Steppenwolf, The Doors, Ike and Tina Turner, Jim Messina, John Lennon, Joe Walsh, The Who, Iron Butterfly, The flying Burrito Brothers, Emmet Chapman, Love, John Mayall, BB King, The Stones, Led Zepplin, The Turtles, Credence Clearwater, George Harrison, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Jefferson Airplane, well, you get the point.......

[daveweyer]

Xplorer,
About Jimi Hendrix and the letter your friend sent regarding his experiences with West Coast Organ and Amp, Jimi Hendrix, and Music City; it brings up a very good point which all followers of Hendrix should consider, namely that Jimi never considered himself a "god", or saw himself above others.
Maybe, if he had lived, he would have grown into his own status, but it doesn't seem so from my experiences with him.
When I read or hear about how "unbelievable" my stories about Jim and his gear come across to his present day followers, I immediately understand that those special followers perceive him as bigger and greater that he actually was, or thought of himself.
Jimi was totally accessible, and whenever he was in Hollywood, he just hung out, cruising from house to house up in Laurel Canyon or the other hangouts, getting stoned, and jamming. It didn't put Jimi out at all to talk to a high school kid, or play with anyone, whether he knew them or not, sometimes even guys he would see playing in the park in a circle, which happened all the time and most everywhere then.
So it is totally no big deal that I did Jimi's gear, or would encounter him in Hollywood, or would have recordings of him jamming through some contraption--he LOVED contraptions, and always wanted to try the latest invention.
It is totally no big deal that Jimi would show up at West Coast Organ and Amp, or take any of us out to a van parked in back and get really stoned.
I don't have to take credit for any part of Jimi's life or legacy, he made himself available to everyone he encountered, and literally encouraged them to influence him in some way or another; he listened and absorbed.
My stories are just some of many, and not any kind of big deal-- unless you see Jimi as some sort of god.
Someday I'll share some more recordings, also no big deal, just jamming like he did every day and every place he went, only this time with a mute guy who played steel bowls. Jimi loved the off the wall musical experiences.
I hope letters like you got, Xplorer, can help this incredulousness over the idea that I could have anything to do with Jimi Hendrix, or touch or change his gear. It was just no big unbelievable event to hang with Jimi. He thought of himself as just a regular guy and allowed regular guys like me full access to him. If you worked in the pro music field, lived in Laurel Canyon, hung out at Rodney Bingenheimer's club, went to the Whiskey or Troubadour Club, or even hung out at Griffith Park or Thee Experience, you were going to rub elbows with big stars and get a chance to know them, at least if they weren't too drunk or stoned to talk to you, or even stand up!
Oh, and speaking of girls wearing just skimpy tee shirts, it surely didn't hurt my standing in the female community that I had some limited contact with Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young, or the other big rock stars of the day. My house in Laurel Canyon was crawling with those same beautiful young girls, all looking to touch fame or greatness. The roadies always did well on those accounts too I might add.
Someday I'll share some pics of those girls around our swimming pool, even though it's probably off topic........

[Xplorer]

Ha ha , no no please do ! if you feel like it it's part of the west coast organ context and it's very cool.

it's truely a cool and interesting life , for sure. I'm not surprised at all, the few persons i know who got to meet and hang out with Jimi and the others told me exactly the same. They were accessible, it was a very different world compared to today and they didn't have this "god" status, although .... i suppose that the Rolling stones and the beatles couldn't easily walk in the Streets ...

when you imagine now some "vip" like Kardashian and others like that, star system for nothing, egomania culture ....
that's so different and lame.

anyway, i don't find it unbelievable , just fantastic. the most simple , open and humble persons are very very often the most interesting and the best.

today, the excitment for living "something new" ( and free ) like back then i suppose, isn't super obvious, or maybe in the field of the technologies, space, sciences ... the futur is here ( not always for the best ) .
there come the reasons for nostalgias sometimes, but looking at the past isn't just this, it's also a lot interesting , and part of where we are now.
Thanks for sharing these storys again Merry Christmas peoples !

[frenchie]

today, the excitment for living "something new" ( and free ) like back then i suppose, isn't super obvious, or maybe in the field of the technologies, space, sciences ... the futur is here ( not always for the best ) .

you're right to add a maybe adrien .... if only you knew the field of high tech ... if ( by having good ideas ) being the nail sticking out of the wood that calls for the hammer is what you call excitement of novelty , then yes there is excitement , but it wears out the day you're either being shamelessly robbed or outright fired with the diligent help of a crew really not into letting you shine so bright , even if it's not your primary goal .... if you think the music industry is nowadays being totally controlled fascist style , fabricated and polished out of turd like characters .... up it a billion notches and there you have high tech .... And this hierarchy is there because if " it's not the candid and artisanal sixties anymore " it's primarily because of the high tech field ....

[Tone seaker]

How many years did you work there Dave to work on 5000 amps? That seems like a lot per day 7 days a week, and you worked with

Crosby Stills Nash, Janice Joplin, Vanilla Fudge, Three dog Night, Steppenwolf, The Doors, Ike and Tina Turner, Jim Messina, John Lennon, Joe Walsh, The Who, Iron Butterfly, The flying Burrito Brothers, Emmet Chapman, Love, John Mayall, BB King, The Stones, Led Zepplin, The Turtles, Credence Clearwater, George Harrison, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Jefferson Airplane, and more.

This is just seeming way to hard to believe Just calling like it appears. seems like a impossible story to even happen. Can you prove any of this. I have not seen it yet. Not trying to start a flame war here just really wont tangle proof for all real Hendrix freaks that this is not a load of bull. This Hendrix board has been taken over and changed with no proof. Before people ask and provided proof not tall tales IMHO

[Xplorer]

This is just seeming way to hard to believe Just calling like it appears. seems like a impossible story to even happen

Why is it suddenly something possible, when roger mayer claims quite the same thing ?

Not trying to start a flame war here just really wont tangle proof for all real Hendrix freaks that this is not a load of bull. This Hendrix board has been taken over and changed with no proof. Before people ask and provided proof not tall tales IMHO

yes you do. please, no more proof asking at each step, over and over, it's boring.
why not a "Hey Roger Mayer, proofs please. Hey Jim Marshall, proofs please" ..
But if highly needed, we'll ask a CSI team to work on this, with what's left of the 60', and everything which can't be verified with pictures of Hendrix holding an amp in his hands, showing the gut shots, or his fuzz Inside ... will be declared a hoax and it'll be canceled. even at this point, we can declare that it's been photoshoped or whatever, and Hendrix could also lie ...
ha ha ha , there won't be much things left ...
aaaah .... Paranoïa ....

frenchie, i see but there are still quite a few exciting news, like the new Sabre engine, letting a plane going on the other side of the planet in just 4 hours, or into space to launch satellites .. futur is here

[daveweyer]

Tone,
No worries. It's okay to doubt.
But I can tell you without a shred of hesitation that the names I mentioned were indeed the customers of West Coast Organ and Amp. Neal Moser can tell you the same thing. So can Jerry Sanders, and Lynette Faust. If you read the letter written by the guy to Xplorer talking about West Coast, Music City, and how all the stars just hung out in those days, it's pretty easy to picture it all.
We were the premier amp service center in Hollywood and had thousands of customers. The folks who were involved, like Jerry Sanders, had held big time industry positions at major music companies and were very well connected. Our office mates, Golden West Musical Instrument Rentals was the premier instrument rental agency and provided gear to every major recording session and live event event in Los Angeles. We got all the service from those gigs. Once the momentum of all that got going, all the big stars automatically came to us, especially rock guitar players, because I was there with all these huge tube amps sitting on display as an attractor. Word gets around.
Like I said, we could crank out 10 amps a day on good days, and it doesn't take long to reach 5000 at that rate.
If you would care to read up on Fender history you would find that when Leo sold the business to CBS, West Coast Organ and Amp became the factory service center for Fender; the ENTIRE service department was moved to West Coast, making us a major major hub for amps and guitars. We just kept growing, so it was completely natural for all those big names to come to us.
It only seems preposterous if you look at the big time acts of the day as more than just guys who needed their gear fixed. It was really no more complex than that. In Hollywood, you meet big stars at Denny's restaurant. No biggie....

[frenchie]

made a second photo analysis on stickers ....It's not entirely bulletproof , but it clearly shows the pattern of letters on the actual stickers of hendrix's amps at woodstock .... if you add the size of the stickers on hendrix amp compared to the size of west coast stickers shown on the guild quantum amp ....the probability of the stickers on hendrix's amp being of another brand than west coast amp and organ service , decrease to virtually zero .... key points here are letters pattern ( 4 lines of horizontal lettering , centered justified ) plus size .... you can compare the two key points between screen captures on woodstock gig and real world west coast stickers


https://www.mediafire.com/?qp4rs924h9eeis7

[Tazin]

Tone Seaker,
I think the list of artists that Dave mentioned would fall under the acquaintances catagory and not necessarily best friends catagory. Likewise, I don't think individuals like John Bonham would be visiting West Coast Organ and Amp Service to have his drums serviced. So, the thought of one individual from each group listed visiting West Coast Organ and Amp Service at least once to have his gear serviced doesn't seem too outrageous to me.

[Xplorer]

made a second photo analysis on stickers ....It's not entirely bulletproof , but it clearly shows the pattern of letters on the actual stickers of hendrix's amps at woodstock .... if you add the size of the stickers on hendrix amp compared to the size of west coast stickers shown on the guild quantum amp ....the probability of the stickers on hendrix's amp being of another brand than west coast amp and organ service , decrease to virtually zero .... key points here are letters pattern ( 4 lines of horizontal lettering , centered justified ) plus size .... you can compare the two key points between screen captures on woodstock gig and real world west coast stickers


https://www.mediafire.com/?qp4rs924h9eeis7

i don't understand, was there any doubt that this white sticker couldn't be from west coast organs ?

[Tone seaker]

There is no doubt about the stickers but that is the only thing proven. Not 6550's Now he is claiming all those famous people coming thru there and working on over 5000 amps. There are only 365 days in a year if you work 7 days a week. There is no proof. Again not trying to start a flame war. I just want proof and there is none except the stickers. No proof Dave even worked there

The sticker only proves the amp went there nothing more.

Then there is the Guild thing. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw the Guild Thunder bass amp Dave claims was Hendrix's. I have owned one of those for 30+ years and it is a Pile of crap. I have tried on several occasions to sell it for $150 in vintage music stores with no bites at all for 2+ years in each store. Hard to believe Hendrix would own that.

Then the bandmaster. Why would Hendrix own a bottom of the line fender

Then Dave remembers high tech mods from 45 years ago. Has he been working on amps all theses years to keep his memory fresh on all things amps. Hard to believe.

Personally I think he never worked there and is having fun with all this. I does not add up as I have shown. Any way that's if for me here the Hendrix section is derailed and taken over by all this

[Xplorer]

what's the point ? there's no proof for anything anyway , so .... ??
no proof that all his marshalls were stock el34 marshalls, no proof that the fuzz gain was way up, no proof for anything split/shared , lead / basse , no proof for what was Inside the fuzz ...

it looks like the only proof you can accept is : a white sticker on Jimi's Marshall , that's the mod .....
it surely changed the tone a lot ha ha.

why such suspiciousness ? leading nowhere .. what if something is true but coming without proof ?
alright, there's no "proof" , for anything coming from you , Dave, Roger mayer, Eddie Kramer , but can we continue the discussions anyway, even if it won't feature proofs ?

[frenchie]

made a second photo analysis on stickers ....It's not entirely bulletproof , but it clearly shows the pattern of letters on the actual stickers of hendrix's amps at woodstock .... if you add the size of the stickers on hendrix amp compared to the size of west coast stickers shown on the guild quantum amp ....the probability of the stickers on hendrix's amp being of another brand than west coast amp and organ service , decrease to virtually zero .... key points here are letters pattern ( 4 lines of horizontal lettering , centered justified ) plus size .... you can compare the two key points between screen captures on woodstock gig and real world west coast stickers


https://www.mediafire.com/?qp4rs924h9eeis7

i don't understand, was there any doubt that this white sticker couldn't be from west coast organs ?

ha ha .. no doubt ... i'm just always in to add a little more cement

[Xplorer]

[Tazin]

Guys, I think we need to keep the 'big picture' in view when it comes to mods and service to Jimi's gear. Jimi's gear was maintained and serviced by numerous companys and individuals.....Dave mentioned this very thing a while back. If an amp breaks down while in England, and it's fix is beyond the scope of the road crew/techs, then it would be sent to a nearby place in England for repair....Not shipped back to the USA for repair. Likewise, if an amp breaks down while on the east coast of America it would be serviced by some company locally....Not shipped back to England or the west coast of America. Personally, I don't see why the 6550 thing would seem far fetched. If Dave remembers installing 6550 tubes in some of Jimi's gear it probably is true. Whether the 6550's were changed out to EL34's after a week who knows. What does seem constant is the fact that Jimi was hard on his equipment (as was the transportation folks) and therefore amps were serviced very frequently.