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

[daveweyer]

Well, I'll take whatever evidence there is. It kinda-sorta looks like a 6550 from a distance, but I'd love to see some really good photographic evidence too.
The enlarged picture says the most to me, with the two reflective rings and a dark band between. That's the way a 6550 looks from a distance.
Thing is, I know they are in there because I put them in there. But it would still be nice to have some really good shots so I don't have to go on repeating myself regarding what I did with Jimi's amps. I'm no preacher, I can't convince everybody by just pounding on the table and yelling.
I encourage everyone to keep looking, and check out Jimi Hendrix' Guild Quantum amp in the link, that might help.

[Xplorer]

Tone seaker, please .....

+ this is a great day, Dave is sharing with us a never seen before amp from Jimi, one of the early ones !!!

+ what do you want ? Frenchie isn't trying to hammer you in the beginning, just discussing and debating over some cartesian base, and this is quite nice to have a common base to discuss, isn't it ? no need to take it personaly if it doesn't fit your own thoughts on this i think.

change of subject please guys. let's move on alright ?

maybe someday some even more obvious pictures will tell some truth, and show what Dave said but for now .... WTF ?
if you decide wether it's el34 or 6550, so what ?? this isn't the point ! there's a lot to re think in regards of what we thought of Hendrix gears and sounds, in the light of Dave's personal experience near Jimi, among some other persons who all have something to say. Did you imagine everything would be straight and with no paradoxs or contradictions ? come on ....

what if we would do archeology based on strong beliefs ? would that go very far ? no , because we must be prepared to meet surprises in such approach, when we are facing a story to develop, with many blanks. Same in science.

[frenchie]

What is the site supposed to say or have that is relevant here? It would be nice to know with out some insult about my Logic. Its pretty UNLOGICAL to link us to some virus site.

I just looked at the rehosted site. Its only the same pics of the back of the amp at Woodstock.

yeah concentrate on the context and elude the core thought ...perfect diversion ....
Do you burn witches for a hobby in the week ends ?

I guess your such a dumb ass that you want to flame war this thread out to locksville. Sounds like your the A-hole that burn's witches since you are calling it. Your stupid post prove absolutely nothing. Oh and on the weekends and most week nights I am out gigging making a living at music. I have put realistic pics and ideas out only to have your narrow minded dumbass attitude come back flaming. Grow up son

i posted a whole analysis of the sizes of the tubes in pdf format , reposted it two times , americans seem to be getting spammed when they try to access it , i'm not responsible , just a proof that i'm lousy when it comes to choosing a host site , not a proof that i'm saying bullshit , but math reposted my analysis on another host site .... still you don't get it , it's photo evidence proof that the FIRST plexi was loaded with 6550 , photo evidence of the same type that is used in court ...

i'm not flaming but you seem very stubborn , and it's getting annoying ( if read correctly between lines i'm not the only one astonished by your strong "emotions" about EL34s )

the pic i posted here with two types of 6550 is not in any way aimed at being a proof , just a conjecture who should explain why on the second super lead the mirrored glass is more prominent , but heck what do i know , the first super lead is 6550 for sure but the second super lead may be EL34 .....

stop beating around the bush , you're accusing me of launching flame war , despite the fact that since at least ten page you're accusing dave weyer to be an all out liar , anyone would find it "confrontational" to say the least , he's just too much polite to force your nose over your own shit ....

i'm a grown up , i have no problem with someone proving me i'm wrong when the assessment is backed up by factual evidence , being a grown up is also accepting being wrong at times , which you obviously are incapable of ...

[mathd]

I take a look at the Guild Quantum amp picture.
Damn, this amp look strange it look like its coming from another planet to me lol pick my curiosity.

[Tone seaker]

You say im stubborn. Well yes I am and that is a good thing when it comes to information that is this important. I just prefer hard evidence.

[daveweyer]

Hey Tone,
You might want to check out the pics that Xplorer put up. It's not Woodstock directly, but it is pretty hard evidence of West Coast Organ and Amp involvement with Jimi Hendrix. It's a start, and you can see mods I did clear back in '68. Plus you can see where I wrote "Jimi's" on the underside of the chassis over near the corner.

[swankmotee]

Amen Xplorer and really if Tone can't accept the evidence which is emperical then by all means bail! We are trying have a civil discussion amongst friends who share a deep love for all things Hendrix and who cares what personal bias you may have...leave it in your domain not here. If you pull the cork out of your brain you really might learn something that will help you on your quest for great tones no matter what the output tube! LOL!

[Tone seaker]

Hey Tone,
You might want to check out the pics that Xplorer put up. It's not Woodstock directly, but it is pretty hard evidence of West Coast Organ and Amp involvement with Jimi Hendrix. It's a start, and you can see mods I did clear back in '68. Plus you can see where I wrote "Jimi's" on the underside of the chassis over near the corner.

Ok thanks. I believe the West Coast thing. I was not sure about all his gear (Euro gear) until I saw the IOW pic.

[frenchie]

But you disagree with insults and blurry pictures. That is flaming or do you not get that. Read the last line in your post above, that is a A-Hole attack on me personally. Cant you see that. When you point a finger at some one three are pointing right back at you.

My remark about burning witches is irony ( because working on a torough analysis , in the most honest form of it , editing it in pdf and being flamed not for it's content but for the lousy host i uploaded it on , begs for a little irony ), not insult , check your dictionary ...
A-hole however is an insult ...

Now for the blurry pictures we got out of the woodstock video , yeah in the end i think you're right , you can't tell shit from them , far too blurry ... in fact yeah , it could either be ray charles' last sex tape in there ... who knows , there's this black guy in there for all we know ... wanking a microphone pole apparently ... is this a field of flowers oscillating in the wind in the background ? artistic shit indeed ! Ah the sixties ....

You're right i can't see nothing .... just like you ....

[mmp31]

Yeah I have a recording of Jimi playing through it, SOMEWHERE................
There are thousands of tapes here so this may take a while, and no most of the tapes are not Hendrix.

Yeah, that needs to happen. Do you have schematics of the Tube Modulator you'd be willing to share? Eh? Eh?

[Xplorer]

Some folks order some hard evidences, or they threat to call on BS ....
Right .....
This isn't going to be about it, they didn't get it. + what hard evidences fo they bring ? Nothing ... and even if they see some pretty authentic stuffs from Hendrix, that they never even heard of, ( still claiming they know "the truth" and everything ), they won't try to be humble at least just a bit.

All right, execute your threat, call on BS we don't care, and then let the topic continue on these exciting Lights on Jimi, instead on focusing on some vexed folks ( not interesting ) .

Please Dave, please, can you tell us the story about this gorgeous Guild amp ?

[frenchie]

now back on the guild amp , two sets of output jacks in the rear .... hmm seems someone have been telling the truth so far ... interesting thing is that it's a bass amp , does it mean jimi had very early in mind the need to fatten his thin strat sound with bass circuits ?

[mathd]

yea mods please to tell you all to not insult so we can keep it on topic. I guess Stinkway was the straw that broke the cammels back with you guys and your insults. Cant take some one challenging all this.

Obviously you dont notice the majority of this forum is directly or indirectly thinking your a fucking idiot? even a blind men could see that.

Maby thats a part of the reason why you keep receiving insults.. you just get what you deserve. so stop crying.

Honestly its the "now 2" only disrespectfull post i did on this forum for life, if the mod think am the troublemaker there and ban me.. cool id deal with it..
Just one thing.. i do have some interesting network knowledges, i can come back and flame this shit down toits dead until no one else will come on here or packet it making the page impossible to load all day long... i have a good rep about that under another nickname... but hey am not a little 16 years old idiot anymore... just like you.

oh and its a little late to avoid a shitchat war there.. thanks to you.
So go keep going empty your heart, little jerk. i have alot behind my belt that i can post for you.

[VelvetGeorge]

I clearly have a lot to clean up here. This topic will be locked until I can make some time. There will be some temporary bans, as well. I don't need this feud playing out in other areas while I'm cleaning up here.

george

[daveweyer]

Kinda feels like we've been naughty boys and the school principal had to intervene to stop a fight behind the school.

I hope you'll check out the Guild Quantum amp that Jimi had very early in his career. He kept that amp along with a bunch of other Guild equipment which he bestowed on his band Cat Mother. That's why their name is stenciled on the top. Their roadie remembers carrying all that Guild equipment around. Some of those Guild bottoms can be seen on stage with Jimi in a BOG picture, and someone posted here that it was just a rehearsal, the Guild bottoms having been replaced for the actual performance.
The two jacks on the back of the Quantum amp allowed Jimi to use the preamp stage to drive Fenders or Marshalls, or to use the power amp section to take signals directly from the speaker outputs of a Fender or Marshall and re-amp the signal into extra speakers. He could actually do both at the same time.
The little red Dymo tape labels are similar to the ones on the back of his Marshalls. We all thought we were so professional, being able to print our own labels and all. They sure look dorky now, amazing that they stuck to the chassis for so long.
Regarding the need to make his signal more bassy, the amp has both bass and normal inputs, really no different than that of a Fender or Marshall on the regular channels, even has a bright switch.
The build quality of the amp is not up to the standards of a Marshall or Fender. You can see the preamp sections on little printed circuits on top of the chassis, all kind of flimsy. But the output circuit design was actually more sophisticated than a Marshall or Fender, with an entire tube used to regulate the screen voltage.
The output tubes, 8417s were a variation on television sweep tubes, a convoluted plate design which was equipped with internal fins to attract electrons from the cathode by their edges and keep them trapped in a chamber in the plate instead of being attracted back to the screen as secondary emission--as in regular power tubes. This feature preserved the screen grids from over dissipation, since the internal fins' edges could be placed very close to the screen wires and actually removed heat from the screen grid, letting the extra area of the plate radiate the heat out of the tube.
Two 8417s were easily capable of 120 watts output, even though the Guild amp rated them at 70.

This amp system provided Jimi with a tube type fuzz tone, since he could drive his Marshall or Fender with its preamp. I can tell you that no SS FF unit ever made the kind of distortion that cascading tube amps did.
I'm sure many of you have tried this too.

And since I'm boring you with all this I'll also broach the controversial subject of Jimi's tone at what seems to be the height of his performances. From what I've seen, most of you have gravitated to this tone as the ultimo-primo tone to die for and keep forever, since that is what you heard during those last couple years of Jimi's life.
So even though I knew Jimi on mostly a professional level, didn't hang out with him or follow him around, did not make the special lighter fluid he used at Monterey, and was not another "tame boffin" in his entourage as Roger Mayer was, I did learn enough from him to offer that he fully well had his sights set on tones beyond BOG, and had experimented with the equipment needed to get those tones, occasionally with my contraptions and input. I say occasionally because Jimi was mainly an east coast guy, and I only got to participate during periods like Hendrix In The West, when he was actually hanging out on the west coast. Those were the times when we got all the equipment to repair from the road crew.
So I guess there's a rhetorical question in all this, do most of you who are regular readers and contributors to this forum know that Jimi was actually pretty dissatisfied with his limitations of a FF, a Wah, and maybe a Univibe for his musical performances? It just happened that those devices are all he had, and his shows were organized around the equipment we all see, again and again and again.

Anyway, thank George that we can all post and continue these discussions. I hope many more will participate.