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

[Tone seaker]

Were there road cases back then? If not how were they packed and transported. Jimi was pretty hard on equipment also. What year do you think the pic below is from. Metal handle cabs in Europe so must be at least 68 or latter. No white stickers either. Rose wood neck guitar looks like

[daveweyer]

When the stuff showed up at West Coast Organ and Amp, there were no road cases, it was just in a truck. The pedals, guitars and those kind of things came in big metal boxes, just kind of all thrown in there loose. All the wires were there too, and that was the packing material.
If it's true, that the stenciling was applied in 69, for the tour (as was posted here a while back) then pics of equipment with that on it must have been taken later. I don't remember the stenciling on the first stuff we got to repair.

[shakti]

Were there road cases back then? If not how were they packed and transported. Jimi was pretty hard on equipment also. What year do you think the pic below is from. Metal handle cabs in Europe so must be at least 68 or latter. No white stickers either. Rose wood neck guitar looks like

Tha image is such a classic one! AFAIK he never used a rosewood neck Strat after October '68, at least live. Are you sure the photo is from Europe though?

[Tone seaker]

Were there road cases back then? If not how were they packed and transported. Jimi was pretty hard on equipment also. What year do you think the pic below is from. Metal handle cabs in Europe so must be at least 68 or latter. No white stickers either. Rose wood neck guitar looks like

Tha image is such a classic one! AFAIK he never used a rosewood neck Strat after October '68, at least live. Are you sure the photo is from Europe though?

cant be sure if its from Europe. I just assumed but the policeman's hat the way the people looked in the Audience. it could be US

[daveweyer]

That black Strat showed up at West Coast Organ and Amp I think sometime early in 1969 or late 1968, and it had the fret notches too. I believe that guitar is how we learned about the notches.

[Tone seaker]

Is that pic before you worked on the amp. I don't see any stickers. When did you start working on Hendrix's amps

[daveweyer]

The first things I did were in 1968, I think the Guild Quantum amp was the first thing or close to it. We didn't start with the stickers in earnest until 1969 after we got some extra guys working there and could be a little more comprehensive in our process. We had these big rolls of stickers but when I was there all alone, I really didn't have time for anything but repairs. Jerry got the stickers printed to try to build the business by leaving our calling card on everything we worked on, but we still forgot to put them on a lot of times. Jerry hired a business consultant named Andre to help get the invoicing/inventory/payroll systems worked out, all the stuff you need to make the business grow, supposedly.
Anyway, the business took off like a rocket and we never caught up on the formalities till it was too late.

[jslstrat]

Her you go..maybe the most expensive 4x12 I have seen…I know Randy and next time I see him. I will have to ask about this cab…..

1968 JIMI HENDRIX MARSHALL 4x12 SLANT SPEAKER •
Text MUSIC 218 to 56512 to receive text alert for this lot!

Click image to enlarge

Lot closed - Winning bid:$23,750
Estimate:
$18,500 - $20,500

http://www.julienslive.com/view-auction ... lot/40032/

[daveweyer]

Very interesting, I wonder if it was one of "ours"?
Were there any photos of the speakers or the serial numbers on them? I'd be very curious to see if there were Thomas Organ Co. part numbers on them, most likely 33-5038-6.

[Xplorer]

Coool

if by the way you can ask him what song he played back in 2010 in Seattle tast'n racin' , with the megavibe + echoplex ep3 + slide .... slow song, i've never find it anywhere on youtube or whatever, this was unique, a tone to die for.
it wasn't Jimi Hendrix, it was Randy's stuff. no much chance that he'd remember ha ha but just in case ...

Randy probably has more Hendrix gears in stock. maybe he had the chance to play some Jimi's strats with notches on the fretts ? and he maybe knows about some collectors who have amps, fuzz etc ...
that should be nice to ask him, in case he's willing to tell.
hearing him through some of Dave's mods would be a lot interesting i think.

[daveweyer]

Supposedly Marshall discontinued the plexi front panel sometime in 1969, but continued shipping the same 100 watt amp until 1975 or so.
Were there any other physical changes to the amps besides the look of the front panel? Like component layout, inout/output jacks, different covering material, and so on..............

[Tone seaker]

They changed the NFB on some from 47K to 100K and removed the .68 cap of the V2 bypass. They went to a PC board around 73. When you guys are talking Randy are you meaning Randy Hansen?

[jslstrat]

Yes Randy Hansen,
Funny I was at that Tast n and Racing show..........I met Randy back in 1988!!! My G friend introduced me to
him...And I was thrilled....since I was a little kid and was totally in to Hendrix as a young kid at the time. Next thing I knew I was In Randys house in Burien WA...And we where hanging out jamming together and also listening to...Yngwie.....
Yep and Randy was really in to him also at the time. We where listening to Marching Out. Great times. I gave him a Vox Wha
from 68 or so....He really did not mention to much about any Hendrix gear. He mentioned after doing the Apocalypse Now
soundtrack that Fender took him down to the Fender factory and pick out any guitar he wanted. He picked a ALL gold one...
Not sure year. Again as far as Hendrix gear Randy had some tough times in the 90,s and did not have much gear wise.
Was to the point of home made Strats and floyd Strats. I was really glad he ended up going back to stock Strats. Wish he
would have focused on original music. Randys Bass player was also my Bass player in the mid 90,s....
Oh Yeah those Marshall 8x10 2034 cabs where Howard Leese owned....
J

[jslstrat]

Not sure If guys here on the forum have seen this. Or you Dave. But this just surfaced only a couple years ago!
Hendrix in Seattle just before he died! Also has same Isle Of White outfit on! The feeling of the show really just
shows you how it could have been any band doing a out door show in my opinion. I think we tend to make things
bigger then life its self. After time....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9LMgeXZnQo

[daveweyer]

For all intents and purposes it was just another band doing a baseball park performance.
I would like to add one caveat though, no matter where Jimi played, or how down he was, there was this energy in the air around him, probably generated by the audience themselves who just couldn't get enough of this slender man and his guitar extension. It was something you could really only understand if you were there and lived through those times; I mean it was out of this world the fantastic energy that flowed around him, and nobody could get enough--they all wanted to be part of it because it was bigger than they were--it was like being in the spell of a great religious teacher, and "God" was in the air. Once that juggernaut got moving, it just created more energy the longer it went, and there was a great magic cloud that swept up everyone who got involved.
Maybe it didn't hurt that everyone was stoned and dropping acid for his performances, but still today lots of folks feel remnants of that energy who probably have avoided LSD and mushrooms, and only get the sprit of it all through watching his films.
As Neal Moser said right on this forum, "when We knew him he was just Jimi Hendrix, not Jimi Hendrix the legend", and that was certainly true, at least for a few minutes. Once you got into that energy field of his, you could not help but feel it and be swept along with it. No telling how it got rolling, or why it was more powerful than other magic clouds surrounding big stars of the day, but there was nothing quite like it.