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

[Tone seaker]

One thing you got to remember is the BOG tone at the Filmore is amazing partly because it is remixed to be put on a record and sold. It probably sounded very different in the room so you will never duplicate what is on the album.

Dave you said I believe in a earlier post that his guitars came it also. If so what mods were done and which ones. from what I have seen he only used the white one and black one during the last 2 years.
Thanks

[Xplorer]

well, the other recordings ( from the floor, or from the balcony ), raw records, show clearly that it sounded this way, even though they weren't remixed at all. the kramer work off course shows it at its best, enhance it perhaps just a bit, but that's all. just a quality record work.
it's definitely possible to get this tone, even in a bedroom. not as pretty acoustic but the dna , the identity of this tone can exist elsewhere than in the Fillmore east.

fun thing that we get back to the Fillmore bog tone each time ! sounds like it's in the middle of everything. the others being easier to understand. but from my experience it's actualy not so far from the rest, even if it gives a very different result from anything else.

Dave, please, about the wahs , can you tell us more about what Jimi asked you and what you did ?
curious too about the strats like tone seaker.
and maybe, did Jimi need and asked some special prepared gears for the studio, different from the live gears ?

[daveweyer]

Wahs and Guitars,
The wah mods we did were pretty simple.
Jimi wanted to know if there was a way to get some of the noise out of the wah when the pedal was all the way into the high resonance end of the pot, and also wondered if there was a way to make it darker, in other words to get even darker on the lower end of the resonance spectrum.
So I called Brad Plunket out at Vox and asked him what to try. He gave me some hand picked transistors and a pot with a special taper. The engineering department at Vox had everything at its disposal, so I could get whatever I needed there. I picked up some of the GE 2N3900A transistors that had been screened for low noise and higher beta. They used a color coded system to separate the classes, the RETMA resistor color code. The transistors in the modded wahs would generally have a purple or white dot right on the top, and be listed under the part number 86-5044-2, with higher suffix reserved for parts which might become necessary to use in new equipment if the cheaper part wouldn't work.
Vox always used the cheapest part in its production equipment, even if just to save a penny.
Additionally, Vox had a huge stock of inductors, so it was no problem to substitute a 550mh coil for the 500, or the other way, to change the range of resonance. (it was real handy having the engineering department at my disposal)
One other trick was to move the position of the pot further down toward the internal stop, to make the starting point even darker, since the gear left just a little at either end.
You had to be careful not to run the wiper into the stop with the force of a foot on the pedal or it would destroy the pot, which happened several times.
I think the pot had the part number 09-5014-0 with the suffix designating a different taper.
Jimi liked the widest possible range, and there was some discussion of making a special pedal which could electronically control a greater range, but time ran out on that project. Brad would have been on board for that, since he already knew what he wanted to do, but it was up to me to make it.

The guitars were set up in the Roger Mayer pattern on the strings. Our role was replacing necks, notching the grooves into the frets where Jimi liked to pull the strings with one finger to trigger them, substituting parts when Fender couldn't provide us with what we needed (the famous Strat with the Tele neck), replacing pots (with Allen Bradley units), using a good film cap in the tone circuit, and finally, with reluctance, winding pickups.

I wound, actually it was Rick Mierop, two Strat pickups for Jimi, and the wire broke about 3/4 of the way through on both of them. We had a very crude winding setup, an electric drill on a speed control, and a pipe where the spool of pickup wire would turn. The wire was so small it would break with just the tension of unwinding the spool, so you had to turn the pickup and the spool at the same time and keep ever so slight tension on the wire.
Anyway, the pickups were "low output" by accident.
These may be some of the famous low output pickups we hear about, or maybe Jimi had them duplicated because he liked the way they performed.
Fender was unpredictable with supply, they had their own manufacturing delays like everyone else.
Whenever we couldn't get a part, we made it or substituted something else. There might have been some happy accidents.
As I said before, ANYTHING could be inside or under the cover of Jimi's equipment, we just had to get by however we could, and everybody was always in a hurry (and trying new things too).
I got a Fuzzface one time and opened the cover to find a completely different hand made circuit board, with a different circuit arrangement on it. Folks have told me it was one of Roger Mayer's prototypes.

[Tone seaker]

The guitars were set up in the Roger Mayer pattern on the strings. Our role was replacing necks, notching the grooves into the frets where Jimi liked to pull the strings with one finger to trigger them, substituting parts when Fender couldn't provide us with what we needed (the famous Strat with the Tele neck), replacing pots (with Allen Bradley units), using a good film cap in the tone circuit, and finally, with reluctance, winding pickups.

Can you tell me which guitars you are talking about. The white and black ones he used the last two years are stock from every thing I have read. The strat with the tele neck in the video we all know about is at the Newport Pop 1969 fest I read in Eddy Karamer's book was not his and borrowed because he had a bad show on Friday and came back sunday and jammed with Buddy Miles Express, That is the video we all see with the tele necked strat. There is a article I posted earlier in the thread where the black strat is diagnosed and it says the freats are in great shape. It says nothing about theise groves in the frets you are talking about. Can you explaine more about this.

Newport pop festival with strat and tele neck video bellow, Notice there are no Marshall's only fenders which are the shows backline or Buddy Miles's I cant remember but it is in Eddy Kramer's new book
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msX9VCW1SqQ

Here is the article on the Black Strat it where it describes the neck with no notches or wear
http://www.univibes.com/BlackStrat.html

Can you elaborate more on the fret notches? Where are they and what are they for and which Guitars. It isn't the White or Black ones. The white one was on display in Seattle at the Experience music project and I looked at it close up and took pic' and the neck was unnotched.







The Berkly show in 1970 did it use the same amps as Woodstock with 6550 tubes? He tunned to normal tunning at that show and the tone is amazing.

The tone bellow is amazing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mDskzcA9i4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss_rk-RITts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrttsGcbjhk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oxqOJNFOS8

[Xplorer]

i couldn't find yet some GE 2N3900A but i purshased some 2n525 gold legs, to test a Hendrix fuzz the way you did it

[daveweyer]

The Strat with the Tele neck:
That was Jimi's guitar, and it came into West Coast Organ and Amplifier Service as a casualty of a concert in which Jimi had thrown it off the stage. The neck was broken off and they wanted it fixed.
Sorry, but Kramer has this one mixed up.

I'll quote Neal Moser, who worked with me at West Coast and repaired the guitar, "One time they brought in a white Strat that Jimi had thrown off the stage. The neck was broken, and they wanted a replacement. Of course Fender didn't have any at the time but they did have some Tele necks. We got one, and I modified the butt to fit the Strat body. That guitar ended up in a collage on the 'Hendrix In The West' album."

And, "One thing Hendrix' guitars had was a very small file cut on the 16th fret, just to the treble side of the G string.
This was so Jimi could rattle his third string back and forth across the notch for that little thing he does on Foxy Lady and other tunes."

And, "Fenders were probably the worst guitar for sustain, they just didn't have any. They played nice, but just didn't sustain, I'm surprised he used them so much, say instead of a Gibson. The extra gain from the Fuzzfaces and the notches in the necks helped overcome that."

So if you saw Strats that had perfect frets, they had probably been re-necked or re-fretted.

I talked to Neal about this in a phone interview I did just this year as we compared notes about what we did and remembered during the hectic times at West Coast Organ and Amplifier Service.

[Tone seaker]

did you read this article http://www.univibes.com/BlackStrat.html It has the original neck. Like you said fender parts are hard to get and a replacement 68 maple cap neck would be next to impossible. The guitar was under Monica's bed for years when they inspected it. I had the Hendrix in the west album and the only pic I have ever seen of the Tele neck strat is Newport. I have a life size poster of it also and its Newport.

The Strat with the Tele neck:
That was Jimi's guitar, and it came into West Coast Organ and Amplifier Service as a casualty of a concert in which Jimi had thrown it off the stage. The neck was broken off and they wanted it fixed.
Sorry, but Kramer has this one mixed up.

I'll quote Neal Moser, who worked with me at West Coast and repaired the guitar, "One time they brought in a white Strat that Jimi had thrown off the stage. The neck was broken, and they wanted a replacement. Of course Fender didn't have any at the time but they did have some Tele necks. We got one, and I modified the butt to fit the Strat body. That guitar ended up in a collage on the 'Hendrix In The West' album."

.

I have the original Hendrix in the West album and the Tele neck strat is not on it

[daveweyer]

Tone Seeker,
I'll get ahold of Neal and see what he says. If the frets aren't notched, then they have been replaced.
But I'll make sure about the photos.
What I have found over the years is that anyone who has written about Jimi's gear has some particular version of the story they are peddling, "Talking Their Book" to use the old expression.
I'm just adding first person accounts to all the other stories, and I think there is an extremely high probability that these are the last first person accounts that will ever appear on earth, forever!
Everybody has long ago made their "Jimi Hendrix Pedal, Jimi Hendrix Amp, Jimi Hendrix Book, Jimi Hendrix Film, and Jimi Hendrix History".
Capitalize on the fame and fortune while the iron is hot you know.

I had other things to do, thankfully, and with no disrespect in any way to all those who made knowing about Jimi their lives.

[Tone seaker]

cool thanks

[swankmotee]

Dave, Are you describing wear notches/divots from playing wear?
I gather you're describing fret dressing or replacement right?

[daveweyer]

Swankmotee,
I'm talking about a small groove, perpendicular to the fret, she shape of a small triangular file, a little V shaped groove, placed such that when you drag the string over it with your finger, as in vibrato, it plucks the string lightly and gets it playing, without having to use a pick.
Foxy Lady is the most famous example of this use.
It was a well known trick in the vocabulary of the Jimi cognoscenti of the day, I'm surprised nobody talks about it any more.
All his necks had that groove, and unless he decided he didn't need it anymore at the end of his career and had them re-fretted or replaced, the grooves should still be there.

The "Guitar Player" magazine special feature on Jimi and his gear of September 1995, had an interview with Neal Moser, who cut those grooves.
The interview had some factual errors, but that's not one of them.

[frenchie]

What I have found over the years is that anyone who has written about Jimi's gear has some particular version of the story they are peddling, "Talking Their Book" to use the old expression.

Everybody has long ago made their "Jimi Hendrix Pedal, Jimi Hendrix Amp, Jimi Hendrix Book, Jimi Hendrix Film, and Jimi Hendrix History".
Capitalize on the fame and fortune while the iron is hot you know.

We kinda 6th sensed the trend somehow too dave even if we're non first person witnesses , and it also , once in a while , appears in forums in the form of people who , extremely strangely , seem to help a great deal to bury truth in an first overly skeptical , then forceful and in the end absolutely non civil way ... I think there's a pattern here .... Turns an honest debate into a smelly mess ...

I mean lying through teeth with talent , while conserving an appearance of plausibility , with light touches here and there while hiding personal interests and generally bias , is a job in it's own , and an extremely difficult one .... Those who don't have this kind of talent should stick to the truth or reduce the volume , because the spectacle it gives sometimes , is as chilling as it is pathetic , like a theatre scene with the backgrounds drawn on card boxes , it just doesn't feel right , and the only moron who doesn't seem to realize is the bad actor who not only tries to convince a laughing under cover audience but also in the same movement himself ... Not pointing out someone or this thread in particular but i know times and places where it exhaled the kind of flavor ...

So sad to see those kind of gruesome people piling their dirty fortunes on the corpses of real dreamers , pioneers and geniuses ... This just doesn't pay respect enough

[Xplorer]

Dave, please, do you remember on which frett was this little groove ? i had no idea that such guitar trick existed, it sound interesting. maybe several grooves on various positions ?
and do you remember the film cap value used generaly in his strats ?

[Xplorer]

frenchie, wow t'es chaud là !

[frenchie]

frenchie, wow t'es chaud là !

he he