Jimi Hendrix’s Woodstock Marshall Super Lead and 1962 Fender Jazzmaster are up for sale
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27.04.2021

Jimi Hendrix’s Woodstock Marshall Super Lead and 1962 Fender Jazzmaster are up for sale

Words by Will Brewster

Both items are currently listed on Reverb.

A number of pieces of musical equipment owned and played by Jimi Hendrix have made their way onto Reverb overnight, following on from two other recent sales last November.

Summary

  • A private collector has listed a trio of instruments and amplifiers owned by Jimi Hendrix on Reverb.
  • Items include a Marshall Super Lead 100 used at Woodstock and The Isle of Wight, as well as a 1962 Jazzmaster favoured by Hendrix during his days on the R&B session circuit in the mid ’60s.
  • Additionally, the seller has listed a 1967 Sunburst Fender Stratocaster that was found in Hendrix’s apartment in New York after his death in 1970.

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The two items, which are both sold by LA retailer Neil’s Gear Bazaar, include a 100-watt Marshall Super Lead 100 amplifier head which was used by Hendrix at his era-defining closing set at Woodstock in 1969, as well as a 1962 Jazzmaster favoured by the left-handed legend during his session days with Little Richard and The Isley Brothers.

Built in March 1969, the mammoth Marshall amplifier was acquired by Hendrix a month later in April, and was subsequently used on his run of summer shows for 1969, which included seminal performances at Woodstock, the Isle of Wight Festival in the UK and Germany’s Open Air Love & Peace Festival.

The Reverb listing also claims that Hendrix used the beastly 100-watt head to rehearse and record with his latter-era power trio Band Of Gypsys, with the amp being one of three 100-watt models chained together by Hendrix to create his unfathomably loud guitar tone.

In addition to shipping with three letters of authenticity, the Marshall head is emblazoned with painted logos indicating its use on the road, and has also been inspected by Head Chief of Marshall Heritage and Archive services Phil Wells. It’s currently listed on-site with an asking price of $473,666.67 AUD, and we reckon it’s unlikely to hang around too long.

Although Jimi Hendrix is most often associated with the Fender Stratocaster, the guitarist was known to don a number of other models over the years – he had a brief love affair with a number of Gibsons in the late ’60s, and earlier in his career, was prone to picking up Fender offsets or student models as a sidepiece for his session days.

One such example can be found in the right-handed 1962 Fender Jazzmaster listed on Reverb recently, which was frequently used by Hendrix (upside down, of course) during his live sets with Little Richard and The Isley Brothers as he cut his teeth on the R&B session circuit.

The guitar in question boasts a typical set of specifications for a guitar of this era, with a Three-Tone Sunburst finish being complemented by a red tortoiseshell pickguard and Brazilian rosewood fretboard with clay dots.

Other notable features include dual single-coil pickups and a significant amount of wear and tear atop of the Jazzmaster’s nitrocellulose finish, which could have something to do with the fact that Hendrix supposedly never stored the instrument in a case while he owned it. It’s currently listed for no less than $1,015,000 AUD, and there’s every chance it’s one of the greatest investments you’ll ever make.

Additionally, the store is also selling off another guitar owned and played by Hendrix, this time in the form of a battered 1967 Fender Stratocaster from the Bob and Kathy Levine collection that was collected from his New York apartment after his death in 1970.

The guitar, made distinctive thanks to its upside down cigarette burns on the headstock, was used by Hendrix for number of sessions at LA’s TTG Studios in October 1968, appearing on cuts such as ‘Calling All The Devil’s Children’ and ‘Looking Over Yonder’.

Check out all the items in greater detail over at Reverb today.