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How I discovered Jimi Hendrix's Flying V

SteveMKentucky

New member
Joined
Sep 9, 2015
Messages
68
Interesting article about how David Brewis found Hendrix's psychedelic flying V:

A few days after the dream, I happened to be in my local guitar shop in Newcastle upon Tyne. I knew the owner, John, very well. He said, "Hey, I've just got a Jimi Hendrix Flying V!" He showed it to me, and I asked if it really was Jimi's. He said no, but it was the same model, and added: "Wouldn't it be something if it was actually Jimi's guitar?" At this point, in the mid-'90s, nobody had seen the Jimi guitar, the one with his hand-painted decorations on it, for over 20 years.


I took the guitar to Stephen Maycock at a Sotheby's valuation day in Newcastle. As I took the pickguard off to show him inside, he said he was sure that it was Jimi Hendrix's guitar. I asked what give him that idea, before even holding it? He pointed at some coloured paint traces on the underside of the pickguard, created when Jimi had painted the guitar in '67 and the paint ran under the guard while it was still wet.

https://reverb.com/news/how-i-disco...ySasEpy0APzyQn3IPX3Nz0aXj2EtZ_iEaPCypE_LrjHok

Replica posted only for reference:

mrsg82.jpg
 
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zombiwoof

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Feb 22, 2003
Messages
3,565
Awesome post. I think it's terrible that someone ruined the custom paint job Jimi did to that guitar, that was a great part of it's charm IMO.
Al
 

jrgtr42

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Mar 24, 2005
Messages
2,308
I saw that guitar (I presume it was that one...) at an exhibit the Boston Museum of Fine Arts did back in 2000 - 2001, The Art of the Guitar.
I remember standing there and thinking that arguably the greatest guitar player in history has stood behind it, and who knows which of those songs we've heard a million times were played on that one.
 

VamboRool

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Joined
Nov 25, 2015
Messages
424
Would need to see more photos, but it looks like Jimi did not change the angle of the bridge for left hand playing. The treble side should be closer to the p/u than the bass side.
 

zombiwoof

Active member
Joined
Feb 22, 2003
Messages
3,565
Would need to see more photos, but it looks like Jimi did not change the angle of the bridge for left hand playing. The treble side should be closer to the p/u than the bass side.
He probably just flipped a couple of saddles and adjusted them to get the intonation as close as possible. There's not a big angle to the bridge, so it theoretically could get "close enough for rock'n'roll".
Al
 
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