Gear Special: Strat Burning Down...
by Caesar Glebbeek

"Because of the Monterey film the burning guitar became part of the legend, but in fact he hardly ever did it, it happened maybe two or three times..."
-Mitch Mitchell-

As detailed in the previous feature by Kees de Lange, Frank Zappa and Jimi Hendrix were both performing at the 'Underground Pop Festival' in Hallandale, Florida, on 18 May 1968. Pop festivals present a good opportunity for participating musicians to mingle with each other backstage, or, as was the case with Zappa and Hendrix, even have a jam session. It was also here in Florida that Frank Zappa obtained the remains of not one but two Hendrix Stratocaster guitars.

We had to wait until 1977 before Frank Zappa mentioned his so-called Hendrix Strat: "Another one of my Strats is the one Hendrix burned at the Miami Pop Festival; it was given to me by this guy who used to be his roadie. I had it hanging on the wall in my basement for years until last year when I gave it to Rex [Bogue] and said, 'Put this sucker back together,' because it was all tore up. The neck was cracked off, the body was all fired, and the pickups were blistered and bubbled. That's the one that's got the Barcus-Berry in the neck. A lot of people thought I had Hendrix' guitar from Monterey, but it was from Miami; the one at Monterey was white, and this one is sunburst... I don't even have a vibrato arm on the Hendrix Strat. You can hear it on Zoot Allures [released in 1976]" (Guitar Player, January 1977, p. 25).

Not much attention was given to the fact that Zappa had the above mentioned Hendrix Strat, until fifteen years later when Keith St. George wrote in the Guitar World issue of May 1992: "Perhaps the two most interesting Hendrix Strats are those owned by two of rock's most interesting guitarists - Frank Zappa and ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons... According to Dweezil Zappa, the '68 [sic] sunburst Strat burned by Jimi at the ['68] Miami Pop Festival...was given to his dad by a roadie. 'Frank had the neck and electronics replaced - new pickups, parametric eq's... Unfortunately, the melted pickup covers are gone.' Frank's wife, Gail, adds that some of the parts were lost around the time Frank had the guitar restored by Rex Bogue" (p. 88).

Next, Hendrix researcher Michael Fairchild, possibly prompted by reading the aforementioned article, put forth an interesting theory in his article 'The Ultimate Hendrix Gear Guide/Part 2' for Guitar Shop magazine (issue #4, Winter 1995, p. 60): that the burned Hendrix Strat owned by Frank Zappa "must be" the Strat Jimi burned at "The Astoria" in London, back on 31 March 1967, since Jimi didn't burn any guitar at the pop festival in Hallandale, Florida, on 18 May 1968. Let's now examine the 1967 UK and 1968 USA concerts in question in detail, and see whether or not it all fits....

THE BURNED STRAT
On 31 March 1967 the Jimi Hendrix Experience embarked on their first ever UK tour, kicking off with a concert at "The Astoria," a prestigious venue in London. Backstage, Jimi, manager Chas Chandler, and reporter Keith Altham were discussing what Jimi could possibly do onstage in order to get some press coverage. Keith Altham suggested that Jimi could perhaps set fire to a guitar: "I kind of said it as a joke and Chas said 'that's not a bad idea.'"

Chas Chandler: "The first night we knew we had to pull something sensational to get a good press reaction and so the guitar that burst into flames [apparently during "Purple Haze"] was contrived. Of course, we all maintained it was an accident and Jimi even wore a bandage the second house to make it look good. In fact we soaked it in petrol and deliberately set light to it - the organizers were running around in circles trying to find the culprit and examine the guitar which had mysteriously disappeared. I distinctly remember [theatre agent] Tito Burns waving a fist at me and shouting, 'You can't get away with things like this, Chas - if we find that guitar I'll have you prosecuted.' Underneath his overcoat I could make out the charred end of an electric guitar" (Hit Parader, June 1969, p. 26). Tito Burns then walked out the stage door with the guitar.

Journalist Chris Welch witnessed the climax, when the guitar was set on fire by Jimi at the end of his act: "Jimi leapt backwards and ran off stage followed by his group. The guitar was left burning dangerously near the closed curtains, and compere Nick Jones ran and tried to pick it up, burning his hand in the attempt. An attendant rushed on stage with a fire extinguisher and put out the flames which were leaping ten feet in the air" (Melody Maker, 8 April 1967).

A day or so later, Jimi got his burned guitar back. Chris Welch: "I met Jimi at his bright and airy apartment... 'I can't read a note of music,' grinned Jimi, fingering the burned-out wreck of his guitar which burst into flames on the opening night of his tour with the Walker Brothers" (Melody Maker, 15 April 1967). Jimi jokingly told another reporter: "That guitar is completely ruined - I guess I'll hang it on my bedroom wall as a memento" (Disc and Music Echo, 15 April 1967).

There are several colour photographs taken backstage on 31 March 1967, showing Jimi holding a sunburst Strat (with rosewood neck), but that is not the guitar Jimi burned later that evening in London for the simple reason that he continued to play this guitar during concerts after 31 March, and the many available photographs of the guitar clearly reveal no burning marks whatsoever (the body of the guitar did, needless to say, get more and more dented after each performance).

Unfortunately, none of the concert reviews for 31 March 1967 tell us which guitar Jimi burned that night. We do know for a fact that Jimi owned at least one other, somewhat newer-looking, sunburst Strat (with rosewood neck) in March 1967 - for example, see the photograph on page 160 in Jimi Hendrix: Electric Gypsy, where two sunburst Strats can be seen. Recently I asked Noel Redding if he perhaps could confirm that Jimi burned a Stratocaster at "The Astoria," and he replied: "I'd think so, yes." Obviously Noel could not remember the colour of that Strat - "Pffff, that's thirty years ago!" (A problem with researching Jimi's guitars is that many of the available '67 photos were taken in black-and-white, and with a flash, thus making it at times difficult to determine the colour of guitars.)

ONE STRAT BODY & TWO STRAT NECKS
UniVibes subscriber Doug Anderson recently informed me about a meeting which took place in his amplifier repair shop, the "Tone Zone" in Los Angeles, with guitarist Dweezil Zappa, son of Frank Zappa: "Dweezil came to my shop in April 1997 with his father's so-called burned Hendrix Strat. Dweezil told me that he thought that a Hendrix roadie gave his father the burned Strat plus another Strat neck at the same time at the 'Miami Pop Festival' in May 1968. The roadie just threw the neck in because it might be repairable."

So now we have one burned Strat body; plus two Strat necks - the burned Strat neck which originally belonged to the burned Strat, and a second Strat neck, which nowadays in is a bad (rotten) state. Continues Doug Anderson: "Dweezil was not sure what neck belonged to what guitar body, so this is where UniVibes comes in, to help put an end to this mystery. Because of Dweezil's youth in the 70's [he was born on 5 September 1969], he never really discussed the Hendrix gear with his father."

(Jimi Hendrix stated in an interview conducted by Jann Wenner (published in Rolling Stone issue of 9 March 1968): "In Washington, D.C. I destroyed my guitar again. It was accidental." This would have been during one of the ten shows performed by the JHE between 8 and 13 August 1967 at the "Ambassador Theatre." Regrettably, there are no reviews, reports, or photographs on file for any of these shows to confirm a possible guitar burning occurrence. And as Jimi said "destroyed," he could well just have meant just that.)

So, since Jimi burned only one rosewood Strat, there can be no other possible conclusion: that the burned neck in photos 1 to 3 indeed "belongs" to the rosewood Hendrix Strat Frank Zappa had restored; in other words, the guitar body is that of the 1963 Stratocaster Jimi Hendrix burned on 31 March 1967 at "The Astoria" in London.

The burned "Astoria" neck is currently owned by guitarist Bobby Robles from Los Angeles. Robles was a friend and client of the late Rex Bogue, who passed away in February 1996. As we know from Frank Zappa's comments in Guitar Player, January 1977 (see the start of this article), he took the burned "Astoria" Strat plus the burned neck in 1976 to Rex Bogue to be restored. Bogue refitted the burned "Astoria" body with a new metal pickguard assembly and a custom rosewood neck with Piezo pickups. Bogue got the original Hendrix metal pickguard back when Frank Zappa wanted to try something else with the "Astoria" Strat in 1978. (Frank was always experimenting with different electronics, et cetera.)

Bobby Robles saw the original Hendrix pickguard assembly at 'Rex Bogue Guitars' in 1978. During that occasion, Robles purchased the burned "Astoria" neck from Bogue for US $100. Some time later, the original Hendrix pickguard assembly got either lost or stolen. Bobby Robles showed the neck to Steven Rosen (author of the January 1977 Guitar Player article) in 1985. Rosen told Frank Zappa about the neck, and he showed interest in getting it back, but Zappa and Robles never got together.

As can be seen in photo 6, the "Astoria" guitar now sports a new Fender Custom Shop maple neck, as well as another pickguard assembly. It would be nice if guitarists Bobby Robles and Dweezil Zappa could come to some sort of mutual arrangement, so that the neck and body of Jimi's "Astoria" guitar could be permanently reunited!

THE ROTTED NECK
The rotted Strat neck [photos 4 and 5] was discovered in mid 1996 by Dweezil Zappa, when he found it stored in an open plastic bag under the outside stairs of his father's garage in Los Angeles. The neck had received a lot of moisture over the years and had started to rot away. Shortly afterwards, Dweezil had one of his custom Iceman guitars painted by Dan Lawrence. Dweezil was so pleased with his work that he made a gift to Dan - a rotted Strat neck, which once belonged to Jimi Hendrix. The neck is in such a bad state that Dweezil can't tell us if the neck originally was rosewood or maple! Doug Anderson asked Dweezil if he found the missing fretboard, pegs, or any other parts from the rotted neck, and he said he couldn't find anything, but he would keep looking around. Doug Anderson: "I talked to Dweezil Zappa again [September 1997], and he said that he's pretty damn sure that the rotted neck (the one without the fretboard) is from the "Fillmore East" in 1968."

Frank Zappa with Jimi Hendrix's burned "Astoria" Stratocaster
Photo studio on Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, California, 1976
photo: Neil Slozower

Luckily, there are several colour slides of the actual smashing event during the "Fillmore East" performance available for closer inspection. Three were published in the Guitar World issue of March 1988 (pp. 17-18), but four slides of better quality can be seen in the book Jimi Hendrix: Sessions (pp. 52-53):

"Together Again..." - Bobby Robles and Doug Anderson
"Tone Zone," Los Angeles, California, April 1997

First we see Jimi holding the (complete) sunburst Strat in his right hand (this slide was probably taken just seconds after a roadie handed Jimi the guitar); then we see Jimi swinging the guitar (still complete) into the direction of his amplifier; next we see Jimi holding the neck in his hands, bashing it ferociously against his Marshall amplifier; and lastly in the fourth and final slide published in Sessions, we see Jimi holding the neck of the guitar in his left hand, with two loose guitar strings still attached to it, and the dislodged body of the Strat dangling just above the stage floor.

What a trio! Guitarist Eric Johnson with Jimi's Strat necks
"Billboard Live" club, Hollywood, California, 15 April 1997

Published here [below] for the first time is another photograph: Jimi is holding the guitar neck in his hands, with the dislodged body of the guitar again dangling just above the stage floor. This photograph tells us that the neck itself is in one piece, with the headstock also still intact. So, although it can't be absolutely proven, all the available evidence suggests that the rotted neck as seen in photos 4 and 5 "belongs" to the sunburst (with rosewood neck) Stratocaster Jimi smashed up on 10 May 1968 during the second show at the "Fillmore East" in New York City. One wonders what happened to the body of the "Fillmore East" Stratocaster - are you out there Michael Fairchild?!

"Fillmore East," New York City, 10 May 1968, 2nd show
photo: David Pearcy collection

Extra photo acknowledgements:
• Photos 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5: Doug Anderson
• photo 6: Tad Schumacher
• photo 7: Bobby Robles

NB With special thanks to Doug Anderson for his valuable research assistance.

First published in UniVibes issue #27 (December 1997)
Copyright © 1997 - All rights reserved

UniVibes, Coppeen, Enniskeane, Country Cork, Republic of Ireland
Telephone + Fax: +353-26-46109
Email: univibes@indigo.ie