Sept 4th 2008, The first guitar torched on stage by Jimi Hendrix sold for £280,000 at an auction of rock memorabilia. The Fender Stratocaster was burned at the end of a show at the Astoria in Finsbury Park, north London, in 1967.

From www.thisdayinmusic.com

If I had the bucks I'd gladly pay that for such a rock relic from rock's greatest guitarist.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Hi Spiritinthesky: yes. Here on the Forum we watched that auction take place. There was a live feed on the internet and results were covered in a couple of threads in the Lounge and on the Stratocaster pages.

In fact, the final price was at the very bottom of the predicted range. Beforehand excited people on TV and in newspapers thought it might fetch £0.5m / $0.75m. But it didn't.

I seem to recall the guitar had turned up in a garage in Hove where it had sat for 40 years. The garage belonged to Jimi's publicity manager or something similar, if memory serves, so the "provenance" was reasonably good.

Cheers - C

i must assume that there was more than 1 torched guitar then. i know at one time dwezel zappa owned a jimi torch guitar and paid a serious mint for it. i think he said it was from the mont. pop festival.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Yes, Hendrix did the lighter fluid thing a few times - though he apparently got sick of it pretty quick. The one he burned at the Astoria in London in 1967 was apparently the first, in March of that year. Monterey came in June I think?

I don't recall how many other guitars he burned - but it was few. He didn't want it to become something he had to do every show.

There's some confusion over the Zappa Strat - but I can't quite remember all the details of that story. Someone else will know...

Cheers - C

the zappa strat he bought at a very large sum.
its by far cool looking. i wonder if a pic can be found of it?
(hint hint ceri)

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Oh OK.

Here's Dweezil playing the Zappa-Hendrix Strat which he rebuilt for a second time (gold hardware and a reverse headstock? Hmmm...)



Here's a page about the Zappa-Hendrix guitar:

http://www.feelnumb.com/?p=2409

This suggests it was burnt at a show in Miami in 1968 and was given to Zappa by a roadie of Jimi's who'd stayed at Frank's house. It also says Dweezil failed to sell it in 2002 - but I have a foggy memory it has since indeed been sold. Is that right?

I think the Monterey burnt Strat was smashed to small pieces, wasn't it? I believe there's parts of it owned here and there, but that explains why it isn't the one Zappa had - which is what often causes confusion.

And here's the one from the Astoria in London. A 1965 Strat, burned in 1967:



I remember that at the time of the auction there was some talk from the guitar detectives here over the fact that it is strung left-handed but the saddles are arranged for a right-handed player. All kinds of dark conspiracy theories were concocted around that, but the real explanation was more banal...

Cheers - C

Oh, and just for the sake of completeness, here is a Strat burned by Forum user Nikininja. This guitar is currently in my possession and I am prepared to sell it for a truly GIGANTIC amount of money! (You'll get at least half, Nick... )



Cheers - C

Ok.

Let me know if you have a regular repeat customer base.

I'll spend all day burning guitars.

That old burnt body has benefited a lot of folks. Before you ever saw it, it discouraged a load of forumites from scorching their guitars.

Now of course, it's a regular centerfold in Stunning Strats Monthly magazine.

To be very complete (and because we can't get enough of looking at it) you should post a picture of it in it's current state. Really show all these other scorched guitar owners as the slackers they are.

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No no and no

Oh... all right.

The Burnt Strat after Nikininja's tender attentions; and the same guitar after a bit of repair work by Ceri:



So if anyone's talking to Dweezil by all means tell him to send his Hendrix Strat over. I'll sort it out for him...

Cheers - C

I wonder if keef asked nicely would fender start charging extortionate amounts of money for burnt guitars?

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Rated "M" for meaty.

The Zappa/Hendrix was gifted to Frank by somebody who was in the inner sanctum of Jimi's friends,I don't believe that it was Eric Barrett but if my memory serves me right it may have been Gerry Stickles.The guitar was one that I believe he used in a concert in Miami.I have the whole story about it in a Frank Zappa interview somewhere among my reams of Hendrix material.I can't put my hands on it right away but I have to find it now to satisfy my curiosity.BTW the body of the 2nd Monterey Strat-the first was black with a rosewood fretboard-was broken into several pieces but one young audience member was lucky and smart enough to get a pretty big piece-about 3/4 of the body and lock it away.This piece was used by Fender as a reference to make the very limited edition Monterey Strat.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

ceri that is sweet craftsmanship. show a bigger pic please.

ok slinger, get busy and find that info. we are all wondering now.
i thought i had the right story in my memory banks but now im second guessing myself too.

whats the deal with scorched guitars? was it a fad or something?
any pics on the fad?

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Hi Way Cool,two things that I'm absolutely positive of are that Frank Zappa acquired the guitar from a Hendrix source and it was most definitely not the Monterey Strat as the sacrificed one was hand painted in an elaborate pattern by Jimi and the other Monterey Strat was black and was passed to a roadie just before he played the Wild Thing finale using the hand painted one.The Zappa Strat is sunburst so there's no way it could have been used at Monterey.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

agreed agreed.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."