Same here. Hendrix would of used anything to get the sound in his head onto tape. The biograqphy im reading at the moment tells how he couldnt sit in a cafe drinking coffee without hearing rhythm and sounds for songs from the street noise outside. He even used to pay attention to the way people spoke for rhythm idea's. It also tells how money/spend concious Chas Chandler was and how controling Mike jeffery was. Excessive studio time before Axis seems unrealistic.

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No no and no

I've expressed my skepticism in quite a few posts in the few threads where this has come up. I too wanted to see documentation because of many different versions of this "borrowed Noel's Telecaster" story you will find discussed on forums over the last few years.

Two posts ago I mentioned that I finally found a shred of documentation in Noel Redding's book "Are You Experienced: the inside story of the Jimi Hendrix Experience" (Da Capo Press 1990). In the book Noel writes about a gig on February 1, 1967 where Jimi's amp blew up and they had to play through the PA. Then he writes: "A couple nights later, Jimi broke his guitar and I had to borrow my old Telecaster from Trevor Williams." But that's all he mentions of this story!

So one part of the myth is correct: there is a Telecaster!

One part of the myth isn't correct: the Telecaster didn't belong to Noel as he had traded it to Mr. Williams for a "Gibson two-pick-up" (whatever that is!). This is important because it means the Telecaster wasn't readily available (Noel wasn't dragging it around everywhere he went because another guy owned it).

The version of the myth about the Telecaster being used for the recording of "Hey Joe" isn't correct because "Hey Joe" was recorded on October 23, 1966 and the borrowing took place sometime after February 1, 1967.

Now here's where it gets interesting! The other version of the myth about the Telecaster being used for the recording of the solo in "Purple Haze" has an outside chance of being true! Here're some important dates and happenings from Noel's book (note that he is quite precise because he kept diaries during this time!):
1967
January 11: recording of Purple Haze at CBS
February 1: a gig
February 2: a gig
February 3: recording of Purple Haze's solo at Olympic and a gig
February 4: a gig
February 6: a gig
February 7: recording
February 8: recording and a gig

Okay, according to what Noel wrote, a couple nights after the Feb 1st gig, Jimi broke his guitar and probably the next day Noel went to Trevor Williams to borrow his ex-Tele for Jimi to use (while they could scrounge up a new Strat -- which BTW was subsequently stolen Feb 22nd).

Now if a "couple" is two, the Strat breaks at the gig on Feb 3rd, after the solo to "Purple Haze" is recorded. And the Tele is used on the 4th ...

If a "couple" is 3 days, the Strat is broken on Feb 4th and maybe the Tele is used for the gig on the 6th and recording on the 7th & 8th ...

The only way that the Tele could have been used in the recording on the 3rd is if the Strat broke at the gig on the 2nd. That is, if "couple" meant 1, or if he made a mistake: instead of writing "the next night" he wrote "a couple of nights."

So there you have my current analysis! Whew!


(The fact that Purple Haze's solo and lead vocal was re-recorded on Feb 3rd is mentioned in the "Hendrix Sessions" book.)

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

I wish Noel would have written more about the telecaster on the diary.

yeah, there's only the one sentence on the "borrowing" story.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

From a bit of research i have done over the past couple of years, in brief.

Noel Redding sold his telecaster, 'before' joining the Jimi Hendrix Experience. This is stated in an old interview and is documented.
He was invited to join the JHE and he sold his Telecaster to buy the Base guitar, as he did not own one at the time.

In the mid 1970's, Mitch Mitchell sold 3 of Hendix's guitars to a shop in Charring Cross Road, London, England in the Mid 1970's. when he was short of cash.
This is also documented although the total exact number is not mentioned. One of these guitars was a 1966 'left handed' blond Fender Telecaster which had a cream gibson p90 pick up situated below the neck.

A 'Telecaster' is also listed and documented in the Jimi Hendrix equipment list, so chances are that he did own one, and it is possible that he did not borrow one for the said session.....

A friend of mine did question Mitch Mitchell at the Marquee, London about the selling of the 3 guitars to the shop back then, and he confirmed that he sold them.
Mitch also stated that Jimi only used this Telecaster in the studio and not as a live giging guitar, as he did not like the sound.

Ray

All one has to do is listen to the intro of Hey Joe especially,there's no way the guitar can be anything but a Strat a Tele just can't get the sound that a Strat makes in the intro.I've been able to nail the tone with my 65 Strat through my Marshall you could never recreate it with a Tele.Thete's so much myth and BS associated with Jimi that's it's almost Impossible to seperate truth from fiction.I have studied every inch of Hendrix video that I can get hold of and I've deduced from closely watching that he's always used light guage strings both bass and treble possibly as high as 8-38s and if you look closely at the Isle of Wight footage you'll see that as he leaves the stage andwalks backstage he tosses his"beloved"Strat"to the stage floor.

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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.

Welcome to the forum, Ray.

The big question is when did Jimi get that 1966 Lefty Tele?
It seems to me that it was not in late 1966 or early 1967, because in all of the published stories Jimi always seemed to have just one Strat. He'd damage it or get it stolen and they'd have to buy another ... it seems like he didn't have a spare.

And Noel does say that, in early February 1967, he had to borrow his old Tele from the owner (Trevor Williams) for Jimi to use because his Strat got damaged. I just haven't found any reliable confirmation that the borrowed Tele was used on any recording sessions. The recent book does not mention a Tele at all.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Jimi did in fact at leastplay a white Strat with a maple Tele neck for at least one concert,that's the closest I've seen him come to using a Tele.

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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.

There are as many stories about Hendrix's string gauges as there are string guages. How's right?

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James Burton Upgrade Telecaster
Hot Rodded Am Fat Strat Texas Special (now featuring Kinman Traditional II pickups)
Fender Blues Jr.
SWR California Blonde
Pedals Pedals Pedals

Wow, good post mate.

If you watch Jimmy closely, notice how he is bringing his arm over the top of the fret board and running it up the guitar.

Simply Awesome. He was Trying inovative things even in that era.

Thanks.

Hi Orville...Agree about the date etc.
Another bit of info from some past writings/interview -Jimi's Gear.

"Jimi also favored Gibson Les Pauls, and he owned at least three Gibson Flying V's throughout his career (only one remains, a black V with gold pickups, now treasured by Eric Barrett).
One other Fender model - the Telecaster - was always on hand, though Jimi rarely used it, and then usually only in the studio. On one occasion he may have played a Stratocaster with a Telecaster neck".

I found a list of equipment said to have been owned/used by Jimi as below.

Guitars

*Fender
**Stratocaster; his main guitar, strung upside-down because he was left-handed
**Jaguar
**Duo-Sonic and Musicmaster (1961)
**Telecaster
**Jazzmaster
*Gibson
**Gibson Les Paul
**Gibson SG
**Gibson Flying V (1967 and 1968 makes)
**Gibson 330
**Gibson Firebird
*Others
**Danelectro Shorthorn (1959)
**Supro Ozark 1560S Electric
**Three Rickenbackers: a bass, a 6-string, and a 12-string guitar
**Martin D-45, bought new
**Hofner electric
**Guild 12-string acoustic
**Gibson stereo
**Acoustic Black Widow (salvaged by Hendrix)
**Zematis 12-string acoustic guitar (played on an acoustic version of "Hear my Train a Comin")
**Two Hagstrom 8-string basses (played by Hendrix in "Spanish Castle Magic" on "Axis: Bold as Love")
Eric Barrett adds that Hendrix generally had more than one of everything, except the Rickenbackers.

Amplifiers

*Fender
*Marshall
*Sunn
*Vox


Surely, if you take Mitch Mitchell's word as gospel, then serial numbers of the guitars would have been logged at some time somewhere ..
Best Regards…Ray

The "Electric Gypsy" book has a pretty good list of Jimi's guitars. He has descriptions of the various (many) Strats, but only a few serial numbers are listed. The logged serial numbers could be in Michael Jeffrey's files, but who knows what happened to them upon his death!

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Just another extract... from 'The Life of Jimi Hendrix' ('Scuse Me While I Kiss The Sky) by David Henderson, Chapter 6, pg193.

"On this tour, Hendrix carried along what amounted to a portable recording studio, including boxes of extra fuzz tones, wah wah peddles, univibes, guitar straps, and assorted boxes of 'toys', such as the "Octavia," which were built especially for him. He also carried an assortment of guitars including his old-beat up Hofner, a twelve string Hagstrom, a Les Paul Flying V, an old Fender Telecaster and several brand-new Stratocasters."

Not sure of which tour, but possibly around late 67 or 1968.

....Ray