Jimi Hendrix’s 1963 Fender Stratocaster (Sunburst)
Hendrix began using this sunburst Fender Stratocaster in late February 1967. Based on available photos and research into his other guitars, it’s likely that Jimi purchased this guitar upon returning to London after a brief tour in the North East, during which a couple of his guitars went missing.
One of the first gigs where Jimi used the sunburst Strat was in Chelmsford on February 25. Fortunately, a video recording of this performance still exists, though the footage is of fairly low quality.
In the photo above, you might notice another sunburst Stratocaster sitting on the stage. It’s suspected that this second guitar is the same one Jimi later burned at The Astoria on March 31, 1967.
Establishing the Date of Manufacture
From the available photos, the guitar features a veneer Rosewood fretboard. Unlike the thicker slab fretboards used until mid-1962, the veneer fretboard is thinner and arched on the bottom.
Additionally, the layout of the screws on the pickguard matches those found on Stratocasters produced in early 1963. Before this, the screw between the middle and neck pickups was positioned closer to the halfway point between the two pickups. Starting in early 1963, it was moved closer to the middle pickup.
The headstock on this guitar also displays the old “spaghetti” logo, narrowing the date of manufacture to between early 1963 and the fall of 1964. By mid to late 1964, Fender switched to the thicker “transition” logo.
Lastly, as noted by Chaz in the comments, Jimi was seen carrying this guitar in a blonde guitar case. If this case were original to the guitar, it would further indicate the Strat was likely a 1963 model. Fender replaced the blonde case with a black Tolex design in 1964, which did not include the logo.
Usage
Jimi used this guitar, or one identical to it, as there’s no way to confirm it was always the same instrument, throughout March 1967. Most notably, it appeared during his performance at the Marquee Club on March 2, which later aired on the German TV program Beat-Club, and at the Star Club in Hamburg from March 17 to 19.
Astoria
The guitar was also likely used during the infamous gig at the Astoria Theater on March 31, 1967, where Hendrix burned a guitar on stage for the first time in his career.
To support this, take a look at a backstage photo from that night [JIMI HENDRIX backstage at Finsbury Park Astoria on 31 March 1967 – Alamy]. Notice how the saddles are set up: the top five saddles are almost perfectly aligned, while the bottom E saddle is positioned far to the side, nearly hanging off.
Now compare this to a photo of Jimi’s 1963 Fender Stratocaster taken at the Star Club in Hamburg on March 18, 1967. While the bottom E string is broken in this photo, the saddles appear to be arranged in the exact same way. Additionally, the scratch marks on the guitar body seem to match, although the photo from the Astoria gig shows significantly more wear, likely the result of heavy use (and abuse) on stage.
While this evidence isn’t entirely conclusive, no other guitars from this period (or beyond) appear to have the same unique saddle setup.
It’s possible that the guitar Jimi burned at the Astoria Theater was the second Stratocaster seen in the Star Club photo (visible in the full-size version of the image). The two gigs were less than two weeks apart, making this a plausible theory. Alternatively, Jimi may have used a nearly new Stratocaster at the Astoria—likely the one recently sold at auction as the alleged “Astoria Strat.”
The Walker Brothers tour and Beyond
Unfortunately, there aren’t many photos from the 1967 Walker Brothers tour. In the few that are available online, Jimi appears to be playing a sunburst Stratocaster, but identifying the specific guitar is nearly impossible due to the poor quality of the images.
What could potentially bring some closure to the story of the 1963 Stratocaster is a video recorded on May 11, 1967, in Issy-les-Moulineaux, a suburb of Paris.
In the footage, Jimi is seen playing what is almost certainly an early ’60s Stratocaster, now showing significant wear. The spaghetti logo on the headstock is visible, along with other details consistent with the manufacturing period we discussed earlier.
Notably, some of the wear patterns match those seen in the photo taken backstage at the Astoria. Pay particular attention to the two marks near the input jack and the wear around the bridge area. Additionally, the black tone knob and pickup switch are intriguing details. If you look at the photo of Jimi backstage at the Astoria, you’ll notice two of the knobs were missing at that time. This could explain why the guitar had a black knob a few months later.
Be that as it may, the guitar disappeared from mid-May 1967 onwards, and Jimi started using a couple of red Fender Stratocasters instead.
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Awesome article about a famous guitar…I’m guessing this sunburst was used in some recordings that made it onto Are You Experienced. As an aside, in the close up pic of the Star Club gig, you can see the high E string saddle hanging off because the string was broken. Nothing holding the saddle down, obviously. The Getty Images pic it’s obviously Jimi swapping guitars because of the string break. From the scratches and wear that just occurred over a few months, it’s obvious that Jimi was a bit hard on some of his guitars. As for ‘customizing’ his guitars, a Hendrix bio book written in the late 70s claims he purposefully bent the arm of the tremolo to give it a bit more dive. How he did this, I don’t remember.
Thank heavens someone realised a hanging saddle would be a broken string. Jimi was hard on guitars, this must have happened at most gigs & hence the spare ones parked at back. I do not think he cared for any of them, they were his tools.
Ahhhh… now I see, one of these maple Strats was played and destroyed/smashed into three pieces on August 21, 1968 in Virginia Beach, VA… at The Dome. Thrown to the audience. Pictures below by Jamie Jones and Bill Stokley. If anyone has further info, I’d love to hear it.
Hi Paul. Seeing how these photos are from August 1968, it’s highly unlikely that this is the same guitar. I’m thinking that the Strat destroyed here could be one of those seen on stage at Miami Pop, which was in May that same year. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t know much more than that. For photos of those guitars, scroll down here – https://www.groundguitar.com/jimi-hendrix-gear/jimi-hendrix-1967-fender-stratocaster-white/
So Jimi used the ‘63 Strat featured here at the Star Club in March 1967 together with what looks like a brand new 1966 or ‘67 model. This photo of Jimi putting the earlier guitar away in a case at the Star Club is an interesting one and certainly seems to confirm the guitar is a 1963 model and not an early ‘64 one: that’s a 1963 case – replaced in 1964 by a black tolex one with no logo.
https://images.app.goo.gl/Vncm97MZRahKMbPLA
That’s a good catch! I’m however seeing conflicting info from sources, some claim that the change to the case happened in mid 1964. Can we confirm the exact date somehow?
I’ve not heard that the case change happened in mid-1964 – rather it may have been late 1963 if anything. Certainly my early ‘64 P-Bass has the black no-logo case, and all ‘64 Fenders I’ve seen have that case. Though as with anything Fender, there may be exceptions and this isn’t evidence as such – for that you’d need to see the stampings as mentioned – but for me the balance of probability now is weighted towards it being a ‘63 model.
Fair enough. I added the detail regarding the case.
Looking at photos from the Star Club it seems Hendrix used both the 1963/64 Strat and another sunburst one with the transition logo and what looks like the larger headstock, introduced in 1966. In this photo taken 18th March 1967 at the Star Club it looks brand new – possibly a ‘66 or ‘67 model?
Yeah, I’ve had this photo on the page before it was removed from Getty. To me this looked like it could be the alleged burned Astoria Strat. Same specs, and Star Club was just a couple of weeks prior to Astoria.
Chaz, I made a mistake. I now remember when I was first research this I though this was a transition era strat, because the logo does look thicker on this photo. But if you look at other photos taken that night, the guitar is clearly from the spaghetti era. Scratch anything I said about it being the Astoria Strat.
Yes, I thought it was a transition logo too Dan at first but looking closely it appears to be a spaghetti one. This seems to have been his number one guitar at the time, and he exchanges it at the Star Club having broken a string for the more tatty Strat – apparently the same one he’s putting away in the ‘63 case later backstage.
Beneath the ‘63 case is a black tolex one – presumably for the better condition Strat, with the broken string. Assuming the cases are original (and Jimi’s putting them in the right ones!) this would suggest that the better condition one which he was playing to start with is an early ‘64 and the ‘tatty’ one is a ‘63. The tatty one with the scar arch on the back, seems to be the one burnt at Astoria (from your research elsewhere. Now modified and owned by Dweezil Zappa (I think you concluded, plausibly). I wonder what happened to Number 1 (possibly the ‘64 allegedly given to Leon – but I’m a bit wary of that story, though maybe?)
Agree. Of those two, at least in March 1967, the good one was the main, while the tatty one was probably a back up. But since the tatty one was so beat up, I really need to go back and see when it was first used. It had to have been way before March. And yeah, that’s a great point about the cases! It could mean exactly what you wrote.
Regarding the Leon Strat (I too am not totally convinced of that being a Jimi guitar), I did a quick search, and that guitar has a transition logo.
Anyways, this “tatty” Strat seems very interesting, especially since the scratch on the back connects it to the Zappa Strat, as you’ve said. There’s a big story hiding in there. Back to research it is.
I also saw elsewhere a photo of the neck stamp on the Zappa Strat – November 1963 – so this would correspond with it being a ‘63 model (though as it’s late in the year there’s no certainty). The Leon one is clearly not the cleaner Strat as it has the transition logo (didn’t spot that!) – I’m not convinced it’s a Jimi Strat either. It would be interesting to find out more about the “tatty” Strat – I’ll look out for any updates!
I note in the Hendrix gear book a couple of sunburst ‘65 Strats are recorded and I wonder if these might in fact be the ‘63/‘64 ones we’re discussing (I’ve never seen any photos of Jimi with a ‘65 sunburst)?
In this photo the guitar on the left is an earlier version. The sunburst is more uniform in transition and the blend is more subtle than the “clown” bust that Jimi is hold. The clown burst came closer to the mid sixties when QC at Fender began to wain in light of Leo’s failing health and the rising possibility of him selling the company.
Another possibility is the guitar Jimi is holding was one of the early imports to England as England had just lifted the import ban on musical instruments. These early imports featured different paint jobs and specs than the USA sold guitars. Ray Davies is seen in 1966 with a Telecaster that has the clown burst and is an import era tele that was never offered in the USA. Clown bust, rosewood board, no binding and not a Custom Tele which is what a USA Tele would have been at the time.
John Entwistle’s 1966 butterscotch bass with a 3 ply blackguard is another example of the import Fenders as is Syd Barrett’s sparkly blue Esquire. Again another paint/spec/build that wasn’t offered in the USA.
You’ll see spaghetti logos on Fenders well into 1965/66 & it makes sense that Fender would have used those logos on guitars that were shipped over seas keeping the new versions for the US soil.
Pay attention to the dot spacing on the guitars too as they change from spread far apart to close to each other like the one Jimi is holding.
The guard on Jimi’s guitar is also very white as apposed to cream or green.
Cool to see Jimi’s strat loaded with 5 springs too.
The guitar Jimi is holding could easily be a 1965 or 1966 despite the small headstock and spaghetti logo.
Chaz… this maple strat (pics below) was smashed into three pieces and given to the audience at the Dome in Virginia Beach, VA on August 21, 1968 …at the end of the show. Any thing you can tell me about this, is this the same Strat as above in the comments? Thanks. (Pics by Jamie Jones and Bill Stokley)
“[No photo], unfortunately, shows the headstock in such detail that would allow the serial number to be read.” In 1963 and 1964 the serial number was stamped on the neckplate on the back of the guitar – it didn’t appear on the headstock until 1976. As below, the serial number on early Sixties Fenders cannot be relied upon to date the guitar on its own. The only way to be sure is to check the date stamps on the various components. For the time being all we can say with any degree of certainty is that it’s a 1963 or early 1964 Strat.
HI Chaz. My bad on both of these, should be all fixed now.
Thanks, Dan – and for sharing your diligent research!
Some good information here, thank you. However, one major error: “the guitar has the old “spaghetti” logo on the headstock, which narrows the date of manufacture to between early and mid-1963”. This is incorrect. The spaghetti logo was used on Stratocasters from their introduction in 1954 until mid to late 1964, when the transition logo started being used. The guitar is either a 1963 or early 1964 model – without seeing the date stamps on neck, pots, pickups (if present) and body ( body stamps discontinued mid ‘63) it’s impossible to tell for sure. Serial numbers can’t be relied upon alone to date the guitar – the neckplates were stamped in advance with the number in a large batch and fitted fairly randomly when the guitar was assembled. The numbers aren’t consecutive. Although they generally fall within ranges by year, it’s not unusual to find a guitar whose component parts date it to 1963 for example but with a serial number which corresponds to 1964 (and vice versa). I’ve looked at a lot of photos of this guitar and compared them with photos of ‘63 and ‘64 Strats and it’s really not possible to be sure whether it’s a ‘63 or an early ‘64, given the available information.
I doubt that Jimi “customized” his guitars – more likely the parts would break or get lost and Gerry Stickells would have to replace with whatever he could find. You didn’t note that on the sunburst Strat Jimi is holding in the photo with Cat Stevens, Walker, and Engelbert, two of the knobs (volume & tone) are missing… otherwise, I appreciate your sleuthing!