Guitar Archeology

Jimi With Sunn Amps

Buck Munger was told the gear would be air-freighted in and trucked to the venue, the afternoon of the performance. Like it happened every day. Since it was my first time, I didn’t know enough to be paranoid. I had faith, but I was a little concerned. When we talked gear Jimi was surprised to hear the top line guitar amplifier Sun…n made had a 15-inch JBL speaker in the bottom of the cabinet and a JBL high-frequency horn in the top. We didn’t have time to custom build cabinets with 12-inch speakers, but we agreed to replace them down the line. He’d have to play this first gig with the standard guitar cabinets. I didn’t know that much about playing feedback but I knew it would be weirder with a horn and Jimi wasn’t even going to see the gear until hours before the gig. All he seemed to be concerned about was, would they be loud enough? In the weeks since Jimi’s gig in Monterey and the meteoric rise in interest, the gaggle of hipsters trailing Jimi had grown to include several other amplifier companies, and if Jimi’s sound sucked that night I’m sure somebody would be there with the promise of gear for the next show. Like a military operation, the Sunn amplifiers arrived, as promised at three in the afternoon. Quickly stripped of the cardboard shipping boxes and wheeled inside and onto the stage. Power to the wall, speaker cabinet to the head. Guitar jack in. Jimi was using a Y cord to two power units driving two speaker cabinets each. Noel had the same in the bass model 200S. His cabinets had two JBL-D-140s each. He’s driving eight of those puppies to the party. We have about four hours till showtime, the hall is empty, Jimi and Noel have the place to themselves and new toys to play with. I position myself on stage fairly close to Jimi, so I can hear what he hears. (Time-out for a reality check.) I’d been in bands for almost ten years by then, played with all kinds of guitar players and I never, ever saw one of them turn his amp up past four, or maybe-with a loud crowd, five. Jimi walked straight to both tops and cranked them both wide-open. We would start on ten and control the volume from the guitar. Wonk!!! The first string strike echoed through the building like an artillery shell.