Guitar Archeology

Billy Gibbons (white shirt-center) opens for Jimi

I spent the next few months bouncing around the country with the Who and the Jimi Hendrix Experience while Pete and Sheila ran the new Sunn offices on the corner of Sunset & Vine. The location quickly became a popular destination for local and touring acts. Neil Young was back in the Buffalo Springfield and now sporting …an all Sunn backline. Bands from the UK chose LA as the beachhead of the invasion and Hollywood was quickly becoming British territory. Headquarters for many was the Continental Hyatt (Riot) House on Sunset. Jimi Hendrix was still waiting for his 12” speaker cabinets and in the meantime had taken the horns out of the top of the 100S speaker cabinets. You couldn’t see the difference through the grille cloth and each night he’d ram his guitar into the empty hole. With the feedback and theatrics it looked like he was reaming the loudspeaker. The next night, new grille-cloth, new amplifier. About this time Jimi introduced me to a young guitar player from Texas that had opened for him and made a big impression. Jimi wanted to give several of his older Sunn units to the Moving Sidewalks guitarist Billy Gibbons. No problem. I noticed, the reports of Jimi trashing his gear didn’t go down well with Pete Townshend at all. By the time the Who landed in Los Angeles we were tight and I was excited to show them around. John Entwistle was amazed at the fruit salad at the Room At The Top and Keith Moon loved ordering beer down to the office, so we could close the inner door and do phone pranks. Pete Townshend kept urging me to cover his songs with American acts. The band bonded with everybody in the Sunn office. Peter Burke even volunteered his credit card when Wallach’s Music City wouldn’t take a check from Townshend for a new Les Paul.

Jimi With Sunn Amplifiers

Buck Munger left Jimi on the phone to Oregon and wandered back into the hall where setting up Mitch Mitchell’s drums was the focus of attention, which gave me the opportunity to check out Mitch’s kit up close and introduce myself. Mitch was another jazz-influenced fills master, no boring boom chucker here. With three guys in the b…and you have to fill up the musical spaces. In handling a set of Mitch’s sticks, I noticed they were “Ringo Starr” models. At that point in time Ringo was taking a lot of heat as the least of the Beatles and I was a little surprised this cutting-edge drummer would have an old-school idol. Ringo? “Ringo’s a great drummer,” growled Mitch, giving me a glare. The Brits stick together and I’ll admit, after Mitch chewed on me, I went back and listened again, and he was right. I was a lot closer to Jimi this time. At the Monterey Pop Festival I was a ways back taking in the whole Experience. This time I was standing right behind his amplifiers watching the KT-88 power tubes cook. I don’t know what I would have done if they crapped out, all I knew how to do was change a fuse, and I realized I didn’t even have any extra fuses in my pockets. I was spread-eagled on the altar of fate. We were flying high over the city and if we crashed, so be it, but for now, the view was breathtaking. I had wondered how Jimi’s set from Monterey would translate inside a giant gymnasium. Remember, these were the days of no stage monitors, no board mixes and minimum, if any, lights. Look at all the pictures of Jimi. None were taken in a follow-spot. At this venue Jimi was just up on a portable stage at the end of the basketball court with bleachers on either side, or folding chairs in the middle. The place was packed with college students. It wasn’t a warm summer night outdoors with lights, camera and warm-up action. It took about half a song to erase any doubt that Jimi could create the magic again. This time I tried to get a look at how he made it happen. He had the longest fingers I have ever seen on a human being. They seemed to be able to stretch half the neck length. He plucked and hammered the strings with his right (fretting) hand and waved his pick in the air. He played behind his head and he plucked the strings with his teeth, all while keeping the barrage of sound bouncing off the walls. “Foxy Lady” was a hit here too, as was “Hey Joe” and “Like A Rolling Stone” by the time he got to “Wild Thing” the joint was rockin’.

Buck Munger thinks Sunn’s greatest contribution to music technology was their bass amplifier. Jimi was evaluating a guitar amplifier with high frequency horns in the speaker cabinets. Ever see those in a guitar amplifier before or since? Norm Sundholm was a bass player. I think Conrad, his brother the high-fidelity nut, might have… had some input on the guitar units. Standing next to Jimi I had forgotten all about Jimi’s cabinets having horns. He sounded like the same three people he did at Monterey. The combination of the bass and guitar stacks sounded good. Really, good. Noel’s JBL-D 140s filled the hall with a thumping bottom. Jimi played his guitar like it was covered in mirrors, and he was reflecting a beam of light at his speaker cabinets, but it wasn’t light, it was sound. I could hardly wait to hear “Wild Thing”. I thought the sound-check went swell, but Jimi, apparently, not so much. By showtime, the roadies had opened the backs of the Sunn cabinets and disconnected the horns. For the show Jimi would fly with four JBL D-130s. Gerry Stickles, Jimi’s road manager, assured me everything was going fine and our endorsement deal was surely going to happen. Gerry was the first British Road Manager I dealt with and he was an impressive individual. In those days there was a distinct rank difference between Road Managers and Equipment Managers. Visible in their uniforms, the Road managers were the Officer corps dressed in leather and snakeskin jackets and the Equipment Managers, were the enlisted peons dressed in tee shirts. Gerry huddled with Noel and Jimi and reported they were very happy with the power output and we were good to go for the show. I ran to the pay phone and called Tualatin to report our progress. They were a little distressed to hear Jimi would be doing the test flight without full speaker power. I waved Jimi over to the phone so he could explain about the horns, “This is the president of the company, Jimi, “ and handed him the phone. I backed up out of hearing range to give him privacy. I’m not sure what transpired, but I believe this is the first time Jimi was ever heard to say, “You’ll never hear surf music again.”

Check out this vintage JG guitar italian made hollow body. This guitar has the Wow factor. In person and playing this is a beauty! Don’t know much about them not a lot of info out there but the ones I have found are prized. I am sure this will go to a nice collection.