The official Jimi Hendrix Strat from

Gibson!

There’s been quite a bit of uproar about after it was announce the keepers of Jimi Hendrix’s name and image, his family “Authentic Hendrix LLC”, that branded signature guitar packages would be made by the Gibson Guitar Corp.

Now you think of Jimi, you think Woodstock, Isle Of Man, Summer Of Love, Monterrey, teaching Claptout to play, fuel dosed burning guitar, smashed guitar, you think Strat… Fender Strat.

Well Hendrix did play Gibsons, an SG (below left), Les Paul and a Flying V (below right), a version of which Gibson has previously produced as a signature model.

But no Gibson haven’t come up with a V or SG they’ve designed what suspiciously looks like a Stratocaster. Ah but they’ve angled the bridge pickup as if you were playing it left handed and the headstock is reversed and well pointy like an 80s SuperStrat knockoff. Though oddly with two completely different headstock shapes – below: the Experience & Signature models in black and Little Wing in white…

Now Gibson did a pointy headed SuperStrat style guitar back in the pointy headstock heyday of the late 1980s and looking at the, large number of, raw bodies and necks there’s a very Kramerish look about them, not a surprise as Gibson owns Kramer. But as many have pointed out in the mainly disapproving comments about this whole episode that Gibson took PRS to court over the latter’s single cut body looking somewhat like a Les Paul.

Now on the official announcement page Gibson did a reasonable job of cutting out all the Fenders Hendrix is holding in all the pictures apart from the back of the one he played at Woodstock you can see in the last pic but there’s also the very prominent Strat right there on the front of the box of the “Experience” Guitar Package…

…right next to the cheap guitar he isn’t playing in the pic, a cheap little amp that he didn’t play and a cheap fuzz pedal he didn’t play.

Jimi’s family did a good job of gaining control over his legacy which had been misused for many years but this is a shoddy job , that nobody seems to have a good word to say about and looks to have done more harm than good to the name and image of the late great Strat player but will more than likely make a few bucks for someone.