Perfect Mirror of Jimi Hendrix's Monterey Guitar !!

stratamania said:
That is real attention to detail and pride in a job.  :icon_thumright:
Thanks again Stratamania! This guitar's been filled full with my pride :)
 
[Jimi Project 12]
All assembled and ready for the fine tuning!

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As I'm facinated with this being in shape, I realize that something tells me that it's not quite right.

Ah, it's the tremolo arm. Compared to the '64 tremolo arm, the Monterey strat seems to be equipped with something a bit longer. Got that replaced.

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For the feed back scene for Wild Thing...

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gotta reach out for the arm at this position ;)

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Also as I realized that there is no lefty backplate available in Japan(or I'm just not looking well enough...).

well, if I can't find one, easy answer... gotta make my own.

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Matched up the thickness of the blank plate and did the needy to match this guitar.

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Done.

Also done with the first round of fine tuning this guitar.
nut slots, string height, octave pitch, pickup height, and so on... just the normal routine that anyone would go through upon setting up their guitar.

This is the " Perfect Mirror" of Jimi Hendrix's Monterey Guitar

At this point I can proudly say that,

I...

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have...

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done...

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everything I am capable of...lol

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I have invested all the time and effort to build this guitar that I am truly satisfied to say this is at it's best for what I am capable of building.

Went over to Jerry's Auto Restoration to show Nakamura how it's turned out to be.

Next, it's time to pass this over to Jimisen.

<Original blog from Jul 4th 2017>
http://avici.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-352.html
 
Very fine work. Thanks for taking us through the entire build process. Your patience and dedication has paid off.
 
Thanks for this thread. Very enjoyable on several levels - not least because it puts my (now looking fairly low-level) obsessiveness in to perspective - but also for the pride and attention to detail that you've put into this project - and a great result too of course!
 
Indeed, a fantastic result! Now, we just have to hope your pal Jimisen doesn't get lost in the moment and set fire to it  :laughing7:
 
Rgand said:
Very fine work. Thanks for taking us through the entire build process. Your patience and dedication has paid off.
Thanks!! It's a pleasure to be able to share this with you guys :)
 
stratamania said:
Yes fine work, thanks for taking the time to post...
stratamania, thanks for keeping me company on this thread, much appreciated!
The build part's done, just the hand off and the live show report to follow ;)
 
Fat Pete said:
Thanks for this thread. Very enjoyable on several levels - not least because it puts my (now looking fairly low-level) obsessiveness in to perspective - but also for the pride and attention to detail that you've put into this project - and a great result too of course!
Thanks for lookin in! It really is a pleasure to be able to share this with people who understand the work that I've put in to this.
Hopefully, I'll have another chance to share another axe here again sometime in the near future :)
 
Cagey said:
Indeed, a fantastic result! Now, we just have to hope your pal Jimisen doesn't get lost in the moment and set fire to it  :laughing7:
Yikes!....well if he does...that's that.
I guess I'll just build another one....maybe for the 60th anniversary for Jimi's appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival....lol
 
[Jimi Project 13]

I've polished the guitar, taken photos(to be precise, had photos taken), and now to pass this to it's owner.

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Drove down to live house Ikebukuro Adm

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This would be the best place for it's sound check. Jimisen's readied his rigs for the different bands he plays in.

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Jimisen growls as I bring the guitar outta it's case.
"Geez, I thought I knew what I was expecting from the photos. But seeing the real thing, it's pretty amazing. boy I feel nervous...It's like meeting the girl of my dreams..."

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Jimisen brought his main Olympic White Fender together with the proto type I previously built.
Now to compare the sound with these.

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First he played the intro for Red House with a clean tone.

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As he checks the feel of this axe, plays the feedback in Foxy Lady.

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The Wind Cries Mary

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Purple Haze

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Killing Floor

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well...not that you can tell the songs from the photos...

Swapping out guitars, his rigs and amplifiers. Jimisen's tested the sound for a good 4 hours.
I also got to try his Olympic White Fender with his rigs.

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It was a fascinating experience to have the opportunity to Jimisen's actual rigs.
I'm sure his fans would be drooling if they were to see this.

It's been a decade or two since we started joking about building a Monterey Strat.
3 years since we started really looking into this project.
6 months since I started working on the build.

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The Perfect Mirror has been handed off to one helluva happy owner!

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And it's debut has been scheduled for July 5th at Shibuya duo at the JIMISEN live.

<Original blog from Jul 4th 2017>
http://avici.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-353.html
 
This is amazingly cool!  It's a wonderful thing to make something that will hopefully inspire a great artist to a new level.

Congratulations!

Trevor
 
This is just a fantastic conclusion to this thread! I'd really like to hear Jimisen play, do you have any links you could share? And thanks for the coverage of this project, it's been realy cool.
 
That was a fine account. Thanks for the concluding photos and explanations. You really did it right. Big thumbs-up! :icon_thumright:
 
[Jimi Project 14]

Debut!!
July 5th Shibuya Music exchange "duo"

As a country folk living in Chiba, it's been almost 10 years since I've last been in Shibuya(Tokyo).
(Chiba and Shibuya(Tokyo) is like New Jersey and New York City(New York)...or something close to that)

As I don't like crowded places, decided to drive instead of taking the train.

Worried of being stuck in traffic...
Worried of getting lost...
Worried of not being able to find a parking lot...

...and found myself at the venue 2 hours before the doors open....lol
Kinda lost not knowing what to do for 2 hours, decided to take a smoke and think of what to do...just by coincidence Jimisen passes by and brought me into the venue where the rehearsals were taking place :) Lucky I am!

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A full stack Marshall with his new Voodoo stomp box.

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Stacked cabinets with a 1959, all tones cranked up full.
It's nice and LOUD, and at the same time cuz it's loud you can spot every miniscule detail of the performance.

And what also catches my attention is Jimisen's quick adaptation in getting "his" tone. I was wondering if I'd need to adjust the guitar on the fly, but it was needless to worry. Possibly having the prototype helped in knowing what to expect out of this guitar.

Anyways, the show's on!

...and the only 'kinda' decent photo my iPhone caught was this.

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But as Makoto Watanabe, whom I've know since the build of the prototype and sushimaru, a friend and band mate have brought their DSLR so here's The perfect Mirror's debut photos

Photos by Makoto Watanabe

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I guess he took many shots with the axe featured for me ;)
Great photos capturing the live essence!
You can see Jimisen smiling with content!!

Thank you Makoto!

Photos by sushimaru

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Here are photos taken shots from the 2nd floor authorized area.
As it was his first time seeing Jimisen live, he mentioned capturing the 'Jimi' moves were pretty difficult. But hey, photos are looking good. Thanks sushimaru!

There's tonnes of more live photos on JIMISEN's official facebook, so if you bother to check em out you can see them here.

JIMISEN Official Facebook
https://ja-jp.facebook.com/jimisenjapan/

I guess I should touch on the guitar tone...after all I built it...
But the best I can say is... You gotta be there to experience it....lol

well...if I were to place it in text, I guess I'd say

With a full stack Marshall, the volume and sound pressure is massive, however even being at the very front row it doesn't hurt your ears. Even with the high gain that Jimisen had set up for this gig, the tone clearly cut through the stage without becoming a sharp sonic weapon.

What I was surprised with after the show is that Jimisen claimed that the high E string wasn't ringing well halfway through the show. Seems that the fierce use of the whammy caused the set screw to take a vacation.

As I felt very sorry for this accident, at the same time I was in awe with Jimisen still playing through the show without having anyone realize this accident. I did ask why he didn't swap out to his spare guitar, and he answered "cuz I love this guitar".

I felt so thankful, I was about to burst in tears...

Took the guitar back and made sure that the set screws don't jiggle with the heavy whammy usage and brought it back to Jimisen on a later day.

Now, looking at the live photos I can't stop grinning when I flip the photos horizontally.

This is "The Perfect Mirror" :D

<Original blog from Jul 11th 2017>
http://avici.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-354.html
 
[Jimi Project 15]
These photos are pretty much a repetition of the first post, but since I've been working on translating my blog, I might as well get it done as a complete set.


"The Perfect Mirror"

In building this guitar, I have gone through masses of documents, images, vids in order to confirm all the details which was available regarding the original Monterey strat. And I am proud to say that I have not seen any replication as detailed as this one.

The following are photos of The Perfect Mirror

Among all factors that bring this guitar to what it is now, hopefully you'd be able to see the coarse spray paint finish and brushmarks that I've been especially particular about.

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Photos by Cell
https://twitter.com/Cellmonmon
http://st-gear.com/

The truth only lies inside the vids of the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival and the fragment of that strat.

The design and vibe of the Monterey strat could be copied pretty easily, however bringing this to the next level with all the detailed observations and analysis is what brings this guitar to what I call the Perfect Mirror.

<Original blog from Jul 12th 2017>
http://avici.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-355.html
 
I'd like to thank everyone for taking the time and reading through my entries here.
It's been a great pleasure to share my work and It's nice to have my work noticed.
Thanks again and hopefully I'll have more to share in the future.
 
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