Fender Jimi Hendrix Custom Shop ‘Woodstock’ Strat: Cashing in on the Izabella legacy?
Fender’s Custom Shop don’t miss a trick, do they? As the 50th anniversary of Jimi Hendrix’s appearance at Woodstock rolls around, they have decided to release another ‘Hendrix Strat’ with a production run of 250 instruments. The only problem is that there’s nothing particularly special about this model at all. Except the price tag. And the Hendrix name.
This model is a reproduction of “Izabella”, the guitar Mr James Marshall Hendrix played during his rendition of the Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock in 1969. He purchased it at Manny’s Music in New York. It was a regular 1968 Olympic White Strat with an alder body and two-piece maple neck, with no “skunk stripe” and truss rod adjustment at the heel. The serial number is 240981.
‘Hendrix’ Specs
The new model is called the Jimi Hendrix Custom Shop ‘Woodstock’ Strat. It has an alder body in Olympic White with a three-ply parchment pickguard. The neck is flat sawn maple ’60s C-shaped neck with a maple fingerboard loaded with 21 vintage-style frets and nickel-plated steel .010-.046 gauge strings.
You also get a standard 6-saddle American Vintage synchronized tremolo and three custom hand-wound ’69 single coil Strat pickups in the bridge, middle and neck positions wired via a three-way blade switch. The controls are labelled Master Volume, Tone 1 (neck pickup) and Tone 2 (middle pickup).
So nothing particularly special here. Don’t expect to sound anything like Jimi when you play this guitar. It has the ‘vintage’ specs but it’s a regular guitar in modern day terms and not really special in any way, other than it has the Hendrix name on it.
Limited Run Goodies
The Fender Custom Shop Limited Edition Jimi Hendrix Stratocaster will come with a deluxe hardshell case, custom strap, custom headband, coiled cable, commemorative booklet and a Certificate of Authenticity. Call me cynical, but a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation goes like this: 250 x £6549 = Just over £1.5 million. Given the specs, surely most of that is profit?
Personally, I find these Hendrix ‘cash-in’ guitars really distasteful. It just seems to be all about the money and finding gullible people with lots of cash to spend.
RRP – GBP 6549
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10 responses to “Fender Jimi Hendrix Custom Shop ‘Woodstock’ Strat: Cashing in on the Izabella legacy?”
I think I pulled something yawning…
Definitely a cash grab. I don’t get how this is even a “Hendrix” model other than the pictures showing it upside down.
bad vibes in this article. some people want to have a good time playing a guitar with the same specs as what jimi played doing his famous thing on a famous day. who cares if other people dig it — if you don’t move on.
It is just my own personal opinion. I think it stinks of profit and is a cash grab with very little to do with Hendrix himself. You can buy any guitar you like and in the same manner, I can have my opinion on any guitar.
And why is a problem??? Everybody is free to buy whatever he wants. Maybe you didn’t notice but you live in a capitalist world.
We also live in a world of free speech and it is just my opinion on a guitar. A pretty bog standard guitar at that and one that isn’t really worth the asking price.
And everybody is just as free to say whatever they want which in this case was Jef being extremely polite in his opinion as I would have (and will) say that it’s a shameless and horribly over-priced total ripoff aimed at dumb people with way too much money and way too little common sense (all of which seems to also sum up way too much of the guitar market these days). And no. I don’t have a “problem” with the guitar as I’m not stupid enough to even consider buying it which to me translates into “problem solved”.
Just because one lives in a capitalist world doesn’t mean one has to like it.
To Mr. Jeff, I would ask. Have you seen the guitar in person? played it? heard it? sense how it feels when you play it?
Have you analyzed the relic job? the scratches, the dings, the color compared to the original. I know you’re exercising your freedom of speech, but I have also learned that, until you actually have full knowledge of something or someone, you can’t really issue an opinion of it or so blatantly advise about it as a “nothing special” instrument. And I personally am not trying to change your mind, I just think that if you’d play it and analyze all the details mentioned above, your would actually see, hear and appreciate just how special it really is. I know I have, but then again, I one of those people who were dumb enough to buy it. Cheers mate.
“Analysed the relic job” 😔
I,ve got one…..in between 5 high end vintage models of guitars (plus some others). I’m a fan of vintage sounds (guitars and amps), and this one gives me special feeling, really. Precise dynamic and sounds…a bit costy but after some years, you find buyers at upper prices on 250 units limited series. i did not buy it for an investment, but the second hand price is upper than the initial price, which is not the case for any large series guitar, with less sound and sentations. So what ?
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