Jimi started using 1956 Gibson Les Paul Custom guitar around April 1968. The earliest photos date to April 5th, 1968, which could possibly mean that this is something Jimi acquired at Manny’s Music shop, which is just a 30-minute drive from the Symphony Hall. At that time, the guitar seemed the have been used exclusively on the song Red House, and it seemed to have some sort of a white sticker on the top of the body.
The Les Paul was however most famously used at Bill Graham’s Fillmore East venue in New York on May 10, 1968, and at the Miami Pop Festival on May 18th. Aside from these two, Hendrix apparently hasn’t really played the guitar that much, since it was spotted during only a handful of gigs around this period.
-GroundGuitar
Photo Elliott Landy - Jimi Hendrix Fillmore East, NYC, 1968
In all this there was a strangeness that attracted and enchanted me.
Mary Shelley, from ‘Matilda’












