Voodoo Chile

[JimmyMac]

David,
Yup, I'm a left hooker and you can definitely drive this car when it's finished.
There is something calming in guitar making as it's an occasional passtime in fettling and scraping wood after the engineering is out of the way "making the jigs". It's a bit like making split bamboo fishing rods.
The next project was going to be a bike, perhaps a Cafe' Racer.

One of my all time favourite tracks is this one by Hendrix :

YouTube - Jimi Hendrix - All Along The Watchtower

 

[Daryl Adams]

For me, Jimi was to music what the GT40 was to race cars. His was the first big time rock show I attended. This was just before Hendrix hit it big. Previously the only concerts I'd gone to were mainstream "girlfriend" shows like Sonny and Cher and The Association. Then I went to the Coll Ballroom in Davenport, Iowa to see Hendrix. It was essentially a small, former roller rink that had been converted to a dance venue. It was jammed to the gills with maybe 600 people and my buddy Ralph and I were about 20 feet from the stage. The opening act was The Soft Machine, which was a great show in itself, but then came Hedrix. Nobody in our little midwestern community was in any way ready for what happened next. He played for a solid two hours, including a version of Red House that made my hair stand on end. Similar concerts by The Who and Pink Floyd came close, but Jimi was in a class by himself in my memory.

 

[Chris Kouba]

As I am left handed, I also made my own guitars and use the originals to copy.

Jimmymac,

Doesn't look like you do anything half-assed or easy. I was impressed with your quest for original parts for your 40 but that is nothing compared to my respect for those who create their own guitars from scratch. I had an itch to do this a while ago and got so far as to draw patterns up and think about shapes. Reflecting on the whole process prior to committing got me out of it before I got sucked into it too far. Hat's off to you...

Got any finished pics?

 

[David Morton]

No where near as clever as that James - but in a previous life I used to repair
wooden steering wheels usually from Aston Martin repairs. Most drivers kept their hands on the wheels as their accidents ensued and the result was the steering wheel had a lot of 'driver energy' transferred to it as the car suddenly stopped and it then became a dished steering wheel. Irish Mick in High wycombe used to flatten them again by cutting a fraction out of the spokes and rejoining and then I got to work after the wheel was either Painted or Polished again. If all of them were missing or broken, it took 16 different strips of steamed wood and the obverse and reverse was cut from a sized blank. All new large (fake) aluminium rivets, loads of profiling and sanding and 6 coats of Yacht varnish rubbed down between each layer. I got it down to about four to six hours per wheel. This was about 20 years ago and I think a new wheel from Aston at the time was in excessivly expensive ( £800 ?) A bit like making fishing rods - after a night shift driving back from Singapore or Bangkok - very satisfying.

 

[Al Jones]

James - You should have been a luthier. Simply beautiful! What did you use for the fretboard on the LP?

 

[JimmyMac]

Al,

The fretboard on the Les Paul is a rare quarter sawn Brazilian Rosewood. This was the same timber used on the original 59 Standard models and early Rickenbackers. It is a protected species now.

 

[Anthony]

If we are talking guitar riffs, can I throw Dave Gilmour/Pink Floyd and Comfortably Numb.

I am a little young to appreciate Hendrix but I have him on my Spotify Playlist and starting to appreciate him.

 

[Dalton Veitch]

I have this mental image of GT40's smashing into trees, posts, and other cars while their drivers are in raptures listening to Hendrix (and other greats). But perhaps you listen in the safety of your own home, while making love on the kitchen table (ouch).

 

[David Morton]

Trees, posts and other cars is about right. Our kitchen table is cold granite.

 

[JimmyMac]

I have this mental image of GT40's smashing into trees, posts, and other cars while their drivers are in raptures listening to Hendrix (and other greats).

Music in a GT40 ? I don't fancy installing an 8-Track.

As for the kitchen table ~ do you guys in Australia share your sandwiches at work ?

 

[Mark Worthington]

I think Them Changes is a better rif. I know Jimi played it before anyone else with Buddy Miles and Band of Gypsys, but Buddy might have written the music as well as the lyrics.

 

[Rick Muck- Mark IV]

Music in a GT40 ? I don't fancy installing an 8-Track.

Ah, yes 8 tracks. The days of "click, chunk, thunk" in the middle of the song as the machine changes tracks as the record companies were reluctant to change the album order in order to "fit" the songs onto the available tape. I know people who believe "Inna Gadda Da Vida" was recorded with the noise in it!

 

[EGLITOM]

When i was starting riding motorbikes i used to drive with earphones and my walkman.

This would be one my favorite driving songs.

YouTube - Molly Hatchet - "Dreams I'll Never See"

Just imagine a windy mountain road and than just let it flow, not too fast but fast engough to be one with the song and the road.
I was lucky to survive that aera because i often enoguh had the ACCEPT tapes in it as well.

TOM

 

[Chris P.]

Guns and Roses #2? Come on - Although Slash is a great guitar player, even he hated that song.

For Hendrix, although his original Voodoo Child is still awesome, I would personally put Born Under a Bad Sign (from the Blues album) first - or Machine Gun at the Filmore (an old boss of mine was actually there! - bastard.)

 

[Tod]

My vote is with Tom's earlier post - Stevie Ray Vaughan's version of Voodoo Chile is smokin'. He brought it to a whole new audience. Same can be said for what he had done for electric blues...