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Hendrix’s Duo Sonic Guitar up for Auction

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According to the Guitar News Daily, the 1959 Fender Duo Sonic Guitar that Jimi Hendrix used for around 6 months while playing with the Isley Brothers is up for auction in the UK. The auction will take place on Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010. This was the first Fender guitar that Jimi Hendrix’s used.

Here is a great picture of him and his Fender Duo sonic when he was with The King Kasuals.

The article states that Jimi payed about $160.00 US for his Fender Duo Sonic. I got one when I was living with my parents in the 70’s and mine was around the same price as well. The estimate price of Hendrix’s Duo Sonic is pegged anywhere from $235,000 to $285,000 (Can). I don’t think that mine will fetch this price but it doesn’t hurt to dream now does it!

The Auction company is called Cameo Auction and the guitar will be sold in Lot # 429.

Description: MEMORABILIA: Hendrix: Jimi’s Blond (tan) ’59/ ’60 Duo-Sonic Guitar.

During Jimi nine-month stint from March to November 1964, with the Isley Brothers, when he was known as Jimmy James, Hendrix got his first Fender guitar – a blond (tan) ’59/ ’60 Duo-Sonic. The one Jimi used was manufactured as a short scale guitar 22 ? inches long, selling in those days for $160. The common blond (tan) finish was discontinued in 1964. He found the Duo-Sonic affordable and that it worked great for the funky rhythms he played while working as a backing musician with the Isley Brothers backing band.

Jimi had at one stage fitted his Duo-Sonic with an EpiPhone (Maestro) Vibrato unit but had later taken it off. The rumour is that this guitar went missing whilst on tour in the USA but contrary to this Jimi just tired of using it and it was put away for a while and resurfaced years later in Chas Chandler’s London studio. Chas discovered and managed Jimi. Chas later sold the guitar in 1982 for ?400 to Rod Weinberg, who in 1983 reunited the Animals for a world tour. In 1956, Fender introduced the Music Master and Duo-Sonic guitars as affordable “3/4-size” short-scale student models. The Duo Sonic was always a student level guitar. The Duo-Sonic is considered rare and has displayed growing collector value.

The Music Master and Duo-Sonic were essentially the same guitar, with the addition of another pickup (in the bridge position) and a toggle switch on the Duo-Sonic. Cameo specialist Auctioneers Lot Description

My electric Fender Duo-sonic, just like Jimi’s, is a short scale (sometimes referred to as a student model) electric guitar. Anyone who has ever played it raves about it. The neck is made of rosewood and very small (great for all you speed freak guitarists out there), ultra light and the single coil pick ups are tailor fit to obtain that ultimate funky sound! Another great guitarist who owns one is my high school mentor Scott Merrit. I stupidly sanded mine down while Scott cut out this neat hole in the upper part of the guitar that he used as a handle, it is really neat!

Keep on Jammin’





It’s official, the Sony Walkman Cassette player is no more

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So it’s official, Sony, is discontinuing it’s line of Sony Walkman Cassette players as of today, October, 25, 2010, 30 years after it first came out with the popular Sony Walkman Cassette player!

To be honest with you, I thought it was out of production decades ago!

The final batch of Walkmans have been made and were shipped from Japan in April. According to the Sony website, they created and shipped more then 220 million of their popular Walkman Cassette player since 1979 when the company first introduced us to them.

I had one of these beauties that came with an AM/FM radio in it. Man, that was really impressive back then. I have no idea where it ended up to, but every time I see one it makes me smile!

So hats off to the men and women who helped develop the Walkman.

Keep on Jammin’

The Sanyo Pedal Juice – Power for your Pedals

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A couple weeks ago I was contacted by a representative for Sanyo US. The gentleman who contacted me wanted to know if I was interested in trying a sample of the brand new Pedal Juice by Sanyo for review. Naturally I replied back stating that I’d love to give the Pedal Juice a try.

The Pedal Juice arrived last week and I have to admit that I haven’t really had a chance to test it with my pedals, but I thought I’d start out by writing a post about just exactly what the Pedal Juice is and how musicians can use it when they are playing gigs.

The Sanyo Juice Pedal is a 9 volt portable guitar pedal power supply and from what I have seen and heard of about it online it’s a great thing to use.

The Pedal Juice Pedal is quite light and a very compact accessory that you can take along with you anywhere you practice or perform.

The Pedal Juice is a 9V DC Rechargeable Lithium-Ion power supply for your pedal with a List Price of $199.99(US) that charges up in about 3 1/2 hours. It gives you up to 50 hours of constant, stable power for a single analog pedal or up to 20 hours of continuous power to three digital pedals. No more looking for an electrical outlet or hookup for your pedals – just use the rechargeable Pedal Juice and you’re set.

I use 2 pedals, so when I jam this weekend I’ll see how it works and get back to you with my results. With the price of 9 volt batteries these days, if your better at math than I am, you can see how much money and time you’ll save with an accessory like this.

This power supply eliminates all that AC ground looping noise that you get when you play. Another advantage that it has is that you can recharge it hundreds of times, thereby eliminating the need to change batteries in the middle of a show. That happened to me last year on stage and that’s something no musician wants to go through more then once!

With both DC outputs the Pedal Juice has the ability of powering multiple devices including pedals, multi-effect units, drum machines or portable recorders at the same time. It doesn’t get any better than that.

This device has a very visible LED power indicator that shows you the remaining power level with green, orange, and red LED lights at a glance. There is also a nice little feature that allows you to connect devices with a flip of the on-off switch. The Pedal Juice is both water and shock resistant to JIS IPX3 compliance levels.

I found just a couple of video reviews and this one is the best I’ve seen so far. Why don’t you take a look at it if you find the new Pedal Juice as interesting and innovative as I do, and once I’ve tried this out for myself, I’ll write another post about my experiences with the Pedal Juice.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdh_c9V4eHQ

Keep on Jammin’

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