Jimi Hendrix Monterey Stratocaster | Fender Guitars
“This is for everyone” - Jimi Hendrix, 1967 (moments before burning his guitar)
Jimi Hendrix took the world by storm with his incredible Monterey Pop Festival performance, which he concluded with the sacrificial burning of his now-iconic hand-painted Stratocaster. Destroyed during the fiery culmination of his set, this one-of-a-kind guitar survived only in photos and film. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of this milestone in music history, we created the limited-edition Jimi Hendrix Monterey Stratocaster.
FEATURES
HENDRIX-INSPIRED ARTWORK
The guitar's body art is an homage to Hendrix's hand-painted original, giving fans, players and collectors the chance to own a modern classic.
FENDER SINGLE-COIL PICKUPS
This instrument features single-coil Stratocaster pickups that evoke Fender’s classic ‘60s tones.
HEADSTOCK SIGNATURE
The Monterey Stratocaster features Hendrix's signature on the rear of the headstock.
CUSTOM NECK PLATE
The Monterey Stratocaster has a custom neck plate featuring an engraved image of Hendrix.
MONTEREY POP FESTIVAL 1967
It’s amazing that a guitar that was played only once would go on to be one of the most recognized in history, but that’s exactly the case with a one-of-a-kind Stratocaster that Jimi Hendrix sacrificed at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival.
Hendrix hand-painted a flowery design on this legendary Strat—in nail polish, no less—the night before he was to close out the inaugural event and brought it out for his final song, “Wild Thing”.
After Hendrix sang the last words and displayed his full arsenal of guitar wizardry—playing behind his back, with his teeth—he had one trick left. Hendrix turned to his amps and scraped the guitar against the speaker cabinets for maximum feedback.
The Fiery Finale
“This is for everyone,” he said just before spraying something on the guitar. Jimi bent down to kiss the instrument and then tossed a lit match to elicit flames from the prone Strat. Like a disciple worshiping at an altar, Hendrix knelt before the blazing guitar as the audience stared agape watching him smash it to pieces.
While only a shard of that now-famous piece of history exists today, Fender has painstakingly recreated Jimi’s Monterey Strat to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the fiery milestone, right down to the nail-polish artwork that burned its way into the memories of fans around the world.