FROM SEATTLE, AND OTHER LOCATIONS, WITH A STORY
Guitar-maker sources exotic wood with history for custom instruments
How much would you pay for a piece of rock ’n’ roll history?
Specifically, a guitar made with wood repurposed from the Seattle birthplace of no less a musical legend than guitarist Jimi Hendrix.
That is what you get when you purchase one of the 10 limited-edition Harmonic Hendrix Home Guitars lovingly custom hand-crafted by luthier Reuben Forsland. From the Comox Valley workshop of his Vancouver Island-based company, JOI Guitars, Forsland has made it a career goal to source out the finest woods in the world for his instruments.
Sometimes, that includes tone woods with a little something extra. Sometimes, it includes special project “story woods” that can give the instrument its own incredible connection to history.
Such was the case with the salvaged fir taken from 2603 26th Ave., Central District, Seattle. The 1920s home purchased by Jimi’s father Al Hendrix in the spring of 1953 was where the legendary rocker strummed his first chords.
“The original idea came from a guitar I was commissioned to make by Slash, and I really wanted to do something to impress and inspire him,” Forsland said.
“How cool would it be if I could get some of the wood from the original Hendrix home and incorporate it into the design? Through a long process of research, I located the person who had purchased the home and it went from there.”
A Seattle land baron had originally purchased the home with the intention of moving it to a lot across from the graveyard where Jimi Hendrix is buried (in Renton, Washington) and turning it into a museum. When that didn’t work out, it was moved yet again. Eventually, the home was dismantled and stored away.
Working with Authentic Hendrix LLC, the company established by Jimi’s father James (Al) Hendrix and owned and operated by members of the Hendrix family — that manages and administers exclusive rights to all aspects of Jimi Hendrix’s legacy — Forsland got the go-ahead to pursue his special project. Without this, he wouldn’t be able to use the Hendrix name at all, even if the wood were from the real house.
“I have a special licensing agreement to manufacture 10 instruments,” Forsland said. “The first two promotional instruments were shown at the 2018 NAAM (National Association of Music Merchants) show, and then one was put on display at YVR. Orders are being taken now for the remaining seven as I have sold one.”
A portion of the proceeds from each Harmonic Hendrix Home Guitars sale goes to the Jimi Hendrix Park Foundation. The nonprofit entity is working on the redevelopment of Jimi Hendrix Park in Seattle’s Central District. The park is near the location where the Hendrix family home once stood.
The neighbourhood was once right in the zone of Seattle’s busy and varied music scene which boasted jazz, blues, rock and soul clubs galore. Without doubt, the young Jimi Hendrix had his ears opened wide with the sounds all around him. His mixing of styles and groundbreaking technique revolutionized electric guitar forever.
Forsland first fell in love with the guitar at age seven. The Yamaha acoustic that he bought ignited a spark. But rather than graduating to Marshall stacks and a Fender Stratocaster like Jimi, he never got into electric guitars. After decades of playing, he admits he isn’t even a very good player. But he loves handcrafting immaculate instruments for others.
“I like to say that there is the person who builds the Bugatti and there is the driver,” he said. “And I am the builder. It’s funny because I’m not an accomplished player and never went through a proper training program per se.”
What Forsland did do was train and work as a carpenter for more than 15 years before he decided that it was time to pursue longburning passion to make guitars.
Today, he is one of the rare luthiers who makes a living plying his trade.
“A luthier in Alberta walked me through my first two guitars, and then I just kept going with reading and joining the island luthier’s guild and asking a lot of questions,” he said. “Today, I have developed my signature designs and I do about eight a year. An incredible amount of work goes into every instrument before any of the actual construction begins.”
JOI guitars incorporate his own proprietary bracing system, custom designed tuning machinery and special body characteristics to give their owners the most satisfying playing experience possible. But the real key is finding the perfect combination of woods for each guitar’s unique specifications. It’s made Forsland into something of a forensic investigator searching out supplies such as the Hendrix family home or the marvellously named Blistered Bubinga.
This African wood with a gorgeous grain is described as “responsive with round basses, a full mid range, and trebles that shine very brightly.” It’s in stock at the moment, but it isn’t easy stocking rare timbers such as South American Ziracote.
“That’s a fantastic South American tone wood which is another level of cool,” he said. “I hunt for different kinds of woods all over the world and I probably spend 25 per cent of my time sourcing out these really special tone woods or story woods to make the instruments that much more unique and singular.” It’s a competitive pursuit too. Much of the best wood for making instruments was all cut down long ago to make home furniture, shipping containers and so forth. When an uncut slab turns up, smart brokers will purchase it and store it away to watch the value climb. Dealers will then broker off the rare mahogany or African blackwood through a global network to get the highest bids. The provenance of the wood takes on a life of its own.
“It doesn’t necessarily need to be air dried for all that time, but people do get into that and also, a lot of the time, the older wood might come from a much better tree than what’s out there now,” he said. “I just bought a snakewood log from a private collector who had it for 20 years and had bought it from someone else who had it for a time and its quality is really exceptional. Antiques are a great source too.”
In fact, Slash’s Harmonic Hendrix Home prototype was a coffee table once.
“But it was from this epic tree that just was exactly what I wanted to tell the story of the guitar,” said Forsland. “There is a video on the special projects section of my website that explains a bit about it and you can better understand the thinking that goes into the instruments. And, no, Slash doesn’t take this guitar on tours.”
JOI Guitars are playable works of art. They get displayed and they get played. But in the safety and security of the owner’s homes.
If you want to purchase one of the remaining seven Harmonic Hendrix Home Guitars, the price is US$25,000.