Jimi’s Epiphone FT79

One London sight that any guitarist should see is the Handel & Hendrix exhibition at the 25 Brook Street, Mayfair flat that Jimi shared with girlfriend Kathy Etchingham from 1968 to ’69. Inside, Jimi’s living spaces have been recreated with painstaking accuracy from original photographs and Kathy’s personal recollections. Star of the show is Jimi’s FT79 acoustic, serial 62262, which he bought for around $25 in New York and Chas Chandler remarked he was so attached to it, he would take it with him into the bathroom. The FT79 was made by Epiphone from 1941 to 1958 when it was relaunched as the Gibson Texan. Originally built with walnut back and sides, laminated maple was used from 1949, as on this example, while the neck, previously cherry, was re-spec’d to mahogany in 1954. To see it, and Jimi’s pad, in the flesh, visit www.handelhendrix.org