Removing the nut without breaking it was the most nerve-racking part, and I had pretty jurassic tools; a blunt metal chisel, a jewellers screwdriver and a rusty razor blade, but I did have my Dad’s old hammer and with all the luck bestowed upon it I got the nut out without any issues.
The back of the neck was pretty sticky so I hand sanded it with 1200 grit sandpaper. I’m leaving all the scratches and dings for now, the main goal was to cure the stickiness.
Such an amazing improvement. So much smoother and faster! I doubt I could ever go back to a painted guitar neck ever again.
These new school clip on tuners are so amazing! I flipped the nut and for now I’ve put it back in place without any wood glue. I got some new strings on and took my good time setting up the guitar right. I didn’t have to touch the truss rod, the action is on the low side too (which I like) and the saddles only needed minor adjustment to stop some slight string buzzing. I spent the most time adjusting the intonation which came out great.
I referenced a whole lot of shots of Jimi’s guitar at Woodstock and set up my pickup height as close as I could to his set-up.
Bass heavy!
I really didn’t like how much the guitar lead stuck out whilst playing the guitar so I flipped the “boat” jack plate upside down so I could easily plug a 90 degree jack into it. You can see the routing for the jack plate is a tiny bit bigger on one edge but it’s not something that bothers me.
It’s such a simple mod that works so well to keep the lead at a much lower profile and completely out of the way.
Now all that’s left is to buy a super retro coil guitar lead to complete the Hendrix Experience.
And we have a winner! The angled jack is super flat too.
Upside down, so wrong but so right! I used a small spacer to lift up the string tree for the heavy strings. The string tree is rusty top side but polished smooth underside to avoid string snappage.
I drilled a hole on the small horn and relocated the strap pin from the big horn over.
Dunlop has recreated the strap Jimi used on Izabella at Woodstock. I’ve got it on order from the US and it should get here early May.
Izabella was given to Jimi’s drummer Mitch Mitchell who sold it in 1991 through auction. The guitar was sold once again after only two years to Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder for an undisclosed amount (rumours are it was somewhere in the neighbourhood upwards of $2 Million). Izabella the Woodstock Strat is now kept safe at the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle.
All done. I’m really happy with how it all turned out! Just waiting for the strap and coil lead.
One last thing. I’ve down tuned her to Eb just like Jimi did and I’m really tempted to take it a step further and also use the unique string gauge setup that Jimi used being: .010, .013, .015, .026, .032 and .038.