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A Sound City amp claimed to be played by Hendrix goes on sale for $450,000
A 1960s Sound City amplifier that may have been owned by Jimi Hendrix has gone up for sale, but its provenance has not been independently verified.
Image: Pure Vintage
A 1960s Sound City amplifier that the seller is claiming was once played by Jimi Hendrix can now be yours for the modest price of $450,000.
Pure Vintage claims that Hendrix used the 1967 Sound City 100-watt Mark 3 custom amplifier during some of his most famous performances between 1967 and 1968, but this has not yet been independently verified.
The amp in question was allegedly owned by Hendrix in November 1967 and can be seen in a photo from a performance at the Piper Club in Milan in May 1968. However, Pure Vintage has also stated that he only used the set-up until the end of January 1968, although he continued to use it on occasion as a monitor system.
The only provenance for this amp’s authenticity is a letter of authenticity from Hendrix’s brother, Leon, which the seller claims will be sent to the seller once the half-million-dollar amp has been bought.
Forums such as The Gear Page, have said that Hendrix was not a huge fan of the Sound City amps, as he couldn’t get the sound he wanted. As this amplifier was built in 1967, there is a good chance that Hendrix used it a couple of times, but it would not have been used to the same capacity as his favoured Marshall 100-watt Super Lead model.
Ensuring the provenance of vintage artist gear is always difficult but extremely important, especially with the huge sums that legit gear from rock history is now commanding at auction – the guitar that Hendrix famously set alight at the 1967 Monterrey Pop Festival sold for over £200,000 last month.
On the flip side, back in 2021 YouTuber Paul Davids published a video claiming to be playing the black Strat that Hendrix used (and didn’t burn) at Monterrey – claiming it was worth $10 million and claiming to have provenance from Fender that it was the real thing. However, this assertion was challenged by members of the online guitar community, and it was ultimately was withdrawn from auction.
You can check out the listing for yourself at PureVintage.com.