WATCH: Reuben Forsland of JOI Guitars is making ten guitars from pieces of Jimi Hendrix’s childhood home in Seattle. Dean Stoltz has more.
Jimi Hendrix spent a short but influential part of his life in his Seattle home, living there from age 10 to 13.
The house at 2603-26th Avenue is said to be where Hendrix fell in love with music and the guitar.
Now Comox luthier Reuben Forsland has obtained pieces of the home that were kept in storage after it was torn down in 2009.
“This is flooring from either his bedroom or from the living room and those two rooms are important to me because obviously Jimi?s room was where he spent his time and the living room is where the record player was kept,” said Forsland.
Forsland makes custom guitars. He’s even made one for Slash of Guns ‘N Roses fame.
After getting approval from the Hendrix family, Forsland is now creating a series of ten Harmonic Hendrix Home Guitars.
“That was a must-have to have wood from the house in the neck,” said Forsland. “I basically started imagining creating something more than just an instrument for sound but an instrument that maybe will connect with somebody more in an emotional way.”
He even scraped paint chips off the wood and re-epoxied it into the rosette of the instrument.
“I knew I wanted the front of the guitar, the soundboard of the guitar, the voice of the instrument to be made out of the house and then I also wanted the neck of the instrument to be, to be in the hands of the player,” he added.
Part of the proceeds from the project will go to a park in Seattle in memory of Jimi Hendrix.
Dean Stoltz
