Custom Recording/Mixing Board Console from Studio A, Electric Lady Studios, New York, NY

The Datamix Corporation made this custom mixing board in 1969 for Studio A in Jimi Hendrix's recording studio, Electric Lady Studios.  

Designed for 24 mixing channels, but upgraded to 30 at Hendrix's request, the board allowed for complex, multi-track recording and was state-of-the-art equipment for the time. Beyond Jimi Hendrix, this board was used to record Led Zeppelin, Stevie Wonder, David Bowie and others in the 1970s. When the board was acquired for the MoPOP collection in 1991, many modifications had been made over time. MoPOP spent nearly a year restoring the mixing console to its original condition – the way Hendrix would have used it in 1970. 

Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970) was an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter who gained mainstream prominence in the late 1960s with hits such as “Hey Joe,” “Purple Haze,” “All Along the Watchtower,” and “Fire,” and is now celebrated as one of the most influential electric guitarists of all time. 

A million-dollar, state-of-the-art recording facility when it opened on August 26, 1970, Electric Lady Studios was a musician’s dream. Located at 52 West 8th Street in Greenwich Village, New York, it was one of the first recording studios to be owned and operated by a major Rock artist. It was specifically designed to inspire creativity and provide a space Hendrix could feel at home amid the stress of his extensive touring schedule. Despite this, Hendrix used it only a handful of times, between June 15 and August 26, recording jam sessions and songs such as “Astro Man,” “Straight Ahead,” “Dolly Dagger” and “Night Bird Flying.” The day after the studio opened to the public, Jimi Hendrix flew to England and never saw it again. Hendrix’s intentions for the studio have lived on, however, in the many bands and hit records that have since recorded at Electric Lady Studios.