Jimi Hendrix (1942 - 1970) – The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Jimi Hendrix started a revolution in guitar music back in the 1960’s. A man with an unmatched presence and free spirit, he never knew any boundaries. And he made sure this was reflected in his music. He’s also been claimed by many publications and guitar fans to be the greatest guitar player who ever walked the earth. But…is he really the best guitar player of all times?
In a quick answer: No.
And the reason is simple: there’s no such thing as the best guitar player of all times. There are many music genres, each one with its own challenges. Also, some great guitar players innovate, others raise the bar on technique, others reach deep in the human soul and a few select ones do a little bit (or a lot) of all. It’s impossible and unfair to rank among guitar players. Hendrix himself was against being compared with other guitar players for the same reasons.
Is Jimi Hendrix the most influential guitar player of all times?Definitely. Hendrix is one of the greatest guitar players to date and one of the most powerful influences in music and pop culture worldwide.
Being that said, let’s move to some facts about Jimi’s life. Raised in Seattle, he played his first gigs in the Northwest US in the early 60’s (interrupted by a forced one year enrolment in the army).
Following his experience in the army, he toured the U.S. southern states as a backup musician for blues and R&B bands. Even though this wasn’t a successful stage in his life, it’s clear it shaped his blues influence.
In 1964, he moved to New York and toured the U.S. with different bands, including Little Richard. Even though he became known in the music circle, he still didn’t reach any type of fame at the time.
Things changed in 1966, when Jimi’s potential was recognized by Chas Chandler. He saw Jimi’s unearthed talent and became his manager. He then helped him create the band The Jimi Hendrix Experience, a trio with Noel Redding in the bass guitar and Mitch Mitchell in the drums. This is the band Jimi Hendrix reached stardom with.
When looking at Jimi Hendrix’s success, you have to look at his great talent as a guitar player as well as the impact he had on the image of Rock music. He had it all: technique, innovation in style and sound, soul, and his fashion shaped the concept of what a rock front man would become.
Guitar Style
Jimi Hendrix’s style is based on the blues. He relies heavily on the minor and major pentatonic blues scales for most of his riffs. He is remembered to have an explosive style since his early performances, which many times got him into trouble with other band members and managers. Intensity through playing and use of his equipment is one of his main assets.
As many guitar players at the time, he was influenced by Albert King, B.B. King, Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters. He also admired Elvis Presley’s style. Buddy Guy is one of his direct guitar influences, though. On the other hand, he has influenced countless guitar players, such as Stevie Ray Vaughan or Joe Satriani, among many others (see the Guitar Family Tree).
This video shows Jimi Hendrix at a Buddy Guy’s concert. Buddy Guy was one of the first blues players to experiment with loud settings and stage theatrics. For many years, Buddy Guy was pushed back by his record label about his natural psychedelic style. Few years later, Jimi Hendrix made that style his trademark and sold millions of records with it. Countless guitar players followed him as well. Decades later, Buddy Guy has rightfully received credit for it.
One of Jimi’s trademarks is the use of different tonalities in his compositions and solo phrasing, being songs like Little Wing and Hey Joe very good examples of this style. His solos would switch from Em, G, Am or D adding diverse flavours to the songs.
Left-handed, he played a right-handed Fender Stratocaster upside-down. Unlike Otis Rush or Albert King, he did re-string it. He also had very big hands and would frequently use his left thumb to play bass notes in his guitar, which is a very cool thing to do while playing scales in the higher strings.
Although not the first one to experiment with high overdrive sound and amp feedback, he mastered the use of it. He made these features part of his musical identity, incorporating guitar effects that later became standard to guitar players around the world. He blended loudness with musicality and taste.
Jimi Hendrix was an innovator in guitar sound. In order to understand his music and contributions, one has to take a look at the guitar effects he experimented with.
If you want to truly emulate Jimi Hendrix’s sound, besides having a generous budget you have to either: live in a bomb shelter, or be ready to get evicted. The reason is, his sound is only achieved by cracking up very high gain, very high power amps. Also, don’t forget to include ear plugs in your budget.
Jimi is probably the most famous bearer of a Fender Stratocaster. He experimented with different guitars, but it was around 1966 when he was steadily seen playing a strat. He eventually chose either black or white models with rosewood fretboards.
As a left-handed guitarist, he would use right-handed Strats upside-down and invert the nut. He tuned the guitar half-step down, as apparently he felt more comfortable with his vocals this way. This also made string bending more practical.
He was known to use.010 gauge Fender string sets (.010,.013,.015, .026, .032, .038), but there are various references about him using different combinations.
Jimi was constantly experimenting with different settings of amps, which makes it almost impossible to document. However, during his famous years, 100-Watt Marshall Super Lead was his amp of choice. At the end, this is the type of amp that would respond to Jimi’s expectations at his deafening volume levels. He would feed two 4X12 cabinets with one amp. This way, his settings would often look like 3 amps-6 cabinets or even 6 amps-12 cabinets.
Unibox Uni-Vibe. Rotating speaker simulator (although, he would occasionally use the real thing: Leslie rotating speaker)
(please note the links above correspond to the Jim Dunlop’s reproduction of Jimi Hendrix pedals)
He would chain them up in the following order: Wah -> Octavia -> Fuzz Face -> Uni-vibe. Unlike Jimi, most guitar players place the Wah at the end of the effects chain.
Vox Wah
Octavia
Fuzz Face
Uni-vibe
Videos
Jimi Hendrix playing Red House in Stockholm.
Discography
There have been so many posthumous albums and compilations, so it is very complicated to list them all. There are also many gray areas in his estate, which has made very difficult to keep track of the legal ownership of his image and music. The following are the albums released while he was still alive:
Historic Performances Recorded at the Monterey International Pop Festival. 1970
