Jimi Hendrix

[Marc Jenkins]

And BTW he didn’t use a fuzz box, just true distortion, harmonics, a vox wah and a phase shifter.

He DID certainly use a fuzz. Two, actually: A Fuzz Face and an Octavia (fuzz-generated high-octaver).

[b0b]

The real deal - don't forget this was 40 years ago.

I wonder if, in 1968, musicians were still arguing about whether some popular musician of the 1920's was any good or not.

[Bo Borland]

Bobbe, my brother... change your meds.

[Al Collinsworth]

Is this a private club?

[Rick Sharp]

And BTW he didn’t use a fuzz box, just true distortion, harmonics, a vox wah and a phase shifter.

He DID certainly use a fuzz. Two, actually: A Fuzz Face and an Octavia (fuzz-generated high-octaver).

I suppose it depends on which performance he was doing...when I saw him in Norman Olka. a few months before his death he didn't have them there...I do have his hat that he threw in the crowd and hit my buddy in the chest...we had to fight for it, but he gave it to me after the concert.

Also he was know to use only a fender champ and his strat, tele or flying V in the studio, but I stand corrected...I never saw him use the fuzz...I'll have to drag out some of my old video footage and check it out...

Rick

[Rick Sharp]

The real deal - don't forget this was 40 years ago.

I wonder if, in 1968, musicians were still arguing about whether some popular musician of the 1920's was any good or not.

I would say yes they did...unless they were to stoned to remember

[Ron Whitfield]

The real deal - don't forget this was 40 years ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7yPRYL_ ... re=related

And on a (good, but still...) crappy upside-down out of tune Strat, where he didn't want to be, in front of 400,0000 people, and stoned.

Who would even care about or be playing a Strat these day's if it weren't for Jimi? Still one of the most sold guitars in history.

Don't forget, for well over a year as 'Jimi Hendrix' he usually went straight into his Marshall, ala Monterey, getting one of the best guitar tones ever.

Thanx, Michael, for all your thots on Jimi. You also help keep the flame alive!

[Rich Peterson]

I wonder if, in 1968, musicians were still arguing about whether some popular musician of the 1920's was any good or not.

Yes, b0b, the jazz elitists were arguing whether Bix Beiderbeck played jazz.

[Bob Bowden]

The real deal - don't forget this was 40 years ago.

I wonder if, in 1968, musicians were still arguing about whether some popular musician of the 1920's was any good or not.

How times have changed. Nowadays, it's cool for kids to like their parents music. In the 1960s, if you admitted that you liked 1940s big band music, you probably would have gotten beat up.

[Mark Lind-Hanson]

If it's been mentioned in this thread that Hendrix "played out of tune" I sincerely beg to differ. I have read that he deliberately tuned his guitar down a half step to Eb (presumably, to be able to get wider bends). Maybe also, so it would take kids longer to figure out his licks!
If nobody has mentioned it yet I felt it worth mentioning, because it wasn't "out of tune" - it was only tuned Differently.
And personally, I love Hendrix and his work, and wish he had lived a few more years so we could all have heard the directions he was itching to take his music.
He was never the greatest songwriter, nor necessarily the greatest virtuoso of the instrument, but for sheer shock and awe, and for the IMPACT he left on music itself, if you don't/can't consider him great,
methinks you may have "ignorance problems."

[Archie Nicol]

`Villanova Junction`, which followed SSB is one of my favourite instrumental pieces of all time. No gimmicks, just beautiful melodic playing. Don't know if it has been posted before, but here it is:

click here

Arch.

[Marc Jenkins]

Agreed, Arch. Stunning.

[David Doggett]

Who could listen to May This Be Love and not be blown away by this guy as a singer, songwriter and guitar player?

[Michael Douchette]

Who could listen to May This Be Love and not be blown away by this guy as a singer, songwriter and guitar player?

I really like the Cousin Jody slides in it here and there...

[David Doggett]

That yellow jacket with the eyes on the chest is in the Hard Rock Cafe in Atlantic City (or was several years ago). It's just sitting right there at eye level in a glass case on a column among the tables. It was a real trip almost bumping into it as I was wandering back to the bathroom after placing my order for a cheeseburger and fries. I can't count the times I stared at that cover while listening to that album in various altered states back in the '60s.

[Donny Hinson]

Who would even care about or be playing a Strat these day's if it weren't for Jimi?

That's almost laughable. They were one of the "hot" rock guitars almost a decade before Jimi cut his first record.

[Dave Mudgett]

Who would even care about or be playing a Strat these day's if it weren't for Jimi?

That's almost laughable. They were one of the "hot" rock guitars almost a decade before Jimi cut his first record.

In actual point of fact, Fender considered dropping the Strat around 1967. Sales were at an all-time low - if you don't believe me, try to find an original 1967 Strat - they are quite rare and the prices even more exorbitantly high than comparable pieces in adjacent years in either direction. This is also documented a lot of places.

Jimi is routinely credited with bringing the Strat back from the ashes. It was popular indeed for a decade after it was introduced - 54 through the early-mid 60s surf craze - but waned especially as influential players like Mike Bloomfield and Eric Clapton turned to the Les Paul in about '66, with a lot of the SF players using SGs or some other Gibson. Telecasters were saved by country pickers, but Strats, Jazzmasters, and Jaguars started going down sharply. I think it's quite arguable that the Strat would have faced a similar fate to Jazzmasters and Jaguars except for Hendrix. Strats went through unprecedented popularity after Hendrix, and "Hendrix-looking" models from the late 60s sell for nutty prices as a result.

One can like Hendrix or not - but there is absolutely no denying his extremely profound influence on guitar playing. He put an awful lot of things together that I'm not sure would have been done without him. To an awful lot of guitar players, there is pre-Jimi and post-Jimi, sort of like black and white vs. color TV. I won't try to argue which is better - it's all personal taste - personally, I prefer film noir to most of what has been produced in film in the last 50 years. But to write him off as "just another rock guitar player" is, IMHO, completely missing the point.

How times have changed. Nowadays, it's cool for kids to like their parents music. In the 1960s, if you admitted that you liked 1940s big band music, you probably would have gotten beat up.

Um ... not in my circles - Boston late 60s. Jazz, blues, rockabilly, acoustic country and folk, you name it - everybody I knew dug back into the 30s through 50s for influences. I played with classical players sometimes, for that matter.

[Ron Whitfield]

...as I'm one who's hoping to get another Strat soon..., darn Santa... The new Squier Classic Vibe's are too cool and cheap to pass up.

I said that other statement w/tounge in cheekness knowing fully well that millions of guitarists have and will always dig Strats, but many don't, and as Dave say's, they weren't popular just prior to Jimi-time. Jimi himself was always looking for a different/better guitar to get his music accross. The Strat just happened to be the best at the time for him, in spite of it's limitations.

[James Cann]

Jimi played a huge range of music. Some was angry, distorted, and angular.

No justification here, but did it not represent the times? 'Distorted' and 'angular' sure as hell describe our government's involvement and behavior in foreign affairs then, and 'angry' caps off nicely the mood of many who saw it for what it was.

[Sonny Priddy]

I Guess Bobbe Seymour & Me Are From The Good Old School I'm Glad SONNY.

[Stephen Dorocke]

YOU TELL 'UM SONNY!!

[Stephen Gambrell]

`Villanova Junction`, which followed SSB is one of my favourite instrumental pieces of all time. No gimmicks, just beautiful melodic playing. Don't know if it has been posted before, but here it is:

click here

Arch.

I don't think I've ever heard that tune before, Arch. That chord, at 1:31, is good Hendrix. Entire tune is a beautiful display of technique. Thanks!

[Stephen Gambrell]

Who would even care about or be playing a Strat these day's if it weren't for Jimi?

That's almost laughable. They were one of the "hot" rock guitars almost a decade before Jimi cut his first record.

In actual point of fact, Fender considered dropping the Strat around 1967. Sales were at an all-time low - if you don't believe me, try to find an original 1967 Strat - they are quite rare and the prices even more exorbitantly high than comparable pieces in adjacent years in either direction. This is also documented a lot of places.

Jimi is routinely credited with bringing the Strat back from the ashes. It was popular indeed for a decade after it was introduced - 54 through the early-mid 60s surf craze - but waned especially as influential players like Mike Bloomfield and Eric Clapton turned to the Les Paul in about '66, with a lot of the SF players using SGs or some other Gibson. Telecasters were saved by country pickers, but Strats, Jazzmasters, and Jaguars started going down sharply. I think it's quite arguable that the Strat would have faced a similar fate to Jazzmasters and Jaguars except for Hendrix. Strats went through unprecedented popularity after Hendrix, and "Hendrix-looking" models from the late 60s sell for nutty prices as a result.

One can like Hendrix or not - but there is absolutely no denying his extremely profound influence on guitar playing. He put an awful lot of things together that I'm not sure would have been done without him. To an awful lot of guitar players, there is pre-Jimi and post-Jimi, sort of like black and white vs. color TV. I won't try to argue which is better - it's all personal taste - personally, I prefer film noir to most of what has been produced in film in the last 50 years. But to write him off as "just another rock guitar player" is, IMHO, completely missing the point.

How times have changed. Nowadays, it's cool for kids to like their parents music. In the 1960s, if you admitted that you liked 1940s big band music, you probably would have gotten beat up.

Um ... not in my circles - Boston late 60s. Jazz, blues, rockabilly, acoustic country and folk, you name it - everybody I knew dug back into the 30s through 50s for influences. I played with classical players sometimes, for that matter.

Close, Dave, but not quite right. The "British Invasion" guys, especially the Beatles, were almost ALL playing hollow body guitars. Some ES-types, but a LOT of Gretsches and Ricks. At the same time, as Jimi would put it, "you may never listen to surf music again." The Beatles, Stones, etc., pretty much killed surf music---to the point where Fender was almost ready to give up solid-body guitars altogether. And I don't think Tele's had made THAT big an intro into Nashville by the mid-60's.

[Jon Moen]

In the Beatles, John and George both had Sonic Blue Strats in approx. 1965. They were used on Nowhere Man among other songs.

[Dave Mudgett]

Steve, there's no denying the influence of the British Invasion. But if you look at the numbers of vintage 1964-1966 Strats, you'll see that there were a helluvalot of them made. Yes, they were sliding some, but overall Fender volume was up and I think it was pretty much a wash.

But by 1967, they became rare birds, and that is when they considered dropping the Strat, along with the Jag and Jazzmaster, which were indeed hit hard by the drop in surf and related instrumental music. This is reflected by a paucity of 1967 Strats. To my knowledge, they never considered dropping the Tele because country players never stopped using them, and there are lots of '67 Teles around today. By '68, Strats production kicked in heavily again.

Quoting from Andre Duchossoir's "The Fender Stratocaster":

"The Stratocaster was not that popular in the mid-1960's as evidenced by its position in the Fender catalogues. At that time, it was not considered a suitable instrument by many players under the influence of of the British blues boom and power groups like CREAM, which usually relied upon a fatter Gibson type of sound. Production of the guitar reached a low ebb in 1967 which, in the author's experience is probably the least abundant vintage in the 1960's. It took a young man by the name of JAMES MARSHALL HENDRIX to give the Stratocaster its second wind. ..."

I think Duchossoir knows as much about the history of the Strat as anybody around these days, since the vast majority of the principals aren't here to tell that story.