Are You Experienced? - Jimi Hendrix

"I don't believe in God, but if I did, he would be a black, left-handed guitarist" The Dreamers

Jimi Hendrix. Even if you never followed popular music, you heard about this guy. Eccentric behaviour, Woodstock, Club 27, he had everything to become a rock legend. He was not necessarily the most sophisticated guitar player (still, I think most of us would be happy with what he got), but he was creative, he was an innovator. He is credited for bringing a number of effects into mainstream use, he was famous for using a lot of feedback and cranking up the amp to 12 (yeah, he could do it).

JH's signature, upside down right-handed Fender Stratocaster was a huge part of his sound. This inversion changed the usual sound characteristics of the Strat, since his lower strings had a bright sound and his higher ones had a mellow sound this way. His longtime friend and technician, Roger Mayer, mentioned in a recent Guitar World interview (http://www.guitarworld.com/interview-roger-mayer-secrets-jimi-hendrixs-guitar-setup#slide-0) that they also strung the instrument in a rather unconventional way; the gauges ran .010, .013, .015, .026, .032 and .038, in order to balance out the sound, to avoid the general G-heavy (the G-string generally has a higher diameter than what would come in a logical series) guitar sound. He didn't mess with the stock pickups. Another interesting thing to note is that he was able to fret bass notes with his thumb (he had freakishly large hands), while he would play melodic lines with his "regular" fingers easily.

Hendrix's two main effects, which he used almost all the time, were the Arbiter Fuzz Face and a Vox wah-wah pedal. In the first post we have already discussed the way a Fuzz overdrive works, now is the time to look into a wah a little. It is usually combined with an expression pedal (to easily alter the level of the effect with your feet while playing), but there are autowahs out there, which act just like regular stompboxes. Wahs are filter pedals, which emulate human sound by sweeping peak responses, then altering their frequencies up and down to reach that recognizable sound. Probably the most famous example of the Wah-Wah is the Jim Dunlop CryBaby, which is available in many versions (including a Hendrix one) in almost every guitar shop.

Roger Mayer later made him an Octavia pedal, which reproduced the played notes one octave higher and/or lower. The use of this effect can be clearly heard on his legendary track, Purple Haze. He also used a Japanese Uni-Vibe pedal, which was used to emulate a rotating Leslie speaker. It is now manufactured by Dunlop, though its pricetag is quite high.

Initially, Jimi used Fender and Vox amplifiers, but soon he switched to Marshall amplifications, after he was introduced to these British monsters. Jim Marshall's high gain creations helped Hendrix create his original, trendsetting sound, which still inspires and is emulated by thousands of guitar players in the world.

Jimi Hendrix is the quintessential guitar hero, musical genius, and rock legend.