Just as Charlie Christian wrote a blue print for modern jazz guitar, James Marshall Hendrix wrote an unavoidable manual for electric rock guitar. His blues based 'psychedelia' and brash use of volume and feedback were all part of his musical statement.

Jimi Hendrix has probably been the biggest single influence upon the army of 'solid body' guitarists that would be to follow him, his style and ideas are still explored and debated by guitarists in musty rehearsal studios the world over.

To achieve a Hendrix tone, you will have to enter his sonic playground.
Jimi's live gear was not complex by today's standards; he plugged a Fender Stratocaster into a Wah pedal, Fuzz Face, Uni Vibe, (occasionally an Octavia) and amplified all this through a Marshall stack.

The phasing and doubling sounds heard on his albums were engineered in the studio by Eddie Kramer under Jimi's 'direction'. (Eddie has reported that Jimi would often try to emulate studio sounds that he heard in his dreams)

During my career as a guitarist it has been an inevitable pleasure to discover the sounds of Hendrix, and in virtually every band I have played in a Hendrix request would emerge. especially when I gave into the great debate of 'how to spell my name'!

As a young punter I had been blown away by stunning renditions of Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) by guitar maestro Kevin Borich, and then in '84 I witnessed the legendary Stevie Ray Vaughan lay down his approach to Jimi's catalogue.

To my mind there are many dimensions to the Hendrix sound, but generally Jimi's guitar tone itself always seemed 'full' to me, with what sounded like a 'neck pick up' into a dirty amp. Although some of the studio sounds often seemed pretty clean, with the illusion of overdrive, almost a Fender twin quality and middle pick up tone.

When it comes to guitars it is well documented that Jimi favoured the Fender Stratocaster, although he did use others, he seemed most at home on a 'Strat'.
It should be remembered that Jimi was of course left handed, but still used a right handed guitar, this puts a slightly different angle (no pun intended) on his set up.
A 'Strat' is strung from one side of the peg head, usually with the low E string closest to the nut, with the order reversed, as in Jimi's case, the low E string would be strung by the far machine head with the other strings following suit. This would create a totally different tension to the standard feel of the guitar. Not to mention that the 'Tremolo' bar would be on the 'upper' side of the bridge, and the controls would be reversed with the 'shallow' cutaway at the bottom of the guitar, making high fret access a little more awkward.

Jimi favoured high volume, to my mind this was to send the amps into 'clipping', which is the point that the valves go into tube distortion, and make the sound 'dirty'. Further distortion was employed by the use of 'Fuzz'. The 'Fuzz' pedal is a solid state box used between the guitar and amplifier to dirty up the sound. Jimi tried a variety of 'Fuzz' pedals but is most synonymous with the 'Arbiter' Fuzz Face. (A pedal much copied by other companies) Roger Mayer also made Jimi some Fuzz devices, but it is the 'Octavia'; a device that added another frequency one octave up from the original, that he supplied Hendrix he is most accountable for.

Fuzz is similar to modern Overdrive pedals, although it has a more raspy tone, or as the name suggests 'fuzzy'. I would favour a Boss 'Super Overdrive' or ProCo 'Rat' pedal for these sounds, although a 'Big Muff' or Mayer 'Fuzz Face' are probably more authentic.

The 'Wah' sounds that became the familiar opener for songs like Voodoo Chile, were achieved on a Wah pedal manufactured by the English company 'Vox'. Jimi's Vox Wah was also later modified by Roger Mayer, and today the Jim Dunlop company manufacture the 'Cry Baby' which is an excellent replica of the original device.

Jimi would use the Wah to 'open' notes as he struck the guitar, rocking on the pedal to create expression to his phrasing, and sometimes leaving the Wah in the treble position to play with a 'shrill' tone that seemed to rise out of the sonic picture.

Jimi added a 'Uni-Vibe' device to his live arsenal sometime before his Woodstock performance in 1969. The Uni-Vibe was originally created as a device to be used with an electronic organ to emulate the sound of a rotating (or Leslie) speaker cabinet, it could be made to speed up or slow down via a foot control, and Jimi was obviously inspired by this as it can be heard prominently at the Woodstock concert.

Apart from his equipment, Jimi had a unique approach to his instrument, he was very much in sync with the fact that (for the most part) it was an 'electric' guitar that he was playing, and he approached it from that end.

So I guess the formula for the authentic Hendrix sound is a Strat, Crank up the Marshall with some Fuzz, and of course you will have to learn to voice an E7#9 chord at the 7th fret, .easy !

In actual fact it is easy to lose perspective on the guitar style of Jimi Hendrix in this era of high tech performers, but to place Hendrix's guitar approach into the 1960's, pre 1980's widdle, and pre 1970's stadium rock, can make it a little daunting.
Jimi was out on his own in many ways, with what must have sounded to many like a whole new instrument, but deep in the core of all this was a passion for the sounds of the great blues players and the words and music of Bob Dylan.

Much has been said about Hendrix, and transcriptions of his playing are available, a Stratocaster is recommended, but not imperative, as a good neck position single coil sound can be achieved from a variety of instruments these days.
Also don't forget that at the heart of Jimi's approach was a sense of adventure and freedom; this too will go a long way into understanding Jimi's language.
We may adopt Hendrix's gear and sonic approach, but in reality we may only approximate his sound, for ultimately, it was all in his hands.


Jimi Hocking