Wednesday, March 30, 2011

A Glance At The Musical Equipment Of Jimi Hendrix

By Craig Czartoryska


Ask any devotee of classic rock who they would put at the top of the greatest guitarists list and you will get an overwhelming consensus that Jimi Hendrix sits on top. His music was like nothing anybody had ever heard. It was profoundly electric (literally) and stayed away from formulaic pop. Listeners had a visceral reaction to his numbers. This was caused in no small part because of the musical equipment of Jimi Hendrix. With this in mind, let's look closer at not only his career, but some of the equipment that made his sound so unique.

Born in 1942, he was a product of Seattle, Washington. After a brief stint in the U. S. Army, he was involved in more than a few low paying gigs from 1961 to 1965. But this fact was not in anyway reflective of things to come. In 1967, he truly exploded on to the rock scene with the release of his album "Are You Experienced." It is regarded as one of the most spectacular debut albums of all time.

As alluded to earlier, Hendrix created a sound to the stage that was one of a kind. This was in large part attributable to his using some cutting edge musical technology.

First, we will look at the guitar. He chose a Fender Stratocaster. He got notes out of it like nobody else. This guitar was nothing new at the time. But what were new were the things he did with it. If you have ever watched footage from Woodstock, or actually attended the event, you are probably familiar with his rendition of the national anthem. The interpretation of this song was so different from any other.

It should not be surprising that loud is preferable when it comes to rock and roll. One way to give this to the fans is amplifying the guitar. To amp up his, Hendrix used a Marshall lead 100 watt plexi. Many others used this Marshall including Pete Townshend.

A lot of his music had a distorted sound. This was a key to his style. A couple of pieces of equipment were used to achieve this. The Fuzz Face fuzz pedal gave the fuzzy quality and the Octavia octave up pedal created the wah-wah sound.

The musical equipment of Jimi Hendrix was a major factor in his success and fame. But let us not forget that he was also an extremely talented musician who had a knack for playing. That is why his songs are still popular with folks of all ages.




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