Equipment

Guitars and amplifiers

The Fender Stratocaster Hendrix played at Woodstock

Hendrix's Gibson Flying V guitar

Hendrix played a variety of guitars throughout his career, but the instrument that became most associated with him was the Fender Stratocaster.^[300] He acquired his first Stratocaster in 1966, when a girlfriend loaned him enough money to purchase a used one that had been built around 1964.^[301] He thereafter used the model prevalently during performances and recordings.^[302] In 1967, he described the instrument as "the best all-around guitar for the stuff we're doing"; he praised its "bright treble and deep bass sounds".^[303]
With few exceptions, Hendrix played right-handed guitars that were turned upside down and restrung for left-hand playing.^[304] This had an important effect on the sound of his guitar; because of the slant of the bridge pickup, his lowest string had a brighter sound while his highest string had a darker sound, which was the opposite of the Stratocaster's intended design.^[305] In addition to Stratocasters, Hendrix also used Fender Jazzmasters, Duosonics, two different Gibson Flying Vs, a Gibson Les Paul, three Gibson SGs, a Gretsch Corvette, and a Fender Jaguar.^[306] He used a white Gibson SG Custom for his performances on The Dick Cavett Show in September 1969, and a black Gibson Flying V during the Isle of Wight festival in 1970.^{[307][nb 38]}
During 1965 and 1966, while Hendrix was playing back-up for soul and R&B acts in the U.S., he used an 85-watt Fender Twin Reverb amplifier.^[309] When Chandler brought Hendrix to England in October 1966, he supplied him with 30-watt Burns amps, which Hendrix thought were too small for his needs.^{[310][nb 39]} After an early London gig when he was unable to use his preferred Fender Twin, he asked about the Marshall amps that he had noticed other groups using.^[310] Years earlier, Mitch Mitchell had taken drum lessons from the amp builder, Jim Marshall, and he introduced Hendrix to Marshall.^[311] At their initial meeting, Hendrix bought four speaker cabinets and three 100-watt Super Lead amplifiers; he would grow accustomed to using all three in unison.^[310] The equipment arrived on October 11, 1966, and the Experience used the new gear during their first tour.^[310] Marshall amps were well-suited for Hendrix's needs, and they were paramount in the evolution of his heavily overdriven sound, enabling him to master the use of feedback as a musical effect, creating what author Paul Trynka described as a "definitive vocabulary for rock guitar".^[312] Hendrix usually turned all of the amplifier's control knobs to the maximum level, which became known as the Hendrix setting.^[313] During the four years prior to his death, he purchased between 50 and 100 Marshall amplifiers.^[314] Jim Marshall said that he was "the greatest ambassador" his company ever had.^[315]

Effects

A 1968 King Vox-Wah pedal similar to one that was owned by Hendrix^[316]

One of Hendrix's signature effects was the wah-wah pedal, which he first heard used with an electric guitar in Cream's "Tales of Brave Ulysses", released in May 1967.^[317] In July of that year, while playing gigs at the Scene club in New York City, Hendrix met Frank Zappa, whose band, the Mothers of Invention were performing at the adjacent Garrick Theater. Hendrix was fascinated by Zappa's application of the pedal, and he experimented with one later that evening.^{[318][nb 40]} He used a wah pedal during the opening to "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)", creating one of the best-known wah-wah riffs of the classic rock era.^[320] He can also be heard using the effect on "Up from the Skies", "Little Miss Lover", and "Still Raining, Still Dreaming".^[319]
Hendrix consistently used a Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face and a Vox wah pedal during recording sessions and live performances, but he also experimented with other guitar effects.^[321] He enjoyed a fruitful long-term collaboration with electronics enthusiast Roger Mayer, whom he once called "the secret" of his sound.^[322] Mayer introduced him to the Octavia, an octave doubling effect pedal, in December 1966, and he first recorded with the effect during the guitar solo to "Purple Haze".^[323]
Hendrix also utilized the Uni-Vibe, which was designed to simulate the modulation effects of a rotating Leslie speaker by providing a rich phasing sound that could be manipulated with a speed control pedal. He can be heard using the effect during his performance at Woodstock and on the Band of Gypsys track "Machine Gun", which prominently features the Uni-vibe along with an Octavia and a Fuzz Face.^[324] His signal flow for live performance involved first plugging his guitar into a wah-wah pedal, then connecting the wah-wah pedal to a Fuzz Face, which was then linked to a Uni-Vibe, before connecting to a Marshall amplifier.^[325]

Influences

As an adolescent during the 1950s, Hendrix became interested in rock and roll artists such as Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Chuck Berry.^[326] In 1968, he told Guitar Player magazine that electric blues artists Muddy Waters, Elmore James, and B.B. King inspired him during the beginning of his career; he also cited Eddie Cochran as an early influence.^[327] Of Muddy Waters, the first electric guitarist of which Hendrix became aware, he said: "I heard one of his records when I was a little boy and it scared me to death because I heard all of these sounds."^[328] In 1970, he told Rolling Stone that he was a fan of western swing artist Bob Wills and while he lived in Nashville, the television show the Grand Ole Opry.^[329]

I don't happen to know much about jazz. I know that most of those cats are playing nothing but blues, though—I know that much.

—Hendrix on jazz music^[330]

Cox stated that during their time serving in the U.S. military he and Hendrix primarily listened to southern blues artists such as Jimmy Reed and Albert King. According to Cox, "King was a very, very powerful influence".^[327] Howlin' Wolf also inspired Hendrix, who performed Wolf's "Killing Floor" as the opening song of his U.S. debut at the Monterey Pop Festival.^[331] The influence of soul artist Curtis Mayfield can be heard in Hendrix's guitar playing, and the influence of Bob Dylan can be heard in Hendrix's songwriting; he was known to play Dylan's records repeatedly, particularly Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde.^[332]

Legacy