How Did Jimi Hendrix Get His Guitar Tone
When talking about Jimi Hendrix guitar tone lets address the elephant in the room first. Yes, his touch and feel had a major impact as far as his sound is concerned, but the actuall tone
came from the equipment he used.
1 - The Guitar
While Hendrix used Gibson Guitars in his short guitar his main go to instrement of choice was a Fender Stratocaster.
The slender body and comfortable neck shape of a Fender played an integral part in his sound as well as the pickup selection which Hendrix tended to jump between neck and bridge pickup.
2 - The Amps
When Hendrix arrived in London guitar players such as Eric Clapton and Pete Townsend where putting pressure on speaker company Marshall to produce louder and bigger amps, along with speaker cabinets.
Hendrix amp choice varied however his go to amp tended to be 100W Marshalls Amp cranked up full along with 12" cabinets.
Amp and speakers pushed to their full without blowing plays a major part in getting close to Hendrix tone.
3 - Effect Pedals
Before Hendrix found fame guitar players such as Keith Richards had already being using effects.
Similar guitar players such as Clapton, Paige, Beck and Townsend where also working alongside electronic engineers in an effort to create new guitar sounds, kick starting the effect pedals industry.
While effect pedals where in their infancy a number of effects existed. One effect which was available was the Fuzz
effect which Keith Richards had already put to good use on the Rolling Stones classic, Satisfaction
.
Another effect available to Hendrix in 1966 was the Wah Wah
pedal.
Hendrix used the wacka-wacka
effect during some of his rhythm parts, in particular the intro for Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
.
summary - Getting Hendrix Tone
When it comes to replicating Hendrix guitar tone the modern player has multiple options. Its important to remember that the equipment used was in its early days. Since then a number of companies and effects are on the market providing all kinds of effects.
Other than his playing abilites, at the heart of Hendrix tone is keeping the effects simple...and loud.
