What type of strat did hendrix use

I popped into a local Guitar Center here in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and found two Jimi Hendrix guitars on display, one white and one black. When I took the instrument for a test drive, it felt familiar and comfortable. The neck plays fast and smooth. It took only a moment to get used to having the tuners facing down.

While you're in a room full of shredders wailing on speed-finger guitar solos, it's hard to explore the subtleties of the sonic changes wrought by this Strat's upside-down pickups and flipped string lengths. But the ax still sounded sweet. If you were to hand a modern-day hobbyist guitar player one of Jimi Hendrix's original Fender Stratocasters from the '60s, that musician might feel a little lost, and not just because the guitar was set up for a left-handed player.

The fretboard, where you place your fingertips, might feel a little curvy, the frets a bit narrow and tall. The knobs and tremolo bar, also known as a whammy bar, would be facing up, getting in the way of your normal strumming routine.

The flipped headstock where the tuning pegs are located at the far end of the neck changes the string tension, making the lower-note strings longer than they'd normally be and the higher strings shorter. It's not just the strings that make a difference. The pickups, a threesome of Fender's period-correct American Vintage '65 reissue pickups, are flipped over too.

Pickups are the part of a guitar that translates string vibrations into an electrical signal. First is that it only runs on 9v battery. This may be an issue for many guitarists who prefer using a power supply rather than batteries. The other issue is the pedal is pretty big and will hog up a lot of space on your pedalboard. I would recommend this option for most guitarists over the larger Fuzz Face. The big advantage it offers over a typical Fuzz Face pedal is the ability to switch between a Silicon or Germanium fuzz sound.

Of course, there are plenty of other fuzz pedals out there, but the Fuzz Face is the best choice for a Hendrix sound. To learn more about Fuzz distortion and different options, check out this guide here. The Uni-Vibe was created to simulate the sound of a Leslie speaker. This is again a key component to achieving a great Hendrix tone because it is such a distinctive and unique effect.

You can use it to create lush, swirling, hypnotic tones, or more subtly to add some unique texture to your tone. If you watch the Woodstock performance you will hear it used throughout — especially during The Star Spangled Banner.

David Gilmour of Pink Floyd used one up until the early 70s so you will hear it in early Pink Floyd work. The options available today are far more pedalboard-friendly than the original beast as shown above. A small button on the top left lets you switch between Chorus and Vibrato mode. Check out the price and reviews here on Amazon. Like any other effect, there are plenty of other options available. The only disadvantage to these options compared to the original Uni-Vibe is that these pedals do not include an expression pedal.

This means the speed of the effect cannot be changed during a performance as Hendrix would sometimes do. The Viscous Vibe by TC Electronics does a feature that could be used in a similar way to an expression pedal. When the footswitch is held down, it ramps up the speed. It mixes in an octave higher than the original input as well as add in some fuzz distortion. This is an essential Hendrix effect pedal to use and you can hear it throughout his songs from onwards.

People normally imagine Jimi Hendrix holding a strat with a maple fretboard. The Fender Stratocaster and Jimi Hendrix just seem to be the obvious match. Of course, a Strat will definitely help you get a nice Hendrix tone, but do you think he would have still sounded like Hendrix when he was playing the below guitar?

Stratocasters can come in a wide range of prices all the way up to eye-watering levels. It should be clear by now that a crucial part of what made Hendrix unique is that he experimented a lot with his gear and other things. But in the studio, you can bet Hendrix had plenty of different brands and models available. He was known to use Fender Twin Reverb and Bassman amps and he had at one point a contract with Sunn.

Search any Hendrix fan forum and you will see guitarists arguing over which amps are appropriate for a Hendrix tone. Some people will tell you that no amp produced after the 70s will do a Hendrix tone.

Fuzz distortion used in combination with a heavily driven amp plays a big role in his tone. If you want to work towards the same tone, you will want to have a tube amp you can really push.

Learn about different types of guitar amps and how they shape your tone in this guide. While string gauge does impact your tone, how the strings feel is far more important to you as a guitarist.

If you like strings far heavier than the gauge listed above, stick to what you like instead of changing just because Hendrix played lighter strings. Learn more about guitar strings here to learn about string gauges, metals, and coatings. If you want to sound like Hendrix, tune your guitar to Eb Tuning. It can be seen on a photo of him performing with the King Kasuals.

At the time of using this amp, Jimi played what is likely a Epiphone Wilshire. Jimi was seen using this amp in the pre-Experience days. Given that he played the last gig with Curtis in August , and left for the UK in September, it […]. Allegedly used in the early days with Curtis Knight, circa It is worth noting here that although some argue that an amp resembling a Supro Thunderbolt was seen on stage behind Jimi on at least one photo, it is very questionable if this actually holds any credibility.

The whole theory seemed to have originated from […]. We then placed […]. It seems that for a short period of time, around early , Jimi used a few Fender Dual Showman amps for his live gigs. Sometime in early , Hendrix signed an endorsement deal with Sunn amp. I went backstage Monterey Pop Festival , and by the end of the night, I knew what record label he was on. Someone invited me, I think it was Chas […]. Hendrix allegedly used this amp during his endorsement deal with Sunn circa One of these amps recently appeared on an auction over at Reverb.

In our research, we […]. Jimi was seen using this pedal while he played with the Squiers. More specifically, the pedal was seen sitting behind Jimi on a photo taken of him at Cheetah club in New York City sometime in mid Jimi started using this pedal around January , after meeting Roger Mayer — an acoustic engineer working for the British Admiralty who as a hobby designed and built effect pedals for guitars, when they were still virtually unknown.

Jimi Hendrix used this effect most famously during the Woodstock festival on August 18, Throughout his career, Jimi used a number of different wah pedals. Fortunately, on one occasion that perhaps matters the most to some, that is the Woodstock festival in , the […]. According to Roger Mayer, Jimi used the standard Fender set. We were using the normal one, not the very high radius but definitely curvy. The actual strings we used were not what people would expect. The string gauges would run.

During the Woodstock Festival gig on August 18, , Jimi used a guitar strap with a very unique pattern, catching the eye of many. The strap was made by a company named Ace, who at the time produced a number of different guitar straps with similar designs.

Auction Jimi Woodstock strap was auctioned in […]. This seems to be the pick that Jimi used most of the time. These picks were used by most […]. This particular […]. This was one of the several Ace guitar straps that Jimi used on his guitars most famous one being the one that he used during Woodstock. It […]. Much has been written about him by experts, fans, and critics-some of it true and some of it not.

He did, however, leave his own account of himself, locked away like a Chinese puzzle in his many interviews, lyrics, writings, poems, diaries, and even stage raps. Starting At Zero brings all these elements together in narrative form.

The result is an intimate, funny, and poetic memoir-one that tells, for the first time, Jimi's own story as only he could tell it. A practical reference book like no other, this volume gives the proper guidance and tools to any guitarist who wants to take a stab at emulating one of the greatest players of all time. This altered the subtle overtones produced by vibrations on the unplayed part of the string above the top of the neck, near the tuning keys.

This story appears in the November issue of Popular Mechanics. Type keyword s to search. Today's Top Stories. Kevin Dupzyk Kevin is a writer and editor living in Brooklyn.