Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix arrived in London in 1966 as an unknown sideman and within months had established himself as the most revolutionary electric guitarist who ever lived. His gear was deceptively simple: right-handed Fender Stratocasters flipped and restrung for left-hand playing, Marshall amplifiers turned up to the point of destruction, and a small collection of effects that he essentially invented modern usage for. On Are You Experienced (1967), recorded at Olympic Studios with Chas Chandler and Eddie Kramer, Hendrix played a 1964 Fender Stratocaster through a Marshall JTM45 and 100-watt Super Lead Plexi heads — typically running two full stacks simultaneously for the immersive stereo spread on "Purple Haze" and "Foxey Lady." His use of the Dallas-Arbiter Fuzz Face, a germanium transistor fuzz pedal, created the thick sustaining lead tone that became his signature. The Vox Wah pedal — later marketed as the Dunlop Cry Baby — was arguably more transformative in Hendrix's hands than in anyone else's, functioning as a tonal filter rather than just a swept effect. On Axis: Bold as Love (1967) and Electric Ladyland (1968), Kramer and Hendrix pushed studio technique further: the Uni-Vibe, originally designed to simulate a Leslie rotary speaker, became the swirling psychedelic texture on "Machine Gun" and the Band of Gypsys performances. The Octavia, built by Roger Mayer specifically for Hendrix, doubled the guitar signal an octave up and produced the alien lead tones on "Purple Haze" and "One Rainy Wish." At Woodstock in 1969, Hendrix played a white 1968 Stratocaster — now the most famous guitar in rock history — through two Marshall Super Lead Plexis. His live rig was always loud, unstable by design, and dependent on feedback as a compositional element rather than an accident. The restrung Stratocasters, with reversed string tension and reversed pickup slant, produced a tone that remains physically impossible to replicate exactly on a standard right-handed instrument.