Did Jimi Hendrix...

[Guitar Toad]

Did Hendrix use a blend switch or pot? Did his strats have the 50's mod to retain brightness with the volume rolled down?

What was the output of his pickups?

What was the usual 60's strat wiring scheme tone and volume wise?

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Did Jimi Hendrix...

Did Hendrix use a blend switch or pot? Did his strats have the 50's mod to retain brightness with the volume rolled down?

What was the output of his pickups?

What was the usual 60's strat wiring scheme tone and volume wise?

I have always been under the impression that Jimi left his Strats alone, aside from flipping them upside down. If you look for Lew's post about the DC of Strat pickups throught the years, you will see that Jimi had some pretty weak pickups.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Did Jimi Hendrix...

Did Hendrix use a blend switch or pot? ?

Stock Pots...no blend switch or blender pot

Did his strats have the 50's mod to retain brightness with the volume rolled down??

No.

What was the output of his pickups??

All three about 6K or so.

What was the usual 60's strat wiring scheme tone and volume wise?

Stock 50's and 60's Strat: Volume, Tone neck, Tone middle, No Tone on bridge.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Did Jimi Hendrix...

Christian's right about Jimi keeping his Strats stock. I'm sure with his connections to Roger Mayer and others he experimented a bit, but his Strats were mostly pretty stock and the pickups on the weaker side of vintage. Lew

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Did Jimi Hendrix...

Hendrix I guess bought most of his strats from Manny's Music in NYC...He'd buy them in a small quantity...I get the feeling Jimi was a player and not into messing with his strats...His effects and amps were a different story though..

 

[Stratcat]

Re: Did Jimi Hendrix...

Hendrix did use stock Strats,
Most of his tone came from his hands, heart, Marshall and Fender Tube Amps.

 

[flank]

Re: Did Jimi Hendrix...

yea.....he bought alot of them and ended up givin most of them away, except 3 or 4 of them that you could see him using exclusively from 68-70...... he must of thought they just sounded better than the others

 

[Guitar Toad]

Re: Did Jimi Hendrix...

Wasn't Jimi one of the first players to take advantage of the 2 and 4 notch positions? When did the original 3-way selector become a 5-way?

And if Jimi and so many others made the "under" wound SC's work so well, what's was the driving factor for higher out put pups? Were they just feeble attempts to make the SC's into HB's?

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Did Jimi Hendrix...

Wasn't Jimi one of the first players to take advantage of the 2 and 4 notch positions? When did the original 3-way selector become a 5-way??

Sometime in the 70's...well after Jimi died.

And if Jimi and so many others made the "under" wound SC's work so well, what's was the driving factor for higher out put pups?

Low output vintage spec neck and middle alnico 5 Strat pickups are all I use...but for soloing on the bridge pickup I prefer a little hotter pickup. So do most players.

 

[Guitar Toad]

Re: Did Jimi Hendrix...

Sometime in the 70's...well after Jimi died.

Oh, my! :smack: Have I been led astray by a fellow forumite? His story is that JH was one of the 1st to pioneer the notch tones. hmmm.....

 

[flank]

Re: Did Jimi Hendrix...

he was, somebody found out that they could put physical notches in the switch and that would give the inbetween tones...... but they never became produced items from fender till the early 70s

 

[brianwenz]

Re: Did Jimi Hendrix...

Hello Hello--
Strat players were "notching" the stock 3-position switches WAY before anybody came out with a 5-position switch. I knew all kinds of players in the 60's that were taking files and knives to the things!
Brian.

 

[Simon_F]

Re: Did Jimi Hendrix...

The 5-way switches weren't standard in Fenders until at least the late 70s, possibly later. I had a '76 Strat and that had a 3-way. But players were using the 2 and 4 positions long before the 5-way switches were available - with a bit of practice you could get the switch to stick in those in-between positions.

The original high output pickups were produced in order to drive pre master volume amps into distortion more easily. That started in the early 70s as far as I am aware. DiMarzio was an early player, if not the first.

 

[brianwenz]

Re: Did Jimi Hendrix...

Hello Hello--
Oooops...forgot.......Custom winders were overwinding pickups pretty early-on [60's at least] for players who wanted a different tone in certain positions [like the bridge]. I remember Blackmore was always experimenting in that area. There were others before DiMarzio and Duncan [Bill Lawrence is one] and some of them decided to expand the winding services into the general public arena [DiMarzio, Duncan, Lawrence....]
Brian.

 

[Guitar Toad]

Re: Did Jimi Hendrix...

he was, somebody found out that they could put physical notches in the switch and that would give the inbetween tones...... but they never became produced items from fender till the early 70s

Hello Hello--
Strat players were "notching" the stock 3-position switches WAY before anybody came out with a 5-position switch. I knew all kinds of players in the 60's that were taking files and knives to the things!
Brian.

The 5-way switches weren't standard in Fenders until at least the late 70s, possibly later. I had a '76 Strat and that had a 3-way. But players were using the 2 and 4 positions long before the 5-way switches were available - with a bit of practice you could get the switch to stick in those in-between positions.

Wow! That is some great stuff. I wasn't led astray. Whew!

Thanks. Dudes.
It took more than 10 years of guys notching before it became production?! That is some slow response.

 

[brianwenz]

Re: Did Jimi Hendrix...

Hello Hello--
Guitar Toad--- Yeah, and whats REALLY sick is that Fender basically ignored Hendrix while he was alive.......Jimi had to buy all his gear from music store.
Brian.

 

[Guitar Toad]

Re: Did Jimi Hendrix...

Hello Hello--
Guitar Toad--- Yeah, and whats REALLY sick is that Fender basically ignored Hendrix while he was alive.......Jimi had to buy all his gear from music store.
Brian.

Wow, that is un-believable! I heard that Fender was poorly run, but ... Leo clearly needed some help with his PR.

 

[Guitar Toad]

Re: Did Jimi Hendrix...

Were Jimi and Leo Fender worlds apart culturally? or was it something else? Did Fender have better relationships with other musicians in the 60's?

 

[bungalowbill]

Re: Did Jimi Hendrix...

Where Jimi and Leo Fender worlds apart culturally? or was it something else? Did Fender have better relationships with other musicians in the 60's?

I think Fender endorsed The Ventures around that time, its a shame they didn't pick up on Hendrix. They missed a HUGE opportunity.

 

[brianwenz]

Re: Did Jimi Hendrix...

Hello Hello--
Yeah, better relations with white, west coast artists like the Beach Boys, **** Dale, and hoards of country guys. I can't remember what the exact deal is between Hendrix and Fender, but I know that Hendrix rejected Sunn Amps [owned by CBS] for his stage gear [sounded like warmed-over crap....] so maybe that had something to do with it. Of course now Fender sells more Strats then anything mainly BECAUSE of Hendrix!
Brian.