I Guess Hendrix Was Wrong - (at least about this)

Redhod · Jun 26, 2014

JRW8214@AOL.COM said:
Redhod, Jimi used .009s

Maybe sometimes. And I know his manager Mike Jeffery once told a British pop paper that he used straightforward Fender Rock'n'Roll strings. But I just know I talked about this subject once (in 1971) with Jeff Beck and he said he was astounded at the heavy strings on Jimi's guitar. I think you can find videos of Beck saying this.
The point I was making above is that Jimi changed his equipment quite a bit.

Jeff West · Jun 26, 2014

IIRC what Hendrix was quoted saying about Telecasters was that they just had two sounds, "one good, one bad". I'm gonna suspect that he wasn't a fan of the chrome-plated unit!

Roger Mayer has said emphatically a number of times over the years that he took pains to groom the Strats, including removing lacquer blobs in the neck pocket, making sure the neck fit was good, etc., this was key to the best sounds from the effects and playing, his general sentiment expressed was "the old ones were variable and not always great right off the shelf, and some we rejected for regular use". So maybe viability of a particular piece trumped vintage.

Where is the black '65 Monterey Strat now that it returned from oblivion a few years ago? That's one I'd love to play even for 5 minutes.

JRW8214@AOL.COM · Jun 26, 2014

Yeah i remember Jeff saying that, and that jimi made fun of the .008s on Jeff's guitar. I was taking my que from when they examined Jimi's favorite strat(the black one) years back it was strung with .009s.

zombiwoof · Jun 27, 2014

From what I've read, in the early days Jimi would buy the Fender 10-38 strings, and change out a couple of them, I think he would put a .009 banjo string on instead of the .010, and maybe change out one other, no one seems to know for sure. This is before Fender came out with their .009 set. Later, when Ernie Ball strings came out, he reportedly bought the Super Slinkies, which made it unnecessary to change out any strings. So, although he used the Fender 10-38 sets at the beginning of his "fame" years, he did change some strings out to get the tension he liked. You have to remember that in the early sixties the really light strings weren't available, and guys would take heavier gauge sets and switch strings to get light gauges. Dickey Betts used Gibson Sonomatic 12-56 sets, threw out the 56 and moved the strings over one position, and put a .010 on the first (10-12-16-28-34-44 I think is what it ended up). Others would just use a banjo string for the first, or do other string changes to the heavier sets to get bendable plain strings. Ernie Ball changed things by coming out with the Super Slinkies, and the other companies, which had been making several different gauges, ended up adopting the now standardized EB-gauged sets. They all now make the same .009, .010, and .011 sets (and the in-between hybrid gauges).

Al

JRW8214@AOL.COM said:
Yeah i remember Jeff saying that, and that jimi made fun of the .008s on Jeff's guitar. I was taking my que from when they examined Jimi's favorite strat(the black one) years back it was strung with .009s.

JRW8214@AOL.COM · Jun 27, 2014

Yup that sums it up.

Always wondered why Fender Rock n Roll set had a .038 on the low E. Thats light, very light for .010s.

zombiwoof · Jun 28, 2014

With Jimi having a reversed headstock, the low E was the longest string, so it had a bit more tension than it would have on a normal Strat headstock. So it probably worked OK for him.

Al

JRW8214@AOL.COM said:
Yup that sums it up.

Always wondered why Fender Rock n Roll set had a .038 on the low E. Thats light, very light for .010s.

JRW8214@AOL.COM · Jun 28, 2014

Hmm, that didnt occur to me but it makes sense. Thanks.

Mickspangle · Aug 7, 2014

I've often thought that Hendrix's approach to guitar was uniqiely influenced by playing RH strats upside down - lots of good points made so far, but one theory I always had was that having the tremelo and all the electronics right at the top of the guitar made him view it more as an electronic source of sound than just a guitar - he made electric guitar truly electric in my opinion

as an aside, I'd wager anyone who bought a white strat after, say, 1970, did it because of Hendrix. Dave Gilmour's first strat was olympic white, and there's a classic pic of Kossoff on the back of Back Street Crawler with one too.

Redhod · Aug 8, 2014

Mickspangle said:
.....
as an aside, I'd wager anyone who bought a white strat after, say, 1970, did it because of Hendrix. Dave Gilmour's first strat was olympic white, and there's a classic pic of Kossoff on the back of Back Street Crawler with one too.

You bet! Jeff Beck, too. And I'm still hoping to get one day. That image from the Woodstock film must've created a dream for a thousand guys.

sidekick · Aug 9, 2014

thin sissy said:
I wasn't around back then, so go easy on me.

Of course Hendrix deserves credit for keeping the strat the number one guitar in history. But, I think maybe there's a difference between european players and american?

Most of my heroes who played strats mention Hank Marvin and Buddy Holly (Mark Knopfler for example). And they almost all talk about how they wanted strats when they were kids, long before Hendrix was known (Rory for example).

I've also heard that it was very hard to get strats in the UK back in the 50's and 60's, and that might be a reason some people didn't pick up the strat until later on.

Like I said though, taking nothing away from Jimi, and I only know what I've heard in interviews.

There was a post WW2 UK import ban on USA-made musical instruments and Hank Marvin's Fiesta Red(?) Stratocaster, (ordered/owned by Cliff Richard / via his manager when in Manny's - NYC) was purportedly the first one into the UK, (1959) prior to the ban being lifted, (1961?).

Interesting story about the guitar here ... ☛ ... http://www.shadowmania.co.uk/images/imagesrelatedarticles/famousredstrat.htm

I found the interview interesting, where Bruce Welch admits, (back then as 'self-taught' young guys) they knew little about setting up their guitars, (even boiling strings to get the rust off them! :biggrin: ) ... Come to think about it, though, the average non-musically trained 50's/early 60's school kid wouldn't and unless you worked in a musical instrument shop, things like neck relief and setting intonation, etc., would appear a bit of a mystery ... :##

chuckNC · Aug 9, 2014

sidekick said:
(even boiling strings to get the rust off them! :biggrin: )

As a young guy without a lot of $$ at my disposal, I boiled the strings on my bass more than a time or two. I'm not one of those acid sweat guys so my strings have never been prone to getting real nasty. But I figured out those flats I used would sound a little livelier for recording if I boiled them. I used a dedicated utensil, as the family wouldn't have approved of one of the kitchen pots being used for that. Fair enough....

chuckNC · Aug 9, 2014

sidekick said:
Come to think about it, though, the average non-musically trained 50's/early 60's school kid wouldn't and unless you worked in a musical instrument shop, things like neck relief and setting intonation, etc., would appear a bit of a mystery ... :##

Has anyone else here read the book "Seventeen Watts?" by Mo Foster? Full of stories that will make you laugh or cry. Some of it eye-opening for us pampered moderns. Inspiring stuff too, a reminder that great music is more the product of desire than perfect tools.

landminelenny · Aug 19, 2014

JRW8214@AOL.COM said:
Rory's was a '60 or a '61. He got it in '62 or '63. So not only was it clearly not a hendrix thing, it was before hendrix even got his first one. But yeah, he said he got it because of Buddy Holly.

'Rory buys his 1961 Fender Stratocaster for £100 at Crowley`s Music Center Cork.'

I've played that guitar. It's possibly one of the biggest sounding Strats I've heard. The bridge pickup sounds like a P90!!!!!!

Daniel James · Aug 20, 2014

landminelenny said:
'Rory buys his 1961 Fender Stratocaster for £100 at Crowley`s Music Center Cork.'

I've played that guitar. It's possibly one of the biggest sounding Strats I've heard. The bridge pickup sounds like a P90!!!!!!

Great picture, thanks for that one!

JRW8214@AOL.COM · Aug 21, 2014

landminelenny said:
'Rory buys his 1961 Fender Stratocaster for £100 at Crowley`s Music Center Cork.'

I've played that guitar. It's possibly one of the biggest sounding Strats I've heard. The bridge pickup sounds like a P90!!!!!!

Oh you lucky bastard!!! If there is one strat in this world i wish i could play, its that one. And the bridge and neck pickups werent even the originals. The originals quit sometime in the 80s i think and he had to replace them. You are so lucky. I played one of the Fender Rory strats at a guitar show last time i went. Hands down best strat i ever played.

landminelenny · Aug 21, 2014

JRW8214@AOL.COM said:
Oh you lucky bastard!!! If there is one strat in this world i wish i could play, its that one. And the bridge and neck pickups werent even the originals. The originals quit sometime in the 80s i think and he had to replace them. You are so lucky. I played one of the Fender Rory strats at a guitar show last time i went. Hands down best strat i ever played.

Yeah we borrowed it for a gig. Unfortunately the CS Rory's don't compare to the real thing so well in my experience.

JRW8214@AOL.COM · Aug 21, 2014

I bow to you sir

Brad737 · Sep 13, 2014

My list of Strat heroes is pretty short. I gotta go with:

1. SRV
2. Hendrix
3. David Gilmour

I left Clapton off the list, even though he's one of my favorite guitarists. The reason is that except for Layla, I'm really all about the Beano Burst and Fool SG.

ppgf · Sep 13, 2014

we all need to strat somewhere.
:dude:
i'll be here all week (unless i get banned first).

TW59 said:
And there's the other side of this:
Maybe Hendrix would not have been so big without the Start. :hmm

Fun to think about. :salude

CutieJones · Sep 13, 2014

rufes said:
Slash has been thousand times more important for the LP than Hendrix for the Strat.

Well, maybe if you had said Billy Gibbons.

In my experience Slash has put more than a few people OFF Les Pauls, his tone seems to lack something. Kind of synthetic sounding.

I Guess Hendrix Was Wrong - (at least about this)

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