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

Doc Sausage

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Just read an interview from '67 in a well known guitar rag and found this interesting when he was asked what he was playing at that time:

"I use a Fender Stratocaster. Everyone's screaming about the 7 year old Telecaster, and the 13 year old Gibson and the 92 year old Les Paul. They've gone into an age bag now, but it's nothing but a fad."

I guess that 'age bag' thing caught on a bit. To think he could have had the Holy Grail ('59) at the time and it would have been a ripe 8 years old! :frank:
 

j45

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If those comments are accurate they aren't what you would expect from Hendrix in a typical interview...other than that they are a bit convoluted. He usually wasn't much for expressing specific concerns with hardware when it came to interviews. It is interesting that in the year of that comment Fender had just about fazed out the Strat. I believe production for the guitar was at all time low. I think we can all agree on that Hendrix did manage to take a relatively unpopular model and turn it into the single biggest selling guitar of all time.
 

Pat Boyack

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If those comments are accurate they aren't what you would expect from Hendrix in a typical interview...other than that they are a bit convoluted. He usually wasn't much for expressing specific concerns with hardware when it came to interviews. It is interesting that in the year of that comment Fender had just about fazed out the Strat. I believe production for the guitar was at all time low. I think we can all agree on that Hendrix did manage to take a relatively unpopular model and turn it into the single biggest selling guitar of all time.

The Strat would be what the Jag and Jazzmaster became without Hendrix.
 

Doctor Butcher

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ce56daafff2777b09a05f65464ea5b5e.jpg
 

Tom Wittrock

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The Strat would be what the Jag and Jazzmaster became without Hendrix.

I don't believe that.
There were way too many great Strat players already, and several could have opened everyone's eyes [and ears] if Hendrix went a different direction.

The same holds true for Bursts and the Clapton/Bloomfield influence.

Those guitars were too great to go unnoticed by the emerging rock and electric blues crowd. :)
 

hoss

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I don't believe that.
There were way too many great Strat players already, and several could have opened everyone's eyes [and ears] if Hendrix went a different direction.

The same holds true for Bursts and the Clapton/Bloomfield influence.

Those guitars were too great to go unnoticed by the emerging rock and electric blues crowd. :)
+1
 

Tomcat

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I don't believe that.
There were way too many great Strat players already, and several could have opened everyone's eyes [and ears] if Hendrix went a different direction.

The same holds true for Bursts and the Clapton/Bloomfield influence.

Those guitars were too great to go unnoticed by the emerging rock and electric blues crowd. :)

I'm not so sure about the Bursts, since the singlecut Les Paul was out of production for six years when Clapton bought his in 1966 and its successor was called SG for four years already. But regarding the Strat, Buddy Holly and Hank Marvin were big influences way before Hendrix.
 

Rocker

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I'm not so sure about the Bursts, since the singlecut Les Paul was out of production for six years when Clapton bought his in 1966 and its successor was called SG for four years already. But regarding the Strat, Buddy Holly and Hank Marvin were big influences way before Hendrix.


Despite Buddy Holly, the Strat was unpopular when the 50s Les Pauls started to become popular in the late 60s. So how much of an influence were they really? Without Hendrix, the Strat would probably not have survived the decade.
 

Tomcat

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Despite Buddy Holly, the Strat was unpopular when the 50s Les Pauls started to become popular in the late 60s. So how much of an influence were they really? Without Hendrix, the Strat would probably not have survived the decade.

Clapton played one.
Rory Gallagher played one.
Richie Blackmore played one.
Jeff Beck played one.


Not to take anything away from Hendrix (never ever), he surely was the most famous Strat-player in the second half of the sixties, but the Strat would have survived without him.
 

goldtop0

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Clapton played one.
Rory Gallagher played one.
Richie Blackmore played one.
Jeff Beck played one.


Not to take anything away from Hendrix (never ever), but the Strat would have survived without him.


I agree..........Buddy Guy and all like George Harrison. EC looked at Buddy's one early on in the piece and liked the sound.
In those days there were only five gats of note to a young teenager like me and players in NZ and Aussie, the Tele, Strat,Les Paul Custom and Standard, and the SG.
 

Doc Sausage

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I got the interview from the Nov 2012 issue of Guitar World. It's apparently from a new book called, "Hendrix on Hendrix." He said in the same paragraph, "I tried one of the new Gibsons, but I literally couldn't play it at all so, I'll stick with Fender." (didn't say which model) This interview was given to an, '18 year old student journalist' in England. Hendrix was pretty chatty that particular day.

I know there was a black Custom LP (I think it was) he played for a little while that's undoubtedly been discussed here before. I saw it at the museum in Seattle a year or so ago.

I know when I bought my first REAL electric guitar, it was a no brainer - bone white strat, ala Hendrix. But I've seen the LP light now!
 

roycaster

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I don’t know, he seemed to be rather fond of Flying Vees, weather it was just the shape, sound or ergonomics I could say.
 

Elmore

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A strat was the right guitar for Jimi. I read that he used to play them new right out of the box. He did not mod them. Jimi needed a production guitar with a whammy bar. Maybe a strat is the most expressive guitar. I read where Jimmy Page said that. Horses for courses. But I would rather hear Clapton and Duane Allman play a Gibson than a strat. And I would rather hear Jimmy Page play a Les Paul. And I would rather hear Jimi play a strat.
 

Doc Sausage

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Also funny that if Hendrix' reference to a, '92 year old Les Paul' was about the man himself, that Hendrix thought Les was old in 1967. Turns out he was just hitting his stride.
 

Tom Wittrock

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All the players mentioned were/are great, but they were not Hendrix.

But they prove it would have survived to be a great guitar, even if he had chosen a different guitar.

Suppose he chose a Fender Jaguar.
How many of us would have been so influenced as to stick with a Jag, after experiencing a nice Strat or Les Paul.

He was big, but the Strat would have been big without him.

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
 

Tom Wittrock

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Also funny that if Hendrix' reference to a, '92 year old Les Paul' was about the man himself, that Hendrix thought Les was old in 1967. Turns out he was just hitting his stride.

But Les was 52 at that time.

Maybe Hendrix was just tripping. :ganz
 

Pat Boyack

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But they prove it would have survived to be a great guitar, even if he had chosen a different guitar.

Suppose he chose a Fender Jaguar.

I don't think he ever would have used a guitar with that poor of a vibrato. At the time, the Strat's vibrato was much better. And that is one thing you could say Hendrix did that was an art onto it's own (Machine Gun) that guys borrow from to this day. Could you imagine Hendrix with a Floyd Rose? Well, maybe not....:psmile

Maybe Hendrix would not have been so big without the Start.

Dude, you just blew my mind....:bat

He was big, but the Strat would have been big without him.

OK, they would have been more popular but you got to give Hendrix his due.

Fun to think about. :salude

Yeah! And I play nothing but Les Pauls yet he is my favorite guitar player of all time. Go figure.
 

roycaster

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Well from what I’ve read over the years, and the hand full of pictures I’ve seen the Jazzmaster was his second choice back in ’66 and ’67.
 
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