Your thoughts on Jimi Hendrix

[Mr.Marion]

Do you still think he was the greatest guitarist you ever heard?

[toyhunter1970]

nope overrated

[mego maniac mark]

I never thought of him that way at all.

[TrekStar]

Maybe back at that time? (I thought Carlos Santana was better) but compared to later guitarist probably not.

[Mikey]

Just had a 70's reminiscing thought…

Eric Clapton --- IS GOD ...

Anybody else remember that ?

IMO, both Hendrix and Clapton were/are decent players

BB King and Lucile --- THATS the real deal, imo

[LonnieFisher]

I think Steve Vai is the greatest guitarist I ever heard.

[Hector]

Andrés Segovia.

[J.B.]

Jimi, but I'll stick with my boy.

[apes3978]

Hendrix, very good... But, I only base that on what I have heard on the radio, and the one 'greatest hits/best of' compilation I own by him. I'm nowhere near needing or wanting 'everything' he ever committed to tape in his life time.

Greatest of all time? Not sure on that, as 'all time' hasn't happened yet. Probably not though...

[Jorge Galvan]

Depends on what context. Every generation has a best of, greatest of all time, etc.etc...

For his time, Jimi was pretty much the bees kness, Ironically we all later found out he did nick a lot of his stuff off of Jeff Beck's Yardbird work!

Does he still rank today? He does, but since he passed away a lot has happened with guitar.

Tapping (Edward, Harvey Mandel, Steve Hackett) Legato economy sweep picking (Frank Gambale) Neoclassical (Yngwie, Tony MacAlpine)

the 1970's you had the fusion movement and players such as Al DiMeola, Bill Connors, Allan Holdworth, Ray Gomez, Tommy Bolin, John McLaughlin and Neal Schon to name a few.

the 1980's was when guitar was huge! The shred movement from Mike Varney's Guitar Player column and GIT/MIT in Hollywood was the place to go if you wanted to learn to shred.

Paul Gilbert, Bruce Bouillet, Joey Tafolla, George Lynch, Richie Kotzen, Blues Saraceno, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Akira Takasaki, Chris Impelliterri are only a handful of players that rose up in the 80's.


in the 90's neoclassical shred met jazz fusion and then you had Buckethead, Todd Duane, Ron Thal, Shawn Lane, Brett Garsed, TJ Helmerich and Jimmy Herring.

Metal was not dead, even though Grunge was around, the biggest guy to save Metal was Dimebag Darrell Abbott. Pantera was huge!

in the 00's you had Tosin Abasi pioneer a new progressive metal movement and style called DJENT.

if I where still an young hot headed immature metal head I would have fought anyone who said Shawn Lane was not the greatest of all time. Now as I am a grizzled Metal head, I can accept anyone else's opinion and POV. Its all who you listen to that makes your eyes widen with wonder, its who you listen to that makes you shudder as if you got hit with a bolt of electricity! it's who you listen to that makes you smile as if you learned the secret of the Universe and only YOU KNOW about it.

George Harrison was asked to play a solo on I think it was a Alvin Lee solo album, or was it Bill Wyman(?Not sure??) and he at first refused, saying; "I only know ONE NOTE". and whoever it was said back to him, "But it's that ONE NOTE, I WANT!" So he did it!



So is Jimi the greatest? Yes he is.

But so is Dimebag as all those Pantera fans love him so much

So is Eric Clapton

So is Edward Van Halen

So is Steve Vai

So is Shawn Lane

so is Allan Holdworth

So is George Harrison

So is Peter Green

So is Brian May

So is Keith Richards

So is the Reverend Willie 'G'! (Billy Gibbons)

and I am sure there are Punters out there who say its Johnny Ramone!

and it goes on and on and on and I hope it never ends.


now as Zappa said; Shut up and play Yer Guitar!!!

[Nostalgiabuff]

Hendrix was great, no doubt about it. but there are many who are better. though in fairness, Jimi never got the chance to grow further. who knows, had he lived, he may still be considered the greatest

[Jorge Galvan]

Oh, back to Jimi, his technique is of course blues based, but with the British invasion he did listen to EC with the Yardbirds and then the Bluesbreakers lp. Got into Beck's stuff with the yardbirds and Jimi's hand were so big he would fret the neck with his thumb on the neck instead of placing it behind the neck. His showmanship was nicked from Buddy Guy, who used to have a looonnngg cable chord and would run out into the street during a set playing away. And of course in the UK, you had Marshall Amps just arriving on the scene. Let's not forget the WAH WAH pedal...

What if he lived? I heard so many stories.

Jack Bruce said that he and Jimi and Tony Williams were gonna go into the studio (the week after he died) to jam, and then I also heard Ginger Baker was gonna do some work with Jimi and I also heard that there was gonna be another Band of Gypsy's lp. The possibilities. It is a really tragic story.

RIP JIMI.

[shaunaconda]

Hendrix probably has the greatest legacy.

I believe he said Terry Kath was the best or his favorite.

[Mikey]

I think if the REAL classic blues players having the option of using (not yet invented) feedback and fuzzbox etc could have performed stuff that would at least rival Hendrix.

Remember, these old artists were playing and recording on just a (probably second-hand) dobro resonator --- if that.

[Mongoose1983]

No. And never did. Hendrix became a big influence back in the day, but a dozen names or more instantly come to mind when thinking about guitar players.