A vail of mystery has always surrounded the fantastic sounds that Jimi Hendrix managed to get out of his guitar. To this day people are trying to copy his sound, and many seem to believe that there were some magic ingredient to his sound, but the fact is that he used mostly stock amps, guitars and effects, maybe with the exception of the Octavia, wich was not available to the public at large for some years after jimi’s death. Mainly his sound could be reproduced with stock effects and amps. But not many are able to reproduce the sound of Jimi Hendrix, even today.
His live set-up was very simple by todays standard. In the early days it was guitar-Fuzz Face-Marshall, later he added a wha-wha, and the Uni-Vibe. He only used the Octavia on one occation, the Band of Gypsys four conserts in Fillmore East, New York.
Here is an overview of the main ingredients to his sound. But as with all guitarplayers Jimi produced his magic with the tip of his fingers, not the gear…