Do you really need a Strat to play some Hendrix...?

HAL9000

Bigsby said:

Frankly, getting a Strat is a small part of it: Playing it upside down, left-handed and with telegraph poles for fingers is what matters most.

Having the guitar just enough out of tune to be annoying is also a must.

TTBZ

For me a Gibson with P90s gets a much better and more inspiring version of a singlecoil tone. I play bad Hendrix covers on the P90 neck pickup of my SG.

ICBM

LPManic said:

Basically will the right guitar help me connect to something that I can’t connect to without it?

The connection to the music is from you, not the guitar. The guitar doesn't know what type of music it's meant to be playing.

LPManic said:

And how to I explain this to the wife?

That's a different question, but "needing" different guitars to play different things is the excuse all of us make for owning more guitars than we need, and constantly buying different ones when we think it will give us something that what we have already won't...

(This includes me .)

What are your other guitars, if your Les Paul is "no.1"?

LPManic

TTBZ said:

For me a Gibson with P90s gets a much better and more inspiring version of a singlecoil tone. I play bad Hendrix covers on the P90 neck pickup of my SG.

This is interesting to me as unrelated to the Hendrix / Strat conundrum, I've also been looking at a 2020 SG Junior recently.

LPManic

ICBM said:

What are your other guitars, if your Les Paul is "no.1"?

Gibsons of various levels up to a R8. So that's why I *need* a Strat. Or at least these last few weeks I have done.

richardhomer

Not sure how much of this ‘really’ matters - but I recently watched a performance on YouTube from Mark Knopfler’s last tour. He played Dire Straits’s ‘Once Upon A Time in the West’ on the neck pick-up of a Les Paul. For me it was all kinds of wrong....

mark123

jdgm

If you have a Hendrix obsession (and really like Rory Gallagher) then you need a Strat.

But generally, no.

ICBM

LPManic said:

Gibsons of various levels up to a R8. So that's why I *need* a Strat. Or at least these last few weeks I have done.

Then just sell one of them or trade it/some of them for the Strat if you need to keep your wife happy.

A Les Paul and a Strat isn't excessive, but several guitars that are nearly the same might well be...

Philly_Q

crunchman said:

Isn't that the film with no Fender guitars and no songs written by Hendrix?

Philly_Q

stratman3142 said:

There's the wonderful Frank Marino who plays an SG

Always good to see Frank, but interestingly in recent years he's gone a bit more Strat-like, playing SGs with three single-coil pickups, including a reverse-angled bridge pickup.

rze99

Also drop the tuning a note.  

A Strat plus a Marshall down tuned gives you the tone. All you have to do is play like a god
 

artiebear

Hendrix, in a word no.  Rory, unless you are talking about copying his solos in the bedroom, you need some stratty clang which can be turned up via the vol knob to singing and spitting through a decent amp.

guitars4you

tone1 said:

I found the Les Paul took longer to set alight...but once it got going the fire lasted longer due to the increased mass and the long tenon 

excellent

TTBZ

LPManic said:

TTBZ said:

For me a Gibson with P90s gets a much better and more inspiring version of a singlecoil tone. I play bad Hendrix covers on the P90 neck pickup of my SG.

This is interesting to me as unrelated to the Hendrix / Strat conundrum, I've also been looking at a 2020 SG Junior recently.

Personally I just can't get on with normal Fender style guitars as a general rule. I do better on superstrats but usually a Gibson just feels right to me, and humbuckers or P90s just sound way better to me than typical strat or Tele singlecoils. So P90s in an SG does the trick if I want something more singlecoil-y without straying too far from my core sound. 

The Gary Clark Jr one might be worth a look, it has 3 P90s so you might get more of those position 2/4 out of phasey sounds. I hate those so it's never really appealed to me though!

Dominic

Didn't Hendrix also play a flying V ?

dangriffiths

 I do find different guitars make me play in different ways so I will play certain riffs or styles in particular.

PhilW1

Whatever the answer your Gassing now and as we all know only too well,you won’t be happy till you’ve scratched that itch.

usedtobe

soma1975 said:

LPManic said:

This is getting a bit off track. I was wondering about do you need a guitar of a certain make to have a more authentic experience of playing certain songs of certain artists. I understand that Jimmy Paddy Page played the fiddle as well as a LP and that any song can be played on any guitar.

I’m trying to work out if I really need a Strat to get deeper into my Hendrix (and Rory Gallagher) obsessions, or is it the GAS talking?

Basically will the right guitar help me connect to something that I can’t connect to without it? And how to I explain this to the wife?

And again, yes it will. 

It never occurs to me to play Jimi when pick up my SG. It never occurs to me to play Cream tunes when I pick up my Strat.

Tone may be in the fingers, but only once they are playing the right guitar. 

https://youtu.be/P0nKzPhfYWE 

pluckbuddy

I think to get the full 'experience' you do. And a fuzz face, and tuning down half a step and so on (enter rabbit hole here) if that is what you are trying to do. 

But as much as I love strats, I've been on a different journey and attracted to more obscure guitar types lately. I really want to step away from playing the intro to all along the watchtower every time i pick up the guitar and at least try to be a bit more creative. So easy to fall into playing Beano era Clapton licks on a les paul or sultans of swing with a strat. Or at least my crappy versions of them.

Currently playing a G&L Fallout more than the strat. Not necessarily being more creative (yet) but at least it takes my brain in a different direction a bit when I practice.

Just my experience and not in any way trying to steer you away from buying a nice strat or playing more Hendrix