THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE: ELECTRIC LADYLAND
Introduction by Derek Taylor

16 songs from the album, including: All Along the Watchtower • Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland) • Voodoo Child (Slight Return) • and more. The Guitar Recorded Versions edition has been newly revised with a 24-page full-color section

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Book $24.95 (US)

Jimi Hendrix

The prospect of writing a short biography of Jimi Hendrix is daunting, particularly given the volume of words already written and spoken about the man and his music. Perhaps a short sentence would suffice better than a few pages: "Jimi Hendrix permanently changed the course of rock music."

But then we’d be neglecting to mention the blues, and popular music in general, which he also changed in countless ways. His moment in the spotlight was nearly as brief as Buddy Holly’s, and his influence as great, to the third power.

He grew up listening to blues records of his Dad’s, taking up guitar in his teens and continuing to play during a stint in the Army. He bounced around various well-known R&B bands like Little Richard and the Isley Brothers before forming his own band, which is where he was when the Animals’ Chas Chandler discovered him in 1966. Chandler took him to England and hooked him up with two musicians to form the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and they created the album that shook the world: Are You Experienced?

A legion of guitarists, from rock stars to pre-teens, stopped dead in their tracks, realizing that the rules had suddenly changed. His subsequent albums, Axis: Bold as Love and Electric Ladyland further astounded and inspired the rock and blues worlds, and when he broke up the Experience and played Woodstock with the Band of Gypsys, he gave a performance that made history. But history also records that his bright moment in the sun ended shortly thereafter; a year after Woodstock, Jimi Hendrix died of a barbiturate overdose accident, just shy of his 28th birthday.

Excerpt from:
LEGENDS OF ROCK GUITAR
By Pete Prown and HP Newquist

This book is a virtual encyclopedia of great electric guitar players, with 35 chapters examining the major players in each important era of rock. The book begins with rock's birth from the blues, covering masters like Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters. It proceeds to cover rockabilly greats like Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Buddy Holly; through the mop tops and matching suits of the British Invasion; to the psychedelia of the Dead and Hendrix; glam rock's dresses and distortion; fusion virtuosos like Metheny, Gambale, and Henderson; metal masters; shred stars; grunge gods; grindcore; and much more. Legends of Rock Guitar is not only a great resource for guitar fans, but an interesting and well-researched chronology of the rock idiom.

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Book $22.95 (US)

In his quest to broaden the electronic boundaries of the guitar and express his unique sonic vision, Hendrix employed nearly every available effect and guitar gadget of the late 1960s. Among his regular effects were a Dallas-Arbiter Fuzz Face, a Mayer Octavia (produces octaves above and below the note played), a Vox wah-wah pedal*, a Leslie rotating speaker, and a Univox Univibe (which simulated a rotating speaker), not to mention the vast array of studio effects he used, like echo and phasing.

His universally recognized signature guitar was a right-handed Fender Stratocaster flipped over and restrung for his lefty technique, though he could occasionally be found wailing away on a gibson Les Paul or Flying V. His amps were almost always Marshall 100-watt stacks, though his rig did include Sunn and Sound City gear from time to time.

*Hendrix put his wah-wah pedal before the distortion pedal in his signal chain. For more information, see the lesson on Ordering of Effects in the Wood Shed.