Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix, born Johnny Allen Hendrix in Seattle, Washington on November 27th, 1942, and died September 18th, 1970, is remembered by Guitar World as "probably the most iconic, if not the most influential electric guitar player ever"¹. He started playing guitar at 15, enlisted in the US Army in 1961 and trained as a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division before his discharge the following year, then toured the R&B circuit, releasing 24 singles with acts like the Isley Brothers, Little Richard and Curtis Knight².

For a pedal player, Hendrix matters because his rig defined the sound of fuzz, wah and vibe effects for everyone after him. T-Rex calls him "the father of effect pedals, with his innovative use of distortion pedals, wah-wahs, vibes and phase shifters"³. Much of what he used is still in production as signature or tribute pedals from Dunlop and others.

The right sound for each song

Hendrix matched his gear to the song, and the DigiTech Jimi Hendrix Experience Pedal, a modeling multi-effects pedal built on a metal chassis with a large treadle, maps those pairings preset by preset⁶. Its song models give a useful picture of what went into each track⁶:

The pedal ships with a custom artist pedal gig bag, pick and power supply⁶.

The Experience years: Marshall amps, Fuzz Face and Octavia

Hendrix bought his first Marshalls in the fall of 1966, two or three Super 100 heads and four 4x12 cabinets, and was seen using them on a short French tour on October 13th, 1966, the first Jimi Hendrix Experience shows. Guitar World marked 2026 as 60 years since he first plugged into a Marshall¹. He was loyal to the brand in the studio too, telling an interviewer that he really liked his old Marshall tube amp because when it was working properly there was nothing that could beat it, nothing in the whole world².

The Fuzz Face was his distortion pedal. The earliest photo of him with a Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face comes from the Big Apple Club in Munich, Germany on November 8th, 1966², and his use of it can be heard on classic tracks like "Purple Haze" and "Foxy Lady"⁷. Dunlop notes that the Fuzz Face, in all of its incarnations, was the fuzz pedal he used more than any other: germanium-based fuzz in the early years, silicon-based crunch in the latter part of his career⁴. GuitarPCB points out the effect became very popular because Hendrix played it and there were not many distortion pedals around at the time⁸, and EarthQuaker Devices credits the pedal's popularity to Hendrix and scores of other 60s guitarists⁹.

The Octavia came from Roger Mayer, his guitar tech, who met Hendrix at a club in 1967 and handed him a brand new prototype two weeks before it was used on the "Purple Haze" solo². Hendrix tracked "Purple Haze" and "Fire" using the Octavia pedal on his first record², and he called Mayer "the secret of my sound" several times in interviews². Mayer's own Classic Fuzz carries modifications he says he personally developed for Jimi, heard on his early recordings¹⁰. Hendrix also used a Big Muff V1, the 1969 model, likely from late 1969 through 1970².

Woodstock and Band of Gypsys: wah, fuzz and Uni-Vibe

At Woodstock in 1969 Hendrix chained the wah, Fuzz Face and Uni-Vibe into his Marshalls. Over the course of 1969 and 1970, at his most noted live appearances, Live at Woodstock, Live at Berkeley and Live at the Fillmore East, he used a mysterious red Fuzz Face Distortion with white knobs¹¹, the unit Dunlop's Band of Gypsys fuzz pedals are based on¹².

His wah was the Vox Crybaby, used throughout his career, with the first known photo from August 15, 1967 in Ann Arbor, while he recorded Axis: Bold as Love². Before the pedal existed he got the effect by hand, what he called the "hand wah," first used on record on "I Don't Live Today" in February 1967². Original Cry Babys varied enough that he went through six or seven before finding one that sounded right¹³, and he played one with the bottom left rubber foot removed to tilt it at the angle he found comfortable¹⁴.

The Uni-Vibe is the effect most tied to this era. Voodoo Lab notes its unique sound achieved legendary status when Hendrix used it on his Band of Gypsys record and his Woodstock performance of "The Star Spangled Banner"¹⁵, and Strymon points to "Machine Gun" from Band of Gypsys as its most famous use¹⁶. The unit itself was the vintage Shin-ei Uni-Vibe, which he used from 1969 to 1970⁵.

Signature and tribute pedals

Dunlop's Authentic Hendrix line reproduces his circuits for modern boards. The Jimi Hendrix Fuzz Face Distortion is a faithful reproduction of the 1969-70 Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face he used on classic albums such as Electric Ladyland, in a pedalboard-friendly housing with a status LED, true-bypass switching and a 9-volt power jack¹⁷¹⁸. The Band of Gypsys Fuzz Face Mini puts the aggressive Band of Gypsys fuzz sound in an MXR mini housing with a Tone control¹², and the '69 Psych Series Fuzz Face combines both of his fuzz flavors, silicon crunch and germanium saturation, in one mini housing⁴. The '69 Psych Series Octavio Fuzz updates the original cheese wedge Octavio circuitry for modern players and pedalboards¹⁹, and the JHM9 wah is based on the personal wah pedal he used²⁰.

In 2012 Dunlop released a limited-edition Jimi Hendrix 70th Anniversary Tribute Series of four pedals, each covered in artwork inspired by John Van Hamersveld's poster from Hendrix's 1968 Shrine Auditorium gig, with an intro and demo video featuring guitarist Eric Gales²¹.

Questions