"It's quite mind-boggling when you think of how much Jimi Hendrix was able to accomplish - and reinvent rock guitar - during a recording career that only lasted several years," reports Greg Prato for Ultimate Guitar. "And the reason why his career as a band leader was cut so short was due to his tragic death at the age of 27 on September 18, 1970.
"And since he died well before the advent of locking tremolos, synth guitars, a wide variety of stomp boxes, etc., it's understandable for many to ponder what he would have done with modern guitar technology at his disposal. And it turned out that several of rock's most respected guitarists were willing to answer this question in my 2020 book, Avatar Of The Electric Guitar: The Genius Of Jimi Hendrix."
Metallica's Kirk Hammett: "He was an innovator. He was the type of innovator that anything you put in his hands, he would have taken it and innovated it. He was like... a painter with sound. And so, if you think about all the technology, all the different sort of things that created sound that has come in the wake of the time period between now and when he died – that's a lot of stuff.
"You have synthesizers, the first wave of modern guitar effects which happened in the '70s – which, was really inspired by Jimi, because he was the first major 'effects guy.' I'm sure he would have been on top of all the new sounds that came out.
"And a lot of those effects pedals came out so that it would be convenient to get a sound that was similar to what Jimi's sound was in the studio. What he was doing in the studio was a direct influence on what MXR was doing, Electro-Harmonix was doing – all those early effects companies... Ibanez, Maxon. They were just trying to figure out how to get the phasing and the flanging that's all throughout Axis and Electric Ladyland."
Former KISS/Grand Funk Railroad guitarist Bruce Kulick: "I just think he wouldn't have had to tune on stage as much in between songs. What he was doing on a regular floating tremolo of a Stratocaster is exactly what a Floyd Rose does – except a Floyd Rose... it's not fair to say it does it better, it just does it more efficiently. Because obviously, by having something locking – the chances of the strings slipping and going out of tune during a performance have gone down."
Read what Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal, Adrian Belew, and Steve Vai had to say, at Ultimate-Guitar.com.
