Talk:Jimi Hendrix

Semi-protected edit request on 7 May 2022

The image of Jimi's signature isn't even close to his real one. It's a logo designed in the early '90s. His real signature looks thus: https://iconicauctions.com/ItemImages/000038/38515a_lg.jpeg Jmvlock1 (talk) 20:50, 7 May 2022 (UTC)

 Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. Terasail^[✉️] 15:39, 8 May 2022 (UTC)

How many sources do you want? Look at the thing! 2600:4040:79AF:CF00:2C4D:148C:F092:E1F4 (talk) 20:58, 24 September 2022 (UTC)

Jmvlock1, 2600:4040:79AF:CF00:2C4D:148C:F092:E1F4: The image currently used in the infobox was taken from the album cover of the short-lived 1992 compilation The Ultimate Experience. Similar stylizations of his name also appeared on other albums from 1994 to 1995, such as :Blues, Woodstock, and Voodoo Soup. However, when Experience Hendrix took over his recording catalogue, it was no longer used. A 2003 book of lyrics compiled by Janie Hendrix/EH prominently shows a different signature as does the official Jimihendrix.com website. This signature appeared several years earlier in the biography Electric Gypsy (1991) by Harry Shapiro and other sources. So the point raised by the IP is entirely plausible: the stylized "Jimi Hendrix" that appears on some 1990s albums is a logo and not his actual signature. The image will be removed from the infobox pending other comments. —Ojorojo (talk) 14:44, 25 September 2022 (UTC)

Thank you, Ojorojo :) 2600:4040:79AF:CF00:AF:4562:C30A:3AB5 (talk) 20:40, 25 September 2022 (UTC)

Equipment

In an interview released on June 30, 2022, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter revealed that he gave Jimi Hendrix his first customized, reverse-strung white Fender Stratocaster. This answered a decades-old mystery about the origin of Hendrix's first Stratocaster. Baxter also built the guitar himself. Sgmerritt (talk) 16:43, 4 July 2022 (UTC)

@Sgmerritt: According to biographer Steven Roby, Baxter gave a similar account in 1981. [Roby 2002 pp. 53, 260] However, Hendrix equipment biographer Michael Heatley relates a somewhat different story:

The first Strat Jimi Hendrix played ... had been purchased that May [1966] from Manny's Music in New York, with funds provided by his then girlfriend, Carol Shiroky. The price of a new Strat at that time was $289. Jeff Baxter, later of Steely Dan, was an assistant at the shop and claims Jimi traded his Duo-Sonic for it, but Carol Shiroky suggests he wanted to move away from Curtis Knight (whose guitar the Duo-Sonic was) and forge his own career. So logic would dictate he returned the cheaper guitar to his friend. [Heatley 2009, p. 62]

Biographer Harry Shapiro quotes Shiroky as saying that Hendrix told her the only reason he still played with Knight was that he owned the Duo-Sonic and that:

two days later I went out and bought him [Hendrix] a white Fender Stratocaster ... He filed down the frets, because he'd reversed the order of the strings, and he sat there for hours and hours filing the frets. So the strings would fit in reverse. [Shapiro 1991, p. 101]

Baxter also claims to have sat in on bass with Hendrix's Greenwich village group Jimmy James and the Blue Flames that turned into "about two months". [Roby 2002 p. 53] But in an interview, bandmate Randy California said: "I know Jeff was claiming that he was in the band, but I don't really remember him being in the band." [Roby 1994]

With these somewhat conflicting accounts, there is really nothing to change in the article that cites Shapiro: "Hendrix played a variety of guitars, but was most associated with the Fender Stratocaster.[328] He acquired his first in 1966, when a girlfriend loaned him enough money to purchase a used Stratocaster built around 1964.[329]"

—Ojorojo (talk) 14:25, 26 September 2022 (UTC)

The "years active" section and the "early years" section stating he started in 1963 when he started in 1962

The "years active" section in the box on the right at the top of the page states that he began performing in 1963, citing the book Room Full of Mirrors as a source, when the same book (on pages 96-97) actually states that Hendrix and Billy Cox began playing gigs as the King Kasuals in September of 1962, right after Cox was discharged from the army. The "early years" section states the same thing, it starts with "in September 1963", when all of those events occured in September of 1962. 72.82.226.169 (talk) 19:04, 12 September 2022 (UTC)

Good catch, I went ahead and changed it. Several bios show this in 1962, not 1963. BTW, some of the material in Cross' book Room Full of Mirrors conflicts with that in other bios, so it's best to double check his info. —Ojorojo (talk) 13:18, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

Ambidextrous?

It's frequently claimed that he was left-handed (hence playing a right-handed guitar strung upside down) although it is also claimed that he was ambidextrous as per this article. Should Hendrix's handedness be addressed in the article? JezGrove (talk) 19:40, 6 March 2023 (UTC)