For some he is the god of their world. To others he is simply a favorite. To some he is just blah. I can live with any intelligent answer on this subject. To me Jimi Hendrix is someone who is special because he was so far ahead of his time. He fought through a lot and was had a huge influence over generations of people. When you consider that his Experience career was under 4 years it's even more impressive. To me the most telling sign of his greatness is the amount of stars who to this day hold him in such high regard. This year will be 40 years since his death and he is still considered a legend. What does Jimi Hendrix mean to you?

He was a pioneer in exploring different sounds and techniques to achieve them. He paid his dues long before he was noticed by many, IMO.

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

+1, very well put Mikey

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I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk...

Tremendous songwriter, too ... ridiculously prolific.

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Laughing out loud with fear and hope, I have a desperate plan ...

My becoming a musician was completely influenced by 3 people-John Lennon,George Harrison and Jimi Hendrix.When I first saw the Beatles I decided to become a musician however when I first heard Jimi and found out that guitar playing had no boundries that's when the guitar bug settled in real deep.I became obsessive about becoming a top notch guitarist and for a few years practiced up to 8 hrs a day.Something must have paid off because I had quite a few successful years playing in bands.Due to arthritis in my hands I don't play professionally any more but I still insist on playing daily pain be damned.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

To me, and I suppose to many of my generation, Hendrix is symbolic of our long past youth--a more idyllic time perhaps. In that sense, Jimi Hendrix is an emotion remembered as much as he was a pioneer/artist.

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"To Be Is To Do" --Locke
"To Do Is To Be" --Thoreau
"Do Be Do Be Do" --Sinatra

check the bellow

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'when the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace' - James Marshall Hendrix

To me Hendrix was the man that Leo made the Stratocaster for, he just made it the wrong way for Jimi...

I mean I know the Strat was made before Jimi, but to me, he's the one that put the Strat on the map...or at least for me he did...

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RAMA LAMA FA FA FA

Imagine how great Jimi would have been if Leo made it the right way. Seriously though I never could why Jimi never played left hand Strats when they were available at that time,I wonder if it had anything to do with availability or did he really find advantages to having the whammy on top etc..I have a left hand strung right and I must say that having the vibrato arm up top allows you to easily deploy it with your forearm while playing lead maybe that was part of his reason.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Left handed guitars are still hard to find in many places today, so I would imagine it was even more of an issue back then before the internet and corporate buying power of national chain outlets...

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RAMA LAMA FA FA FA

I think me and Guitslinger are related and we dont know it .lol as we share a lot of things in common.

The Beatles are my favorite band hands down and made me want to play music. Hendrix made me want to be a lead guitar player. From a very young age I was just hypnotized every time I saw him, and the guitar seemed to be a third arm as he had such control moving with it. I know most people talk about his lead playing but his rhythm playing probably fascinated me even more. The way he used chord embellishments made his rhythm tracks things od beauty. Till this day I still feel that connection whenever I hear him.

A link to my past...

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"...The final truth is, there is no truth..." - (from "Nice n' Neat" by the Boomtown Rats)

+1 to all of the above except for Nevin (You are still young...one day......)

My second concert..Hendrix in April 1968.
I just got Valleys of Neptune today and it is so Hendrix...refreshing, wonderful, great cover of Sunshine of My Love, and a change of pace from all the garbage on radio

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Current Gear: Ron Kirn Barnbuster Tele,
Marshall: 1971 SuperLead 100>1997 1960-TV, bunch of pedals
and a 1987 Porsche 911 Carrera coupe named Veronica

Wow, where to start...
The first time I heard Hendrix, in my teens, it was an older friend playing me some endless live jam - the kind of thing Jimi would never have wanted released. I couldn't see what the fuss was about. Then I heard the songs, and the perfectionist composer's guitar lines, the short melodic solos, the blindingly original sounds, the humour, the funk, the attitude, the voice, the imagination, the revolutionary massaging of the stereo field....
He dragged the guitar and the art of studio recording years into the future. Most of the rest of us are still catching up.

And equally importantly he was a man who stood for Peace, understanding, harmony between races and countries.

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"...Compared to the flowers and the birds and the trees, I am an Apeman."

I never listened to Jimi Hendrix for years. I thought he must be overrated since everyone loved him so much. I thought that somehow listening to Hendrix would take what little originality I had away, because it seemed like every guitar player has gotten something from listening to Hendrix.

That changed after I started listening to SRV and Hendrix kept popping up everywhere. I had no idea that Jimi was the one who wrote Voodoo Child (Slight Return) or Third Stone from the Sun, or Little Wing for that matter. The only version I had ever heard of Little Wing was Stevie's, and I assumed he wrote it. When I found out that a lot of my favorite SRV songs were really Hendrix songs I was suddenly interested.

I immediately started downloading Hendrix albums off iTunes and in no time I owned all three original studio albums. I wasn't quite blown away to the point that SRV blew me away, but I was shocked by how awesome it was. I started listening and learning Hendrix songs then, and I still am. I realize now the huge indirect impact Jimi Hendrix had on my playing, even though I never heard any other song besides Purple Haze and Hey Joe until I was 16.
The very first song I ever wrote, when I was 13, sounds nearly identical to the octave part of Third Stone from the Sun. When I first heard it I thought, "Hey! That's my song!"

Again, huge indirect impact. Everyone who plays electric guitar now (mainly in blues, rock, funk, metal, pop and r&b styles) owes something to Jimi whether they know it or not.

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