Thanks. The sound doesn't seem right for that guitar, I know he played a black V at times. I owned a 1964 SG special, with soap bars (still have it, but it's been broken and glued back together and refinished, PAFs in it -- it has virtually no original value.). I don't hear P90s being the pickups in the main guitar on Axis, but I'm often wrong, ask my wife! I also owned a Pre-CBS Fender bassman, and it definitely wasn't the amp or if it was it was heavily modded.

Do you have a source for that info about the V?? I'm sure it could be true... Jimmi did ground-breaking things.

So I did some research... and didn't find anything that would back up the V as the guitar used; but then again I didn't find anything saying CONCLUSIVELY that it was a strat.
Of interest: http://www.jimihendrix.dk/index.php?lang=en&page=gear
I did see the Axis tour, and it was Sunn amp heads, Sunn cabs and Fender cabs, IIRC. And a white strat. I saw him use a black Les Paul in White Plains.
This stuff is still fascinating, 40 couple years later.
Les

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"When the going get's weird, the weird turn pro."
Dr. Gonzo
1994 PRS CE 24-White
1964 Gibson SG-Cream Yellow??!!
2008 Hw1 Strat-Sunburst/Maple
2010 Epiphone Les Paul Plustop ProFX

You've got it right on the importance of good amps and even better settings on the controls...

My amps are pretty typical, nothing fancy just fairly decent gear... for example:

I've got a Fender Champ 600 that has three "settings" you can pick high or low impedance inputs, and change the volume, that's it... and that's all it really needs. (I'm not counting the "on/off" switch... that really doesn't color the tone)

By adjusting your guitar's volume level into the Champ you can go from smooth jazz background sounds, to heavy distortion... With a mic and fed through the PA you'd think it was a wall of amps and speakers making the sound...

If a guitar is half decent it sounds pretty good through one or the other input...

I've only got ONE guitar that doesn't sound great through the Champ... it's a Yamaha Silent Nylon string model with a piezoelectric pickup... Practice levels are good, but at anything over half volume it just gets shrill...

OTOH, my Fender Princeton Chorus can make any guitar I've gotten to touch sound amazing. Conservatively rated by Fender at 2x25 watts it easily keeps up with amps rated at double that power...

If it were still in production today it would be considered an "acoustic" amp... full range, flat response, and an amazing "clean" sound. (you'd never believe it with my nearly antique Barcus Berry Magnetic pickup in the sound hole of my Taylor 555 12-String, it's the Taylor sound, but louder<G>)

The tone controls, effects (reverb, chorus) and levels are all analog circuits. (not a microprocessor or gate circuit to be found inside)

Through the Princeton, the Yamaha Silent sounds as clean and full throated as my Tak Rosewood and Cedar Classical... but loud enough to balance with the rest of the band.

Connected to the Princeton, my little HSS Strat can go from nearly acoustic smoothness, to heavy metal distortion using nothing but it's own switching and the gain/volume/tone on the amp.

The drive channel is mild to wild depend on it's settings, and is available with a toe tap... (the ONLY thing I don't like is having no footswitch for reverb... oh well<G>)

Moving up to more drive, my Crate Power Head (2x75 watts) is completely unforgiving... on it's clean settings what your guitar puts in is what goes to the speakers, good, bad, or indifferent... When you go into overdrive it gets crazy!

Three different amps, and a complete range of sounds from my three electrics... Not a terrible combination in the bunch, but between them all I can pretty well tailor my sound that whatever I feel fits the song...

Everything I've got has the factory flavor pickups, tone circuits, and switching... never found a reason to change them yet...

Something I HAVE noticed is what happens when you get playing with some "old timers" Folks that played their music with the amps set to "11" and had no idea they needed hearing protection...

Quite often their hearing is so badly bombed that you can tell a "pro" by the treble squawks coming out of their amp... It's not their fault, NO ONE knew how quickly permanent hearing damage happened back then...

But partial hearing loss seems to be harder to compensate for than anything else...

The can usually hear lows, quite often they don't have problems with voice frequencies (male voices anyway), but their high end is usually gone... which is why they've got that end of the audio spectrum cranked...

Some of that influences which pickups are popular... especially which pickups the "pros" pick... The ones that sound best to them when the sound guy(s) send back a monitor signal!<G> (Every wonder why there's a "House Sound Guy" and another tech processing monitor sounds???)

Hopefully some of that is confirmation of your thoughts about amps being the critical link in the chain...( and yet another reason that players need to let the sound guy play HIS instrument and make them look(sound) good to the audience<G>)

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Still looking for that One Guitar To Rule Them All since 1964...
FSR Fender 60 Anniversary Strat HSS MIM, Gibson ES 335, Taylor 555, Ovation Custom Balladeer-12, Baby Taylor, Fender Princeton Chorus (stereo), Fender Champ 600

I don't know what name Fender puts on these pups but I'm sure someone does:A tech told me a while back that Fender makes a pickup set that replicates the sound of the L-Series(62-65) Strats and can pretty well nail the Hendrixy tone as well the pickups that replicate the very early CBS pickups are supposed to be quite good and very full sounding.

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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.

if you want to change your tone change your capacitors.

No matter what Strat pups you use, it should still sound like a Strat. Not to sound like a jerk, but most guys who lean toward a PRS or an LP may not ever be happy with a Strat sound. You could try blue lace sensors. They're nice and smooth, with plenty of power, but definitely aren't your classic Strat pickup.
I also noticed when I tried the Marshall Haze that it had nothing in common (to my ears) with the old Marshalls of rock legend. If you can get the Plexi sound from a Haze, I'd desperately like to know how you make it happen.

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Strat+Tweed=Tone

AGILE! I really like the look of the Interceptor and wanted one for quite a while but I now have an RG550.

Any videos of you playing?

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A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence. ~Leopold Stokowski~

On my bands website are lots of videos. I don't play much lead, I'm not that great, but a decent rythm player. www.thissideup.us

I am very happy with the DiMarzio Area 58 in the middle and neck and really love the 61 in the bridge. I think these are very much a Strat sounding set of pickups but with a little more fullness. Absolutely dead quiet too. I have modified the wiring so I have a tone pot on the bridge and the neck and middle pup on another tone pot. I can get just about anything out of this guitar and am very happy with it.

So, I recommend the Dimarzio Area pickups to the OP. Let us know how things work out for you.

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I'm with you fellers!
www.thissideup.us