The Tone That Gives Me The Chills - Voodoo Chile by Jimi Hendrix
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 มิ.ย. 2024
- This is the first video in my series - The Voodoo Chile Chronicles - in which I am going to try and get as close to Jimi Hendrix's tone in Voodoo Chile (the slow blues) as possible. In this one I talk about some of the history of the track and start thinking about which guitar works best for it...
Time Stamps:
0:00 Intro Demo
1:05 Intro
2:14 A Couple of Books
2:49 How the Series will Work
3:18 The Amps
5:19 The Playing
6:16 Dale Wilson Strat
6:49 Maple Neck Strat Demo
7:56 Which Strat should I use?
9:24 I Just Realised...
10:11 Amp Controversy
10:51 Need more guitar comparisons
11:24 Wasn't keen on detail before
12:50 A bit more about the track
15:27 Rosewood/maple back to back
16:05 thoughts on those
16:47 Amp/Fuzz
17:32 Favourite Phrases
18:04 59 Bassman Next - บันเทิง
The Second Video of this Series is here: th-cam.com/video/FLkCkcrsrsw/w-d-xo.html I cannot wait to get further along on this! Should be 1 video a week in this series :) cheers 🤟🏼
I remember watching Mike Finnegan. He's an organ player that played on some of the Electric Ladyland tracks. He played on Rainy Day Dream away. And I just found an interview saying that Hendrix plugged into a Fender Showman head. So your on track my friend. It's definitely a Fender and not a Marshall on Rainy Day. And probably the same head used on Voodoo Chile. I'll leave the link here. th-cam.com/video/sZ01c4oIVwo/w-d-xo.htmlsi=Smxnyl5MtXA3xodc
I've been chasing this tone for years !!!! Been listening to Jimi since I was 11 , I'm 50 now ! The opening riff is THE heaviest opening riff ever imo 👍
Really looking forward to this. Digging into the detail really plays out well when you step back out… At least it has done so for me over time 👍👍
Great Vid! Looking forward to the rest of the series....
Thanks!
Love it James, keep going!
Thank you for your service!
Nice video, great idea.
Hope you stay on this James. This is probably my favorite guitar track of all time. This + Wind cries Mary + your Patreon intro vid on delta blues (thumb drone) is pretty much all I have played for the last month. Can’t wait.
That’s great to hear :) don’t worry also, definitely staying on this track: the next video is half done already :)
Love this! Love that there's other people as nerdie as me about this stuff. I'm in the process of putting together a partscaster at the moment, got some late 60s vintage pickups and deciding between either a rosewood or maple board so this couldn't be more helpful
Oh amazing, very cool project!
Absolutely fantastic have a wonderful weekend James ❤❤❤❤❤❤😊😊😊😊😊😊
Thanks!
Great series!
Do it baby ,do it! We love this stuff!
Wow, this is shaping up to be an incredible deep dive! Looking forward to following episodes. 👍🏻 What will you be using for picks?
I absolutely love this idea, Jimi Hendrix is my sound hero. Even though I've fallen in love with jazz and cleaner sounds, I still am moved when I hear his electric guitar sound. Cheers!
thanks! I can't wait to see where this goes. About to film the next video right now :)
Sounding great!
Thanks!
Your dedication to the pursuit of the voodoo chile sound is admirable, and Im sure your commitment and dedication will result in your success of replicating to the tee the Jimi Hendrix sound. What you're doing is very intriguing and an interesting topic.
Thanks!
Yesss. Fly on!
Just imagine walking into a small club late '66 and being greeted by a brand new Marshall stack at full pelt with a wide eyed Jimi unleashing sounds never before conceived never mind heard!.
Love it
Great video James! Looking forward to following your progress. btw i remember reading that the main guitar he used while recording electric ladyland was an early 60s white strat with a rosewood fretboard, cant remember where i read this though so dont know how reliable info, i'll see if i can find it again.
That would be very interesting to know!! I’ll try and find that info too, cheers
Fantastic, love it !
Catfish blues, Voodoo Child( slight return ) Voodoo Chile, Hear My Train A-Comin, Machine Gun, Midnight Lightning, those tunes Jimi played all have something in common. It’s Jimi’s magic and something else !!!
Subbed and keen for more
Cheers!
“Turn that damn guitar down…”. Haha great song. I first listened to Ladyland back in the mid 90’s and this was the song that sold me on the whole album… It’s great from start to finish, but Voodoo Chile just transports you to that space and time. Steve Winwood’s organ playing really added so much to it. I can’t imagine being in the room for that.
😂 love that bit
Yeah, that is a gorgeous sound. It screams epic
It hits me every time I hear it!
Yeah man- that's my "go to" tone as well. Funny enough one of the best versions of it IMHO is Dave Simpson's Boss Katana review (!) but you sound great here! Really good tone!
Your Jtm45 sounds great!
That strat is killer. When i see it in the thumbnail i watch asap
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As you probably already can guess… it will mostly come down to the speakers used and how/which mics you use. Can’t wait to see your mic experiments, you get great ”roomy” tones✌🏻
Thank you for making such as inteligent and educational videos! I'm quite sure that your maple strat has an ASH body wood and I think you'll get better results on one with ALDER body (and maybe a bit thinner neck shape). Best regards and good luck!!
Thanks, and yes that is true! I will definitely have to try some Alder strats of the right type. Cheers
@nGuitar Strats are generally quite generic and modular, I wouldn't be surprised if your maple neck went straight onto your Dale Wilson strat without much difficulty. Great basis for comparison then too
Really looking forward to this series! It’s been awesome watching your Hendrix chops grow so much! Do you mind linking to the books?
Also, looking forward to seeing how the Starwood does…I’m pretty close to pulling the trigger on one.
Thanks! Sure here is the gear book - Jimi Hendrix Gear: The Guitars, Amps and Effects That Revolutionized Rock 'n' Roll: The Guitars, Amps & Effects That Revolutionized Rock 'n' Roll amzn.eu/d/2a7MYGC and here is the tab book www.musicroom.com/jimi-hendrix-the-complete-scores-guitar-hl00279346?glid=gb&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAoeGuBhCBARIsAGfKY7xLaY4c_sIUIX3bCIfv2Hi4c0aMOiQ4jptKDvTRP1eJisSJniv2dGsaAl_PEALw_wcB
Sorry for the clunky links! But even if those aren’t the best prices on them, you have the info for them now 👍🏼👍🏼
Thank you, sir!
This is amazing, I know Jimi played at loud volumes, but I'd love to see something at the 20 watt level. Also check out millstap's channel, he has some amazing bassman tones for voodoo chile
Oh i love millstap - i’m sure i mentioned him in this video (or maybe in one of the 3 takes i didn’t use perhaps!). Yeah a lower wattage option will be interesting for sure. Although, i think some element of volume is unfortunately quite important here
Mate that book on jimis gear I've been looking to get a copy for years so rare, does it have any on how castles made of sand was recorded???
Looking forward to the series. Are you giving any thought to trying a left-handed strat upside down? Or one of those funky hendrix signature strats? I feel like there would be more influences on tone here than in fretboard material...
Thanks! Had definitely thought of that, although as Jimi restrung left handed as opposed to some lefties who have played the strings upside down i don’t think that will matter. It would matter for using the tremolo but this track doesn’t need that i think. I think people underestimate fretboard material, i find it a quite important variable although as mentioned in the video there are a lot of variables here so the guitar fretboard is not incredibly important in that context :) cheers
@@JamesOnGuitar I was thinking about staggered pole pieces on the pickups. Turned upside down, they're then working differently from initially intended. Like you say though, there are a million variables 😂
Good luck. Sounds tremendous either way. Great playing too 👍
Your definitely getting close with the last sound clip with the rosewood fingerboard strat. Just a little too big sounding because of the string gauge. Definitely 10-38 is a major detail. By the way the same Fender 10-38 was used by Eric Clapton in Cream and Duane Allman also used them.
@Jamesonguitar which tab book are you using?
everithing is pinpoint but one detail, it is just missing a tiny bit more grit, mabee by compressing the sound a little bit more or a boost pedal, but if i ever get that close i would get stressed out about tweeking it more and get further away, man you are like a inch away! such a great sound
Thanks! Yeah i know what you mean totally - working on it 🤟🏼
love the idea to see how far you can get with just a Hot rod
🤟🏼
check the video by Mike Bluni on the voodoo chile sound, he hs some very good insights. certainly one of the best guitar sounds ever recorded
hi - yup, i watched that a while back and definitely learned from it and come across some of the same things as him. Couldn't agree more
Thanks for the kind mentioning 🙏
@@JamesOnGuitarHey great to hear I could inspire you a bit. Good luck with your series 👍😉🎸🔥
Interesting journey, interesting to see what in unearths. That Strat has a rosewood fretboard, not a rosewood neck.
cheers. Just a turn of phrase btw... not an accurate description :)
Looking forward to nerding out on this series. I liked the vintage nickel Fender Hendrix strings but they do go dull pretty quickly.
I couldn’t get the full nickel so have nickel plated - interested in seeing how they go
@@JamesOnGuitar strings direct have the full nickel fender ones. I don’t think any round core (rather than modern hex core) versions exist though. That would get you to actual spec.
I can see that someone is making them now - Pyramid strings with a round core, so i've ordered a set or 2! :) thanks for the tip
@@JamesOnGuitar oh nice! Sorry to push you down another rabbit hole
Last episode should be a live performance!
Uhoh!
By the way is there any chance he had the sound running through the preamp of a univibe to add a touch of drive/grit to the sound?
Good question!
I doubt that he was plugged into a vibe if he wasn't going to use it on a recording. And I don't even think he had a vibe pedal until 69. I read that it was a bassman head into a Marshall cab. And I here fuzz on this. So very simple and straight forward with very little in the way of pedals. There is also great reverb on the guitar that really enhances the track and that was added after. Unless it's natural from playing in a big room. Also on one of his solo breaks? Tape echo/delay is added to some really nice bends. Eddie Kramer's touches most likely. Amazing playing by Hendrix and everyone else in the studio.
Hello what is the name of this book at 2:36 with the scores and tablatures of Voodoo Chile ?
Hi. It is Jimi Hendrix - The Complete Scores. In the uk on amazon it costs £80
Thank you !@@JamesOnGuitar
Definitely sounds more like that Fender Bassman tone to me on that recording. It's very warm and fat. A bit more midscooped than you get from a Marshall. Marshalls have those mids that really complement and stand out in the guitar department.
I cant not click on a strat through a Marshall video. It’s literally impossible for me. How did they get it right so early.
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Great topic for a video. I have loved Hendrix for years. Your string gauge is way too heavy. Try 10-36.With lighter strings you can put much more feel into your playing. You can nail much more easily and accurately the mega bends with vibrato during the Voodoo Chile lead breaks. I have a 63 Strat and play this track often. To my ears he is using a rosewood Strat.
I doubt that Hendrix used his 68 black stratocaster on the Electric Lady album. Here we go I just heard you mention this as I'm writing. He got his 68 maple in October. After the release of Electric Ladyland. So your looking at rosewood fingerboard strat. Strings that Hendrix would use was the Fender 150's pure nickel 10-38. Pyramid strings makes a great vintage style pure nickel 10-38 Hendrix set. The amp was supposedly either a 62 blonde bassman head? Or possibly a later blackface bassman. Now, here comes the issue. Bassman heads had 4 ohm transformers. And if Hendrix plugged into a 4x12 (16 ohms) Marshall cab? There is a big mismatch between the head and speakers.
It would work, it’d just suck some (perhaps an understatement) volume out.
@@jmtrainz2582 yes it would! I wasn't saying that it wouldn't. Kind of the same situation with the J. page Zep I Coronado 1690T amplifier after the speaker was changed to a single 8 ohm 12" speaker. While the transformer was still a 2 ohm. Supposedly you lose volume but you get more compression and gain by doing this.
yep, you're right regarding the speaker mismatch
Why does my strat sound as far removed from this tone as possible? Yours is warm, woolly and woody and my tone sounds bright and brittle?
Volume… probably 😂😬
@@JamesOnGuitar yeah, i'm cranking my amps and going through a load box but its still pretty bright. Do you play with your guitars tone knob on 10?
often I do but in this case - no. It is down to 3-4, and the D tuning makes a big difference. But have you played around with pickup heights or different pickups too?
@@JamesOnGuitar ok, with the tone knob at 3-4 i'm starting to see how you got this tone. Yes the tuning would make a big difference and i'm guessing your using heavier gauge strings? I've moved my pickups height around so much but still not sure if i have them in the best place, do you have yours high or low?
Either your strings are old or you are just way off base. Any Fender gets you there. But the Strat has to be 61. In the studio, 61.
John Widner of Columbus, Ohio performance a lot of Jimi Hendrix stuff when it's a long night makes this look like child's Play not voodoo child. Really does not work.
James I used to love your videos, but 3 minutes playing broke down to 3-4 parts in a 19 minute video is not ideal - just my 5 cent.
So when you say ‘used to’ are you basing not liking them now on one video which has a lot of non playing content even though all of my other videos recently have generally had a lot of playing even some with no talking? A bit of an over reaction if you ask me 😂 sometimes there is actually something to talk about and i can’t tell you the history of something by just playing, can I?
I like the long format. This isn't Tick-tock....
@@JamesOnGuitar It is fine James, it is your channel, your decision what type of content to make, but I simply prefer more playing focused content. Its just a feedback. Cheers mate!