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Just a few thoughts as a git fiddle picker myself.

Jimi Hendrix was great, okay? I liked the guy. But it was the AMPS that made him; Marshall Amps were the reason Jimi was Jimi. Let’s be real.

Yes, I know black and all that. Yes, Yes, and Yes.

But they put him up there a few times with SUNN amps and he sounded God-awful! Although, when he drove those fender amps into his Marshall’s at Monterey Pop it sounded good too.

I’m not saying he was not a player; Oh he was. But it had to do with the excellent equipment and also, his recording engineer, Eddie Kramer, God love him. He made everyone sound better.

Just a few thoughts from someone who knows something about all that.

Jimi Hendrix was great, okay? I liked the guy. But it was the AMPS that made him; Marshall Amps were the reason Jimi was Jimi. Let’s be real. Yes, I know black and all that. Yes, Yes, and Yes....

I assume you are serious, so I heartily recommend checking out some of the lesser-known Hendrix recordings - here's one messy one I just found by typing "Hendrix Rare" into youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByN1oHmRVrU What you will find is not always technical perfection (He was an envelope-pushing live player) but a dynamism, complexity, and focus that remains as completely, stunningly new today as it ever was. I think it is fair to say that Hendrix was more than "great and black and all that" but remains in a league of his own. Nobody, ever, has ever played like this, or since, or, in fact, quite as well. His phrasing alone, off the cuff is simply mind-bogglingly amazing, and seems to have nothing to do with the limitations of the instrument - he just brushes them aside. There are faster, more technically perfect test pilots for instance, to be sure, but who wouldn't say that Yeager was probably the best ever? That's how it is, I think, with Hendrix... Only Hendrix's work, because it never really has been fully imitated, is as fresh as ever.