Who is your favorite Strat player?

[Relic]

Well I'm taking "Favorite" to mean 'the' favorite as in 1 final winner of the crown. Ya that's harder than naming all your favorite guitarist that ever touched a Strat but the idea should be to make you think & weigh the question.

The second part of the question worth mulling over is the specific mentioning of the Stratocaster! This should give importance to player utilizing the specific features & Tones of the Stratocaster in a significant way, like utilizing it's iconic whammy / tremolo bar or displaying the Strats unique pickup sounds like its bridge pup bite, the bluesy violin nature off a cranked neck pup or the barking quack of two Strat pups working together.

For me, weighing all these factors immediately brought it down to the Big Three Strat gods for me, Hendricks, Beck & SRV.

SRV emulated Hendricks so I'm going to have to give him the pass & acknowledge his idol with the edge in that comparison.

Hendricks also seems to have beaten Beck with his approach to looking at the Strat & playing it in a uniquely expressive way beyond simply playing fixed notes & chords & using its whammy bar & cranked amp feedback to coax sounds out of the guitar that other people weren't getting yet.

Did Hendricks inspire Beck to look at a guitars ability in a new light & thus explore what he could coax out of a Strat in new ways himself? You bet he did.
When Jimi went to England & all the British guitar gods came to see him, most left feeling feeling almost demoralized yet determined to up their game. Hendrix was that good, that powerful, unique & impressive to even the best guitar players of that time.

There is little doubt that Hendricks inspired & pushed guitarists to seek new heights with their guitar playing & expressive potential and this includes myself. I love the way Jimi perceived the Guitar & his creative bond & approach. That registered & stuck with me at an early age.

Needless to say, I have a special place in my heart for Jimi. He was an innovator & he was the man! He has inspired so many people & he inspires me like no-one else.

My favorite Strat player is Jimi Hendricks.
Beck gets a strong second.

 

[smitty_p]

If we're gonna pick a Stratocaster King, I'd probably have to go with Hendrix, too.

But, the more I listen to Blackmore, I find myself really leaning in his direction.

 

[Sérgio]

Since I too really consider Clapton a Gibson man, I have to say David Gilmour, followed by Rory Gallagher and Jimi Hendrix.

So many greats playing Strats, though. Some other personal favorites are Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy, Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughan, Ritchie Blackmore and the Danish guitarist Franz Beckerlee. Beckerlee was the guitar player for Denmark's biggest rock band of the 1970s, "Gasolin'". Singing mainly in Danish, they were immensely popular in Scandinavia.

Cool! Any legal online stuff I could get so I could listen to them??




Well strat players. I could list too many, not a fair question.

But, I could tell you who my favorite Brazilian strat player is. Celso Blues Boy. This guy played some guitar.

In this show he's playing one of his favorite strats, a made in Brazil Fender Squier series, the same series that was renamed to Southern Cross Series one year later... I own one of those!

 

[syscokid]

Well I'm taking "Favorite" to mean 'the' favorite as in 1 final winner of the crown. Ya that's harder than naming all your favorite guitarist that ever touched a Strat but the idea should be to make you think & weigh the question.

The second part of the question worth mulling over is the specific mentioning of the Stratocaster! This should give importance to player utilizing the specific features & Tones of the Stratocaster in a significant way, like utilizing it's iconic whammy / tremolo bar or displaying the Strats unique pickup sounds like its bridge pup bite, the bluesy violin nature off a cranked neck pup or the barking quack of two Strat pups working together.

For me, weighing all these factors immediately brought it down to the Big Three Strat gods for me, Hendricks, Beck & SRV.

SRV emulated Hendricks so I'm going to have to give him the pass & acknowledge his idol with the edge in that comparison.

Hendricks also seems to have beaten Beck with his approach to looking at the Strat & playing it in a uniquely expressive way beyond simply playing fixed notes & chords & using its whammy bar & cranked amp feedback to coax sounds out of the guitar that other people weren't getting yet.

Did Hendricks inspire Beck to look at a guitars ability in a new light & thus explore what he could coax out of a Strat in new ways himself? You bet he did.
When Jimi went to England & all the British guitar gods came to see him, most left feeling feeling almost demoralized yet determined to up their game. Hendrix was that good, that powerful, unique & impressive to even the best guitar players of that time.

There is little doubt that Hendricks inspired & pushed guitarists to seek new heights with their guitar playing & expressive potential and this includes myself. I love the way Jimi perceived the Guitar & his creative bond & approach. That registered & stuck with me at an early age.

Needless to say, I have a special place in my heart for Jimi. He was an innovator & he was the man! He has inspired so many people & he inspires me like no-one else.

My favorite Strat player is Jimi Hendricks.
Beck gets a strong second.

I like your analysis there, Relic. Hard to argue with it. Besides, you named my other two favorites in Jimi and Jeff Beck. But in defense of my numero uno, SRV... yes, one of his greatest influences was Hendrix (and Albert King). SRV could do the Hendrix vibe like no other. But SRV also had his own vibe, too. The Blues scene was just about dead by the time the 80s came around. Not only did SRV single handily revive it, but it brought other guitar Gods back to it... like Eric Clapton and Gary Moore to name a couple. SRV's Texas style not only gave birth to new blues guitarists like KWS or Chris Duarte, and many others, but it brought back much deserved recognition and extended the careers of the old boyz that were still around, like Buddy Guy, Johnny Winter, the 3 Kings (even though Freddy past in '76), Albert Collins, Hubert Sumlin, and forgive me for not mentioning more.

But I also believe that if there was no Jimi, that there might not have been a Stevie. Both left this world at the top of their game, and way too young.

Then there's Jeff Beck. Thank God he's still around. Jeff is a guitar phenom from the 60s that to this day, is still progressing and educating even the newbies on the art of beautiful guitar playing while using just a Strat. I also like the fact that he smiles a lot now...

 

[DonP]

I like SRV, but his style is just a touch too close to Hendrix for comfort. And as I get older (or some other reason) I get more and more picky over Hendrix's sloppiness. So Jeff gets it for me, with Mark Knopfler running a reasonably close second - although his best playing is on his Pensa, not his Strat.

 

[syscokid]

I like SRV, but his style is just a touch too close to Hendrix for comfort. And as I get older (or some other reason) I get more and more picky over Hendrix's sloppiness. So Jeff gets it for me, with Mark Knopfler running a reasonably close second - although his best playing is on his Pensa, not his Strat.

Knopfler on a Pensa? Well, that disqualifies him...

 

[DonP]

A Pensa is Strat-ish.

 

[BlackSG91]

Well I'm taking "Favorite" to mean 'the' favorite as in 1 final winner of the crown. Ya that's harder than naming all your favorite guitarist that ever touched a Strat but the idea should be to make you think & weigh the question.

The second part of the question worth mulling over is the specific mentioning of the Stratocaster! This should give importance to player utilizing the specific features & Tones of the Stratocaster in a significant way, like utilizing it's iconic whammy / tremolo bar or displaying the Strats unique pickup sounds like its bridge pup bite, the bluesy violin nature off a cranked neck pup or the barking quack of two Strat pups working together.

For me, weighing all these factors immediately brought it down to the Big Three Strat gods for me, Hendricks, Beck & SRV.

SRV emulated Hendricks so I'm going to have to give him the pass & acknowledge his idol with the edge in that comparison.

Hendricks also seems to have beaten Beck with his approach to looking at the Strat & playing it in a uniquely expressive way beyond simply playing fixed notes & chords & using its whammy bar & cranked amp feedback to coax sounds out of the guitar that other people weren't getting yet.

Did Hendricks inspire Beck to look at a guitars ability in a new light & thus explore what he could coax out of a Strat in new ways himself? You bet he did.
When Jimi went to England & all the British guitar gods came to see him, most left feeling feeling almost demoralized yet determined to up their game. Hendrix was that good, that powerful, unique & impressive to even the best guitar players of that time.

There is little doubt that Hendricks inspired & pushed guitarists to seek new heights with their guitar playing & expressive potential and this includes myself. I love the way Jimi perceived the Guitar & his creative bond & approach. That registered & stuck with me at an early age.

Needless to say, I have a special place in my heart for Jimi. He was an innovator & he was the man! He has inspired so many people & he inspires me like no-one else.

My favorite Strat player is Jimi Hendricks.
Beck gets a strong second.

You misspelled Jimi's last name 6 times and spelled it right one time Barry Bo Jangles as highlighted. You're not using your spellchecker young lad! It's Hendrix...not Hendricks. Remember that or Jimi will be rolling over in his grave. BTW that was a good video you posted me forum brother.


;>)/

 

[BlackSG91]

Speaking of Jimi...or is it Jimmy?

;>)/

 

[Relic]

You misspelled Jimi's last name 6 times and spelled it right one time Barry Bo Jangles as highlighted. You're not using your spellchecker young lad! It's Hendrix...not Hendricks. Remember that or Jimi will be rolling over in his grave. BTW that was a good video you posted me forum brother.


;>)/

Thanks Blax. Gotxsa rememberx thoxe frixin x's!
FYI: Hendricks does not spell check as wrong! You just gotta be aware of the X factor.

 

[jtcnj]

Yeah 'cus Twicks just aint Twix - left or right.
And Nikki Sicks just aint Nikki Sixx either.

And when we were poor kids we got the knockoff brand Tricks cereal, instead of Trix and it really sux.


Mebbe wasnt exactly right but we knew who the ell you meant.

 

[Tony M.]

Definition of favorite

1. : one that is treated or regarded with special favor or liking That song is my favorite.; especially
2. : a person who is specially loved, trusted, or provided with favors by someone of high rank or authority The king granted the land to two of his favorites.

 

[Relic]

Definition of favorite

1. : one that is treated or regarded with special favor or liking That song is my favorite.; especially
2. : a person who is specially loved, trusted, or provided with favors by someone of high rank or authority The king granted the land to two of his favorites.

Thatx Juxt fvkxt upx!

But notice when meaning 'more than one' favorite takes on the plural & becomes 'favorite's'. AHah!

So, if we're asking for 'favorite' in the singular without an 's' on the end, it means one. Or else it should say favorites if meaning more than one.

Copy that on the board

 

[Gahr]

Cool! Any legal online stuff I could get so I could listen to them??

Here are a few cuts from various Gasolin' albums. They sing in Danish, so I guess most of it will be intelligible, but still:

"Derudaf" from their second album, "Gasolin' 2" (1972)

"Solfangen" from their debut album, "Gasoline'" (1971)
Here you can really hear Franz Beckerlee's Hendrix influences.

You'll probably recognize the melody here, but the lyrics are a bit different. The Hendrix influence is definitely still there, though.

 

[Relic]

I had a chance to see Jeff Healey live back in the late 80's...what an amazing performance for someone who is blind.

;>)/

I loved Jeff Healy. Some of my favorite clips were those live performances. He even sounded outrageously excellent with a different back up band like the Letterman crew.

Here's a live Healy clip I just love! It's got lots of hand close-ups showing that unique playing style as he digs in & really bends those strings. He even gets out of his seat & does a Hendrix show playing with his teeth.

This is a great cut!

 

[BlackSG91]

I loved Jeff Healy. Some of my favorite clips were those live performances. He even sounded outrageously excellent with a different back up band like the Letterman crew.

Here's a live Healy clip I just love! It's got lots of hand close-ups showing that unique playing style as he digs in & really bends those strings. He even gets out of his seat & does a Hendrix show playing with his teeth.

This is a great cut!

That was a good video Barry Bo Jangles. Letterman sure looks a lot younger back then. I've been to Jeff Healey's restaurant and bar in Toronto a few times before his passing away. He got more into the traditional old blues and jazz in his latter years compared to his screaming Strat sound that we are so used to. I can play some chords and licks with a Strat on my lap but it's tricky if you're not used to it.


;>)/