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Gear Avail

Psychedelic rock

Jimi Hendrix

The Jimi Hendrix Experience, 1966 to 1970

Close to every effect a modern board takes for granted was, in 1967, four boxes Hendrix was using in public for the first time. The fuzz, the wah, the octave and the Uni-Vibe between them define what an electric guitar is allowed to sound like.

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The chain

Shown in conventional signal order rather than the order the sources list them, so it reads the way it would be wired: guitar on the left, amp on the right.

  1. 1
    Wah / filterNo photo available

    Vox V846 Wah

    Wah / filter

    In front of the fuzz, where its sweep shapes what the fuzz gets rather than filtering the distortion after the fact.

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  2. 2
    Drive / fuzzNo photo available

    Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face

    Drive / fuzz

    The core sound. Germanium early on, silicon later, and cleaning up almost entirely on the guitar's volume knob.

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  3. 3
    Pitch / octaveNo photo available

    Roger Mayer Octavia

    Pitch / octave

    An octave-up fuzz built for him by Roger Mayer, and the ringing top end on the Purple Haze solo.

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  4. 4
    ModulationNo photo available

    Univox Uni-Vibe

    Modulation

    A four-stage phase circuit built to fake a rotating speaker, which failed at that and became its own sound instead.

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Documented on

  • Are You Experienced

    album · 1967

    • Purple Haze
    • Foxy Lady
    • Manic Depression

    The Octavia arrives on the Purple Haze solo, which is the first time most listeners had heard an octave-up fuzz at all.

  • Electric Ladyland

    album · 1968

    • Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
    • All Along the Watchtower

    The wah on Voodoo Child is played as a rhythm instrument rather than a solo effect, which is most of why the intro is instantly recognisable.

  • Band of Gypsys

    Live album · 1970

    • Machine Gun

    The Uni-Vibe is doing most of the work on Machine Gun.

Editorial gear history, assembled from interviews, rig rundowns, live photography and liner notes. Jimi Hendrix is not affiliated with Gear Avail and nothing here is an endorsement. Rigs change between tours and between takes, so this one is scoped to 1966 to 1970 rather than presented as a career-long setup. In most cases what is documented is that a pedal was on the board during those sessions or that tour, not that it is audible on a specific bar of a specific take.