Can You Play A Fender Stratocaster Like Jimi Hendrix?

Every guitar player has their heroes and, arguably, none have been admired more down the years than the legendary Jimi Hendrix. What could be a greater aspiration than developing the skill to play like him?

That may seem a steep ambition, but one step you can take towards it is to choose carefully when you buy guitars online, by going for the kinds of guitar he played so famously. 

This could give you the best chance of emulating his sounds as you practice with the instruments he used to produce so many memorable sounds.

A prime example of this is the Fender Stratocaster, which Hendrix first played in the UK in 1966, when he was touring with The Experience. As Guitar World noted in a 2022 feature on his Stratocasters, it was not known whether the white guitar he brought to the stage was one he had bought in London or brought with him from New York.

The article went on to note that there is now a great mystery over what happened to the different Stratocasters Hendrix played, describing this question as “the stuff of Arthurian legend”.

It suggested Hendrix used no more than 15 of the guitars, two of which were stolen from concert venues, while another burst into flames in an on-stage stunt that went wrong. Some got smashed up in wild gigs.

We are pretty sure that the Fender Stratocaster guitars we have in stock were not played by Hendrix, but you can still seek to use one to emulate the brilliant sounds he got out of it.

Of course, Hendrix played many other guitars too, and we have some of these in stock as well. For instance, according to Guitarspace, he used a Gibson Les Paul in 1968 and a Gibson SG from late 1968 to 1969.

Trying to play guitar like Jimi Hendrix might be the equivalent of trying to write a play like Shakespeare, or play football like Pelé. But like every legend, his is a legacy that others will seek to emulate. Playing the same types of guitar is a great starting point.