Jimi Hendrix vs. Stevie Ray Vaughn

[LesPaulPlayer89]

Who is the better guitarist Jimi Hendrix or Stevie Ray Vaughn?

[hendrix006]

Hendrix! But it all depends on your style, plus I'm just a huge Hendrix fan and have never really gotten into SRV

[Akira]

Not another one of these threads.

[sikamikanico]

Hendrix easily :D

[aschleman]

Seriously... who gets off on this stuff? WHO CARES! I will say what I've said in every other Hendrix vs. "so-and-so" thread... If it weren't for Hendrix, Many-many-many guitar players never would have picked up the guitar... including Stevie Ray Vaughan. I like both of them.

[Akira]

Yeah, threads like these are pointless really. It ends up being "xxx is better than yyy" - "no, yyy is way better than xxx omg" - "no way, xxx is way better than yyy because xxx has nice socks" etc etc. Everyone starts arguing because they can't accept other peoples opinions and they feel they have to be right, blah blah.

[Polera]

Better guitarist: SRV was flawless
Most influental: Jimi Hendrix

Really depends on what u beleive a better guitariest is....skill wise/ influental/ creative etc etc

[alucard0941]

does it really matter whoes better?

as long as we enjoy their music, skill should not alter our opinion on them

[Jolly McJollyson]

Better guitarist: SRV was flawless
Most influental: Jimi Hendrix

Really depends on what u beleive a better guitariest is....skill wise/ influental/ creative etc etc
I agree with this.

[Homebrew1709]

I too agree that SRV was flawless...which is one reason i enjoy Hendrix more. SRV's version of Voodoo Child is too perfect for my taste.

[Leedogg]

SRV's version of "Little Wing" is better than the original in my opinion. And I like Shawn Lane's version of "All Along the Watchtower" (originally dylan, made popular by Hendrix) better. So I gotta agree with Hendrix inspiring better guitarists than himself.


I too agree that SRV was flawless...which is one reason i enjoy Hendrix more. SRV's version of Voodoo Child is too perfect for my taste.

[Tele Master]

They are basically the same person.

[Polera]

They are basically the same person.


So your saying..u havent heard SRV or havent heard Jimi? To say there are the same perosn is too say everyone after Jimi is the same....after all jimi influeced the masses...

[ROCK ON]

do you really need to ask? hendrix by a mile (butSRV IS STILL GOOD).

[Tele Master]

ACTUALLY...I'm not saying everyone after Jimi was the same..if I was saying that I would write "everyone after Jimi is the same". SRV has said that he was greatly inspired by Hendrix, which is very evident in his playing style and on-stage acts. So what I'm saying is, I think it's extremely hard to judge who is better...to me, they are basically the same person..equally talented...busting out different tunes...

[Raskolnikov]

The Hendrix influence is undoubtable, but I think SRV compares much more closely to Albert King.

[tehplatypus]

django burned them all...including yngwie and vai and satch.

two fingers and he did runs faster than probably most people here could do with all four.

[RedZep]

Speed is != to skill. If you're not a coder I said that how fast you play the guitar is not skill, take Eric Clapton as an example, ol' "Slowhand" himself, but he seams a damn decent guitar player when held up to others.

The fac of the matter is, Jimi came first, Stevie liked JH's music, and decided to pick up the guitar and play in the same (oh how close to the same can you get?) style.

In my opinion, I would say go listen to the Woodstock Improv and then tell me which is the better guitar player. :)

[kewtguy5702]

stevie played the way he felt, and so did hendrix. that's all that matters. you don't ask the question,which one could sing better than the other, but they both had great voices. they seldom get credit for that. ROCK ON!!!!

[Polera]

At riskto further put this debate over the edge, i ve seen Jimi's live proformances....sloppy...albeit inventive and ahead of its time...Dont get me wrong, i listen to jimi almost every day...but with the studio .. meh. He did put on awesome shows! so alive and spur of the moment...

[blue*eyes]

jimi totaly

[ren]

I'm with Polera... Jimi may have played with feel but in the live recordings I've heard he is sloppy. May not detract from the overall sound, and can maybe be explained away as the effects of recreational substances, but still.

SRV is the more polished player.... no doubt. And for feel, listen to his interpretation of Little Wing - you can hear squeezing the most out of every note.

Neither of them is better.... but SRV wouldn't have sounded the same (or maybe, wouldn't have even played guitar) if it wasn't for Jimi...

[Raskolnikov]

(or maybe, wouldn't have even played guitar) if it wasn't for Jimi...
Change that to "Jimmy" (as in his older brother, Jimmy) and you might be right.


I still hear a lot more Albert King and Buddy Guy in his playing than I do Jimi Hendrix.

[msurdin7]

well, i love srv so much more, because of his feel for playing. And just his texas blues style that he had, and was influenced by hendrix. I like hendrix less because on his blues he would alot of times do these slow bends that slowly go out of tune. And alot of times on recording he is in the wrong key.

[ericthecableguy]

If I were to meet with one, I'd rather hang out with Stevie.

[Polly32]

Who could pick these guys are both some of the most influential guitarist to ever live. I would say my opinion is SRV though and thats only based on the day and age we are in. No direspect Mr. Jimi I love ya

[Shane69]

I like Stevie more.

[pure]

Hmm... lets see here.. i never saw Jimi copy any of Stevie's songs... :rolleyes:

[Homebrew1709]

Jimi came before SRV so theres not really a debate of who was more influential. And like someone said earlier, SRV's style is very similar to that of Albert King, not Jimi (even though he did cover Voodo Child). Personally, I'd much rather listen to Hendrix than SRV. Jimi was just so freakin cool. It never looked like he was putting any effort into playing. It just seemed to come out so naturally. And to anyone who hasn't heard Jimi's material other than his Greatest Hits stuff, you're missing out on some awesome tunes!

[z0s0_jp]

Change that to "Jimmy" (as in his older brother, Jimmy) and you might be right.


I still hear a lot more Albert King and Buddy Guy in his playing than I do Jimi Hendrix.
totally an albert king influence imo

[jiujitsu_jesus]

I really like both of them, and I don't think I can realistically compare them in terms of musicianship. Compositionally, I think Jimi was much more original and creative - that said, though, I do prefer SRV's rendition of "Little Wing".

[stackny]

Akira, from what Ive heard, yyy has been wearing tube socks for quite sometime now, and I think he looks rather sporting in them.

Just a thought...

[83261_sid]

hendrix by far. he is the one who wrote alot the stuff that stevie plays. but stevie is still one of the greatest ever.

[Jolly McJollyson]

he is the one who wrote alot the stuff that stevie plays.
Voodoo Child, Little Wing, and what else?

[jiujitsu_jesus]

I think he meant to say that Jimi pioneered a lot of the techniques that Stevie would later use.

(Emphasis on "I think" - I'm not really sure!)

[thor-2112]

this is rediculous. its a matter of opinion. you dont ask for opinions on a forum cause then it gets uber long and pointelss. hendrixs style is origonal and alot more matured than srv however srv is a much more rounded guitar player(better at everything) hendrix has his style and makes it work and has a great voice

[bigbuda]

Hmm... lets see here.. i never saw Jimi copy any of Stevie's songs... :rolleyes:

Quite impossible unless Jimi had a time travel device. Anyhow, they were both damn good guitar players. I also think SRV is the better player but Jimi was the most influential of the two. Jimi changed the way people perceived the guitar.

[64johnny]

:cool: this is rediculous. its a matter of opinion. you dont ask for opinions on a forum cause then it gets uber long and pointelss. hendrixs style is origonal and alot more matured than srv however srv is a much more rounded guitar player(better at everything) hendrix has his style and makes it work and has a great voice
the only thing that hendrix and vaughn had in common is : they both played strats, and they both rode in tour buses ! thats it ! no comparison other wise can be noted.

[bigbuda]

:cool:
the only thing that hendrix and vaughn had in common is : they both played strats, and they both rode in tour buses ! thats it ! no comparison other wise can be noted.

Don't forget that they both spoke english. :D

[Lordathestrings]

You should also consider that these two were nowhere near 'done' yet when they died.

Jimi was rapidly morphing into the kind of jazz musician that Miles Davis wanted to jam with. Really. Look it up!

And Stevie was just starting to settle down enough to be a serious Blues player. (Chew on that one for a while!)

[alucard0941]

Its all about Buddy Guy guys...

[Lordathestrings]

Buddy Guy in the US has stronger parallels with Jimmy Page in the UK. Both were well-respected studio session men who spent a lot of years making other people sound good on record before they got to step into the spotlight on their own. Neither Jimi nor Stevie had as much of that kind of background.

Stevie's early style was reminiscent of the Texas bluesmen that his brother Jimmy would have introduced him to. Johnny Winter comes to mind, for one. Blazing riffs driven home with ferocious intensity. Then he spread his horizons to include influences like Buddy Guy, still running wild and fast, with a nod to Jimi Hendrix along the way. Before he died, he was moving closer to mentors like Albert King, who schooled him in the tasteful distinction between flash and trash. Not a matter of slowing down, but being more selective about which notes to play; being more willing to leave out notes that didn't have to be there. You gotta wonder. With his eagerness to learn, his work ethic, his dedication, and his immense talent.... what did we never get to hear?



That could just as fittingly be said of Jimi Hendrix. Players who grow up listening to all the stuff that happened after Jimi just can't comprehend how drastically, dramatically, devastatingly different he was. From anybody else on the planet! Every player pays homage to his predecessors, whether they want to or not. The roots show. And Hendrix's music was based in stuff we could all identify, or at least recognise as sounding familiar. And then it would take these amazing, death-defying leaps into space, like a fast car blowing through the guardrails on a mountain road, and not falling into the valley below. Before Jimi, there was music. Some of it had guitars in it. There was even stuff you say was guitar music, because playing it on other instruments wouldn't sound quite right. Jimi brought forth guitar soundscapes - sonic visions that scrambled our senses, and completely re-wrote our concepts of what a guitar was, and what could be done with it. By the time he played "Machine Gun" with Band Of Gypsys, he was turning that raw, elemental force into the kind of focused expressiveness that had jazz greats like Miles Davis looking to hook up with him. You gotta wonder. With his eagerness to learn, his work ethic, his dedication, and his immense talent.... what did we never get to hear?

[Ito1221]

thats abovious. Jimi Hendrix all the way.

Yes maybe Skillwise SRV was better BUT Hendrix had his own unique sound that even now noone has really been able to mimic perfectly. Not to mention he made todays effects(aka wah pedal) popular. And his lyrics are a lot more inventive. Hendrix has my ballet

[aschleman]

thats abovious. Jimi Hendrix all the way.

Yes maybe Skillwise SRV was better BUT Hendrix had his own unique sound that even now noone has really been able to mimic perfectly. Not to mention he made todays effects(aka wah pedal) popular. And his lyrics are a lot more inventive. Hendrix has my ballet

Check out Eric Gales... he's known as the best Hendrix cover artist out there. I think he does a good job of getting Hendrix's tone and sound...