stevie ray vaughn or jimi hendrix

[alpenglowRG11]

personally after hearing both i think that stevie ray vaughn is a better overall guitarist. I mean sure, jimi hendrix is incredible but i think that he and stevie should switch places. Stevie be #1 and hendrix#2 but thats just me.

[doorjam]

Jimi was innovative (and deserves his due), but Stevie was the better player. Anyone needing convicing should watch 'Live at the El Mocambo'. Makes you want to giving up playing altogether!

Doorjam

[alpenglowRG11]

i have live in austin. it's amazing.

[Be Loveless]

Jimmie man! Stevie ray vaugn was a poser technician. Stupid fucking gottee and that hat at least Jimmie had heroin to blame his wardrobe on. Yes Stevie was a technically good player and I do enjoy his licks here and there but like Clapton I think he's kinda sterile and flacid. Jimmie hendrix played guitar like it was another limb.

[boingoman]

SRV was definitely more consistent live. Hendrix was a lot better earlier, live anyway. I have a bootleg from Sweden, before JH got too fucked up, and his playing is spot-on. Not too many effects or the psychedelic excess that marked a lot of his later performances. It makes you just sit and wonder how anyone could be that good. The he got a bit out there til Band of Gypsys.

El Mocambo is sick. The version of Lenny is amazing.

SRV catalogued blues and blues guitar. He was like a lick encyclopedia, and pounded them out mercilessly, one after the other, with taste and feel. But he's kind of a one trick pony. One with a really good trick, and lots of soul, but still, it all kinda sounds the same after awhile. Even his acoustic stuff!

Live music changed a lot- when Hendrix was playing, a lot of times he was experimenting on stage, making stuff up as he went, finding new sounds. Musicians became more aware of making a concert an experience, a show. When SRV played a show, he was trying to nail you to your seat with his guitar. Still really fun to see, and he played his heart out. But the context was more modern.

Listen to Hendrix play Here My Train a' Comin' on acoustic. Or the jazz guitar/ horn duel and wah-wah on still raining, still dreaming/rainy day, dream away.

Hell, just get Axis: Bold as Love and Elelctric Ladyland. They are innovative, but also contain some of the best electric guitar playing ever.

[King Elvis]

ARE YOU GUYS INSANE???
I love SRV as much as the next guy, but...
JIMI ALL THE WAY!!!

[Lorddiagram]

Man in my opinion Jimi was a freak of nature innovating musician. Unchartered territories.

Stevie - in my opinion was a guitar player with chops.

[foo]

Who was the better explorer, me or Sir Francis Drake?

I mean, I've been everywhere Sir Frank's been, and got there faster and in better shape.

Ludicrous - SRV followed the well-worn path that wasn't even there until Hendrix walked down it.

Did Stevie have great feel and killer tone - sure! By the bucket full, but Jimi walked where no man had travelled before.

. . . and therefore . . .!

[mshilarious]

This is absurd. SRV was a bad Texas-flavored copy of Hendrix. I don't think I heard him do a single original thing. His version of "Little Wing" was despicable sacrilege. I mean what about those 8 bars of trills? Albert Collins he ain't.

I'm sorry but a Hendrix poster in your studio is still cool; an SRV poster is just pitiful.

[stonepiano]

SRV 10 times out of 10.

[c7sus]

It's a dessert topping AND a floor wax!

[mikeh]

While I enjoy listening to SRV more than I enjoy listening to Hendrix. I think Hendrix deserves a higher place in history. Hendrix did things no one else did (or even thought of) which makes him perhaps more of a "visionary artist" whereas SVR would likely be viewed more as an impressive musician.

There are many musicians who are much better players than the Beatles - but the Beatles deserve their place in history as innovators who shaped the dirrection of music. Hendrix should be in the same history books as the Beatles - they all shaped music, vs. simply played it well.

[MK-Ultra]

It's a salad dressing and baby juice!



Jimi, all the way, baby. Like I said, I've known many guitarists who could do what SRV could do. On a good night, I mightn't've embarrassed myself jamming with him either. Jimi was an alien from another dimension, who appeared just to show the likes of SRV the Way.

[fretmeister]

If SRV were alive he would certainly acknowledge the influence of the greatest, most innovative rock and blues guitarist ever to walk on stage.

[Anti-Hero665]

okay... technically proficient? Stevie Ray.... who do I prefer? HENDRIX. Jimi was so innovative in the shit he did... still to this day, he blows me away. Vaughn played blues... that's boring to me... killer riffs or no killer riffs, B-O-R-I-N-G (just my opinion). I have to REALLY be in the mood for blues. However, with Jimi, I get crazy every time.

[fretmeister]

If you want to compare Jimi to a truly awesome and innovative guitar player from Texas, how about Billy Gibbons?

[fretmeister]

Did you know that when someone once asked Jimi who his favorite guitar player was, it was Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top)?

[6gun]

Hendrix.

Never been moved by SVR...even though he's a great playa with a gazillion chops.

[jalbert]

This shouldn't even be a question. It has nothing to do with either's place in history or who led the way for who. It isn't even a decision of who's the better out of the two because that would imply that one of them is first and the other is second. Hendrix is first and there is no second. No one else deserves to be compared to him. The fact that so many people pick Stevie Ray Vaughan is a clear indication of the problem with all music these days. More and more we equate speed and technique with musicianship. But in this case it doesn't matter Hendrix was the better guitar player and the better musician. Maybe we've heard "Live at Monterey" so many times we start to take for granted how incredible it is. Have another listen and then show me anything SRV, or anybody else, did that even comes close.

[bubbleboy]

Originally Posted by jalbert

This shouldn't even be a question.

the only thing SRV should be known for is how he did coke off the mixing desk during texas flood and used texas specials. just kidding

Finally someone says it. i usually don't even dignify these kinds of 'who's #1?' threads, but this one really sickened me so i had to type my 2 cents.

i agree SRV was a one trick pony. the catch of course is that his trick was DAMN good. and both of these guys hold a place in guitarist and music history, etched in stone, do they not? both contributed in a way that we all recognize even if we can't articulate it. maybe that's why us guys (mostly guys are interested in gear, lists, and ranking shit) resort to rankings for such subjective things like this

i like jimi better, but i sure do love stevie's always-consistent rendition of voodoo child. her sure had that wah wah down pat. hahahaha

[NL5]

Originally Posted by fretmeister

Did you know that when someone once asked Jimi who his favorite guitar player was, it was Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top)?

Maybe I'm missing something, but didn't ZZ top form right about the time of Jimi's death? Was Billy Gibbons known before ZZ Top? Your quote looks like Jimi referred to ZZ. Hmmm.....

[acorec]

Originally Posted by alpenglowRG11

personally after hearing both i think that stevie ray vaughn is a better overall guitarist. I mean sure, jimi hendrix is incredible but i think that he and stevie should switch places. Stevie be #1 and hendrix#2 but thats just me.

Jimi was not a great guitar player anymore than John Lennon was. They both were great writers of music. Hendrix was "first" in his field. His ideas (executed by Stevie Ray later on) were brilliant. His playing was sloppy as hell like Jimi Page. He was the first, but certainly not as good a "player" as Stevie Ray. In the context of history, all the great modern players took what Hendrix *tried* to do and perfected it. In the context of only Hendrix as a guitar player, he was not very good.

[stonepiano]

Originally Posted by jalbert

...The fact that so many people pick Stevie Ray Vaughan is a clear indication of the problem with all music these days.

The fact that so many people picked Hendrix is a clear indication of people blinded by an inflated legacy.

Originally Posted by jalbert

More and more, we equate speed and technique with musicianship.

If speed and execution came into the picture, shouldn't we be praying to the golden idols of EVH and Yngvie? It is my belief that voters were indeed considering musicianship. I know I was and I'll stick to my vote,, thank you very much.

SRV.

Quick sidenote; people who can't engage in frivilous discussions comparing popular artists are missing half the fun of being a fan of music. It's okay to argue about who's better and to make lists a la High Fidelity. As long as all intelligent parties always maintain the underlying assumption that all music is subjective!

[Middleman]

Hendrix created sounds and tones not prior heard, also new chord structures and ways of playing a guitar.

SRV, while technically proficient generally had the same sound, on everything. Not as creative as Hendrix or as varied in his tones and phrasing. I don't think he took things to a new paradigm like Hendrix.

Hendrix was not about speed, which SRV exceled at, he was about melodic and harmonic approaches to music. He built songs around unique tones and layers of sound.

SRV kept his sound pretty much the same and hung around 12 tone scales and was probably one of the best in this genre.

These two are really hard to put head to head, completely different approaches to the instrument.

Jimi Page was closer to Hendrix than to SRV. He was all about sonic layers and melody. Although he could/can step out on the scales but as acorec points out, would sometimes come off slighly sloppy.

Overall I would rather listen to Hendrix and Page, more interesting and expressive in my book.

[boingoman]

Originally Posted by acorec

Jimi was not a great guitar player anymore than John Lennon was. They both were great writers of music. Hendrix was "first" in his field. His ideas (executed by Stevie Ray later on) were brilliant. His playing was sloppy as hell like Jimi Page. He was the first, but certainly not as good a "player" as Stevie Ray. In the context of history, all the great modern players took what Hendrix *tried* to do and perfected it. In the context of only Hendrix as a guitar player, he was not very good.

Balogna. Anyone who says this has obviously never listened to any of his playing. And I would question his knowledge of the Beatles, also. His studio work shows a player with complete command and knowledge of his instrument. Fast? Give me a break. The guy wailed. Live, especially in the middle of his career, he was definitely sloppy. On Band of Gypsies, though, he just cranked.

I love Jimi. and I love Stevie, but I'll bet you that Stevie would have given his left nut to play Little Wing, Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) or Come On anything like Jimi did.