“You ain’t gonna hear nothing”: Buddy Guy admits that when he first saw Jimi Hendrix play live he thought he was “too loud” – but the Brits were next level
While the British Invasion saw the arrival of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Kinks to American shores, it also forced the US to crank up the volume – and Blues legend Buddy Guy didn’t take too kindly to it.
In the latest issue of Guitar World, Guy notes that he even considered Jimi Hendrix too loud prior to the British takeover. “You’ll laugh, but I thought he used to play too loud…” he jokes. “But when the British guys started playing, they had stacks of Marshalls!”
Guy goes on to admit he used to leave early Hendrix gigs with sore ears, but the Brits were next level. The spike in volume was a shock for the old-school blues star. “When I first came up, Muddy Waters and those guys had two little speakers at each corner of the blues club, and it was a clean sound,” he recalls.
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After forming a bond with Hendrix, Guy would even joke about the loutish punch of noise the Brits had to offer. “After I got to know Jimi, I’d go see him and say, ‘Before you go in there, you ain’t gonna hear nothing,’” he says. “That type of sound just took over.”
“That clean sound went away because, with the amplifiers, it was a dogfight,” he continues. “It was just a rat race. And then all the special effects came in, and Jimi, I think he was one of the greatest that ever took advantage of the special effects, because a lot of people used them after him.”
However, regardless of how loud the British guitarists may have sounded, Guy notes that they could never quite replicate the intricacy of his own introspective, more quiet tone. “All the super British guitar players, like Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page… they all looked at me and said ‘Man, I didn’t know that kind of guitar could play the blues,’” he remembers.
“The British guys all say I had something,” he adds. “People used to look at me and ask what [guitar] I had. I’d say ‘I didn’t make it, Leo Fender made it. It’s just a tone.’ That tone is so clear, and I never really paid attention to it. I just turn on the amplifier and play my guitar.”
The post “You ain’t gonna hear nothing”: Buddy Guy admits that when he first saw Jimi Hendrix play live he thought he was “too loud” – but the Brits were next level appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
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