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Jimi Hendrix was a systems engineer

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Re: Jimi Hendrix was a systems engineer

#221

Post by xcf_seetan »

hypertexthero wrote: post #117
solomonb wrote: post #21

I strongly believe that if you set aside genre preferences the solid body electric guitar coupled to a tube amplifier is objectively the greatest electronic instrument ever created. All other electronic instruments, with the one exception being the Theramin, have a fundamental problem with human expression. There is an unsolvable disconnect between what the performer's actions and their audience. See: https://www.scr…

Hmmm, I disagree, having played electric and acoustic guitars for over two decades and begun learning piano and synths for the first time in 2025. For one, you can’t easily play two melodies simultaneously across several octaves, using both of your hands, with an electric guitar. Stringed electronic instruments do have their advantages, but so do the others. Each music making thing has its place in the spectrum. Two…

You can play with both hands on a Chapman stick, right hand can do the bass, the left the melody/chords or vice-versa (Chapman stick is played tapping the strings with both hands)

Re: Jimi Hendrix was a systems engineer

#222

Post by xcf_seetan »

hypertexthero wrote: post #184
kavalg wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are completely right about the polyphonic expressivity of piano. What I lack is the intonation (bending) of tone.

Guitars certainly have a more intimate connection between the touch of fingers and the sound, including the bending of the tone, one of Hendrix’s virtuosities. Keyboards can approach that with polyphonic touch keys like the Hydrasynth (lean into keys, pressing them harder, for bending the tone in a configured patch), sustain pedals, and pitch bend/modulation controls, but not the nuanced touch of skin on a vibrating…

> I think synth guitars exist

Of course they exists, just listen to Pat Metheny. There are Midi hexapickups that can play any synth with MIDI and full expression.

Re: Jimi Hendrix was a systems engineer

#223

Post by phronimos »

hyperbolablabla wrote: post #191
phronimos wrote: post #110

Interesting factoid: modern guitar effects typically have their input jacks on the right-hand side, and output jacks on the left. In this article's guitar rig diagram, the jacks are reversed, but this is accurate: back then, for whatever reason the jacks were reversed on each of these pedals. Modern reissues of the round-enclosure Fuzz Face pedals preserve this pattern despite the reversal of industry trends.

A factoid is a fact commonly thought to be true, but is actually false.

There are two definitions of the word according to Merriam-Webster. The second one is used accurately here.

Re: Jimi Hendrix was a systems engineer

#224

Post by ben7799 »

vegadw wrote: post #61
solomonb wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm talking about electronic instruments how they are deficient in expressiveness compared to your cello example. > Secondly I think it's important to note the tube amp and the guitar are seperable, and I don't think that their connection is particularly magical. I can reamp a sound from my synthesizer (or maybe a keytar?) into a guitar chain, and if I manipulate the mic and other controls in the same way I might man…

So... use a reamp box to make it hiZ again? I'm a guitarist, but there's nothing particularly magical about a high impedance signal, other than they tend to lead to noise and make really obnoxious things matter, like how low capacitance your cable is. Also, a TON of modern guitars are low(ish) impedance out because they use active pickups. The pedals and system being dependent on the high impedance was always a bug,…

This won't actually work.

A Fuzz Face works the way it does because it actually gets affected by the guitar's impedance changing as you work the knobs on the guitar and pick differently. The Fuzz Face has minimal input filtering, the guitar's knobs actually change the bias of the first transistor IIRC and cause massive changes in sound.

If you stick a buffer in front of it that interaction is gone and there is nothing you can stick after the buffer to bring it back. You pretty much have to plug the guitar directly into a Fuzz Face for it to work as intended. There are even constant arguments about putting the Wah in front of the FF or after it. I'm not sure if the article even has it right or whether Hendrix did it differently at different times. Other articles show a different order of the effects.

There are other fuzz circuits that behave differently and work better with buffers and would be more uniform when used with other types of instruments or with electric guitars with active pickups (which are buffered).

E.x. I have a Tone Bender and have had several Fuzzes in the "Big Muff" category along with one that was based on the Fox Tone Machine. The Tone Bender and Big Muff can't clean up at all like the Fuzz Face via the guitar controls, and IIRC the Fox Tone Machine is somewhere in the middle. The Fuzz Face when setup correctly is really quite amazing as you can go crystal clear to crushing fuzz with your volume knob on the guitar. When you've tried it you realize Jimi Hendrix was doing it constantly in an amazing way.

Re: Jimi Hendrix was a systems engineer

#225

Post by meatmanek »

dajt wrote: post #15
btown wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Art and engineering are both constrained optimization problems - at their core, both involve transforming a loosely defined aesthetic desire into a repeatable methodology! And if we can call ourselves software engineers, where our day-to-day (mostly) involves less calculus and more creative interpretation of loose ideas, in the context of a corpus of historical texts that we literally call "libraries" - are we not ar…

We should not call ourselves engineers - it's a massive insult to actual professional engineers.

you should probably watch https://www.hillelwayne.com/talks/crossover-project/

Re: Jimi Hendrix was a systems engineer

#226

Post by xcf_seetan »

tempaccount5050 wrote: post #89
shermantanktop wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's stretching the term to the breaking point, for me. Is there some evidence of systematic analysis of component parts? attempts to model elements of the problem? data gathering and data analysis? simulation? Intentional application of principles of physics or some other pure domain to a real world problem? Artistic endeavors come from lots of places, not just people with an analytical mindset. Historically those…

> Is there some evidence of systematic analysis of component parts? Music theory, Nashville notation > attempts to model elements of the problem? Ditto > data gathering and data analysis? Listening to a wide variety of music and understanding what make a genre a genre > simulation? Cover songs, writing to a style > Intentional application of principles of physics or some other pure domain to a real world problem? Lit…

Iannis Xenakis?

Re: Jimi Hendrix was a systems engineer

#228

Post by buredoranna »

ipmb wrote: post #107
buredoranna wrote: post #88

If you can track it down, Hendrix's home recordings are a gem. https://jimihendrixrecordguide.com/home-recordings/ (edit: syntax)

https://archive.org/details/05-voodoo-chile-cherokee-mist

Thank you for this. I lost that CD years ago.

Re: Jimi Hendrix was a systems engineer

#230

Post by jawilson2 »

WalterBright wrote: post #210
Slow_Hand wrote: post #34

Nice article for engineers to understand something that most guitar players will intuitively know. One of the great things about a hi-gain setup like Hendrix's is how the feedback loop will inject an element of controlled chaos into the sound. It allows for emergent fluctuations in timbre that Hendrix can wrangle, but never fully control. It's the squealing, chaotic element in something like his 'Star Spangled Banner…

This leaves me wondering what would happen if you attached a coupling to a trumpet and ran the sound through an effects/feedback box. Why should electric guitars have all the fun?

Early 70s Miles Davis did that on his fusion albums and concerts. Fuzz, wah pedal, etc.
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