Wildwood Guitars • Fender Custom Shop Jimi Hendrix Voodoo Child Signature Stratocaster • SN: VC0566

We can talk until we're blue in the face about the plethora of reasons why Jimi Hendrix was the greatest player to ever strap on a Strat. No one has ever matched his blend of virtuosic instrumental prowess, intense emotional expression, Picasso-level attention to the colors and hues in his music, and masterful songwriting, but what really puts him head and shoulders above the rest of every other six-string slinger is his universal appeal. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, loves Jimi Hendrix.

Case in point: Ian Mackaye and Stevie Ray Vaughan could not be more different as people or guitarists. Mackaye was the singer and guitarist in legendary post-hardcore band Fugazi (a group about as far removed from the psychedelic rock of the seventies as humanly possible) while SRV was perhaps the greatest master of electric blues since Hendrix himself. Despite their immense musical, philosophical, geographic, and stylistic differences, both listed Hendrix as their favorite guitarist of all time by a wide margin.

So, it doesn't matter if you're a punk in a leather jacket laden with safety pins, a metalhead in a Motorhead shirt, a jazz cat with an expensive hat, a classic rocker with a closet full of vintage concert tees, or a regular 'ol non-musician who listens to whatever's on the radio: chances are, if someone asks you who your favorite guitarist is, Hendrix is going to be one of the first names out of your mouth. If you ever ask someone this question and they DON'T drop Jimi's name, report them to the authorities immediately, because they are not to be trusted, and are probably a lizard person or alien in disguise.

Facetiousness aside, Hendrix's music seems to resonate with every single human being on a molecular level, and it is hard to quantify how or why. His singular style of guitar playing has a way of forcibly grabbing you by the heart and making you feel all sorts of emotions that don't really have names, and that's the sort of voodoo that defies complete explanation. The reason that no one can replicate his guitar style is simple: more so than any amp or guitar, the contents of his spirit were the key to his magic Spanish castle of sound.