X-rated Bob wrote:
I find that the imitators always sound like imitators - the best guys always have something, some spark, that comes from within them and nobody else can capture that essence. I think this is the case even when the imitators are actually pretty good. None of the guys who are heavily influenced by an whose playing is indebted to Jimi Hendrix (EG Trower EG Vaughan) ever quite capture the Jimi-ness of it all.
I think many players captured aspects of his playing, but most incorporated it in their own style - which is as it should be. Probably the closest I ever heard to Jimi himself was Frank Marino (Mahogany Rush), but no-one ever went out on a limb with sheer abandon the way Hendrix would.
I don't think I've ever heard anybody really sound exactly like Clapton either. What seems to make him inimitable is his vibrato. You can hear it a mile off, and nobody else does it the same.
If you ever get a chance to see Eric Johnson's video
Total Electric Guitar, he discusses various techniques like bending, vibrato and phrasing and shows examples how each of the major players, from B.B. through Hendrix to Clapton would do it ...and absolutely nails every one of them.
