Intro on 'Are you experienced?'

steven70

Hello, anyone know how Hendrix got that lovely bassy, whooshy sound on the intro to 'Are you experienced?"
When I try it with a pick or palm of my hand, it comes out a pathetic 'clickety click click'. It's embarrassing.
Did he brush one of his psychedelic sleeves up against the strings or something...?
Thoughts appreciated...

lukedlb

First off: a 4x12 or stack with a Marshall  superbass should help restore the missing bass. 
Tbh, I’ve long avoided this relatively simple piece as it’s not easy to pull off. Check out his live version. 

not_the_dj

The racking of the open strings?  It's backwards.

Grunfeld

Yep, the tape is playing backwards.

A reverse reverb setting, or reverse delay setting which you get on some FX pedals gets something that sounds very similar**.  The major difference is obviously the FX can only make the backwards sound after you have actually played something so timing is really difficult to get exact but tbh it doesn't matter much if you're doing it live because it's all about that sound and you'll only be using it for a spot effect.

** EHX seem to pull this off really well.  The Memory Man with Haz. and the Oceans 11 are the ones I've used.  The reverse setting on the Boss units seems less psychedelic!

steven70

Ah, yeah, it's backwards....I just hadn't got that! Thanks for the tips on recreating with FX, that's perfect l as I want to steal the sound for the verse of a song I'm working on...I'll also check out the live version, as it's a great one to cover- love the high pedal note(that right?)
Cheers folks

jacksparrow

Watch Eric johnson's version he scrape the side of his hand against the strings.

steven70

superb - thank you @jacksparrow. How come I never heard Eric Johnson before?? !...that's a great version.

Anderz

It is backwards on are you experienced. 

Live Jimi muted the strings with his fretting hand and played the rhytmic pattern with his picking hand.