Buckethead vs. Jimi Hendrix
 

I wanted to compare the two.

Emotion: Buckethead
Sensuality: Jimi Hendrix
Creativity: Buckethead
Diversity: Buckethead
Influence: Jimi Hendrix

There are more categories but these are the simplest. I have been blown away by the diversity and emotion in his music time and time again.

What are your opinions on these guitarists and who is better in your opinion and for what reasons?

Emotion: Jimi Hendrix
Sensuality: Jimi Hendrix
Creativity: Jimi Hendrix
Diversity: Jimi Hendrix
Influence: Jimi Hendrix
Name: Buckethead

Jimi Hendrix is the most emotional guitarist of all time in my opinion. You can't feel the anger channeled so vividly into the riffs of any other guitarist. Those are my thoughts. Buckethead had his place too, though I don't think he's even close to Jimi Hendrix when it comes to emotional playing.

Have you listened to his album Colma? That album was personally made for his mother who had cancer. The emotion in that album is insane. Buckethead plays everything from Jazz to Funk to Progressive to Acoustic and more. I don't think Jimi could have done that. In creativity I'll be more lenient since Hendrix does have Voodoo Chile, Red House and Foxy Lady.

I think in Emotion and Diversity that Buckethead has it on lock.

Listen to this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-7sFT9M5K0

Please don't take this in the wrong way, but I disagree with you. I still think Hendrix is a lot more expressive in the way he plays, his energy is phenomenal and I think he has to be the better player.
Yes, I've heard Colma. "Wondering" was the best, but I still found it a bit too creepy.

Yeah..sure...creepy....sure..:crazy:

I really would be shocked if anyone did not pick Hendrix. I appreciate Buckethead, but he's a tad out of his depth here.

A lot of people think emotion is when a player moves around and has air sex with the guitar. To me emotion is when a player is plays what's in his heart (cheesy) and transfers that to the listeners. I don't think there's a guitarist who's done this like Buckethead. In the end it's all opinion but if I'm going to be subjectively objective Buckethead is better.

Its my opinion that most people only know about what they hear on the radio or whatever is popular by most mega artist.

They never get to see behind closed doors, to the full extent of an artists talent.

I don't know much of anything about Buckethead, but I really don't see anyone playing "through the guitar" any better than Hendrix.

Nah..when I listen to Hendrix it's nowhere near Buckethead.

Hey, I'm just saying I didn't like it. My brain just couldn't relate to it. I didn't find it "played from the heart". I thought it had neither structure nor meaning.

If you like it, I have no authority whatsoever to tell you that you are wrong. It really is a question of taste. Just don't expect too many people agreeing with you when you try and claim that Buckethead is better than Jimi Hendrix.

I think a lot of Hendrix is just the name. I know he was a great player for his time but if it was Hendrix playing those songs people would be falling over worshiping him. I've done blind tests with people and have found out this is true. You show someone a great song and before you show it to them you say "Hendrix, Clapton, Eddie Van made it" and they go all crazy. It's more of a psychological thing.

I really have to disagree with that. The first time I heard this song, I'd no idea it was him:


Jimi Hendrix- Peace in Mississippi - YouTube

You can't deny the passion and the energy of the riffs, even if you don't like him.

I'm not saying he didn't have passion. I'm just saying it's overblown. A lot of people equate passion and emotion with what they like to hear. Take someone like Yngwie Malmsteen. He's passionate as any guitarist can be but because the style he plays people say he's just fast. Artists can be very passionate with what they like and what they like might not be something you can channel.

Out of all the guitarists (countless) that have come since Jimi Hendrix and not one of them is better? That's wishful thinking.

For me, it was seeing with my own eyes, watching Jimi Hendrix manipulate the electric guitar on stage (live recordings). Its just sad to imagine, when you wounder what Hendrix would've accomplished if he'd lived. I guess some might assume, "that was never meant to happen".

Its in a certain sense, the same way with Clapton. I never respected Clapton as a great Blues Artist until I seen him perform covers by Robert Johnson on video.

When you can actually observe an artist performing, that adds almost as much to the ballgame as the music itself.

I never said that! I think Hendrix should be number 4 or 5. The top two are Duane Allman and Eric Clapton for me. This is all very subjective, so don't think I am trying to assert superiority or anything like that.

Let me put it this way: I would rather have Hendrix play at my birthday party than Buckethead. I hope that won't offend you.

I would rather have Buckethead play at my funeral than Jimi Hendrix.

Great thread. Two of my favorite guitarists ever. I just saw Buckethead live last month, one of the best concerts I've ever seen. He even played a little Hendrix. But I haven't seen Hendrix. I love The Buckethead.

Emotion: Hendirx
Sensuality: Hendrix
Creativity: Hendrix
Diversity: Buckethead
Influence: Jimi Hendrix
Technical Ability: Buckethead

If Hendrix was just getting started today, he wouldn't be that creative. But that's a pretty stupid hypothetical thing to say. Hendrix came from a different time, and he was more creative and innovative in his own time than Buckethead is today.

Hendrix recorded so much music that you have to do some digging to find. You can't just judge him based on his most popular stuff because he has better stuff that most people don't hear. Hendrix was a pretty good lyricist too, I think Hendrix was a overall better songwriter.

But what thing is for certain, nobody can cover Hendrix songs as well as Buckethead. He does a great job.

He doesn't start playing Hendrix till about 4 minutes in, but that's when it gets good.


Praxis - Guitar Solo/Machine Gun (Live) Vegoose - YouTube



I like your style man. I love Duane, The Allman Bros are one of my favorite bands. I love Clapton too, but I wouldn't put him above Hendrix. Clapton wouldn't put himself above Hendrix either, haha. I'd put Duane above Clapton, but I don't know if I could put him above Hendrix. Duane probably had a more technical approach to his playing than clapton and Hendrix.

Trust me, the way he's going, he'll be dead LONG before you are.

Well this is a crazy thread, and I'm a huge Buckethead fan and grew up on Hendrix. I don't even know how to express my feelings here. I think erasertime is right to a point, but in general, it's not right to match the two against each other. It's hard for a lot of Buckethead fans to rank the Buck. My friends and I always want to say he's number 1, but that he's tied with the greats. It's just too hard to rank all the guitarists under the same headers.

and eraser.time, you should really check out some more of Buckethead's work. There are better examples than Colma, and Soothsayer. That's all anyone listens to, but Buckethead has tons of albums that best it. For starters, Population Override is probably the most emotional work he's done. Too Many Humans is one of the best tracks of all time in my book. If I were to use Too Many Humans as an example, I think we might start to develop an argument. Most people have no idea the depth of Buckethead's playing is. Even you might not eraser.time. I've heard just about every piece he has and I guess I would pick him over Jimi, but to declare a numbered definitive list is impossible.

I don't know if I'm making sense here, but Jimi is amazing. If Jimi hadn't died, perhaps he could have expanded more, but Buckethead does have the ability to do everything from bluegrass, to shred, to emotional blues, electronic, avantgarde.

Solo for solo Buckethead takes the cake (if you don't like shredding, he still has amazing non-shredding solos). As far as song-writing or composition, Jimi wins. Jimi has many more notable songs. But then again, Jimi's more of a household name and got plenty of airtime.

My review of his In Search of the... boxset has some of my favorite songs of his already posted in it. You may enjoy it here: http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ye-vision.html

That's a great post... eraserdude was probably wrong to post links to "Colma" which I really don't like, and you are definitely right in that Hendrix and Buckethead are just too different to compare properly.

I reccomend that you listen to the album Population Override. It's Bucketheads dedication to the "great vinyl records of the 60's and 70's".


This is true, but if there's anyone that you can compare to Hendrix, it's Buckethead.

"Population Override". I'll remember that. TBH, most of my knowledge of Buckethead is from "Colma" and "Soothsayer" and that Guns N' Roses disaster. Cheers blastingas10.

Listen to this. It's real short. Not the best song from the album but it's a good short preview to give you an idea of the type of music he's playing on the album. It's one of the most bluesy Buckethead songs.



Buckethead - "..." from Population Override - YouTube

There's definately 12 bar blues there, and I think he got it right from the first two notes. A bit short, though?

Ya it is. I don't know why it's so short. It's a good preview of the album though. All the other songs are a lot longer.

THIS is the one. And this used to be my favorite of his, but since I've listened to his new stuff and all his side projects, I've come up with some that surpass even this moving masterpiece... but it's a great place to start...

This is true. He was even jamming with Miles Davis. One lucky SOB who was fortunate enough to hear them jam said it was "the most beautiful music" he had ever heard. I read this in the Hendrix biography Room full of Mirrors. He likely would have played on Bitches Brew instead of John Mclaughlin if he didn't die. Miles Davis was known to have his guitarists emulate Hendrix. ELP was also talking about having Hendrix join the band, they planned on being called HELP(Hendrix, Emerson, Lake and Palmer), but unfortunately Hendrix died right before they had planned on jamming together.

Wow HELP would've been amazing, and so would Jimi on Bitches Brew. That's a shame he didn't make it. Buckethead's got plenty of avant-jazz and the like under his belt and that's part of my argument for him being such a diverse player.

So I think we can all agree that if Jimi would have lived a longer life this wouldn't be debatable, but since he died so young, it almost is.:thumb:

The problem with this comparison is that they come from drastically different eras. Buckethead has a world of technology/technique that was developed through the 70s, and 80s that Hendrix didn't really.

Futhermore, Buckethead, more technical or no, existed in an era with digital recording, and clean sounding amps. In the 60s, that clarity was pretty much impossible, and Hendrix played better of his limitations. Where as Buckethead really didn't have as many due to his time.

Not to mention, also, Buckethead is a vast imitator who collects, and assembles things, where as Hendrix was more of an inventor.

I agree. Hendrix definitely was an innovator. He was more innovative and creative in his time than Buckethead is in his time. But how is Buckethead an imitator?

I'm sorry but this is ridiculous. Hendrix is light years ahead of Buckethead, and im reasonably fond of the latter

I'm not saying he's a complete copycat. I'm saying, his style derives from taking things, and collaging them together. Which involves assembling pieces, and imitating them.

His compositional style comes entirely from collecting pieces together, and iconoclastically throwing them together. IE. each piece of every song he does is a chameleon act.

Which isn't a bad thing at all, I'm just saying.

Hendrix's process was significantly more organic, and more on adapting his sound under an envelope of specific goals rather than referencing to the vast library of music created before him.

Buckethead makes a very fine respectful nod to his past, but Hendrix moved things into the future.

I see what you're saying. I'm somewhat surprised to hear you speak of Hendrix in a positive manner. For some reason I wouldn't have picture you being a Hendrix fan.

Why wouldn't I be a Hendrix fan? During his time, he was considered a radical, and an experimenter. He'd intermix complex compositions with extremely theoretically irreverent solos. He was a ton notch producer, and a creative force that let nobody tell him what to do.

If anything, Hendrix is right up my alley. I'm for liberal musicians, and the man's technique was far from conservative. He even lived homeless for a large portion of his life to pursue his art. He even played with his teeth.

My I add:

I've only listened to 4 albums of Buckethead but in those albums I've listened to I definitely heard more emotion than Hendrix. Hendrix was not very emotional. He was sensual. Buckethead is the only guitarist that ever made me relook things. I think that even if Jimi Hendrix were born the same time as Buckethead with the same advantages that he wouldn't be as good.

You have to remember that Buckethead is not mainstream. If he was mainstream (it's probably his fault he's not) he would be very famous for his playing.

:laughing: