Jimi Hendrix

The undisputed architect of electric guitar innovation, Hendrix compressed a lifetime of genre invention into just four years of stardom (1967-1970). His debut Are You Experienced introduced feedback, whammy-bar dive bombs, and thumb-fretting bass lines as compositional tools. Playing a right-handed Stratocaster flipped upside-down and restrung left-handed, he pioneered the use of the wah-wah pedal, controlled distortion, and studio effects as extensions of musical expression — techniques that define rock guitar to this day.