For the most
part, Jimi played 'right handed' Stratocasters upside
down, and restrung them with the high E string closest to
the floor
like a 'regular' guitar would be
strung. Due to the usual Stratocaster's 'right handed'
magnet staggering pattern and his restringing,
his pickups on his guitars probably
looked like this photo of a 'left
handed' Angeltone Stratocaster pickup does in a right
handed guitar from his playing point of view...
note that
the low E and
the A string magnets are now the farthest from their
strings, and the B and high E string magnets are closer to their strings than before.
This makes a guitar strung like this
have much more treble than before, and less bass response
too since the magnet staggering heights are now mismatched
to their strings.
Now, this
was actually a major part of Jimi's sound, because vintage
effects like Fuzz Faces and Cry Baby wahs
back then
didn't have true bypass on/off switching because it wasn't
invented yet. If you were plugged into these
effects,
the way they were originally designed
meant they all
drained some treble from your signal whether you were
using them at the time or not.
This meant that if a right handed
Strat player had four or five effects chained together at
one time like Jimi did, and used them all at once
like Jimi did, then you usually ended
up with a relatively muddy tone. Now, the cool (and
totally unintended!) thing about his playing style
was when he played his guitars strung
'upside down' like this, the mismatched magnet staggering
gave him a treble boost
and also a slight bass string tone cut. This was enough to help
him still cut through the band and give him his tone
no matter how many effects he used at
one time. This
effect was a major part of Jimi's tone.