Purple Haze- Am I going crazy?!?

[Stevie Barr]

Hi all,
Got a question about the intro to Hendix's "Purple Haze" (studio version). All the tabs I've seen on the net show it as being played all on the note of E, alterating between octaves, but when I listened last night to what Noel Redding was playing on the recording, it sounds somewhat more "discordant", in fact it sounds as though he's alternating between Bb (fretted at 6th fret on the E string) and E (at 7th fret on the A string). Am I going mad, or does anyone else agree?

Thanks

[dlloyd]

Originally Posted by Steve Barclay

Hi all,
Got a question about the intro to Hendix's "Purple Haze" (studio version). All the tabs I've seen on the net show it as being played all on the note of E, alterating between octaves, but when I listened last night to what Noel Redding was playing on the recording, it sounds somewhat more "discordant", in fact it sounds as though he's alternating between Bb (fretted at 6th fret on the E string) and E (at 7th fret on the A string). Am I going mad, or does anyone else agree?

Thanks

Hendrix is playing the Bb

[bassicinstinct]

Originally Posted by dlloyd

Hendrix is playing the Bb

+1.

[wulf]

It's a long while since I worked on that. I'm not sure how accurate my approach is but I tend to play E-Bb double stops in alternating octaves:

G|---3---3-
D|---2---2-
A|-1---1---
E|-0---0---

Not too difficult and it sounds great

Wulf

[Stevie Barr]

Many thanks for the replies guys! I've got the job as a "holiday relief" bass player this weekend for the house band at an open mike type session, and this is one of the numbers I'll need to know. I always thought Noel was playing octaves of E, but when I listened to it "properly" last night (it was quite late, I'd been working on stuff for hours and I had a severe case of "Engineer's ear" ) It sounded "discordant" as though Hendrix was playing a B and Redding a Bb together. Anyway, I'll try Wulf's suggestion!

Cheers,

Steve

[Stevie Barr]

Just had another listen to the track, with fresh ears (and different speakers ) and it's so plainly obvious that Noel is playing octave E and Jimi octave Bb that it's untrue! Lord knows what made methink that there was a B natural in there! Ah well, it had been a long night..........

[bassicinstinct]

Originally Posted by Steve Barclay

Just had another listen to the track, with fresh ears (and different speakers ) and it's so plainly obvious that Noel is playing octave E and Jimi octave Bb that it's untrue! Lord knows what made methink that there was a B natural in there! Ah well, it had been a long night..........

Yeah, I know.

[superjake]

Didn't they play tuned down a half step?

[dlloyd]

Originally Posted by superjake

Didn't they play tuned down a half step?

Not for purple haze.

[bassicinstinct]

Originally Posted by superjake

Didn't they play tuned down a half step?

Noooooo.