Hendrix?! Blues guys on the Mississippi River delta were tuning down their guitars to D before Jimi was out of diapers.
The A4=440 Hz standard made it's way into pop and folk music much more recently than I think we generally think. Does anyone want to guess what year A440 was implemented into ISO 16 for music instrument manufacturers? It was probably in use in the USA since the 1930's, for certain specific things like tuning fork manufacture, but, as far as a widespread standard, it's definitely more recent than Hendrix's death.
Prior to that, people just tuned to whatever reference pitch they had available. Could have been a piano, maybe a bell, maybe a dialtone, maybe the neighbours screamed at each other at a fairly constant pitch every evening. Who knows. It's honestly really only been since the advent of the electronic tuner that this really became much of a household thing. And think about it, how did Hendrix tune his guitar? Do you think he busted out a tuning fork or a pitch pipe before he broke into Purple Haze?
The A4=440 Hz standard made it's way into pop and folk music much more recently than I think we generally think. Does anyone want to guess what year A440 was implemented into ISO 16 for music instrument manufacturers? It was probably in use in the USA since the 1930's, for certain specific things like tuning fork manufacture, but, as far as a widespread standard, it's definitely more recent than Hendrix's death.
Prior to that, people just tuned to whatever reference pitch they had available. Could have been a piano, maybe a bell, maybe a dialtone, maybe the neighbours screamed at each other at a fairly constant pitch every evening. Who knows. It's honestly really only been since the advent of the electronic tuner that this really became much of a household thing. And think about it, how did Hendrix tune his guitar? Do you think he busted out a tuning fork or a pitch pipe before he broke into Purple Haze?