Jimi Hendrix was a systems engineer

Title & “Systems Engineer” Framing

• Many readers see the title as clickbait or misleading. They argue Hendrix was primarily an artist experimenting with sound, not intentionally solving engineering “missions.”
• Others push back that art and engineering overlap: both involve constrained optimization, systematic use of tools, and thinking in terms of signal chains and feedback.
• Several complain that such titles trivialize or misunderstand “systems engineering” as a profession.
• Related tangent: debate over whether software developers should call themselves “engineers,” with arguments about rigor, ethics, and formal definitions.

Technical & Pedantic Critiques of the Article

• Multiple readers note inconsistencies in the signal-chain diagrams and plots (e.g., mislabeled pedals, wrong guitar orientation, unexplained variables in figures, missing “gentle sinusoid” in examples).
• Some are annoyed that photos misidentify people or use a right‑handed Strat in a Hendrix context.
• Others still like the piece as a way to explain, in engineering terms, things guitarists already know intuitively.

LLMs, Writing Style, and Authorship Suspicion

• Several commenters think the prose contains “LLM-isms” (stock sentence patterns, awkward logic), and speculate the writer used an LLM for cleanup.
• An editor from the publication states that generative AI wasn’t used for writing, citing policy.
• Broader discussion emerges about a new kind of “reverse uncanny valley”: humans being misidentified as AI, and how that’s socially insulting or confusing.
• Some argue good narration and structure clearly feel human, even if parts resemble LLM output.

Hendrix, Feedback, and the Electric Guitar as System

• Strong appreciation for the article’s explanation of feedback, fuzz, and the guitar–amp–pedal loop as a nonlinear, emergent system that Hendrix learned to control musically.
• Discussion of how high‑gain rigs create “controlled chaos” and how Hendrix integrated that into performances like the Woodstock national anthem.
• Debate whether Hendrix “discovered” feedback vs. simply turned an existing nuisance into an intentional musical voice.

Electric Guitar vs. Other Electronic Instruments

• One long thread argues the solid‑body electric guitar plus tube amp is the most expressive electronic instrument, with tight physical–sonic coupling and rich feedback interactions.
• Others counter with examples: synths (DX‑7, modulars), MPE controllers (Seaboard, Osmose), theremin/ondes Martenot, turntablism, EWI, sustain devices (Sustainiac, E‑Bow), and techno played on acoustic instruments.
• General consensus: electric guitar is uniquely powerful, but not uniquely expressive; other instruments and interfaces can approach or surpass its expressiveness in different dimensions.

Education & Abstraction Layers

• One subthread uses Hendrix’s rig as a springboard to lament the decoupling of CS from EE/CE fundamentals in US curricula.
• Some claim newer grads lack deep understanding of DSP, circuits, networking (e.g., Nagle’s algorithm), and hardware–software interaction, which hurts advanced fields like ML infra and networking.
• Others respond that CS programs still teach optimization and systems, just along different paths, and that not every CS student needs full EE depth; opportunity cost is a concern.