New mechanical discovery, medium confidence level: Jimi’s pull-off technique at least included what I’d call a “flick-off” motion of his fretting finger.
I, and (I’d expect) most people, tend to perform pull-offs with a slight curling action of the fretting finger. In close-up video of Jimi performing a quick repeating five-note motif here ( https://youtu.be/EDaYPV7lrkY?si=E4Cz27ZKmjMyBhzu&t=386 ) we can see that the 8-5 fretting sequence on the high e string uses his ring finger with a distinct extension motion as it leaves the eighth fret.
These notes ARE picked, not pure legato, and as such don’t demonstrate clearly that he used this “pushing/flicking” extension motion for pure pull-offs. But I think it’s very likely that this is responsible for many of the quick apparent “micro-bends” in his faster playing, e.g. throughout the fills in Red House. This type of movement would also just be a totally natural consequence of small bluesy bends on the “upper floor” of any given pentatonic box.
I’d bet this movement is already intuitively familiar to anybody who’s ever learned a Chuck Berry riff.
I also think Jimi almost definitely used the more common “finger curl”-type pull-offs too, and may have preferred them. But now that I’ve spotted the extension pull-offs, I’m going to keep an eye out for his tendencies as to what contexts he uses that movement for.